Debt-Free Destiny with Amanda Sharratt
Hello. I'm Kathy Worthington. Welcome to our latest episode of late boomers. Today, our guest is Amanda Sherritt, COO and financial advisor for Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers, where she works with clients to design investment portfolios to meet their individual needs.
Merry Elkins:And I'm Mary Elkins. Before joining Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers, Amanda was a financial coach, and she helped clients achieve their goals with money, including saving more, spending smarter, paying off debt, and feeling more comfortable and Thank you.
Amanda Sharratt:Thank you. Thanks for having me on the show.
Cathy Worthington:Great. Tell us about your educational background and how you chose this career.
Amanda Sharratt:Yeah. Thank you. I actually went to school for dental. I was going to be a dental hygienist and then actually worked in the field as a dental assistant. So I didn't go to school for to be a financial advisor.
Amanda Sharratt:It was more of a personal experience, for me. My husband and I took a class that his mom sent us to and we paid off a $141,000 of debt in three and a half years, and it just changed our lives. I mean, just we we were on fire saying everybody needs to know about this. And so we led the the class at our church and, I just kept having a passion to help people with this. So I had my own business as a financial coach, and then, I became a financial adviser.
Amanda Sharratt:And I've been with Whitaker Myers my whole time being a financial adviser, and then I moved into the COO role in 2022.
Cathy Worthington:Oh. Excellent.
Merry Elkins:What is the best way to pay off that debt?
Amanda Sharratt:Yeah. I mean, really, you know, when we first took the class, we were like, this is this probably works for people that make more money than we did or have less debt than we did or that sort of thing. And, then we said, why don't we just put these tools into practice that we learned? And, we, you know, we did everything that we did in the class
Cathy Worthington:exactly what that Amanda, what was that class, though, that you took?
Merry Elkins:Yeah. Yeah.
Amanda Sharratt:Oh, yeah. We took the Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class. And it so at that time, it was a 13 week class and now it's 9 weeks, and we we still our company loves Dave Ramsey and his team and we follow his advice and help clients do the same because we a lot of us have personal experiences that we know it works. And so so we put all of his if you're familiar with him, he's got baby steps and, you know, really practical tips to pay off your debt so that you can save and invest for your future and your family. And so we did the things that he said, like budgeting and making sure every dollar had a name.
Amanda Sharratt:And we sold everything we could think of, you know, to get extra money. We didn't eat out. We, you know, we just really got intense and, threw every extra dollar that we could at that debt and paid it off in 3 and a half years. And then we're able to start paying cash for things, of course, and and saving for our future and investing for retirement. And so we just felt the the lift that comes from when you're in in that much debt, it it can feel very overwhelming.
Amanda Sharratt:And so when you get that paid off and you don't have those payments anymore, it is so refreshing. And so that is why I was and still am on fire to let everybody know that, like, there is a better way to live than than being buried in debt like that.
Merry Elkins:So and you found the best way for you was paying was budget being very close to the budget, and you said give every dollar a name. What does that mean?
Amanda Sharratt:Yeah. So what we do what we what I did and what we tell clients to do is really put their income at the top of the page and then list out everything that you're going to spend money on. And sometimes people feel like that's really restrictive, and I'm a spender. So I'll tell you, I don't think it's restrictive. I think it's freeing be even if you are a spender because you put in there the things, you know, the fun money or the coffee or those things that are important to you, but they just need to be in the budget and and give yourself that boundary of what you can spend on it.
Amanda Sharratt:And then you know that when you go to to to buy those things or do those things, you know that you can do it and you can enjoy it because it was in the budget and it's not wrecking the rest of your plans. You know, you're still able to pay towards debt. You're still able to save whatever it is that your goal is. And so that's what we mean by give every dollar a name. It's just, you know, be intentional with where you're spending it ahead of time.
Merry Elkins:It sounds almost like a game you're playing with yourself.
Amanda Sharratt:Yes. Yeah. And, actually, I mean, we really do we really did make it into a game, and I tell people to do that if they're paying off debt. It's like, if you can go under your grocery budget, then go, you know, go get an ice cream or go get a coffee or whatever if you've kinda cut that out of your budget. But that's kind of a game to, you know, where can you save money to be able to put it towards other things.
Cathy Worthington:I wanted to ask you what you recommend to clients regarding budgeting. How do you tell them to budget?
Amanda Sharratt:As far as how to budget?
Cathy Worthington:How do you yeah. What do you recommend to your clients about that?
Amanda Sharratt:I really tell them to not get hung up on how to budget as much or a particular tool to use as much as what will work for their lifestyle. Like, what will they do? You know, if if they want to be pen and paper, fine. If they need an app, fine. If they want an Excel sheet, great.
Amanda Sharratt:But really just kinda see what works for them. The key is not really the tool that you use, just that you use it. And so that's why I say make it really easy and fit into your lifestyle. And so and also the other key is making sure that you're you're not only budgeting but you're tracking your transactions. So what I found a lot when I first started budgeting or when I first started helping clients was I would create this perfect budget that would say I'd have this much money to send toward my debt.
Amanda Sharratt:And then if I just left that over there and and forgot about it all month and did my own thing, well, that didn't do me any good. I, you know, I had a good plan, but I didn't execute on it. And so it's really about tracking those transactions and making sure that you are sticking to the budget, and if you're not, adjusting throughout the month. So, we do, all of our clients get access to our new clients get access to Ramsey Plus, which is a, service that Dave Ramsey offers, and it has a budgeting tool in there that links to your bank account, so it makes it really easy to budget. So we like that, but, again, we're not hung up on that if if that is not what works for somebody's lifestyle.
Amanda Sharratt:We just say do something that you're going to do consistently.
Merry Elkins:And what about the
Cathy Worthington:motivational aspects of that, the motivational? What do you how do you get people motivated enough to make the budget and stick to it? How do you there's a psychological factor at play there.
Amanda Sharratt:You're exactly right. You're exactly right. And what we tell them is to make sure that they are giving themselves grace throughout the the process. Because when you're starting to budget, if you've never budgeted before, chances are you have no idea what you're spending on groceries. Right?
Amanda Sharratt:I didn't. I I just threw a number in there that I was making up because I'm like, I don't know. I'm not paying attention to it that that closely. So it's going to take you some time to get comfortable with it. And then the other thing is, I would say, is have some accountability.
Amanda Sharratt:So anytime you're doing something new, be it working out or any other goal, it's really good if you have somebody that you're going to achieve this with and you can hold each other accountable. So for some people that's their spouse, for some people that's their friends or their small group, and then for other people, we have a financial coach, you know what, just like I used to be, we have 1 on our team, and she is their accountability partner. And now they're paying her, so it's even more accountability that, like, I'm paying for this. I wanna make sure I'm doing what she tells me. But so just knowing your personality and what it takes to achieve the goal, I think, is key.
Merry Elkins:That's really interesting. I think we could all use that. What are some of the unique ways that you tell clients on how to save money in their everyday lives?
Amanda Sharratt:Yeah. I think just looking at everything that you're spending money on and saying, is there a cheaper way or am I paying for duplicates of this? So everything is subscription based right now. So what we're seeing with clients is they have all of these subscriptions, and either they're not using everything that's included in the subscription, and so they're paying for another service that does that, or they have, you know, every TV streaming service out there. And it's like, do they really need it or did they just sign up for that one show and then they forgot to cancel it?
Amanda Sharratt:So that is really just there are services you can use that look at your subscriptions. And so we say you do that, but, really, you can achieve that by looking at your bank statement and saying, what are these subscriptions that I'm paying for and do I need it? And, one that I give a lot is Audible. I love audiobooks, but instead of paying the $16 every month, we just sign up when we want to get an audiobook and then we cancel it. And so you can do that.
Amanda Sharratt:You don't have to pay for it ongoing and buy a book if you don't want to or don't need it. So those are the things I say is just look at where where you're spending money where it might feel like it's only 5, 10, 20, $50, but that adds up. And if you're not needing to spend that money on those things, it could be going towards your debt or your savings or your retirement planning.
Cathy Worthington:I get that because I I have all these TV services and that I pay for, and then you don't have time to watch them all. But my favorite movies are on one service. I my favorite shows are on one service. So in between seasons, I'm barely even looking at that network being Hulu. My favorite shows are on Hulu.
Cathy Worthington:But when those shows don't have a new season, I'm not watching Hulu, but I still keep paying for
Amanda Sharratt:it.
Cathy Worthington:You can't just keep canceling it and putting it back, can you?
Amanda Sharratt:Yeah. I can. Back if you can. With Hulu, I haven't done it. But, yes, you can with other things.
Amanda Sharratt:I I I've always just canceled it, and then you can just sign back up. I mean, I don't think they're gonna limit you. They don't wanna see you go, but they'll be happy to have you back if you come back. So That's right. Found a lot of times is sometimes they'll give you a discount.
Amanda Sharratt:Like, because now you're a new client, and so they'll give you a discount for coming back. Audible does that. Now I can't guarantee it, but there'll be times where they'll they'll offer us a free book if we sign back up. So it could actually benefit you in some cases if you do cancel when you're not using it.
Merry Elkins:Interesting. Very interesting. Yeah.
Cathy Worthington:What are some ways that what are some reasons why people might wanna update their financial plan? And talk about what you consider to be a financial plan. Yeah.
Amanda Sharratt:A financial plan to us, we really like to simplify that into it's the answer to am I going to be okay in retirement or with the goals I want to achieve. So at the end of the day, the majority of us are looking towards retirement and wanting to plan for retirement or other goals that we have. And you're maybe putting money towards it, but you don't know if you're really on the right track. You know, if I'm saving 300, 500, a $1,000 a month. Okay.
Amanda Sharratt:Great. But what does that mean when I get to the time I want to have that goal happen? So a financial plan is where we really look at what are your goals, what's your income, what's your savings rate, and are you on track to meet your goals? And so we think that really there's a lot of reasons why you might wanna update your financial plan, but it really comes down to a lot of them revolving around life circumstances. So if you get married or, unfortunately, if you get divorced, if you switch jobs, if your income increases or decreases dramatically, you know, any of those big life changes.
Amanda Sharratt:You have a kid. Any of those big life changes that you have, that's going to impact your spending likely and maybe even your long term goals. And so those are some reasons why we'd say get a financial plan if you don't have one, but update it if you do have one so that you make sure that even though these things are happening in your life, you're adjusting as necessary to still be able to achieve the goals that you want to achieve.
Merry Elkins:How often do you think one needs to update their plans?
Amanda Sharratt:Yeah. We use the the statement around here, with clients as far as when they want to review their accounts. You determine it. We deliver it. So everybody's a little bit different on how frequently they want to review their accounts and their financial plan.
Amanda Sharratt:But we would say annually is is at least good, you know, because a lot can happen in a year. And so making sure you meet with your financial advisor and talk through, any updates to your financial plan, updates to your life, your beneficiaries, anything like that is is good to reconnect at least annually.
Merry Elkins:Good advice. You mentioned retirement. What can one do if they fall behind on retirement savings?
Amanda Sharratt:Yeah. We get this question a lot because they people will feel, kinda guilty or, like, they have shame because they just haven't been able to save as much as they know that they should have. But we just say we've not really met anybody that can't retire in some way or another. Right? So it might mean what you thought retirement would would look like might look a little bit different if you are behind on saving.
Amanda Sharratt:You know, does that mean you're working a little bit longer or even if that's part time for a little bit longer than you had wanted to? Does it mean that maybe you need to ramp up your savings for a little while? There's things that you can do to accommodate for those those years that maybe you you missed or you were behind. So again, it's just adjusting expectations, I think, is the biggest thing. But a lot of times, we just are so fearful and we don't want, like, to be embarrassed by showing an a financial adviser that, oh, we were behind.
Amanda Sharratt:We didn't save when we should have. But at least for us, we we don't we don't have any, you know, we are not gonna put any shame or guilt on you. We just wanna help you. And so it is just like, hey. Okay.
Amanda Sharratt:Here's where you're at. There's no sense in beating yourself up. Let's just look at how we can make this goal achievable for you.
Merry Elkins:Good. It's great.
Cathy Worthington:I love it. How can people help their kids with college if they don't feel like they have any money to save?
Merry Elkins:Yeah. This is expensive these days.
Amanda Sharratt:It it is. It is. And this is a big question that we get a lot, and unfortunately it kinda goes with the question that you just asked about being behind on on retirement savings is a lot of times parents want to put put off their saving for retirement because they're paying for their kid's college and they feel obligated to do that. And as a parent, I I get it. You wanna help your kids as much as you can.
Amanda Sharratt:But the thing that I would say is you are going to retire no matter what. At some point, you're you're going to be probably forced to one way or another. You're gonna have to retire. Your kids, what their college education looks like can can vary or can shift. So does that look like they need to take on a lot of the responsibility for paying for it or getting scholarships, or do they go to a community college to get their, you know, their undergrad?
Amanda Sharratt:So are there ways that you can shift it that way? And I think education, just in general, is the biggest way that parents can help their kids if they can't help them financially. And even if they can't help them financially, they they should help them this way of helping them make sure they're making a good good decision on a career choice, on the college choice because so many times people are just taking out student loans for every penny and then they can't find a job or they can't find a job making what they thought they were going to and they're really overwhelmed by the student loans. And so we are just big supporters of parents helping the children, decide on the college and the career choice and all of that and being a big part of that and encouraging them to look for any advice on that
Cathy Worthington:at all?
Merry Elkins:Do you advise on that at all?
Amanda Sharratt:Yeah. Our financial coach actually offers a service where she can look at, you know, the test scores of your child and their GPA and what schools they're looking to attend, and they and she can help you with tactics to negotiate, to get better scholarships, and all of those different things. So it she can really help with that aspect of it. So our financial advisors, they focus on helping you save for college, and then our financial coach can help you save on the cost of college.
Merry Elkins:Wow. I didn't know that existed. That's great. All you parents out there, listen in. Also, I'm kind of a a different, not really a different note, but if you have money to save, how do you prioritize that?
Amanda Sharratt:Yeah. I think, really just looking at I mentioned Ramsey's baby steps, and and we follow those and help clients to follow those. And so I think that that is really a good plan. And so it is really around making sure you have an emergency fund and making sure your consumer debt is paid off. And that's the first three steps really.
Amanda Sharratt:It's just making sure that you are covered, you have an emergency fund, a cushion between you and life, and that you you don't have any consumer debt, which is just basically all of your debt except for your mortgage. And then you start looking at saving for retirement, starting to try to pay off your home early, and planning for your kid's college. So all throughout those steps, you're also paying cash for everything. So we say prioritize your your retirement at that point and then anything extra should go to the house or the kid's college and making sure you're saving, we call them sinking funds, and putting money away for if you need those new windows or that new door or that new to you car so that you can pay cash for those and you don't go back into debt.
Merry Elkins:Do you have any advice on the percentage that you need to save?
Amanda Sharratt:For retirement, you're asking?
Merry Elkins:Yeah. Well, for retirement, yeah, or just prioritizing everything on your emergency fund and retirement.
Amanda Sharratt:Okay. Yeah. We we say for retirement, a general rule of thumb is to save 15%. Now that can vary depending on where you are in your financial journey. So that's why we say doing a financial plan and talking to an adviser is good.
Amanda Sharratt:But that's that's kinda the baseline where we start. They do 15% of your income to retirement. And then as far as an emergency fund, it's not so much a percentage of your income but more a set amount. So we say having 3 to 6 months of your household expenses is a good idea. If it's a one income earner household, you probably wanna go closer to 6 months.
Amanda Sharratt:If you both work outside the home, or and no one's commission based or anything like that, you might be be okay on the 3 month end. But having that is a really good cushion between you and life if somebody loses their job or something else happens.
Cathy Worthington:Yeah. Thank you. Are you able to balance your family life with your career, and what are the difficulties you find with that?
Amanda Sharratt:Yeah. That that is a very good question. Okay. I think that is a constant conversation between my husband and I because we both work full time. You know, my I I work quite a bit and, but the thing that I'm really grateful for is I'm able to flex my schedule in the early days of her going to school, and then I just was piled in work.
Amanda Sharratt:And I and so I just came and was like, I'm not gonna have guilt about it. I just am not that mom. I I just can't do that in in the season of life that I'm in with with my job. And so I attend the things that are really important and that, you know, if she's in a play or a program, I'm there. I don't miss it.
Amanda Sharratt:And so yeah. And and my husband and I really try to balance that. So I'm grateful that I have a really good partner and, like, when can you take this? Or if she's sick, it's really, like, we're comparing our calendars. Like, who has the most going on and who who would it hurt the most to be able to cancel their whole day?
Amanda Sharratt:And so that it's really a conversation that way. So I know that not everyone has that, and I'm grateful, that we're able to do that. And then I have family that's really close too, so we depend on my mom and my husband's mom a lot to help us. And so
Cathy Worthington:Oh, good.
Amanda Sharratt:Yeah. I I know that I am blessed in that way because I don't think we both could have, you know, really full time, demanding jobs with without those things. So
Merry Elkins:Yeah. Well, you're you're also teaching your daughter some very good work ethics.
Amanda Sharratt:Thank you. Yeah. That my Mhmm. My my husband reminds me that when I say, like, oh gosh. Am I there enough?
Amanda Sharratt:Am I and he's like, she's seeing you work, and and this is a good role model for her. So I I hope so.
Merry Elkins:Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Well, Amanda, what would you like our listeners to have as a takeaway today?
Amanda Sharratt:I think the biggest thing that I would like to encourage them is that no matter where they are at in their financial journey, they can achieve the goals that they want to achieve. Again, like we talked about a little bit ago, it might need to look a little bit differently. We might need to alter expectations a little bit. But have hope and know that there is a path forward to achieving those financial goals that that you're on track for.
Merry Elkins:I love that. That's great. We all need a path forward, don't we? Yeah. Yeah.
Merry Elkins:Yeah. Amanda, thank you so much. Is there anything else that we haven't asked that you'd like to tell our listeners and viewers?
Amanda Sharratt:Yeah. The thing that I think I always say when somebody asks me that is I I I'm also have a really big passion for it. If you don't have a will or life insurance, make sure you have that. Estate planning is something that is always really near and dear to my heart of, like, you wanna make sure that your family is taken care of if something happens and, we don't wanna talk about it because we don't wanna think about that, but it is really important to take care of. So I have I had to throw that in there as well.
Merry Elkins:Good idea. Wise advice. Thank yeah. Thank you so much, and thank you for being on our podcast. Our guest on late boomers today has been Amanda Sherritt, financial adviser for Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers.
Merry Elkins:You can reach her at a sherrat sherrat, atwhittakerwealth.com, and that's asharratt, or look at our website atwhittakerwealth.com. Thank you so much. We're grateful
Cathy Worthington:to our listeners, and we wanna ask you to subscribe to our YouTube channel, late boomers podcast, where you can watch the video version of our podcast. And, also, please subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and please give us a 5 star review. We're on Instagram at I am Kathy Worthington and at I am Mary Elkins and at late boomers. So let us know if we have inspired you to take action. Thanks again, Amanda.
Amanda Sharratt:Thank you.
Cathy Worthington:Oops. Did it cut off? Mary, can you hit the stop? Something happened on my computer. There you go.
