It's been 24 days. 24 days that I've been going to work every single day for no pay. This government shutdown thing is actually impacting me in a way that I never actually thought could happen. It's not just impacting our family budget. It's actually starting to impact my core beliefs on money, income, and personal finance. Hey guys, I'm Wendy Valencia. I have been a US government employee for 20 years. Yes, I said 20 years and that means that holy crap in my old. In that time, I have seen many, many, many shutdowns. Most of them were not long enough to really impact me, but this one is totally different. The only other one that impacted me was in 2013, which lasted 16 days. And really it didn't impact me that much with regards to personal finance. I just got a paycheck a couple of days late, so it was really no big deal. In every single shutdown in the past, and this one as well, I've been deemed essential. So I've always known that I was going to get paid. I never really had to worry too much about whether I would get money because I always knew the money would come eventually. And this time is no exception. Marisa, my husband, is a government contractor and he and I have been working every single day. But Marisa was still getting paid at this point. And his paycheck basically depends on how much funding that has been allocated to his contract. And once that money runs out, he won't get paid. And in all truth, we actually have no idea how fully funded his contract is. Maybe fund it through the end or it may not. We really don't know. So we're being extra tight with our money. Not as tight as we could be though, but much, much, much tighter than normal. So in my last video about the government shutdown, we talked about what we would be taken out. The numbers, exactly where we were slashing and what would stay and what would go in an ideal world, kind of assuming that by this point, we'd be back up and running, but we're not. And we really pretty much stuck to that. We had to make a few changes here and there. But in this video, I don't want to talk about numbers because, in truth, if this continues through next week, we're going to start making phone calls. And a lot of stuff is going to get canceled. So if this is still going on on the 18th, I'm actually going to put up a video talking about exactly what will be canceled. I really wanted to tell you about today is the stories of the people that are most impacted by the shutdown. Those are the stories of the actual government workers. And I am shocked. I mean, truly shocked by the sheer number of government workers who are living paycheck to paycheck. And I was one of those people. The number of people I've already heard talking about, possibly not having enough money to even drive to work because they can't afford gas, terrifies me. Most of the people who didn't curb their spending are living off credit cards and they plan to pay everything off when they get that big, big huge check of, you know, multiple months of salary. And some people are taking banks up on their offers of zero interest loans, so they can put food on the table. And while this is a viable option for some, taking out debt to survive isn't the way I want to live anymore. I want to have a stockpile of money that I can use for emergencies. And I want to teach people that you have to plan for a rainy day. And guess what folks, there's a friggin' storm outside. In truth, having an emergency fund is where the shutdown has impacted me the most. We have a decent savings and retirement already. We're one full month ahead in our budget, so what we earn this month goes to pay next month's bills. We have sinking funds which are basically long-term savings planned for something to the tune of about $10,000. So if I need to use that money in the short term right now, I can. I just have to pay it back when I get paid. But most importantly right now, we're living on approximately 50% of our income. I know we'll be okay in the short term. We'll have enough money to get through all of those because like I said, Marisio is still yet in paid and that's 50% almost. But I know we're not the norm and I know that I don't have or want to deal with this again. We vowed that we're going to pay off the visa and the car over the next few months and we will. We're still planning on doing that. But you may actually end up seeing some changes after that and or you may not. I don't know yet. It really is going to be dependent on how long this goes because it feels like every day this goes longer, my mind is shifting. You may actually see us stay the the course and continue paying off debt until it's done and in a year and a half we'll be finished. It may even create a resolve to pay it off faster. I don't know or you might even see us build up three months of income in an emergency fund before we start tackling Marisio's loan. But what I can tell you is one thing that I've always believed and now I know it like truly know it. A thousand dollar baby emergency fund will not help you in a true financial crisis. I know there's not one way to reach financial freedom and in truth financial freedom means different things to different people. To you financial freedom may mean having no debt and a paid for house and squirreling away every cent until you die so you can leave your children millions to you financial freedom may mean retiring at the age of 40 and traveling the world and seeing what the world has to offer and living somewhat frugally but free. Or to you financial freedom may mean being able to do whatever you want whenever you want without ever having to worry again about how you're going to pay your bills to me financial freedom means always paying cash for everything and never having to worry again about money because I know we will always have enough. While we have a super strong resolve to be debt free and we will be debt free. Our journey will be different from the currently recommended strategy because a fear of whether you have enough money to put gas in your car is absolutely no way to live. I should clarify just because this shutdown has changed my opinions of personal finance. It absolutely does not mean that it's changed Mauricio's opinions in the same way. So we're going to have to work together as a couple to decide what we're going to do. So I'll see you in the next one. See ya. We're out.