Josh Elledge - Chief Executive Angel
Hi! I’m Josh Elledge, the Chief Executive Angel of SavingsAngel.com and welcome to the SavingsAngel show! I’m podcasting to you from a windy and chilly Orlando, Florida.
I am an extremely busy consumer expert, money-saving advocate, syndicated newspaper columnist, and the guy that turns digital entrepreneurs into media celebrities with UpMyInfluence.com. I love what I do and can’t wait to get going on today’s episode.
In order to help you save more, earn more and live more abundantly on today’s show I’ll be covering:
- How to Pay off Debt in 2020
- Enroll your child in the best K-12 online private school
- Test out of your first year of college
LINKS FROM THE PODCAST:
www.nfcc.org
www.laurelsprings.com/savingsangel for waived registration fee
www.petersons.com And use promo code ANGEL to get 25% off first month
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How to Pay off Debt in 2020
Do you plan to pay off debt in the new year? You’re not alone.
Paying off debt and saving money are almost always near the top of the list for new years’ resolutions.
It's one thing to have good intentions of getting out of debt and saving more money. It's another thing entirely to have a plan of action and the commitment necessary to accomplish make your financial goals a reality over the next twelve months.
Unfortunately, most New Year's resolution-makers will never achieve their goals – staying instead at the level of wishful thinking. There are, however, a percentage of people who break through and achieve remarkable things.
What is the difference? I believe it boils down to one essential skill:
Learn all you can about the resolution keepers and commit to modeling their behavior for an extended period of time.
Statistically, half of all readers will stop reading right here and not bother reading the rest of what I'm saying. Why? They are looking for the quick fix: the miracle pill, the lottery winnings, the wishes granted from the magic genie. Once they've read my solution, they'll see that it involves work and look for an easier path.
If you are serious about saving money and getting out of debt, let me start you off in 2020 with a few tips:
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As parents, we want to encourage our children to pursue their dreams, and provide opportunities that give them the best chance to succeed. I have 3 children, all with 3 distinct personalities, desires, and dreams. One is currently in college doing it her own way, one is on the verge of college and the other just beginning high school. While they are still feeling their way to adulthood and figuring out what kind of career they want, it’s my job as their father to provide advice when they ask or I see they need it, and to lead by example.
Sometimes that means optimizing their routine, making it more flexible, more dynamic, so they have more time to focus on the things they love. That’s why there’s Laurel Springs…
What’s so wonderful about a school like Laurel Springs is how flexible K-12 education can be. Children no longer need to be locked into an 8 to 2 or 3 o’clock school day. I have a friend whose child attended Laurel Springs and while she was getting a fantastic education it also allowed her the freedom to pursue competitive ballroom dancing. Laurel Springs recognizes that each child is a unique individual with their own personal interests, special talents, unique learning style. Their flexible learning program offers challenging and diverse elective courses.
Laurel Springs is an accredited, online private school for students in kindergarten through twelfth grade and is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and AdvancED, which means their transcripts are recognized by colleges and universities worldwide.
Register your child at Laurel Springs dot com slash SAVINGSANGEL today and receive a waived registration fee. That’s Laurel Springs dot com slash SAVINGSANGEL for your waived registration fee. Laurel Springs dot com slash SAVINGSANGEL.
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Does thinking about the cost of college make you cringe? What if I told you there was a legitimate way to test out of the first year of college, saving students and parents thousands of dollars?
There is, and it’s real. CLEP and DSST exams are the best kept secret in higher education. Similar to AP tests, CLEP and DSST exams are open to anyone and accepted for credit at over 2,900 major colleges and universities. Passing just one of these exams can save you an average of $1,000 in college credit.
Peterson’s is here to help you prepare for those exams. With a subscription to Peterson’s test prep library, you get unlimited access to all of our prep materials for every test we offer. You’ll find practice tests, instructional videos, flashcards and more, so whatever your learning style, you’ll feel confident on test day.
Peterson’s is offering a special discount for SavingsAngel listeners. Use promo code ANGEL at checkout to receive 25% off your first month. For more information or to sign up visit www.petersons.com.
If you’ve loved hearing everything on this podcast, SHARE THIS episode with a friend! People NEED this information. You and I, together, can change lives. I recommend taking a screenshot and posting on FB – or wherever you hang out most.
And as always, if you have any specific questions, or if there is something you’d like to hear me talk about, you can drop me a comment in the podcast feedback, write me on my Facebook group, or call my podcast hotline at 407.205.9250 and leave me a message. I’ll answer your question, write you back, or – with your permission – I might even share your question or story with others on this show.
Have a wonderful week – full of saving more, earning more, and living more abundantly – and thank you for listening!
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00:03
Hi there, I'm Josh Elledge, the chief executive Angel at SavingsAngel.com and welcome to the SavingsAngel Show. I'm podcasting to you from the windy and chilly Orlando, Florida. You're like Yeah, yeah, get out of here. Listen, I'm an extremely busy consumer expert, money saving advocate, syndicated newspaper columnist and that guy that turns digital entrepreneurs into media celebrities at up my influence.com. I love what I do and can't wait to get going on today's episode. Now in order to help you save more, earn more, and live more abundantly on today's show, I'm going to be covering my epic how to pay off debt in 2020 segment. Also, this could be a good one. How to enroll your child in the best K to 12 online private schools great Yes, they exist. Yes, they could be a really great deal. We're talking about that. And this Something I'm really excited about how to help your kids test out of your first year of college. Obviously, you can tell what I've been interested in lately. So I've got a lot of tips for the moms and the dads and everybody else's. Again, I am here to make your life better. So let's get going. Do you plan to pay off debt in the new year? You're not alone. You and me both. Right. So paying off debt saving money are almost always near the top of the list for New Year's resolutions. Now, it's one thing to have good intentions of getting out of debt. Everybody's got good intentions. Also, it's great to have good intentions about saving more money. Now it's another thing entirely, to have a plan of action and the commitment necessary to accomplish and make your financial goals a reality over the next 12 months. Unfortunately, most new year's resolution makers are just not going to achieve their goals. But listen, not you, you are an angel, you're a savings Angel just like me. And so instead of just wishful thinking, we are going to break through an achieve some remarkable things. You I know what the difference is? Well, I believe it boils down to one essential skill, you need to learn all that you can about the resolution keepers, and commit to modeling their behavior for an extended period of time. Let me repeat that. This is the difference. You all you have to do is you just learn all you can about those who actually do it, and then just commit to modeling their behavior for an extended period of time. We call this modeling knowledge Right, there's basically four ways that we learn. There's there's there's learned knowledge, you know, we learn reading a book, caring Professor sort of thing, then there's activity knowledge, activity, knowledge is far more powerful, because that's where you're applying these things. And you're testing them out, like I can, I can tell you how to save money at the grocery store. But until you actually go and do it, well, it's great head knowledge, but I need you to apply it. But then new modeling knowledge is where you look at somebody and you say, you know, what, if they can do it, I can do it too. What's the difference? And in fact, I got to tell you that, you know, something that really helped me in my life. I remember when I was really committed to dropping my big rate and and this is when I went from 230 pounds, all the way down to 167. Well, as I was getting near the end of that I was actually you know, you can criticize it if you want. For me, it was good inspiration at the time. And that's the biggest loser. Well is that it was actually episode or season seven. And this was the first season where, toward the end of the season, they had I think four people left. And they all completed a marathon. And I thought, you know, what, if those people seriously The Biggest Loser people, they can run a marathon? Well, I can run a marathon. And so just based on that, I just learned, you know, how does someone go from couch to marathon? And I just found out what they did. How did they stick with it? What was their training plan? What did they commit to? And I did it, I followed their training plan. And sure enough, it was the Disney marathon I want to say 2011 12 something like that. was my very first marathon. ran one other don't think I'll ever run another one again.
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Run a half marathon, a couple of half marathons. But yeah, so is Again, it was just I, all I did was I modeled it. So let's, let's get back into this now statistically, half of all listeners, they've already stopped listening. You know why? Because they're looking for the quick fix. They're looking for the miracle pill. They're looking for the lottery winnings the wishes granted from the magic Genie. So once you've heard my solution, which which I just shared with you right? There, you're going to, they're going to think, man, that involves work, and they're going to look for an easier path. Now, if you're serious about saving money and getting out of debt, let me start you off here in 2020, or we're in the latter half of February now, it's okay. Like if you haven't even gotten off to a good start. That's okay. We're going to start right now. Right here right now. Number one, get educated. This is what I want you to do. read blogs, articles, books. Listen to podcasts like this one, radio programs, attend workshops, all about moving ahead financially, okay? And listen, you don't have to follow everything that they teach you. But I just want you to surround yourself with people that are into this subject. I want you to change your associations, I want you to feed yourself on a regular basis, money and time invested in education on this subject is going to pay you back many times over. No, your focus should be on personal growth, not necessarily or not services like debt consolidation, which by the way, if you want Counseling Assistance, and and you're at that level, you can start with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling at nF cc.org. Please do Be very careful about other services, but generally, that's a pretty great resource right there. Okay, number one, remember this get educated. Just every day, just start subscribing to new podcasts, start following blogs, we got a lot of great education and savings Angel. I mean, you could just spend it seriously if if every day, you just read an article at savings Angel, I promise you, it would completely change your life in 365 days. If you are if you read 365 of our blog articles and savings Angel, it would it would really transform your life in a huge way. And there are so many other great blogs out there, just do some great Google searching and you'll find them. Number two, map out your spending plan. This is simple. Look at the past three to six months. And I want you to use three apps like mint. There's many others, you can visualize where everything is going. Only after you can see everything should you make realistic decisions about how you will attain your goals. You got to have clarity here. Now you could only get ahead from reducing spending or increasing income. I'm going to repeat that you can only get ahead. There's only two variables here, reduce spending, or increase income. In my experience, it's far easier to save two to $400 from a grocery bill, for example, than it is to earn that month after month from a part time job. You don't have to become a full time couponer to see that kind of savings to just simply stock up on great deals. Rather than paying for retail for the things you need. That tip alone can save you $100 a month easily. It's going to feel weird, right? If you're kind of new to the savings Angel world here, get you're not used to that. But what I want you to do is go back in this podcast and go to our website and search for articles where we talk specifically about how to cut your grocery bill in half. It's not that hard, but you have to shop like kinda like a weirdo.
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That's okay because listen If you shop like a normal person you're gonna pay normal people money and that's a lot of money as North a $900 a month a month to feed your family just at the grocery store not including eating out now if this is a husband wife budget a successful given take to get the spending plan right can really strengthen your relationship. It's it's smart to budget some flexibility each month, right? give each other a little bit of wiggle room. Don't be too militant. All right, but but commit commit commit to some basic when I say militant, right, stick to the plan, but also plan a little bit of flexibility. You know, I mean, okay, so now listen, there's always going to be emergencies, always going to be unexpected expenses. You just plan in advance for them. You don't want to get caught unawares. Now, similarly, events like summer vacations, birthdays, back to school, Christmas, they all require a bit of money set aside don't plan on paying for Christmas in December, Christmas should be saved for each month of the year. And certainly please don't put Christmas on a credit card that you expect that you'll pay off month after month after month or the next year. That's terrible. I want to help you avoid that. Okay. Another thing you could do is you could keep your eyes open for amazing deals throughout the year and save them for Christmas 2021. It's a big ticket item. Okay, you're going to have other big ticket items. That's what we're talking about here. Okay, finally, number three. And this is it right here. Please stick with me commit to the long term. Okay. Anyone can die it for a week. Anyone can die it for two, three weeks, you know, a month, you could do it. Hey, that's not where the results come from. You might get some short term results, but then you're going to plateau. Then you're going to get into the Excuse My French the suck of it. And it's not gonna be fun anymore. It's not going to be novel, because it's not novel. That's why people give up. And so you can only get so far with grit. Okay, and this is going to just take a commitment and a recommitment. And it's it, here's where you're really going to start to feel the results, month for month, six, eight, month 12. And that's when it's going to start to feel really, really good. But I'm telling you month, two, three, and four.
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That's the painful part because you're sacrificing and you're not seeing a whole lot of movement. You gotta stick with it. I'm telling you an extra two to $300 applied toward your debt. You do it month after month after month. You do it 10 months. Now. You have to $3,000 gone additional from your debt. And that would who wouldn't like that, right? So, when you see the pain of credit card interest, all mapped out over a lifetime, you'll see why it's so important to commit to a debt free life. It can be done, but it may take a season of sacrificing. And when you get on the other side of this, you're going to say, Josh, thank you. Thank you so much. You'll look at each other. If you're in a relationship and you say, you know what, we did this thing. Okay, I want you to live financially proactive for a time, okay, and you're going to come out so far ahead in the long run. It's going to make all the difference in when and how you can retire. It's going to make the difference in what your children will do after they graduate high school. It's going to make the difference in how you enjoy next Christmas. It's going to make the difference on what your vacation is like and in 2021 you You won't be stressed about the fact that you're putting more and more debt on a credit card that you're actually enjoying a cash vacation. You deserve this. Now, I know that this might feel stressful to even think about saving for retirement if the current bills aren't being cared for. I know what that's like. I feel you I've been there. Okay. I've been through bankruptcy. I've been through foreclosure. It sucks. I sorry, again, I a strong language. They're strong savings, Angel language. I just apologize if there's kids in the car. Don't don't use that word. Okay. But I want to let you know that I know how badly that feels. As a man. I felt like a loser. I really did as a husband and a father. Okay, but when I got it turned around when I committed to it, and and and i really my commitment was to saving that two to $400 at the grocery store every single month. My commitment was to saying you know what, I'm not going to spend my money on that. You know what, I'm going to stop Getting out. You know what, I'm going to drive an older car for a while you know what I am going to work a little bit extra and earn try to earn some extra money and not blow it. I'm even though I'd like to and I feel like I deserve it. I'll earn that season of, you know, being able to enjoy a little bit more flexibility. But now is not the time. changes need to be made in order for the cycle to be broken. However, if you'll commit to positive changes each month in 2020, you'll be in such a better position for 2021. And you'll be so grateful to yourself as you cross those finish lines along the way. Now, when you finally achieve that day, when your debt free, you're going to feel that elation, not just from that final payment, but from the satisfaction of many months or years of discipline. When I crossed the finish line of that marathon, that first Disney marathon that I ran, I cried like I don't think I'd ever cried For, and it wasn't because of the Okasha five and a half, six hours is five and five. Yeah, I think it's like five, five hours and 40 minutes, I ended up walking some of it quite a bit of it, in fact, and I wasn't crying. Because of that five hours and 40 minutes. I was crying. Because I felt like a winner. I felt like the sacrifice that in that training season. That's what I was celebrating in that moment. It was those lonely hours out at night, when, you know, my family was watching TV or whatever, and I and I really wanted to spend some time but I really needed this for me. It was the, oh my gosh, I really should be doing this other work, but I committed to this thing. Or Gosh, I'd really love to take some time off. I just worked hard all day, but I still need to go out and run and I kept making them. sacrifices. It was going out in the cold and freezing written not freezing rain and so much in Florida, but it was cold. It was cold. It was cold. It was rainy. And I ran anyway. And it was in that moment when I crossed the finish line. I cried those tears of joy, those tears of happiness for what I, what I sacrificed to be able to enjoy that moment. Again, in in, I had those moments financially. I remember specifically in Holland, Michigan, and savings Angel started taking off. And I remember going out in the back deck, and it was late at night. My family was all asleep. My kids were much younger than
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and I remember it was just me. I went out on the back deck, and I just looked up at the sky. And I just said God, thank you Thank you so much for letting me go through those tough days. Thank you for letting me go through that pain. It's made me a better person. But I got to tell you, thank you so much for allowing me to experience the abundance I'm feeling right now. I feel so humbled. And I have to let you know that as you see yourself making small achievements, I don't want you celebrating by going off plan. That's not. That's not how we celebrate right now. Okay, stick with your plan for the long haul. Surround yourself with friends who will influence you for good. find mentors who will inspire you to create all the abundance that you'd like. Take a look at your associations. Find some friends that are also committed to it. Right and just talk about your wins. Talk about your early wins, give each other high fives. And you know, if you go to a church, it should be pretty easy to find a group of people that are doing this online, get involved in some Facebook groups, we've got a great group, it's, you know, savings Angel Facebook group. And you know, certainly we I'd love to hear your story there. I'd love to hear what you're committed to. And and I'd love to give you a virtual high five. So with that, listen, I want you to know that I'm committed to your success. I'm committed to your abundance. I'm going to be here for you. I've been there. I've done that, and I want this for you. And together, we can live more abundantly.
18:32
Now, as parents, we want to encourage our children to pursue their dreams and provide opportunities that give them the best chance to succeed. I've got three kids, and they have three very distinct personalities, or am I right? You've got this right. Your kids are not identical. There's so different but yet mom and dad like, I don't know where they got this from. They've got distinct personalities. They've got distinct desires. They've got Definitely distinct dreams. I've got one who's currently in college doing it her own way, I've got one who's on the verge of college and the other one, just beginning High School. And, you know, while they're all still feeling their way to adulthood and kind of figuring out what kind of career they want, it's my job is their father, I got to provide them advice. It's too, right. You know, as you kids get older, the advice sounds a little bit different. It's less about, you know, spouting off opinions and in engaging in a dialogue. You know, I tried to do that as much as I can with all of them. But you know, when they ask, or I see they need it. I'm always there to guide them. And of course, always try to lead by example, I'm so not perfect, but I do my best, right. And sometimes, this means that they might need to optimize their routine, maybe make it more flexible, more dynamic, so that they have more time to focus on the things that they love and, and I did come across a website site that I thought was really cool and that's Laurel springs. Now what's really wonderful about a school like Laurel Springs is how flexible K through 12 education can be. Children don't necessarily they don't need to be locked into an eight to two or three o'clock school day. I don't work regular days if I can help it. I know especially my youngest really loves the flexibility to he's he is such an avid learner, but he loves to kind of follow his own passion in that and I have a friend who a child Laurel springs and and while she was getting a fantastic education, it also allowed her the freedom to pursue competitive ballroom dancing. LAUREL springs recognizes that each child is a unique individual with their own personal interests, special talents, unique learning style, their flexible learning program. It offers challenging and diverse elective courses to which I think is really cool. I got to tell you, I'm really excited about that. I just think that there's you know, I appreciate the basics. But I really, really again, I just think it's so cool when kids can pursue their own passions, like if you can just instill in them a love for learning. And in fact, I, that's one of the things that if you ever read or listen to book Freakonomics, they really did a lot of one chapter was just fascinating. Please get this from the library, where they talked about how do they get kids to read what was the one thing and and it was that love of learning. That was it. If the parents role modeled a love of learning, chances were huge that the kids were also going to pursue a love of learning they were going to be great students, they were going to be great readers, and more so than just having books in the home or preaching to them and that sort of thing. So that's, you know, Laurel Springs is is really a good fit for that. They're in a accredited online private school for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. It's credited by the western Association of Schools and Colleges and advanced Ed, which advanced Ed, which means your transcripts are recognized by colleges and universities worldwide. You're not going to get colleges that are going to be like raising an eyebrow and going what they know they're associated there. They're accredited. It's good. Okay, you can register your child go check it out at Laurel springs.com. That's la UREL springs.com slash savings Angel today. And you can actually if you choose to register, you can actually receive a waived registration fee. If you're a friend of savings Angel because again, we're looking out for our kids we're always looking to, you know, find things that are going to really suit their character, their personality, their passions. Again, Laurel springs calm slash savings Angel for your waves. Registration Fee I do want to thank Laurel springs so much for being a friend and fan of savings Angel as well. We are mutual friends. I got connected with them just simply because I have my one friend who introduced me to them and so I'm so glad that we got connected with them. But I do hope that that that Laurel springs if that's something that was I've been talking about, you know, my relationship with my kids and their knowing their personality type that you do check that out and see if that would be a great option for you again, Laurel springs calm slash savings Angel. Thank you so much Laurel springs. So another thing on our minds at the Elledge home is the cost of college part do and that's because my 16 year old getting ready getting ready. He's getting toward the end of his junior year. And so now mom and I are looking at two college kids and the budget that goes along with that. But listen, what if I told you that there was a legit way to test out of the first year of college? This could save students and parents, thousands on some cases 10s of thousands of dollars. Okay, there is a way to do this. Okay, it's real. And and again, I share this with you Just because we've been doing a lot of research on this. So I hope you don't mind me passing along this stuff that we're learning. Okay. CLEP and dsst exams are the best kept secret in higher education. Okay, similar to AP tests. CLEP and dsst exams are open to anyone and are accepted for credit at over 2900 major colleges and universities. Passing just one of these exams can save you an average of $1,000 in college credit it right in our research, we came across another great resource. And that's petersons. What they do is they help you prepare for those exam so you could test out and rather than paying $1,000 you just get a subscription to petersons Test Prep library, and you get unlimited access to all the prep materials. On every test they offer. You'll find practice tests, instructional videos, flashcards, and more. Trust me, if you think my 16 year old is it gonna be goofing around this summer? No, you're sorely mistaken. He does. He's got a great work ethic, but he ain't going to be gaming all week, that's for sure. And sorry, don't use the word ain't that's that's not good grammar.
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So no, we are absolutely getting my 16 year old on petersons. And again, we came across it fell in love with it, and I only share stuff on savings Angel show that I absolutely fall in love with no matter what your learning style. You go through all that Listen, this is this is what I did when I was getting ready for college. I joined the Navy for five years. And the first time I you know, we're talking about just, you know, this is different from the CLEP and dsst. But you know, for my AC t test, the first time I took it in high school, I got a 23 you know, okay, not great. I got into Western Michigan University, but instead I joined the Navy. And then I you know, kind of really knuckle down and started I got one of those really, really big thick books and got a lot of test prep got a lot I just, I used help and gosh, oh my gosh, the resource we have today. like they've got a petersons Are you kidding, man? If I had this kind of stuff back then? Well, I mean, I ended up going from 23 to 29 on the AC T. And it's it's thanks to just being able to have access to research. I wish I had again petersons but that's how this works. Right, you just got to get the kids into a great program like this. They listen, I reached out, they're gonna hook us up. Okay, there's a special discount for savings Angel listeners. If you use the promo code, Angel, a mg EL at checkout, you'll get 25% off your first month. Just try it out. It's petersons.com. We looked at a bunch. We really really like these ones. petersons is spelled p t e r, s o n s petersons.com. Use the code Angel, you get 25% off your first month. Try it out with your kids. See how it goes. You know if you see that they're hooking in Great, okay, again, my 16 year old. All right, I'm giving you the Parent to Parent fist bump right now. Come guy, get these kids ready and get them ready so they don't have to pay quite so much for college. I want to thank again Thank you so much for petersons Let's I feel like Oprah man with Oprah's favorite things. I just get to go out and test stuff, try stuff. Good then then I do a lot of competitive analysis, look at everything out there. And then I get to pass along the stuff that I love the most. And again petersons.com promo code Angel 25% off your first month. Thank you so much petersons for for sponsoring this segment. Now if you've loved hearing everything on this podcast, Would you do me a favor and share this episode with a friend? Listen, you got diagnosed you got friends with kids are getting ready for college. I know you got kids are in school, got friends with kids in school that might benefit from some of this stuff. And I know you have friends that want to get rid of that debt. People need this information you and I together, we can change lives. Okay, I promise I'm going to make you look good. If you share this episode with the friends I recommend taking a screenshot posts on Facebook, send a text wherever you hang out with most gifted people you love and care for most, I promise I'm gonna work my guts out to help them with the best information. We're going to search this stuff we're going to, we're going to really, really do our due diligence and help families I believe everybody deserves abundance. Now, as always, if you have any specific questions or something you'd like to hear me talk about, you can drop me a comment in the podcast feedback. You can write me on my Facebook group, or you can call my podcast hotline at 407-205-9250 and leave me a message. I'm going to answer your question right you back or with your permission, I might even share your story with others on this show. All you have to do is when you call the hotline, you just say just start off by saying and Josh It's okay if you use this question on the show, and then you call 407-205-9250 and then just start asking your question with that, my friend, have a wonderful week full of saving more, earning more and living more abundant and thank you for listening.
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If you shop like a normal person, you're gonna pay normal people money.
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