The Money Fit Show · Season 2, Episode 29
Hiding Money From Yourself
Wendy Fedan once viewed credit card debt as a normal part of adult life. She joins Todd Christensen to discuss credit cards, student loans, delayed gratification, irregular freelance income, becoming debt free, saving through separate accounts, and how reducing debt eventually created more room to pursue creative work.
Creating distance between savings and everyday spending
Play Season 2, Episode 29 directly through Spotify without leaving Money Fit.
Sometimes saving becomes easier when the money is less visible
Wendy Fedan describes a period when debt felt like an ordinary part of life. Credit cards, student loans, and other financed purchases accumulated, while monthly payments made some balances feel as though they would never disappear.
Wendy and her husband eventually changed their spending and began approaching debt more deliberately. By the time of this episode, she said her family had been debt free for nearly a decade.
One strategy Wendy found useful after paying off debt was separating money into multiple checking and savings accounts. Keeping some savings away from the account used for everyday spending made the money less visible and reduced the temptation to treat it as available cash.
Topics covered in this episode
- Growing up with the idea that carrying credit card debt was simply a normal part of adult financial life.
- Learning the value of delayed gratification and recognizing that wanting something does not require buying it immediately.
- Using student loan money for expenses and purchases beyond the direct cost of education.
- Wendy's recollection that the household debt journey included credit cards, student loans, and other financed purchases.
- Her story about shopping for a home while late in pregnancy and how timing, emotion, and urgency can affect large financial decisions.
- Making monthly student loan payments while feeling as though the balance was barely changing.
- Changing the household lifestyle to create more room for credit card payments and debt reduction.
- Why Wendy associates becoming debt free with greater freedom and flexibility rather than simply reaching a zero balance.
- Finally having more room to save once money was no longer being directed toward the same debt payments.
- Using multiple checking and savings accounts to separate money by purpose and keep some savings less visible during everyday spending decisions.
- Changing the way Wendy thought about borrowing, spending, and money in order to remain out of debt after paying it off.
- Reconsidering an earlier belief that money itself was harmful and recognizing that fear or avoidance could also make financial decisions harder.
- Taking financial classes together as a couple so both partners could work from a more similar understanding of their goals and finances.
- Budgeting when freelance income changes from month to month rather than arriving as a predictable paycheck.
- Adjusting household finances when moving from two steady incomes toward greater dependence on freelance and self-employment income.
- Creating her own publishing company after working as a self-published author, illustrator, and freelance creative professional.
- How lower debt obligations and stronger savings gave Wendy more room to pursue creative work and other goals.
Make savings harder to spend accidentally
Savings does not have to sit beside everyday spending money. A separate savings account can create useful friction between deciding you want something and using money intended for another goal. You can go further by automatically transferring money after payday and naming accounts for specific purposes such as emergencies, annual expenses, travel, or home repairs.
Debt payoff, savings, and Wendy's creative work
Wendy continues to operate Create-a-Way Design & Publishing, helping authors with illustration, book design, publishing, self-publishing, and print-on-demand projects.
Wendy Fedan
Wendy Fedan joined Todd Christensen as a freelance illustrator, author, designer, and founder of Create-a-Way Design & Publishing.
Wendy launched Create-a-Way in 2021 after years of freelance illustration and self-publishing. Her work now includes helping other authors with illustration, book design, publishing, and self-publishing projects.
Her conversation with Todd focuses on the financial side of that journey, including debt, saving, irregular income, household changes, and the greater flexibility she says her family experienced after becoming debt free.
