What the Why

GOBankingRates (00:00)
Welcome to another episode of What the Why? And we have a very special guest with us today. I'm so excited. Thank you both for allowing me to be here. I feel like our conversations are always so amazing when the three of us talk anyways. So this is just going to be fun to actually have like a conversation on the podcast. This is Neelam. We work really closely with her at Co -Banking Rates. We actually have a lot in common.

What is the common denominator between all of us? I mean, we're all millennials. And moving. We moved. We moved. We did a big move. We pieced up out of wherever we came from. Well, you guys pieced up at the same place, LA. You guys both were LA queens. And now you're ATL. We still are LA queens. Just different. We're remote. Push that. Push that. Remote LA queens in a remote first environment.

Everything is remote now. Exactly.

So that's a very interesting question because I moved to Nashville temporarily for like nine months. And then now I'm officially there. People say, like I moved there two months ago and people ask me, or when I've told them I moved, they're like, didn't you already live there? I'm like, no, no, no, my health insurance is there. My taxes are there. They're like, so you moved, moved. Yeah, my dentist is there. I have to find new doctors. I haven't found any of that, honestly. It's very intimidating. We'll talk about it. Yeah.

Well, I think, I think that's a great, like, so you, you were in Nashville for like a short period of time and did that influence your decision of like, Hey, like LA is great, but like Nashville's where I'm at now. Yeah, absolutely. And there's like a big music scene there. I'm really into music and I have like a lot, a lot of friends that are into music. And so it just seemed like there were a lot of green flags to moving and not a lot of red flags to moving on a personal financial.

spiritual level, all of those things. I mean, it's such a great city. It's like, I feel like it's like the up and coming city. I feel like everyone's moving there. And I'm not just saying that because I moved there. Well, I think we all feel that way about our cities, right? Like, yeah, I guess that's true. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yep. I love Denver. Love the mountains. We all have like our own personal reason. Yeah, personal connection. And I love that you are tying it back to like your passion of like music and like really becoming like huge out there.

If that's a goal. Yeah. Yes, we got, we got, we got a famous celeb with us today, guys. Yeah. Instead of influencer music, sir. I mean, I can like come up with a finance jingle. It's fine. Yeah. I knew maybe six five blue eyes. No, no, no, no. I'm a man in finance. I just, the song came to me.

Yeah. So I think that it's great that we have that in common. That's why we're on the podcast today to talk about moving out of state. Like, I don't know how many people, I think we have an article on Go Banking, right? It highlights like how many people are moving out of state. Like it's just more cost effective. And I think that's one of the, also the reasons why we decided to move out of state. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I kind of, I feel like you guys did it a better way because LA I feel like is really expensive. And I went from like Scottsdale, Arizona, which is definitely expensive and Denver's.

But Denver's definitely more expensive. I just wanted to get, yeah. Yeah. It's, it's very comparable when it comes to like the regular cost of living things, like, you know, food and drinks and, you know, day to day stuff. When it comes to like housing and rent, definitely more expensive. So I would have never thought that honestly, I would have never thought that that's very interesting. It might be different now. Cause I moved in, in COVID so 2020. So when, when did you guys like make the move? So like we did the cross country. We did the traditional thing of like.

moving your family across states. We got married in 2021 and then we moved across state five days later. Wow. Huge move. It was just a wrap for push that push that route for shout out Drake. It was so sad actually like we end of an era honestly end of an era so fun like the drive home minus the part when we got pulled over Mississippi but overall such a fun drive so fun to see the state like

travel across the states. But you just had your rap for us. You didn't like do a truck. You didn't do anything. We went in without with a clothing bag, an air mattress, some food. That's the way to go. No, honest. Yeah, you did. That's the way to go. Yeah. In terms of well, actually, is it the way to go? Because moving companies are so expensive. And I thought I thought it was going to be, you know, shipping a car out there is like a grand, maybe two grand, depending on the car.

And some companies let you fill up the car to a certain point, all that stuff with the weight. But a moving company, the cheapest one I found was like $3 ,500. And you guys, I, so I lived with a friend, moved, lived in Orange County with a friend and it's her house and she needed a roommate. And I was looking to move out of my parents. I moved back in with my parents during the pandemic because

Why would I sit in an apartment by myself? Like, why would I sit in an apartment by myself? I'm not going to do that. I saved so much money. And ironically, my car lease was up like in April of 2020. So it was like, I got rid of my car, got rid of my apartment, got rid of a relationship. That's another, that's another story. All the baggage, all the baggage of 2020. Relationships can be a financial burden. Yes. But I love that we all did that within the same year. So we had like a fresh start. Fresh start. We just moved to Nashville, but during that time.

planting the seeds of like - Well, I was, I didn't plant seeds of Nashville yet. I moved home when the pandemic hit. And then I decided, you know, with music stuff, I had met a few people through some friends and I was flying out there a lot at the end of 2020. And then something was like, why don't I just live there for a few months and work on this project that we were working on? And then one thing led to another. And a few years later, I just decided.

I should be flying home to visit California instead of visiting Nashville to try to like pursue something. If that makes sense. Isn't it so great to now see California from a different perspective? Yeah. Like a person who was from there, like you see it. Before it was like a financial burden and like it was a little suffocating. And now I go back, I landed at LAX and I was just like, LAX with my dream and my card again. I have so much love for LA. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a single woman, not married yet. Yeah. Dating in LA. Yeah. Living through LA, you know, like cost of living and just like grocery. It was a mess. Yeah. But it builds character and then you figure out your way and you find where you truly are meant to be. But it wasn't so much, I mean, going back to moving and moving costs and starting over versus like shipping everything. I genuinely don't know what would be more cost effective because

As I said, so I moved home from the pandemic. My friend had a house. I, she's like, I need a roommate. I know you're trying to move out. Would you want to live with me? And I said, heck yes. I want to live with one of my best friends. Serious question though. Roommates can be tricky and they can go. It can be, it can be, but I, I had faith and I had confidence and we, we kind of like talked about it beforehand. So it was fine. Yeah, we're still friends. We're still best friends. Caitlin, shout out to Caitlin. She's amazing. Yeah. Best roommate. But it was great.

because when I moved in after leaving my apartment in LA, I got rid of everything. And you know, I mean, when you're getting rid of a relationship, a car, an apartment, you're like, get rid of it all. Like the pandemic, yeah, the pandemic was very cleansing for me. I know a lot of people did not have that experience, but it really like saved my life. Yeah, and so, yeah. So with that being said, now moving to Nashville after I had lived with a friend, I mean, she had all the furnishings.

She had everything there. It was just my room. So I only moved. I really started fresh. I only had my room and a few things from the kitchen. And when you move into a new place, I was like, I don't even have a vacuum. I don't even have hand soap. I don't have paper towels. And it was like starting from scratch. It was really hard because inflation. So I have an idea. I have an idea like based off of it. So I really think.

So you know how like when people get married, they have registries? I really think what we should do is create registries for even single people for like big life events. Like why not? That's how we got our vacuums from our registries. So like, you know, I feel like people only do that when people get married. They're like, they're starting their life together. I'm like, I'm starting my life solo. Someone help me. Even though it's not like a huge thing.

Like housewarming It's like the like the go fund me like you could easily set that up and that would have been super helpful I wish I thought of that idea because literally the first day that I got there. I went into my apartment and Long story short, it was a mess. I needed cleaning supplies. And so I'm like, let me go to Target Let me drop like maybe a hundred fifty two hundred dollars on the clean sex you guys it was four hundred dollars Four hundred dollars for a Swiffer some extra Swiffer pads the liquid thing and you never do bottles of stuff paper towels

I had three, maybe four bags from Target, $400. Every person that I played this game with, when I was like, so guess how much you think my cleaning supplies were? They're like 200 bucks, I'm like 400. Everyone's jaw drops to the ground. I'm like, this is the life we're living right now. But was it more expensive, do you think? Because even though I know you said finances doesn't play a huge role in it, LA obviously is more expensive. Like that's, there's stats about it, we have an article about it. Yeah, yeah. Do you think those exact same supplies in LA would have been more expensive?

1000 % so that was in person. So even though you were spending more money at the end of the day like I'm curious I was saving you were saving money you use this way for ten times No, okay, Denver's is it the ten cent we don't have the ten cent in Nashville We do not have the ten something in Nashville. my god. I didn't do I didn't do the girl math But when you're moving like my move total

cost with like the first month's rent deposit, the movers and like furnishing the place for the first month with just basic necessities. This isn't even like getting into like, let me get a side table for the guest bedroom. Like this is just like couch, this paper towels, cups, so I can like make something to drink. Yeah. All of that stuff, probably close to nine, nine grand, maybe even 10 honestly. To do it on your own too is a lot.

You know, and it's a struggle and thank God I had a credit card that I could draw into everything too. So you moved to Nashville, you moved to Atlanta. When I moved to Denver, so I did kind of the like a similar cost analysis to what you did. Like there was some stuff I bought new. I was lucky that I had some stuff. It ended up costing, I mean, it was only one state over about 1200 bucks to get a U -Haul, jam everything in there. And then we did the idiot thing where this is called boy math where you just cram as much shit in there and hope it fits and works.

And when we opened the U -Haul, there was like half the stuff broken. So I didn't do a great job and I was spending like another thousand bucks on new stuff. But instead of buying new stuff, we're like, hey, this is going to be cheaper in the short term. So that's what we did. But what was also crazy when we moved, especially during the pandemic, like for me, it was a little bit more expensive in rent in Denver, but you guys moved from one of the most expensive places. So I'm curious to know like, what was that first kind of gut reaction to

the new rent in Nashville, the new rent in Atlanta compared to what you were doing in LA. I can answer that and then like, I want you to dive into like Nashville costs. But I think for LA and ATL, like when we looked at our apartment that we're in now, we were like, if this was in LA, this would easily be seven grand. Holy Snikies. So it's a nice apartment like, yeah. Yeah. And we love our building. Like we love the people that live there. And I think when we compare it to the cost of LA, how much we're paying for rent.

in Atlanta versus LA, we're definitely saving more money. So how much are you saving? Like, if you said six, 7 ,000 in LA, so like what's the... We wouldn't have been able to afford that, right? Yeah, so but like now you can, so like what is the difference? I think when I say the affordability, we wouldn't not be able to afford living in LA. You wouldn't even like think about an option. We wouldn't be living in like Sherman Oaks and like a fully carpeted... With popcorn ceiling. Do you know what I mean? Yeah.

isn't the same. I think that's one of the primary reasons why we moved. We were looking at houses in LA too before we got married and we were like, do we even want this house right now? Let's explore. We looked at Austin, we looked at ATL, and when we got to ATL, it was like, we fell in love. There's so much diversity there, there's so much culture there, and I think that that's one of the reasons why.

we moved out there. The why behind your finances. It doesn't just have to be finances. You want to make sure that you enjoy where you're at. We didn't think about finances. I think it was just like an added thing. It was just like, great. And there's all these great things. Yeah. Exactly. It was just, we felt like we fit in. I'm curious for you guys. So Atlanta, Nashville, one thing that we were kind of deciding when we moved out there was just like, burbs in Denver or like downtown Denver proper. We ended up doing downtown because there's just so much more closer by. So instead of having to buy like

15, 20, $30 Uber, I can walk or I can get on a scooter for a couple bucks. So like we kind of factored that into our finances. So like with you guys where you're living, like is walkability a pretty big thing? Like maybe never even thought about that, but that's one thing that we thought about moving. I was like, Holy shit, like this is actually way cheaper. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Costa Mesa. Yeah. Yeah. I don't have a car.

So you had to have walkable. I wanted something that was walkable. And one of the things I was thinking to myself, I have a lot of great friends who are very like wonderful and generous. And if they're going to the grocery store, they'll be like, Hey, I know you don't have a car. Do you want to come to the grocery store with me? I'm like, yes. Just because like I said, I got rid of my car in the pandemic. And then it just was, I just loved living life without a car, even though you think you need it. And it is inconvenient at times.

My Ubers in the course of a month would be no more than $200 for anything that I did because I was strategic about it. You have to plan ahead a little bit. And like, if my friend is going to the store and I don't necessarily need to go, I think ahead and I'm like, well, what could I get right now that could help me in the future? You know, if I don't need it immediately, right? It forces you to plan a little bit, but if you kind of already in that mindset, then I'm not having a car is really not that big of a deal.

and having Ubers for the whole month be 200 bucks, like a car payment. And that's a cheap car payment. So you're saving, like let's segue to saving tips. Like you say you have friends that like help you with your Uber ride, like not your Uber rides, but like your rides to the grocery store. Yeah, my friends are awesome. I love your friends for this. I think they really are amazing. What other tips do you have for living in Nashville? Like if you don't need a car. Okay, well, don't move into one of the new high rises because you can get like a move into like a duplex or quadruplex.

It's an older building, but you're going to be paying like $800 or $1000 for rent a month for a two to three bedroom. my God. So, moving to Nashville. Yeah. I was paying for rent like that. It was $600 a month for a room to rent in a Valencia house. So I love that it's $800 and you don't. And that's like a one bedroom or yeah, one bedroom.

in certain areas. Now that's probably like that. Yeah. And that's probably like East Nashville, there are areas that are going to be more pricey and the city's building up a lot and they want it to be like this big. It's like turning into this like metropolitan thing or at least they want it to be I think from what I've gathered. You know, it's not there yet.

You know, they're still building a lot of things and like there's a lot of new like restaurants and industries that are moving into that area. So it's really growing and it's really going to be something amazing in the next few years. Like two years ago, I couldn't find like a decent restaurant for, I don't even remember what cuisine it was, but we were like, there are no good restaurants out here. And then I moved there and I'm like, there's so many great restaurants. Like where were these? And then come to find out they all opened like within the last year and there's just incredible, incredible food. So.

Little things like that. What are the price points? Like how much is it for a night out? Like let's say like you go out with friends and you have like Ubers are so cheap compared to LA it like my heart like drops every single time. I'm like, how is this only $7 to get 10 minutes away? Wow. You live life without like that expense. Yeah. You're able to put money somewhere else like saving or working on music and like doing all your passion projects. Well, I think that's, I think that's been such a big theme in this, in this specific podcast is

planning ahead. Like you said, you moved there for a little bit. You like, they came back like, that's actually a good idea. I should do that. You, you kind of went out into these different places. Atlanta kind of caught your eye. And I say plan ahead. And I kind of just half ass Denver. I'm like, Cove, I don't know. I don't want to be in the desert. But I do have to say planning ahead, but leaving room to grow and leaving room, like wiggle room. Because I think a lot of times when you hear like, you know, financial advice or advice on anything, people are so like,

this is how you gotta do it, because this is the most optimal way. But honestly, like everybody's life is different. Every person is different. Your circumstances are not the same. And like, don't feel bad if you're not doing it the right way. You have to do it the right way for you and what's optimal for you. So yes, take everybody's like wisdom and advice as just as knowledge. It's just knowledge. You don't have to take it as advice. You don't have to take it as.

as like, I need to do that, right? It could just be like, I'm gathering information and I'm gonna choose what information is best for me to move forward with. And we have a lot of great articles with like that type of advice. Yeah. I agree with you. I think that sometimes you just need to listen to how you're feeling in the moment. Yeah. Take your intuition and use your divine.

and energy to make the right decisions. And do that girl math. Whoever coined Delulu is the Solulu. I mean, it really is because you have to have a little bit of delusion to do the thing that's hard and even like making any big investment in your life. Being ambitious, I feel like is that like, yes, like in your mind. And I think that's the biggest thing that you had to overcome. For me, at least in Denver, when I was thinking about it, I'm like, there's this and this.

I'm comfortable here. I was complacent. That was the other point that we brought up. And I was like, no, I got to get out of that like complacency zone. And I'm like, I'm going to be ambitious. I'm going to move to Denver in the next six months. And then it was like month five. I'm like, shit, I'm not even like close. I'm like, nope, I'm pulling the trigger. And I got into kind of that delusional space. Like, yeah, I'll just pack this shit up and fit phone when I get there. And that's what we did at first. I'm like,

I can't believe I just did that. But then it like worked out and that's what you guys did too. Moving out of the complacency stage is so hard with anything in life. And especially, you know, like we talk about finances here. It's like that complacency stage or like not wanting to look at your finances out of fear or whatever. God, yeah. Don't do that. Especially moving, like you kind of have to face yourself if you're going to take that leap of faith and face where you're at. And it's scary, especially if you're not where you want to be. Like I certainly was not in a place that I wanted to be financially to move.

My gut was like, yeah, there was like somebody else said earlier, spiritual equity, like the spiritual equity is there. Like I need to, I need to go. I need to do this. So long -term. Yeah. And you're, you're, we, we talk about this a lot, like financial health and physical health, like emotional health, like they're kind of one in the same, like you can't do one or the other. Like you can be financially healthy, but like, if you're not enjoying it, what's the point. And it sounds like for you and for you and for me.

And for all of us, we're happier where we're at now. Okay, so when did you move again? Remind me when you moved to Nashville. I moved actually two months and a week ago. Two months and a week ago. Shut up. Two month, one week anniversary. So, okay, take yourself now versus this exact time last year when you're in LA. Not just financially, not just financially, but like think about your mental thought and your mental health. Like, can you...

Because I feel like that's a big thing when it comes to travel and moving. Yes, finances is a big part of it. And if you could find something cheaper, I did the opposite. I found Denver, but for me, I wanted to be out of the desert, closer to mountains, closer to the city, closer to things that I enjoy. So while I took a hit on the front end, I re -budgeted, and my mental health, I feel so much happier and calmer and just where I want to be. So could you touch on that a little bit? Yeah, absolutely. I think...

When you follow your gut, if you feel a calling to something and you go with it, the reward is going to be there already and your mindset will shift because it's kind of like where you're, I mean, that maybe that sounds like woo woo, but I think that's the key term here. Like the biggest tips that we have is like, follow your heart is like, even, even if it feels scary, like you'll still have those add ons. Like what I talked about was all the extra stuff that we got.

from moving out of the state. These add -ons are just added to your life that you don't even think about. You just get to that point. And they don't have to be financial. Your mental health, your overall enjoyment of life. Exactly. At the end of the day, the reason we created this podcast, the why behind your finances is more so, yes, the finances, understanding where your money's going, but realizing for that short term, that long term, why are you doing the things that you're doing with your finances? I think it's great that you're tying it again back to your music career.

that's so important to you. Yeah, and following what's right for you. Because all the other like added perks that we talk about are like, my gosh, that's so cool. But that all stemmed. If I had no desire to move to Nashville, there wouldn't that wouldn't that would be a new point. Yeah, like it wouldn't even be a thing. So I think like the huge takeaway is like, don't be afraid to follow what you really want to do and things will fall together and you will find the benefit. And especially the like mental emotional benefit from it. And that's a great recap. So plan ahead.

And then what you the instead of live, love, laugh, do Lulu is the salulu. Okay. Put that on your wall, right? Live, love, laugh. Gone. It's, it's yeah. Your parents' house. So 2005. Yeah. That's five guys. All right. This isn't no five anymore. We're in the, we're in the twenties. it was. Yeah. So now you know, to switch it, switch it out. So, so plan ahead to lose the salulu and follow your heart. I think, or follow, like follow what makes you tick. Follow your why follow your why.

God, a triple co -host on the pod right now, guys. She's gonna definitely be coming on again. Now we're gonna do our favorite broke questions. So since we have a special person on the cast today, I feel like this kind of goes to both of you. The question from Tracy, she asked, I really want these Lulu shorts, but not sure it's in the budget.

What should I do? This is a great girl matter question. Okay, so scenario. So Lulu shorts. How much are the Lulu shorts? Okay, so if the Lulu shorts, let's say it's $100 just for like flat $100, right? Reasonable. Yeah. These Lulu shorts that I'm pulling all the way up, they were like 80 bucks. They were 80 bucks. Okay, so $80. Let's just call it 80 bucks. So $80 Lulu's. And let's say you're an avid coffee drinker. Okay. Okay.

And what is a coffee like eight bucks for like a venti or something or a large or wherever you take your coffee from? Six bucks. my gosh. Well, there's, well, let's say $8 for an LA because like it is $8 in LA and like, and if we're saying $80, I'm just saying, okay. Okay. $80 lulus. If you're getting an $8 coffee, every time you wear the lulus, do not buy the $8 coffee. And then if you wear it 10 times, it already paid for itself.

Make coffee at home. Then it's free. Then it's free. Okay. This is a really good question. So we talked about rent. So we talked about like, you, you rented. I love this question. You're renting. I'm renting too. So how did you pick your place to rent and what should someone do to prepare to start renting? my gosh. Can I jump in on this? Yes. Okay. How do you pick your place to rent? I think you have to have like your list of five non -negotiables. Like my non -negotiable was like,

I needed to live near my best friend because why would I move across country and not live next to my best friend? That's just so inconvenient. Yeah. So, so living near my best friend, I had to have a washer dryer because absolutely not walking distance from a Pilates studio because I am like six days a week in there. It's an addiction. And then, there was two other things and I can't think of them right now. So keep tuning in non -negotiables. Like the things that like it, I will walk.

I don't have a car. So I will walk to the Pilates studio. That's smart. And I think you brought up another good point. I know it's not your non -negotiables, but you were like, I looked at it from a cost benefit analysis and instead of doing a high rise. Yes, it's nicer. That too. But you looked for a little bit older to get everything you wanted. So you kind of like, you know, sacrifice. That actually was a non -negotiable. I wanted to have a two or three bedroom space because I said, if I'm moving cross country, I have to have an office and I have to have a space where

people can come visit. Like I didn't want people to have an excuse. Like, well, I can't really afford that. Like use your points, girl map, get your ticket, come stay in the guest bedroom and like call it a day. Like, yeah. So Kevin, thank you for that question. That was a great question. Becca, thank you for that question. And with that said, another episode in the books, I'm Bryson. Thank you guys so much for having me. This was so much fun. I love talking to you guys anyways. So to talk about this stuff officially on a podcast is so fun. And make sure guys she is coming back for another one. We're going to go.

talk about debt, credit cards, some tips and tricks that we all have. So make sure you like and subscribe. And with that said, I'm Bryson. This is Neelam. Neelam. And what? The why? We kind of got it that time. We'll see you next time, guys.