Ep 30 | The Summer Trips Were Worth It... Now What?
If your summer was full of unforgettable memories, but your credit card statement is now giving you anxiety, you’re not alone. In this episode, Priya walks you through how to recover from the summer-spending hangover without guilt, restriction, or financial punishment. She breaks down how to reset using your magic number, why most people don’t actually plan for seasonal spending, and how to bounce back with clarity, not shame. Plus, how your goals can help you say no with purpose and yes with intention.
Tune Into This Episode to Hear:
Why even high earners can feel broke in the summer (hint: weddings, group trips, and rooftop dinners)
The difference between a reset and a punishment—and how to know the difference
What your magic number is and how it can save you from lifestyle creep
Easy, guilt-free ways to pause or adjust savings without derailing your plan
A reminder that FOMO disappears when you're crystal clear on your goals
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Transcription
We're a culture of saying yes. Don't wanna miss out. Don't wanna miss an opportunity. We're very quick to put ourselves into situations. We're a little bit more hard pressed to take ourselves out of situations, but this is the time to say no with purpose and say yes with intention.
Hey guys. Welcome back to the F word where we talk about money in a way that actually makes sense for high earning 30 somethings. Today's episode is for anyone looking at their credit card statement right now and thinking, did I really spend that much this summer? Between weddings, rooftop dinners, European getaways, spontaneous weekends with friends. Summer has a way of turning itself into one long swipe or tap.
So if you're feeling the post vacation financial hangover or wondering how the hell your six figure salary still doesn't feel like enough. This episode is for you.
Let's talk about what happened, how to reset, and why guilt. It should not be part of your long-term plan.
Let's get into it. Okay, so let's start with the fact that we all know FOMO is real.
And summer is nothing but one long, expensive season of FOMO.
August in particular. Most people, especially high earners, are often juggling wedding travel group trips and, the worst, inflated summer prices. It's expensive to go anywhere. In fact, if you know a place that's not expensive, hit me up. I wanna know where should we go.
And then speaking of FOMO, the social pressure is very, very real. Sometimes it feels like saying yes is really your only option.
The truth that we see is that, even people making 200,000 plus feel stretched, feel very stretched. This time of year.
We had this couple who was trying to take their one last trip before baby. They spent $9,000 in three weeks.
Another one. She was a bridesmaid. She flew to three weddings in two months and said, I've never felt so broke and so social. It is just that time of year.
Okay, so the bill hits credit card statement rolls around. You don't regret the experience. That's the thing, you know, you'll never regret being with your friends or seeing a new place. So it becomes very easy to justify and then the bill hits and somehow the regret still creeps in.
The thing is, and I've talked about this before. Yeah. Most people don't actually plan for summer spending. They just take it day by day. They handle it as it comes up. And this cycle perpetuates overspend, panic, freeze spending in September, but then unfreeze it before the holidays. But the thing is, that's not a strategy. That's not a real strategy, anyway. I wanna start by normalizing it. You did not mess up. You just need a reset. That's the great thing about personal finance is it's never too late to course correct and get on the right path, right path.
I make that sound very intimidating. Good news, the right path is a lot easier to find than you think. Listen to the last episode.
Okay, so here's how I want you to get back on track without cutting out the joy, without freezing. You're spending for a month without $0 days, you're a higher earn. You're fine. You just need to get back on track. So I want you to start with your magic number. Talked about this concept before I talked about it in the last couple episodes.
Your magic number is the most you can spend on your credit card every single month. The magic number ensures you're living a lifestyle you can actually afford, right? Because that's the issue. There's a chance you might be trying to live a life that somebody else can afford on your salary. It doesn't work that way, so get clear on how much you can spend every single month without breaking your larger plan, and what I mean by larger plan or big picture plan is once you have your automations in place for the things that you actually care about, that you're trying to achieve next year, the next three years, five years, 10 years,
yeah, retirement too. Whatever's left in your checking account, that's the lifestyle you can actually afford. That's your magic number.
Be thinking about monthly contributions to your travel subs savings account. Revisit your savings goals. Remember no saving for the sake of saving. Why are you saving? What is the purpose behind your saving? What are you saving for maybe coming out of the summer months? I don't love this, but the reality is there maybe your savings needs a pause or maybe even a slight adjustment downward to give you a little breathing room. Don't go into credit card debt.
That's not the plan. The plan is to look at what you're saving for and make a few adjustments. Maybe you have to pause something to help you reset. And then once you reset, you get yourself back on track. Here's some quick and easy guilt-free recovery tips. First is delay. Don't delete right. If you have a big purchase coming up, treat September as your reset month. Not punishment. Don't decide that you're not gonna do something altogether. Maybe you just need to delay it a couple weeks. So pick one luxury to keep, maybe you scale back the rest. For me, that would be something like, I'm gonna keep my Pure bar, but I'm gonna get the hell off of Res X. 'Cause every time I'm on that app, I see another reservation that I wanna snag to a hot restaurant. So for the month of September, I'm gonna put the Res X app away and I'm gonna focus and that's gonna be how I reset.
I've talked about this before, but if you simply take the time to look at your credit card statement, it'll be really easy for you to start picking out things that you're spending on that you're not actually using. Maybe they're not bringing you that joy. September is a great, great month. To do a little deep dive into your credit card statement and see areas that you could actually turn off.
Let's talk about boundaries and what you actually value, because this is where it gets tricky.
We're a culture of saying yes. Don't wanna miss out. Don't wanna miss an opportunity. We're very quick to put ourselves into situations. We're a little bit more hard pressed to take ourselves out of situations, but this is the time to say no with purpose and say yes with intention. You're gonna feel a lot less pressure to keep up with your friends, to keep up with Instagram, to keep up with social media if you know what you're building toward. So getting clear on your goals, which I am a big advocate for, serves so many purposes. And one purpose that is so important when you're doing a reset is it, it just helps you say no to the things that really don't add value to your life and keeps you on track for the things that you wanna be building toward.
I find that financial FOMO disappears when you're clear on your goals.
Okay. This episode was just to help you not freak out going into the fall because. My God, can it feel scary coming out of big, big, big spending months? But it's okay. You're gonna stay focused. You have your larger goals in play, and this is the time to reset. There are a few things you can do to reset, but the most important thing you can do is to remember that you have a larger plan in place.
If this episode hit a little too close to home, maybe drop it in your group chat. No shame, no guilt, just a smarter way forward.
If you're tired of winging it and ready to get serious about your money without giving up your lifestyle, hit follow. Like, subscribe everywhere.
Please support our show. We appreciate your support.
Oh, and before I let you go, I'm starting a new segment. It's called Best Bite. I eat out a lot, and I love sharing restaurant tips and food recommendations, so I'm gonna start leaving my best bite of the week at the end of every episode. For this last week, my mom was in town visiting and I took her to this pizza place in the West Village called L'Industrie and Best Bite: Pistachio Gelato with olive oil and sea salt.
It was divine. Highly recommend it, and I had my mom who's turning 70, wait in a one hour line with me just to taste that gelato, and she said it was totally worth it. All right. Thank you for listening to the F word. I hope you get to try my best bite and I'll see you next time.
