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right, welcome everybody. Uh, thanks for joining us again here on Checking In a podcast about uh, money, life experiences, uh, what we like to call the psychology of money, which is just the good feelings and bad feelings that are associated with with uh, budgeting, with income, with expenses, all of that fun stuff. Uh, I have the joy today of being here with uh the Madison Lopez. Hello. Uh, school board. I always get the title wrong. Trustee. Trustee. Yes, perfect. School board trustee at Lewisville Independent School District. So, a school district that is definitely near and dear to my heart. Uh, right. I'm a product of it. Got kids in it. Um, just love it. It's a special place. It's a special place to me and I loved hearing your story before we started this and it it just brings people back home. Um that's how special of a place it is. You grow up here and you want to raise your kids here again, you know. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I never in a million years thought I'd be back, but uh when when my family uh when my wife and I started moving back to to Texas, just looking around DFW, we were like, "Yeah, we need to head back towards the same story. I do grew up here LISD kindergarten through 12th grade. And I saw myself moving abroad, maybe going to DC, and then God had other plans and I was all on board. Lewisville ISD, Lewisville, Flower Mountain area. This is home. And so I totally get that. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. I love hearing you say that. This is home, right? Um so and it sounds like you're making phenomenal uh traction and and building deep deep roots now as as a school board trustee. I'm trying. You know, having grown up here, I had a lot of relationships and um was very fortunate and very blessed with the people that surrounded my family while I grew up. Um and now that I've returned after going to SMU for undergrad and law school and deciding to to really plant my family here, um even more so, we're digging in. We're building community and this is the place to do it. I feel like uh I've told several people this in the past several months that we kind of live in a a slice of heaven here in Denton County. And I think that that's the case because there's so many people here that want to be a blessing and want to create a little slice of heaven. And so it's a great place for a family, great place to to build that community, and I'm loving every second of it. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um yeah, I often refer to it as the bubble, right? It is. We've got a nice little bubble here. So, so it's it's a good place to be. Well, we will dive into some of these um topics. We we typically start off our uh podcast with a segment we like to call income. Okay. And this is the good feelings of money. So, all of the fun memories, all of the fond memories, etc. Uh that we often associate with uh our our dollars, right? Our income. So, first big question that we usually dive into is you remember your first paycheck? I do. I'll be honest, it wasn't that long ago. Okay. [laughter] I was going to make a joke about that, but I thought I'll leave that one alone. No. Um, when I think about my very first paycheck, I was in high school. Um, and I was Louisville High School, right? Yes. Lewisville High School. And I was working for the church that I attended. So, I was uh working in children's ministry and uh worked there I think the second that I turned 16. Uh I'm pretty sure. And I remember the feeling of that first paycheck thinking I could rule the world, you know, like it was not that much, but it was so exciting to know, hey, I had clocked in and clocked out and what I did there mattered and it resulted in a paycheck. So that was a super fun experience. Yeah. Kind of a newfound sense of independence, a little bit of autonomy. Yeah. Do you remember what you did with it? What you do with that first paycheck? Yeah. I I had actually gotten that first job for a specific purpose, to raise money, to save money, to go on a mission trip with that specific church. And so, um, I knew going into that job that I was going to be saving the vast majority of that paycheck. So, I felt super excited knowing I was one step closer to that goal of going to Thailand. So, I had never been out of the country before, had never done anything like that, and um I was just really excited to to put my paycheck towards something that was going to be an incredible life experience um and was going to actually help other people. And so, my first job, it it was for the specific purpose of saving money for a mission trip. Gotcha. So, has that kind of mentality stayed with you? Like, it has. In in other words, uh when you look at your paycheck, you're like, "What am I saving towards or what is my goal with this income?" I think in in respect to the the purpose of my first job, uh I was trying to create memories. I was trying to um do the most good that I could with my dollars. Um and that mentality has stayed with me. I I love giving to amazing organizations in our community. I love um being able to to give my little one-year-old son all of the the fun things, all of the fun experiences. And I think that that really motivates me to want to earn, want to save so that we can go and do fun things and and help as many people as we can along the way. Nice. That's awesome. So, are you uh a pretty heavy saver? My husband would say no. Um I think I'm a moderate saver. Um, I don't know if that's a thing, but when when there's something that I'm passionate about or there's something that I know uh is going to benefit my family in the long run, I am gung-ho. I'm like, "Okay, what do we need to do? Where can we cut expenses? What what needs to happen so that we can get from point A to point B?" Um, but if that's not the case, if there's not something I'm like focused in on, honed in on, then I'm like, "Hey, let's go get coffee every day." [laughter] So balance, right? There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we've definitely stumbled on several other episodes of this uh that kind of balance between the wants and the needs, right? Uh so even though you have a target for your money, sometimes you sometimes you just need to get the coffee. Yeah. Right. Uh just for a mental health break or treat yourself or anything like that. So well that that kind of segus into like what do you not mind spending your money on? You we've kind of covered that, but I'll I'll repeat it. Coffee. Coffee is is the guilty pleasure in my house. So much so that my husband was like, "Okay, Madison, I'm going to buy you a Breville, a really nice Breville espresso machine for Mother's Day so that you're not going out spending all of our money on coffee." Um, so I I like to spend money on good coffee. Um, so I probably am not the person to go to Starbucks every day. Instead, I have a couple of really amazing local coffee shops I like to support. I go and buy their coffee. I'll grind it at home. Um, and I'll make my own coffee as much as possible so I'm not out splurging every day. Um, but I think good coffee is where I'm willing to splurge a little bit. And also a good mattress. I I was thinking about just money in general on the way here and I was like, what am I willing to to spend money on? Coffee and a mattress. So just staying energized, I guess, is the the connection between those two. Well, I don't think you have any problems staying energized. Uh, for sure. Uh, definitely definitely a lot of energy this morning. So, we appreciate that. U, but that's a really unique point though. Um, you start thinking about the terms cost and investment, right? Um, a mattress costs or coffee costs. You're like, well, actually, this is an investment in my long-term health. This is an investment in and you you have to get up and just engage the community every day, etc. It's really an investment in yourself. Um, do you feel that way or do you think it's a cost? No, I I I'm definitely one to sit down and weigh the cost and benefits. Um, I think sometimes I there's the temptation to um say, "Oh, there's all of these benefits. Don't worry about the cost." And thankfully, I have uh an amazing husband who balances that out. And so, I have this all or nothing mentality. I may have alluded to that already that when there's a goal, uh, when there's something specific I want to save toward, I'm gung-ho. But if there's not, I can lean the other way. And so, uh, it's important to find that balance. And I think I'm constantly working on that. Um, I love a good pros and cons list. And so, like you're talking about weighing the cost and the benefit, the cost and the investment. Um, I I try to do that as much as possible. Sit down, write things out. Um, and the Breville espresso machine was one of them. That was a good investment. [laughter] Oh, 100%. Yeah, there's no cost there. I just recently got mine a couple months ago. Fantastic. After researching for a year, um I I finally broke down. And actually, my wife got it for me for my birthday, so it was it was kind of a win. Um a a great investment. So, well, that that that's interesting, though. You do talk about seasons of life, you know, and all that stuff about sometimes it's okay to just go ahead and and eat the cost and do what you want to do, but other times it's like, nope, we got a goal. We got a plan. How do you kind of balance that? Like let's say you're in the season where it's like, okay, we've got a big purchase coming up, I'm going to focus on that, and then, you know, a couple months into that season, you're like, I really could use a coffee right now. Sure. Sure. How do you like walk yourself off the ledge or or or the checks and balances system? Do you Yes. Uh because I'm a very all or nothing person, I try to actually utilize that. Um, so whenever there is a moment where I'm thinking, okay, we have this big purchase, but would a little coffee really hurt that bad? Um, my husband loves Dave Ramsey. And envelopes. You have envelopes. I [laughter] don't have envelopes. We We don't We don't really carry cash. Uh, because we are Jinzy. So maybe maybe it's a generational thing, but uh he loves that Every Dollar app. He adors it. probably checks it a little too much. Um, but I I come back to that every dollar app. I remind myself what what's important in this season. Um, I I like to to check my priorities every once in a while and uh and stay rooted in that. And so if my husband and I have agreed we have a goal, we have something we're working towards and we're partnering on this together, then um I want to stay committed to that. uh because I love our family. I love him. Uh I want to see something through that is going to benefit our family. Um and just remembering what the priorities are are is probably the number one thing uh that walks me off of that ledge. And it's not always just coffee. I know I keep coming back to coffee. Um but just in general um remembering what your priorities are and staying rooted in that. Yeah, absolutely. Keeping that focus there. Yeah. Well, you kind of mentioned Gen Z and no envelopes, no cash, all that stuff. Um, I've read some recent research that one of the things that's really helping people in terms of saving and budgeting is having like multiple savings accounts. Yeah. So, you have a savings account that's labeled, you know, goal one, whatever that is, vacation, you know, uh, whatnot, goal two, house, right? Goal three, and then as your direct deposit comes in digitally, y, you can direct money in there and then just kind of never see it. So, it's kind of the modern version of, you know, the envelope system. I would agree with that. We utilize that system. I was going to say, have you ever played with that or has that helped you at all? Um, we we've never tried the envelopes. Um, I I don't know that that would be effective for us, but we within the Every Dollar app, we have different funds. And so, um, we will have a house saving fund or a fund, you know, saving for trips. Um, and so I think that that kind of operates as the envelopes in a Dave Ramsey system. Um, but even within our banking, we do have multiple accounts. Um, and I think that that works for us. It's a it's a system that um, may not work for everybody, but it it's been a sweet spot for us. So, we we've definitely gone that route. Yeah. No, that's a big chunk of this podcast is just talking to people and being like, "What works for you? What works for you?" And yeah, it is not a one-sizefits-all system. It's just as long as you have something uh that that fits your lifestyle, fits your habits, fits your your way of of looking at money. So, and speaking about about that, like way of looking at money, um it you kind of alluded to it a little bit earlier, but what has been the thing that's taught you the most about money? Was it a a program like Dave Ramsey? Was it family? Was it um circumstances that you just grew up in where you're like, "Oh, no. This is how you handle money." That is a great question. Um I I came up with that. I [laughter] love that. Um I'm a lifelong learner and so I feel like I'm constantly learning about money and how to view money and the methods of handling money. Um so there I wouldn't say that there's one specific thing, but um I would definitely say my family and my parents had um an instrumental role in how I view money. So I did not come from a lot of money. Um, I would classify my upbringing as probably lower middle class. Um, but I had parents who were both college educated and they knew that if they worked hard, if they saved, um, then then life would look a little bit differently for their kids. And I I've carried that mentality forward that um hard work and and trusting God, that's a big one for us, um is going to to carry us through the hard financial times, the amazing financial times. Um and seeing what my parents didn't know has encouraged me to to study up and to research things. And uh the world looks pretty different now than when my parents grew up. uh whether that's uh the housing market or um student loans, whatever it is, it looks pretty different. And so um my husband and I have had to dig deep in our willingness to research and to learn and and to be humble enough to ask questions. Um he my husband came from a different financial background than I did. And so, uh, marrying those two backgrounds, it's important to ask questions and be humble with each other and with other people. Um, and so I've learned a lot from my parents and what they didn't know, but I've also learned from amazing people in our own community that have done well with money and are confident in handling money. Um, and I'm very thankful that I have those people in my life that I can ask all the questions because money is sometimes something that people are afraid to talk about and it shouldn't be something that we're afraid to talk about. I love that we're doing this podcast kind of taking the fear and that perhaps even the insecurity out of money because money is neither good nor evil in and of itself. It is a tool and uh when people have the the resources to to learn about money, they're going to they're going to be set up and they're going to learn how to use that tool effectively. 100%. I couldn't agree with you more. You you've definitely nailed a lot of things on the head there. Um fun of marriage is just figuring out, you know, where the compromise is. Not always fun, but Very true. Very true. And if you think, then you might not have been married that long yet. [laughter] So, uh, but I did want to kind of hit on, uh, two things, um, that you'd mentioned. Um, so you learned a lot from your family and from your situations. How is that helping you with your son? What are you going to pass down to your son, right? Yes. Yes. Yeah. You said you're one-year-old. Uh, I just I assume so. Sorry. [laughter] No. Yeah. So, how are you passing that down in your family? I love that. Well, he is one year old, but you would be shocked at how much I have already taught him. Uh, he already has chores. He is only 15 months and he is our family's garage door opener. Uh he closes our trash can. So I think I'm starting him early on chores because that is something that that my family did. Um I recently read somewhere that um the importance of teaching kids to do chores at a young age. It's not necessarily so that the family will run smoother, although eventually down the line that helps a little bit. Uh, but sometimes teaching kids to do chores when they're younger is actually a hassle. You know, things aren't done the way you wanted them to be done or it takes a longer amount of time for them to do it. Uh, but the necessity of teaching kids to contribute is so good for their self-confidence. Um, it teaches them that they're needed in the family. It teaches them that they can contribute. It teaches them that um they're capable. And I I experienced that as a child in my own family. We didn't get paid to do all of our chores if there was a chore that was above and beyond the norm. Um I don't know, like maybe raking leaves or something. My dad would pay us 25 cents per bag of leaves. I think with inflation it might be a little bit worth more now. But um I I'm definitely trying to to pass on that work ethic and that understanding that little baby boy is needed and he's capable and he belongs in this family. Um and sometimes you do the hard work and don't always receive a paycheck, but the benefits are always um always even more than uh than a paycheck could offer when you're doing it for the right reasons. And so I I hope that he is able to to see that from mom and dad and I hope that he's able to carry that forward. Yeah. No, that's great. Um, so kind of using money is maybe a primary motivator, but really the lesson that you're teaching is something different, right? Is the work ethic and the the family mentality and all that stuff. That's fantastic. Yeah, it was definitely one of the things for me learning because I have I have two kids. Um, one in high school and I've just started high school and one in middle school. And when they were younger, I tried the uh the three kind of prronged approach where it was give, save, live, right? Um and so whenever I paid them, they they could put their money in those buckets, right? Um didn't work very well because it ended up just being transferring the the money like they never actually saw the cash uh or the coins or whatever. Um so we had to modify and evolve and grow. But and that speaks to your point that different things work for different people and and you find what works and every kid is different, too. And so, um, I know my parents tried different things with each of the kids in my family. I'm the oldest of four. And so, what worked for me didn't necessarily work for my youngest sister who is almost 10 years younger than me. So, um, you you just got to experiment a little bit and be okay with changing things up. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Well, so that was that was the first place I wanted to go with that kind of thought. Second place I kind of wanted to go and uh and just pick your brain on this is like how have you transferred some of those personal life lessons about money and finances into your role as as schoolboard trustee? Don't necessarily need to talk about public education financing because that is a quagmire that nobody has solved yet. Um and there's a lot of misconceptions about it. But just that mentality and your role as a school board trustee, how do you approach finances in that role? Yeah, I think that's a great question and when it comes to school finance, we could be here all day. So, absolutely, uh, maybe another podcast for that one. Um, but I kind of alluded to this earlier, this all or nothing mindset and how I'm constantly having to check myself and have people around me who um are are balancing me out. And I think that I bring that perspective, a willingness to be balanced, a willingness to um ask questions about finances in any setting. Um but in my role as an LISD trustee, I think that that is so important. Um because no business works all or nothing, right? You you have to have uh balance. You have to understand um one where where things are going, how we're spending our money. Um but understanding that different seasons require different things. Um and and that's where my perspective uh that I alluded to earlier, you know, being willing to change things, being willing to experiment. Um and we're in a unique season right now in our district. Um for for years we saw increasing enrollment and uh and families moving to this area and um now we're in a different time, right? We see declining enrollment. We see an aging population in our community and and younger families are right now they're priced out of buying homes in our community and um that brings with it challenges. And so because school finance or or school funding is based on um average daily attendance, when you're when your enrollment declines, the funding that you receive also declines. And so that is a new season that we're in and it's probably going to continue for a little while. And we have to be willing to ask hard questions. We have to be willing to be balanced in our approach um and and surround ourselves with good people that understand um this unique season. And we have I'm very thankful for the staff uh the the finance team at LISD. They keep us up to date. Dr. Rap does an amazing job of sharing information, giving us ideas and and really workshopping um our ideas with her. And um it even though it's a unique season and is a very challenging season, I'm very optimistic because we have amazing people constantly looking at these things and a board who is willing to ask difficult questions, a board who is passionate about public education. Um without our schools, our society would not be what it is. uh our society requires public education and I'm very thankful that we have a district and a superintendent that that sees the value of our schools and our community and the touch point that our schools are for our community. Um so I I've gone on too long probably but I think that I like to come into things uh with a balanced approach with a willingness to ask questions and the humility to ask questions. um knowing that I don't know everything and and that's okay. But as long as I uh am doing my due diligence and I'm researching and I am asking questions um we're we're going to get through this and not just get through it. Uh it sounds a little pessimistic. We're going to thrive uh through this and on the other side of it. Um and let's just keep advocating for public education. And I'm going to put that little that little blurb out there while I have have the floor that um we just need to be advocating for uh the funding for public education, advocating for our teachers because they are some of the I would say um teachers are one of our greatest resources in our community and they are one of the most underpaid employees in society. So, let's keep um being passionate about public education and advocating for them. Absolutely. Well said. Yeah. Uh if they can put up with my kids, uh [laughter] they are they are saints, right? Um I'm going to hear about that when this comes out. Yeah, my kids are going to talk to me about that. Oh well. Um but yeah, very articulate, very well said. Um I really like that approach of just even if I don't know the answer, right, I'm going to go do my research and try to find the best answer for the moment, right? heading forward the given situation and and thrive out of it. So, so um thank you so much for saying that. That's really good stuff. Um that actually is a decent segue into the second kind of section of of the podcast where we call it expenses. And this is kind of those I don't want to call them bad feelings, but maybe some anxiety producing. We all get nervous about it. Um where it's like, oh shoot, I didn't realize my air conditioner was going to go out. You know, how do I cover this? How do I handle this? Um, so we'll start with kind of the simple side simple questions on this side. You know, what do you not like to spend money on? What are the what are one of those things where you're like, "Ah, geez, just pay it. Let's move on." Everything except coffee. No. Um, and mattresses. Yes. And mattresses. I think I hate car stuff the most. I'm like, whether it's as simple as gas or car repairs, you know? I'm like, you just got to do it and you hold your nose. you get through it. Um I I don't know. It's just not a fun thing. It's not something you usually plan for besides like the gas and the registration. If there's a car repair, it's just it comes out of left field usually at the worst time. It's when something else is already happening, right? So, I would probably say car stuff. Yeah. Uh how do you prepare for those unexpected things? Do you have like a contingency side or you're like, "Hey, you know, it's the Dave Ramsey plant." There we go. [laughter] So, we have our little um emergency fund and um whenever I was pregnant with my now one-year-old, uh I knew that I was probably potentially going to uh to go down to working part-time. I hadn't really made a full decision while I was pregnant. And so, we were like, just in case, like, who knows what life is going to bring, let's save up as much as we can right now. And um and that was that was so important for us to do because I did end up going down to part-time and um we had saved a little bit of money on the side and because of that we were able to keep living the way that we had been living even with two incomes uh and then going down to one and a half incomes. And um that emergency fund or the contingency fund, whatever you want to call it, I think is so important. Um, and everybody says different things about how much should be in it. And I know it whether it's like the three months expenses, some people feel more comfortable with six month months expenses. Um, but I think that as long as you have a little bit tucked away, even if you don't feel confident that it's going to cover every potential possible thing that could happen in life, as long as you have a little bit tucked away, you can get through this. You got this. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. there's there's zero chance of predicting fully, you know, what you're going to need, but at least if you have a little bit of a cushion, the blow is not going to be so hard, right? Um even if you can't afford it all together, you still got something to go towards it. So, yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. Um what about what about splurges? Well, we kind of talked about that already. I do have another one though that's bigger than coffee. Oh, yeah. Yes. I love to travel. Okay. love to travel and um whenever my husband and I got married, we decided to go to Croatia and we said Croatia because it was the cheaper Greece. It's not the cheaper Greece anymore. Croatia has like become a in its spot now. So, um but when we decided to go to Croatia, it was crazy timing. My husband had actually lost his job right before we got married. And we were like, "Oh my goodness, we were getting a new apartment. We were paying for a wedding. We're going to Croatia. And perfect timing. You lost your job. So, what are we going to do? Um, man, we were trusting God. We were He was applying to all kinds of things. And it was amazing. He ended up getting a job the night of our rehearsal dinner. He found out he got the job. And even though we did not have the money, the excitement and the confidence of getting the job right before the wedding, we were like, we're splurging in Croatia. We're we're doing it. But we're getting gelato three times a day and um that was awesome because I love traveling. I love experiencing new places. Um and if I could, I would be traveling all the time. Yeah. So So you don't get gelato three times a day on a regular basis? [laughter] No. No, not right now. Only only in Europe. [laughter] There's some gelato places around here. You're right. There are actually really good gelato places around here. [laughter] I'm not condoning it, but I just thought that's what everybody was supposed to do is gelato three times a day. Exactly. Oh, that's funny. Um, so how do you kind of how often do you budget or how often do you look at your budget to balance kind of um those investments and those costs? Yeah. Because I mean what where would you put that trip in the what category? Investment or cost? That was a cost. Cost. Some people might say investment because it was the honeymoon and you're like, "Oh, we're gonna start off our our marriage." Awesome. Um, I think, uh, we decided that it was more of the cost. Uh, just because, uh, we had an amazing wedding. So many things were going so well other than him, you know, losing the job temporarily. But, um, for us that was a splurge. It was a little bit of a cost. And sometimes you just do it. You live life. It's not the end of the world if you have that little bit tucked away, right? And um now what we do to to budget and stay on top of things, we actually have uh weekly family meetings. And so we kind of have divvied up our roles like a business. And again, this may or may not work for other people, but we we were like, "Oh, one of us is the CEO, one of us is the president." So we we have shared roles. And uh we Can I ask which is which? Well, we've gone back and forth. We have [laughter] that. That's fair. Fair. You guys change titles. Yes. uh depending on the season, right? Like you you experiment with things. I think right now in this season, uh my husband's the CEO and I'm the president. I don't know. But we we share responsibilities and we talk and uh we sit down at the dining table once a week. Usually it's like a Sunday afternoon or a Sunday night. We open up every dollar. Um we we also talk about a lot of other things during that family meeting because um although money is important, it's not the end- all beall for our family. And so we tie it into a lot of other things. We talk about our calendar. Okay, what's coming up this week? How can we plan? How can we make sure that we're giving each other enough time? And that fits right in with money because if I know I have um an event coming up that's going to require a new outfit, for example, that gets budgeted in. Um, and if we know, okay, we're going to need to register the car soon or get do a little check up here and there for something, uh, we budget that in as well. And we we have a monthly budget, but we do sit down once a week to kind of do a check-in, make sure that we're good. Um, and we we talk about calendar, we talk about dinners at the same time. Do we have a little bit extra to go out to eat? Um, and we we try to check in on on all of the things during that meeting. And um, we don't run a tight ship, although we should. We we call these our board meetings, our family board meetings. Um, and we could be more efficient in our meetings for sure, but I think that we get the job done. And it's been a great um, addition to just our family life. Uh, to keep us organized, to keep us in communication with each other. It's been a really cool thing to do for us. Yeah, super smart. Um, investing that time to to get on the same page and make sure you guys are moving in the right direction. That's that's really smart. So, I got to ask uh your son, what's his title? Is he like treasurer? That is a great question. He doesn't have a job right now. Now, I have to start thinking about what his role is. He might soon become president. So, honestly, you got to watch out. Yeah, he might be the board president. I I think he might be president. Executive director. Something like that. That's a great question. I'm going to be workshopping that one. Yeah. Yeah. Let me know what you come up with. I will. I might have to reach out to your husband though and be like, "Okay, [laughter] Madison told me she was president." He's like, "Not true. I'm president and CEO." [laughter] Oh, that's awesome. [snorts] That's hilarious. Um, well, yeah, this has been a great time and thank you so much for helping us normalize the talk. Before you go though, we usually have one more segment that we like to call like the no-brainer, okay? Which is just some random questions about pop pop culture and stuff like that. I don't know. I feel like I can't ask you these things. I mean, you're [laughter] probably more in tune to it than than I am, right? As my kids would say, right? Just roll roll their eyes and be like, "Whatever, Dad. Go be an old man now." Um, but uh what's on your reading list right now? Oh, that's a great one. Um, I am reading several things right now. I always have, and this is not good, but I always have like three or four books that I'm reading. Um, I am reading a book called The Great Denter. uh and it's about one of America's greatest Supreme Court judges who normalized um really strong dissents uh in in American jur juristp prudence. And so that is maybe my my brainer I was going to say my nobrainer answer, but [snorts] that one's my brainy nerdy book that I'm reading right now. Um and I'm also reading um oh what is Andy Weir's book called? Uh not The Martian. Do you know what book I'm talking about? I'm about to start reading this for a book club. Um, and that one is a sci-fi book. Uh, I don't usually read sci-fi, but I'm excited to jump into that one because it's a group of friends that are reading that one. Um, and another nerdy one. I I love good literature. Uh, I'm reading The Brothers Car Mazov by Dsttoyki. So, I'm a little more than halfway through that one. And that one is a reread. It's one of my favorite books of all time. Um, and even though I'm a mom and a trustee and I have a crazy schedule, reading is one of my favorite things. So, I'm always making time for that. Yeah. No, it's super smart. Super important to to keep that brain working in that in that regard, especially in a day and age where it's like digital, right? To actually physically pick up a book. It's so important. Just wires your brain a little bit differently. We need physical media. I'm a big fan of that. Yeah. And I'm uh I'm old school. Uh well, I should just leave the school off. I'm old. Uh but yeah, I I got my literature uh degrees ages ago, so I'm a big fan of books. Well, in ter in same vein though, what's on your Netflix feed? Okay, so I said we're a big fan of physical media. We actually don't have a Netflix subscription. We don't have any subscriptions. Um but instead, yes, we have TVs. We're not a no screen family. Um but instead of like subscriptions, we have all the DVDs. I like that's my childhood, right? So, uh it's the nostalgic feeling. I love the physical media. I love teaching my little one like how to carefully, gently place the disc in the DVD player. Um so, we're learning some some motor skills at the same time. Um but right now, I am just watching some comfort movies. Um the DVDs that are on replay right now are National Treasure 2. I love National Treasure. Nicholas Cage. Yes. Oh my gosh. Um, I can quote both of the movies and uh there might be a third one coming out so stay tuned for that. And the other movie I'm watching right now is Holes. That that's another one of my my favorites. I could watch that one every night. Okay. Yeah. Well, it's interesting you say that though because there is a lot of research coming out that um people want the physical touch, they want the DVDs, they they want all that stuff. Um they don't want their favorite movie to be gone from a streaming service without their, you know, consent or their control. So having it is is really important. How that translate to us too at DACU is um we're seeing a lot of people return to the branches. I love that. So having people walk in, have the physical, you know, interaction uh things like that. The online banking, the app, all that stuff is still going strong, but people are starting to want physical branches, the physical touch points, the the relational aspect. I think people long for that. They they long for community and I think Daku is is has been instrumental in our community and supported so many uh other amazing organizations and causes that you guys are perfect for that. Perfectly situated to to be that touch point in our community. So that's really cool to hear. Yeah. Yeah. No, I I Yeah, I totally agree with you. I never in a million years thought I would work at a credit union, but now that I'm here, it's like Yeah. Yeah, the culture, the v the the value that it it brings to the community, the environment, all of that stuff is is really important. So, glad to be here. Um, but but let me this might wrap it up really nicely. Okay. What about cash? You ever going to carry cash? No. [laughter] I I have this thing where cash doesn't feel like real money to me. Um, and I that is definitely a generational thing. So I I always heard like growing up like cash was the real money and things in bank accounts didn't seem like real money to to par to people my parents age or older. Uh and it's the reverse for my generation. I think that if I have like a $10 bill in my wallet, I feel like I can just spend it. And I didn't actually spend anything because my bank account number didn't change. So that's a dangerous thing, I think. but it's less dangerous if I just don't carry cash. So, that's one reason why I don't carry cash. Um, and also I lose things all the time. Uh, I'm really bad at that. I lose my keys. I lose my phone all the time. So, I don't want to be losing cash. So, I'll just keep it tucked away in the online bank. Yeah, that's that's really interesting because for me it's the opposite, right? It's a generational thing. If I have c uh Yeah, you like we've already established I'm old. Okay, [laughter] we get it. We get it. Uh, no, I'm kidding. Um, if I've got 10 bucks in my in my wallet, I think twice about getting rid of it. Think twice about spending it. But if I have my credit card wiped, I'm like, whatever, it's fake money, you know, swipe the card, go. Yeah. Uh, so that's interesting that you can cash is monopoly money to me and do not let my husband hear I said that. But, um, yeah, we just don't carry it. And it was so funny. Actually, last night I was at an event and our sweet county commissioner, Bobby Mitchell, was there and we got on the topic of cash. Someone said something about cash and um they said, "You know, Madison, you don't you probably don't even carry cash." And uh I said, "No, I do not." And Bobby Mitchell was confused. She was like, "You don't carry cash?" "No, ma'am." [laughter] I can hear her saying that, too. Oh, that's hilarious. Yeah. Yeah. That's really interesting. There's a great u bagel place in Flower Mound that I love. It's near my house. And and the first time I went there, they were like, "We don't use cards." And I was like, "I'm sorry, what? What? You mean I need cash to pay for this bagel? Like it just totally blew my mind because it's just opposite y of of how things are going. So So yeah. Well, again, uh thank you so much, Madison. We certainly appreciate your time. This was a blast. Yeah, this was a great conversation. U tons of energy and I certainly hope that you continue to carry that throughout the community. I know you're going to make a huge difference on that school board and just with your uh like you said earlier, your humility and your willingness to just dive into things and and research and do your due diligence to come up with a great answer. I see a lot of great things coming for you. So, I appreciate that. Well, thank you so much for having me on. I had a great time. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. And uh we will catch everybody at the next episode. Appreciate you guys tuning in and uh thanks for checking us out on Checking In.