The Get Ready Money Podcast with Christine Simone: Optimize Your Health Care

On the latest episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, Christine Simone, CEO and Founder of Caribou joined me to share insights about changing the way we think about money and healthcare planning. 

In this episode we discussed:

• Why you need to go beyond premiums and look at total health care expenses.
• How to optimize your health plan. 
• The value of focusing on what you are passionate about.
• The importance of saving money. 
• Have confidence in yourself and a positive mindset.

Christine Simone is the founder and CEO of Caribou. Although she's years away from her own retirement, Christine Simone is obsessed with helping current and future retirees plan for and optimize their healthcare costs. She's held notable leadership positions within the healthcare industry working with key stakeholders from payers to providers to the Veterans Affairs. Now, Christine is the CEO of Caribou, a software solution for the finance industry. She's driven by her passion to slash hidden incentives in healthcare to support smarter financial decision-making, and she is within the fraction of women founders who have raised venture capital. Christine has been recognized on Forbes 30 Under 30 in the Healthcare category and WealthManagement.com's Top 10 to Watch in 2024. 

Connect with Christine Simone:

Caribou Website: https://www.caribouwealth.com/ 

LinkedIn (Christine Simone): https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinesimone3/
LinkedIn (Caribou): https://www.linkedin.com/company/caribouwealth

Twitter/X (Christine): https://twitter.com/chris_simone

Twitter/X (Caribou): https://twitter.com/caribou_wealth

Medicare Information Resources Mentioned:

Medicare official website: www.medicare.gov

Social Security Administration official website: www.ssa.gov

Kaiser Family Foundation: www.kff.org

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Are you looking to get ready, be prepared and transform your financial future? Then you've come to the right place. This is the Get Ready Money Podcast with Tony Stewart, where Tony has insightful conversations with financial experts who are changing the way we think about money. Catch up on the latest financial trends and hear practical advice from Tony and his expert guests so you can build healthy habits that work, Be empowered with tips for implementing small changes that can have a big impact on your financial future. So sit back and get ready to hear from today's guest.

Speaker 2: 0:49

Welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast changing the way we think about money. I'm pleased to be joined today by Christine Simone. Christine is the CEO and founder of Caribou. In this episode, we'll be discussing how we can change the way we think about money and healthcare planning. Christine, welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast.

Speaker 3: 1:08

Hey, tony, thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 2: 1:11

Yeah, excited. I'm glad you could join us today. So you know, let's get started. Tell us a little bit about yourself. What is your origin story?

Speaker 3: 1:19

Yeah, it's funny. In preparing for this, I thought a lot about this question, like what is my origin story? And I guess I was brought up in an Italian family loved food, love spending time with one another, played competitive sports, you know that made me very disciplined and in other areas of my life, including my academics fell in love with sciences, biology, chemistry. Went to school originally to want to be a doctor and then got more involved on the innovation side of healthcare, joined a couple startups after I graduated and then started my business about four years ago, in 2020. And here we are. So I never actually thought I would be working technically within wealth management, which is where our product sits today, but it is a healthcare related product which we're going to dive into.

Speaker 2: 2:10

Yeah, definitely. Now I'm excited to learn more. So just out of curiosity, what sport did you play? I played competitive soccer.

Speaker 3: 2:17

I played a lot of sports. I did gymnastics, I snowboard, I even was a snowboard instructor. So I played a lot of sports, but competitively played soccer like a true Italian. That's great, that's awesome.

Speaker 2: 2:31

So you know, let's get into the questions is how do we build stronger financial futures through healthcare planning? How does it tie in?

Speaker 3: 2:43

So health care costs are one of the biggest risks to a financial plan. No matter what your net worth is, it is something that can have a pretty dramatic effect on your retirement goals and your retirement plan if it's not something that's taken into account.

Speaker 3: 2:59

It is one of the top expenses that retirees will incur and because of that, it's currently the top financial concern, actually, that Americans have. So avoiding it is detrimental. Not thinking about it long term is definitely harmful to the financial plan and to people's long term goals in retirement. Obviously, there's no crystal ball. There isn't something that can predict whether you will get sick or need certain services and treatments and procedures. But accounting for that potential to happen and ensuring that you're continuously revisiting what your expenses are and ensuring that they're part of your overall financial plan and that this is an area where you will undoubtedly spend money in your retirement, is how you can build those stronger financial futures. Healthcare has like a really reactive type of experience and what we're trying to do is make it a lot more proactive. So really thinking through those potential scenarios way far in advance.

Speaker 2: 4:05

That's awesome. So why do you think people really you know, because it is such a big cost in retirement is why do you think it's overlooked?

Speaker 3: 4:16

You know, I think people maybe just don't want to think about it.

Speaker 3: 4:20

Or you know, when you're young and healthy, it's hard to think about that future unless you've had you know, when you're young and healthy, it's hard to think about that future unless you've had.

Speaker 3: 4:26

You know, parents go through something and I'm not just referring to people getting sick or being diagnosed with something.

Speaker 3: 4:33

But unless you, for example, have a parent that lived longer than you expected, even Right, or you helped a parent age into Medicare and saw how confusing it was for them and how those benefits all changed and what the options were and how they were confused by everything, unless you've been through that yourself, it's really hard to think about that future. And so I think that most people who are younger just have different financial focuses, which is okay. I mean, they might be focused on buying their first house, starting a family, playing off college debt, you know, starting to save. They have different focus areas, and so it could be hard for people to have that more proactive approach. But we'll get into this. You know, one of the best things that you can do to start that ball rolling is just by looking at your, your individual situation every single year with your health insurance, because that is something that hopefully everyone listening has access to, and that's where it starts on the smaller scale is just by ensuring that you're optimizing that plan every single year.

Speaker 2: 5:32

Definitely. And I you know, and I think people overlook the value. I mean, we definitely don't want to get into it too much, but the Affordable Care Act and how it opened up so many people to have access to health insurance. You know, it's because you talk about it. It's like, you know, if we think back to before the Affordable Care Act, a lot of people didn't have health insurance, you know, or even a way to get it. So it's so important. So, you know, one of the things that you talk about is going beyond health insurance and Medicare. So why is it important to go beyond health care? I mean health insurance and Medicare.

Speaker 3: 6:11

Yeah, I mean your health insurance is just where everything starts right. It dictates what you're going to pay. So it will dictate your premiums, for example, and it will dictate your potential out-of-pocket expenses. But those out-of-pocket expenses, but those out-of-pocket expenses are what's variable. So you have to go a bit beyond just the health insurance itself to understand holistically what your potential expenses might be and, like I said, no crystal ball, but you might have a sense, at least in the next 12 months, what you might anticipate.

Speaker 3: 6:40

You've got that sore shoulder. Maybe you need, you know, physical therapy. Maybe you've been putting off a knee replacement. You know, maybe you're having a baby. These are all things that you can proactively, hopefully plan for. You know, if you get on an accident on the ski slopes or something this winter unfortunately that's something that isn't necessarily planned, but hopefully you have that money stored away. You know, if you're on a health plan, one of the best things you can do is understand what your deductible and your out-of-pocket maximum is and store that amount away and make sure that it's readily available. Not necessarily doesn't need to be in a cash account Hopefully it is and that is your emergency funds but at least it's somewhat accessible to be able to pay for incidences like that. And then, beyond that, you know, there are strategies like HSA accounts, there's planning for long term care. I mean, there's so many different things that we need to keep in mind and keep account of to ensure that we're approaching healthcare from a holistic lens. From a holistic lens.

Speaker 2: 7:43

Definitely and that's something you know I've talked about is, you know, looking at the total cost of something. So what you're talking about and I think people sometimes overlook this is the total cost of their health insurance costs. You know, as you point out, you know the deductible should be part of the calculation and the copay is. People go, oh well, I'm going to take the lower cost plan, but then they have a really high deductible and you know, at the end of the day, health insurance companies know how to calculate their premiums for the most part.

Speaker 3: 8:19

Yeah, sorry to cut you off, I just get so excited that.

Speaker 2: 8:20

I wanted to mention no worries, go for it.

Speaker 3: 8:23

So many people, for example, mentioned you know HSAs are a great tax-free savings vehicle triple tax advantage. What people don't understand sometimes or realize is that an employer plan to be considered high deductible, the deductible is two $3,000. Like mine. Personally, I'm on a high deductible plan this year and it's $2,500. I think that deductible, if you go on to an affordable care outcome plan onto the marketplace let's say you retired earlier, you're in between jobs and you just take that same same strategy and plug it into the marketplace, that deductible becomes $15,000, $16,000, $17,000.

Speaker 3: 9:00

It's a very different approach. So you have to make sure that you're evaluating, you know, these healthcare related strategies in the context of what health plans are available. And I find that a lot of people recommend HSAs and it's it's a little bit short sighted because they're not recognizing what actual plan it might be tied to. So that's something that's really important to recognize. And you made me think of something else worth mentioning was that most people I think it's about 85% of people can't define a deductible and out-of-pocket maximum, a copay and coinsurance and a premium. They actually don't, from like a literacy standpoint, understand the workings of a health insurance plan and so that's a really big barrier to and properly estimating or understanding what your potential costs might be. So a lot of people again retroactively are very surprised. We're hoping to make that approach a bit more proactive.

Speaker 2: 9:57

Well, fantastic. Well, so, since you bring it up, can you define a deductible and co-pay for the?

Speaker 3: 10:02

audience. Okay, putting me on the spot, Tony, I see. So a deductible is what you're responsible for, paying yourself out of pocket before your plan pays for anything, unless it's a preventative services and one of the covered services according to your plan. So that is an amount that, if you're, you know we're in February right now and you know if your plan's deductible reset in January and you've not gone and accessed any services from any healthcare providers, you can expect likely to pay out of pocket, unless it's a preventative service or something that's covered at a hundred percent by the plan before you meet your deductible.

Speaker 3: 10:42

So there are some services where that applies. And then you have co -pays or co-insurance. A co-pay is going to be a fixed dollar amount, like $25 per primary care visit, for example, and that can apply sometimes before you meet your deductible or sometimes after you meet your deductible. And then you have your co-insurance, which applies to different types of services depending on the structure of your plan, which would be percentage-based. So it's not a fixed dollar amount like a co-pay, that $25 every time you go to a primary care visit, but it might be a percentage, so it might be. You pay 10, 20% of a certain service, like a diagnostic, like an x-ray or an ultrasound or something like that.

Speaker 2: 11:25

That is awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 11:27

Sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the spot, but I but I should know, so it's okay, I figured, but that's probably within your wheelhouse, but actually, you know, for people listening, this is something that I do ask people to define terms in their area Because, as you point out is, we think that people understand these terms and it's taken, you know, for granted that maybe they do, but they really don't. I do want to walk back and just highlight for the audience something that you mentioned that I think people forget about is this is another good use for your rainy day fund. Is that, if you do have a higher deductible and co-pays, is that you should be putting money aside to pay for that. In event, like you talked about, is you have something unforeseen and the worst possible thing is that you don't use that money and it sits in the savings account. Um, so, having a rainy day fund, this is another use for your rainy day fund, so that's awesome and I'm glad you mentioned that, so you know.

Speaker 2: 12:35

One of the things you also talk about is health plan optimization. Can you explain to us what is health plan optimization?

Speaker 3: 12:43

Yeah, absolutely so. Just like a financial plan or any investment strategy that you have, if you set it and then forget about it, locked it up in a drawer and never looked at it again, it would probably go stale. So the same is true of your health plan. Every year there is an open enrollment period, whether you are on an employer plan, a marketplace plan or on Medicare, and that's your opportunity to optimize your health plan with your current needs. And even if your current needs haven't changed let's say you know you didn't get any new doctors or no new medications, or you haven't had a change to any of your prescriptions, or even you're not even expecting anything upcoming for the next year it's likely that the plans available on the marketplace have changed. Maybe there's a better suited plan for you, given your budget or your potential needs. Maybe there have been changes to the drug formulary on your current plan or the provider network on your current plan, and so we do encourage people to look at that every single year during the open enrollment windows, and it results in really great cost savings.

Speaker 3: 13:51

I think less than 30% of people, last I looked, actually changed their Medicare plan every year I don't know the exact figures for the marketplace, meaning people who are not yet 65, but don't have employer plans, but I know that for the marketplace, on average, if you shop around every single year, you can save about 38%. That's the last data that I saw available. So there's huge cost savings opportunities. We see it in the work that we do. We save every client of ours on average about $6,600 a year, so there are big cost savings opportunities available.

Speaker 3: 14:25

If you're just reevaluating and re-optimizing your health insurance plan annually, that window, though, is not necessarily or that opportunity might not be as big. If you're on an employer plan, usually the optionality there is a lot more limited. They typically give you three, four or five health plans at most, and sometimes the cost difference isn't too too big, and if the employer is subsidizing a lot of that cost too, it might not make much of a difference. But definitely, post-employment, it's a really great strategy. That's often usually when your healthcare costs start to pick up as well, so it's an important thing to do, hopefully, every single year.

Speaker 2: 15:04

Fantastic and I'm glad you brought that up. And for those who are following the Get Ready Financial Calendar, this is one of the weekly action items that comes in the fall before your open enrollment. So you know there are tools that I have available and resources to help you walk through and check this out, Because what Christine is talking about, this, is so important. So when you get your open enrollment paperwork from your employer or with the marketplaces, maybe take a minute to think about your options because, as Christine points out, you could save a lot of money and you know there are other reasons to evaluate as your doctor may become out of network. I know that happened with our dentist recently, as they decided to go out of network so we had to change dentists because it's a huge cost difference.

Speaker 3: 15:51

Hopefully they notified you.

Speaker 2: 15:54

They did, but not with a lot of warning, but at least before we had another appointment Didn't come afterwards. But yeah, that's such an important thing. So you know. One of the other things you know is changes. How does healthcare planning change as we go through life?

Speaker 3: 16:13

Yeah, that's a great question and I alluded to it a little bit earlier around like financial focuses when you're young versus when you're later in life. I think that when you're young, the main thing you want to focus on is potentially building up that health savings account. So I mentioned the HSA a couple of times. It's a great tax-free savings vehicle. You could withdraw money tax-free as well to pay for qualified medical expenses. But the best strategy with an HSA is to put the money in there, invest it and let it grow, not necessarily to pull the funds out to pay for healthcare expenses, as they're happening when you're young. So when you're young, hopefully your healthcare usage is a little bit lower. Hopefully you can take that risk and be on that higher deductible plan and contribute to your HSA. That's a strategy that you know we bring up with our clientele when relevant, depending on their healthcare use and their budget and the options that they have available to them, so long as they understand that higher deductible component, which is really important. And then the next kind of big thing that you're working towards is really your retirement. I mean your health plan is often provided from your employer, unless you're a small business owner or don't have options available from your employer, and so, as you're picking your health plan every year, you're usually just picking from those few options. You can jump in and out of the HSA eligible plan, depending on different things like having a baby, or maybe you have a planned surgery, for example, or an injury that you're tending to and need that physical therapy or something of that nature, but then you're really planning towards your retirement and in retirement or something of that nature, but then you're really planning towards your retirement and in retirement. If you're planning to retire before 65, that's definitely something that you want to pay attention to. Premiums on the marketplace on an annualized basis for a family can be upwards of $25,000 a year, and that's just your premiums. You will then have out-of-pocket expenses as well. So if you are planning to retire in your 50s or early 60s, that is something that you definitely want to pay attention to. Even if you have available through your employer what's called COBRA coverage, which is a continuation of your current coverage, it is usually quite expensive and only bridges you about 18 months on average. So you will likely need to go on that affordable care at compliant plan and then usually, typically speaking, your costs go down when you go into Medicare, which is something to look forward to. Premiums are a little bit less expensive. Out-of-pocket costs are a little bit less expensive, depending on which configuration of Medicare you pick whether that's original Medicare or Medicare Advantage but the complexity increases.

Speaker 3: 18:52

Medicare is a totally separate beast from the pre-65 options that are available, so there is a lot of learning and education that you definitely want to do about Medicare. Don't just pick the plan that you saw on TV or what your neighbor did, you know. Really make sure that you're making a decision based off what you need. There's a lot of different factors to consider, like, if you travel, what your risk tolerance is, your budget, your income comes into play as well, and it impacts your premiums.

Speaker 3: 19:20

So there's lots going on in that Medicare sphere, and so I would encourage people to start to research and get educated on that, hopefully at least a year or two in advance, because when you turn 64, you're going to start getting all sorts of mail and email from every insurance company that knows how old you are, people knocking on your door wanting to sell you Medicare plans. So hopefully you give yourself a good 12 month window at least to soak it all in and make a choice that's right for you, because it can be pretty hard to change things afterwards. So sometimes with the Medicare plan there's some parts of it that can be set in stone, so the optimization component becomes a little bit trickier and a little bit more limited. So you really want to make sure you make a good decision when you turn 65.

Speaker 2: 20:07

Yeah, and that's one of the things I you know. This is outside my scope of expertise and it may be yours as well, but as I understand it that if you go into Medicare Advantage and you try to move back into original Medicare, there's some tax issues or something. Are you familiar with that at all?

Speaker 3: 20:24

Yeah, it isn't tax issues.

Speaker 3: 20:26

What it is is that, depending on where you live because some states this doesn't apply they have what's called guaranteed issue rights. But in most states, depending on where you live, if you first choose Medicare Advantage and you're outside of what's called your trial right period, which is the first few months of trying it out, then you need to go through medical underwriting to go to original Medicare and get a Medigap. So if you have any type of health condition preexisting you know medications, things like that it can be difficult to go on to original Medicare. And usually the reason why people want to switch is they realize their out-of-pocket costs are higher on Medicare Advantage, usually due to some type of health needs and health conditions. So usually they're realizing it too late before they can make a switch, or they're realizing that their doctors aren't in network, and so that's why we just encourage, you know, do the research ahead of time, understand the potential limitations. Medicare advantage does make sense in some scenarios, and I'd be happy to walk through what scenarios it makes sense in, but it's not for everybody.

Speaker 2: 21:37

Yeah, no, that's. That's super helpful because it's something you know that I've been reading about, but I I'm not super familiar, so do you have any resources you recommend where people can learn more about Medicare? Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 21:45

Yes, I'm glad you asked. So any any resource ending in gov is going to be your best resource. So Medicaregov actually has a ton of great resources. Ssagov has a lot of great resources. Kaiser Family Foundation, kff it's known as as well has a lot of great resources. So, typically speaking, we direct clients to those types of articles because you can trust that there is no bias or no incentive. You're not going to get advertisements for certain insurance companies or things like that.

Speaker 2: 22:18

Yeah, no, that is super helpful, Thank you, and for people watching and listening. I'll make sure I have the URLs and the show notes so you can check out those resources Super easy. So, Christine, let's switch to the get ready questions is. The first one is what is one simple thing you can do each year to set yourself up for financial success?

Speaker 3: 22:41

Well, this is a biased answer, but reviewing your health plan I bet you saw that coming Definitely look into your health plan options. Open, like you said, that letter of renewal, that open enrollment notice from your employer, from the marketplace or from Medicare. Look at what cost changes are coming into effect. It's almost guaranteed that the costs are going to go up every year, at least from inflation, right. So look at what those costs are going to be. Look at the new deductible call all of your doctors. Make sure they're still in network with that plan. Check if your drugs are on the drug formulary and still within that same tier. It's an exercise that will maybe cost you one to two hours every single year and it will avoid any surprises throughout the year, also knowing, maybe, what hospital is in network. That way, if you do have an emergency, you're able to know exactly where to go. Those are things that really do help in the context of health care.

Speaker 2: 23:37

Those are great tips, great tips. So the next question is what is one habit that people can change when it comes to their money?

Speaker 3: 23:46

Okay, so this one. I'll actually veer away from healthcare for a second, just because I'm sure listeners are maybe getting a little bit sick of that too. But you know, I actually, you know, part of my origin story is I started working when I was 14. I fell in love with work because I loved what I was doing. I was a Disney princess. It was my first job. I worked at a birthday party facility. I then transitioned, as I mentioned, into a snowboard instructor. I worked at summer camps, like from day one.

Speaker 3: 24:19

I loved what I did in terms of work and I started saving from a very young age, for no reason at all. Wasn't saving for a house, I wasn't saving for school, I just started saving. I just loved saving my money. And you know, I know that I've spoken, probably for the majority of this podcast, about like short-term planning and year over year planning. But that's one thing that has allowed me a lot of freedom later in life. So I don't know how old the listeners are. It's never too late to start saving. It's something that I, I guess, accidentally fell into. I don't even remember my parents telling me to save my money, but I think it was due to the fact that I just started working early and had had money to save, which was, which was great.

Speaker 2: 24:58

That's awesome and that's something I hear from so many of the guests is to start serving, saving whenever you can, and that it's never too late. But I think the most important question that's probably on my mind and everybody else's mind is which princess or princesses did you play?

Speaker 3: 25:14

I was a bell from beauty and the beast because of my brown hair and Jasmine frequently. I remember the day when Cinderella called in sick and I had to throw on a wig and it just looked so, so bad on me. I do not look like a good blonde, especially with my dark eyebrows. That looked, it looked very, very silly.

Speaker 2: 25:34

Oh, that is so funny, but that that was probably a really fun job. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, that's awesome, that's awesome. Well, I guess let's get back to the financial questions, cause Disney princesses are not really the theme of the show, Although that would take it in a different direction. Is what money myth are you trying to break?

Speaker 3: 25:57

Yeah, I think, related to what I just mentioned around saving, I recently read, I finally picked up, a copy of the psychology of money. I don't know if you've read that or have mentioned it at all to your, to your listeners yet, but you know something that Morgan mentions in that book is you know, save just to save. Don't save for a house, don't save for. You know something in specific just every time you can just put that, put that money away. And I think that I hear really often people saving for like particular reasons maybe a vacation or something like that and that mentality has never worked for me personally. Maybe it does for other people, but that's something that I found at least beneficial from my perspective with money.

Speaker 2: 26:43

Yeah, I mean, put money aside for a rainy day, it doesn't hurt. And I think what you said is super important is that it doesn't work for you and I think for all of us we need to remember is you need to find what works for you. You know, because we all have different things. Some people are very regimented and like saving for particular goals and they have 20 goals and 20 little savings things going, and for other people, you know that's not what works for them and there's no right answer. And I think that's a great money. Myth is that you know save to save. You know that doesn't matter whether you're saving for a goal or not saving for a goal. The important thing is to save for yourself. I think maybe that's it. Rather than a goal, is that you're saving for yourself. That's awesome.

Speaker 3: 27:36

Your future self.

Speaker 2: 27:38

Yeah, so we actually talked a little bit about this, but you know, let's get out the time machine for a minute. What advice would you give your younger self if you could go back in time, knowing what you know now about money?

Speaker 3: 27:52

Yeah, it's a great question and I learned this I think, younger than most people learn it the point around just loving your job and then you'll never feel like you will work a day in your life. But before I kind of got that first job, I was stuck on professions that people can explain and know, like doctor and marine biologist and you know, whatever else I wanted to be when, when I was much younger, and so I think that even at a, at a really, really young age, I think that I hope that people start to focus on things that drive them, things that they're passionate about. You know, because growing up and even going into school later on, when you like healthcare so much, they teach you to want to be a doctor or go into research or, you know, be a vet. There's really only like those three paths if you like sciences and you like healthcare.

Speaker 3: 28:42

And you know, I got a biology degree and felt very, very lost with that. I didn't really want to go down any of those avenues and luckily I learned earlier than most people that I didn't want to be that doctor or that researcher and I actually wanted to go onto the business side of healthcare too. So I would almost tell myself not necessarily my younger self, because I feel like I had it right when I was younger, but then when I went to school I kind of like re-engineered my brain into thinking I wanted to be a doctor. I would tell myself then that to just focus on what really drives you and what you're excited about, and then wouldn't have wasted time writing my MCAT or getting into a master's program or any of that. I would have probably started in startups much earlier.

Speaker 2: 29:26

That's cool. You found your passion and I think it's clear everybody can hear it through the conversation, that's very clear that this is something that drives you and I think you know that's for all of us something that animates you where you go.

Speaker 2: 29:41

You know, I don't mind getting up to go to work today because I find it interesting, and you know, I know that for some of our listeners they may not have a choice, but you know, maybe that's time to start thinking about. Is there something that you can choose to do that drives you? So that's awesome advice. So you know. The last question is what is your number one tip on changing the way we think about money?

Speaker 3: 30:09

Yeah, this is a hard one because, because my relationship with money is it's, it's really interesting because I have, I guess, the luxury of because I'm a good saver of not really even thinking about it, and maybe that is what's so valuable to me is that I'm not always thinking about it, and I think that helps me from a clarity of mindset perspective every day and doing things out of the confidence of I'll figure it out. Even if money is an issue which, I mean, there's a lot of things I can't do, I just live a very frugal lifestyle and so I'm, you know, very happy with just like bare minimum living. You know, even this cardigan is a good six or seven years old. You know I don't necessarily like luxurious things, and so I think that that mindset allows me more freedom throughout the day and again, it's what works for me, that I don't necessarily have to or I just don't think about it often, and it doesn't drive my behavior on a day-to-day basis.

Speaker 3: 31:12

It drives my long-term thinking in terms of, you know, when I might want to buy property or start a family and things like that, but on a day-to-day, you know, if I really feel like eating out for lunch because I've got a busy day, I just I do it. It's not something that I think about from a necessarily a budget perspective, not something that I think about from necessarily a budget perspective, and I think that a lot of people sometimes operate from a place of maybe more fear and not that confidence of they will figure it out. So I think that having that confidence that financially you will figure it out long-term is really important. But obviously you want to be a bit realistic in that thinking as well, which can be hard.

Speaker 2: 31:50

Well, and I think you do a very good job of outlining it, excuse me, is that it's balanced, is that you may balance it out with your cardigan as opposed to people who are buying the latest fashion, and there's nothing wrong with buying the latest fashion. But if you do that, then you're going to have to cut back somewhere else, and I think we don't talk a lot about that. It's okay to make a trade-off, you know, and so many people talk about oh, we'll give up your daily coffee. Well, if you like your daily coffee, that's okay, you can get it, but then maybe you don't get a new car every year, and I think you know. If I'm understanding it correctly, that's basically what you're saying is that, you know, have a little trade off, have confidence that you can figure it out, but that you also have to be realistic.

Speaker 3: 32:41

Exactly Great summary. Said it better than I did.

Speaker 2: 32:45

Oh no, not at all. You said it wonderfully and I appreciate that. So you know, christine, where can people learn more about you and Caribou and what you're up to?

Speaker 3: 32:55

CaribouWealthcom is our website. We're also pretty active on LinkedIn, so you can follow me on LinkedIn as well as on Twitter. Twitter handle is Caribou underscore wealth.

Speaker 2: 33:08

OK, fantastic. Well, you're still on Twitter, so we still call it Twitter. Can we still call it?

Speaker 3: 33:14

Twitter. All right, I guess you're still on Twitter, so can we still call it Twitter. Can we still call it Twitter? All right, I guess you're right On X.

Speaker 2: 33:19

Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Christine. It's been a pleasure Appreciate your time and insights.

Speaker 3: 33:25

Thank you for having me, it's been a lot of fun.

Speaker 2: 33:28

Yeah, and thank you everyone, as always, for tuning into this episode of the Get Ready Money podcast. If you learned something today to change the way you think about money, please be sure to subscribe and tell a friend. Let's change the way we think about money. Until next time, thank you.