Budgetdog & Cat
Isabel had a blast chatting with "Budgetdog" on all things pets and the many expenses that come along with pet parenting. Brennan Schlagbaum, Founder of Budgetdog, is a former CPA Audit Manager. He now helps people from all over the world pay off debt and build wealth with his advice and financial education. In this episode, Isabel and Brennan discuss the many costs associated with adopting and caring for a pet. Brennan would never advise anybody to give up their pet to save money, but he does believe that many pet lovers need to be more conscious about how many pet-related expenses they take on and how they budget for unexpected pet care needs. The goal of this informative and fun episode is for pet lovers to find a balance between their love of pets and the financial goals they've set for themselves and their families. Balance is hard to find but experts like Budgetdog break it down in ways that are easier to achieve.
BIO:
My name is Brennan, and I am a 30-year-old CPA living in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. I know from these photos of me, it might look like I have things figured out, but I promise you, just seven short years ago, I did not. The Budgetdog story began right before I married my wonderful wife, Erin. At this point, we felt like we had life figured out because we were doing all the things everyone else our age seemed to be doing. We were both college graduates with jobs lined up. We were in the process of building our first home. Our wedding date was booked. The engagement ring was purchased. Pretty normal, right?!
By society standards, YES, we were normal 24-year-olds, “building our life.” But, no matter how much I was assured that it was ok, I couldn’t shake the oppressive feeling of the mountain of debt we were accumulating. Before we even said, “I do,” we had, a mortgage, student loans, car debt, and consumer debt. We were starting off our adult lives off with over $300,000 in debt!!! I’m the numbers guy, and I couldn’t live like this. I approached my wife about a plan to aggressively pay off this mountain of debt and after a little back and forth, and me learning how to say things, which she tells me is way more important than what I say, she was on board. We were then on our journey to what we thought was debt freedom but what turned out to be so much more.
Fast forward to today. We have paid off all over $300,000 in debt, have paid off our house, and have entered a new phase of life parenting our beautiful baby girl, Logan Lee, without any of the typical financial burdens to weigh us down. My daughter may not know it yet, but our financial freedom journey had a lot to do with being sure we created a life that would give us the greatest gift of all – TIME. Time with my daughter is truly the result of the work my wife and I put in over the last seven years. During our own journey, it became clear to me that I was meant to help others realize and achieve the same financial success that my wife and I had achieved. I started @budgetdog with the hope of helping people understand and navigate their own financial situations and to educate as many people as I could so they never found themselves making so many “normal” mistakes.