{"id":3857,"date":"2023-11-17T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/code4couples.com\/podcasts\/podcasts-law-enforcement-overtime\/"},"modified":"2024-01-12T09:01:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T09:01:29","slug":"podcasts-law-enforcement-overtime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/code4couples.com\/podcasts\/podcasts-law-enforcement-overtime\/","title":{"rendered":"Encore: The Overtime Trap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe style=\"border: none;\" title=\"Embed Player\" data-src=\"https:\/\/play.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/28635478\/height\/192\/theme\/modern\/size\/large\/thumbnail\/yes\/custom-color\/021d51\/time-start\/00:00:00\/playlist-height\/200\/direction\/backward\/download\/yes\" width=\"100%\" height=\"292\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"sqs-html-content\">\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">The holiday season can be challenging for any couple. For law enforcement couples, we know that it&#8217;s going to bring an absence to regularly scheduled events and rituals. What can be kind of nice is the increased need for off -duty officers at shopping centers and churches, or the overtime that comes with having to work events, or the holidays themselves. That extra dump of income can be really nice and helpful, and even make the separation worth it during the holidays.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">It can also get couples in trouble if they plan on the cash to catch them up with bills that they&#8217;ve incurred throughout the years. The OT and off -duty can also have a side effect on officers creating a safety issue and stress and conflict in your relationship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">It&#8217;s important, especially during the holidays, to decide how you want to take advantage of the situation and honor how you want to celebrate and connect over the holiday season. Overtime and off -duty can be great. Just don&#8217;t let it be a trap. Today, I&#8217;m rebooting one of my favorite episodes with now -retired sheriff&#8217;s deputy, financial coach, and podcaster Jason Hoschouer, and his wife, Katie, as they talk about the financial trap they&#8217;ve found themselves in and how they recovered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">Jason and Katie met in 2002, married in January 2005, and have three beautiful daughters. Jason\u2019s been a cop for over 20 years, 13 as a motorcycle officer. He started blogging in 2008 just as a way of therapy. From that, he\u2019s grown a platform that educates and entertains people at the same time. Jason has written articles for American Cop Magazine, Police One, and is a podcaster as well. Katie is a certified professional organizer and has her own business, \u201cKatie can help!\u201d She helps families in the San Francisco bay area manage their mess. She started this business out of a desire to go on a \u201cbusiness trip.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">The Trap<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sqs-html-content\">\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">Their overtime cycle started in 2009. The perception and perspective on money wasn\u2019t \u201chow much is this?\u201d or \u201ccan I afford it?\u201d It was \u201chow much will it cost a month?\u201d and \u201chow much overtime needs to be worked to afford this item.\u201d For example, Jason and Katie went to go \u201clook\u201d at travel trailers in 2006 when Katie was 6 months pregnant with their first child. Jason recalls sitting in this really cool hybrid travel trailer and the question out of Katie\u2019s mouth was \u201chow much is this going to cost us every month and how much overtime do you need to work so we can afford this?\u201d They bought the trailer with a payment of $200 a month. In Jason\u2019s world, $200 was nothing because he was getting paid well as a police officer in the Bay area. It was equivalent to 3 hours of overtime. Long story short, they ended up selling the trailer 4 years later and used the profit to pay off Katie&#8217;s student loans. Eventually, they learned to stop asking \u201chow much is this a month?\u201d and started asking \u201ccan we just buy it outright?\u201d If the answer is no, then they saved money until they could buy the item. The interesting part of this for Jason was that if you are saving for a large item, a few months into your saving you may change your mind and think, I don\u2019t want and\/or need that item anymore. The great thing is now you have $3000 saved and can do whatever with.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">In Law Enforcement, it\u2019s common to shift into a mindset of \u201cpurchasing the sparkly objects.\u201d It provides a dopamine hit in the brain of \u201cI spent money that felt good\u201d and then the purchase is justified because it&#8217;s \u201cjust 3 hours of overtime.\u201d Jason mentions that quite often because of what he experienced at work, spending money on vacations was looked at as a way to decompress. In reality, he was working overtime to pay for the trips and big purchases, so decompression didn\u2019t happen as much as they wanted it to.\u00a0 It was a double edge sword.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">Jason references Dr. Gilmartin\u2019s book <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement <\/span>and how it talks about the financial aspects of what he goes through. Law enforcement officers experience the same dopamine hit when spending money as they do with an adrenaline rush at work. Dr. Gilmartin calls it the \u201chypervigilance roller coaster.\u201d The spending is then justified with \u201cI work so hard, I deserve it. \u201c As spouses sometimes we enable that behavior, with the same mindset. Ultimately the overtime keeps accruing and you can\u2019t come down from that cycle. It impacts your wellness, sleep, and physiological and mental components.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">While purchasing the trailer at $200 a month (for 15 years) during Katies first pregnancy, neither of them thought about how much overtime and time away from the family that Jason would have to give to make the payment. \u201cI didn\u2019t think of the time away from the family. It was \u201cHow can I get this shiny toy and how long do you need to be away to afford it.\u201d It didn\u2019t register that while Jason was working, their child wasn\u2019t going to have a father present. Only in hindsight did Katie and Jason notice that this continued for several years.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">The change<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">Katie remembers a car ride where they discussed the budget for groceries. Jason would say how much do you need? Katie says she remembers this one conversation and asked, \u201cWhy are we doing it like this? Why can&#8217;t I be more disciplined about what I spend?\u201d She then suggested getting a budget of $200 per paycheck a month for Costco. Jason didn\u2019t think it was going to work. That\u2019s when Katie came across Dave Ramsey and told Jason about him. Jason quickly changed his mind and wanted to give Dave Ramsey\u2019s method a try. That is not how Jason remembers the conversation. He remembers a conversation in their living room when Katie told him she was worried about their finances. She then asked, \u201cHave you ever heard of Dave Ramsey?\u201d Jason went from that conversation to Barnes and Noble and he used a credit card to buy <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Total Money Makeover. <\/span>\u00a0It was read in two days. Jason says, \u201cWe drank the Kool-aid and didn\u2019t look back. I worked an average of 40-50 hours of overtime every month for 28 months. We didn\u2019t go on vacation, we didn\u2019t eat out. We were remarkably disciplined, and in two days shy of 28 months, we paid off all of our debt except for our house. We cut up all our credit cards. We haven\u2019t had one in 9 years. If we can&#8217;t afford it we don\u2019t buy it. It was not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">How to avoid the trap<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">Discipline and being goal-oriented are what saved the Hoschouers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\"><em>\u201cHonestly it was Jason. I got my 400 dollars and that\u2019s all I got. I was couponing. It was exhausting, but every time Jason would sit down and do the budget, he would get excited to send off a big payment.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">Katie said she was a little more relaxed with the idea of being debt-free and Jason kept pushing the perspective. Jason could be excited to send off a big payment and Katie would cry. Katie reflects that it was a heart change. They both very much had their own journey and internal processes to get debt-free. \u201cIt was a cool experience to do this side by side. Jason understood it was hard for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">I asked if they had any struggles between the two of them while they transitioned into being debt-free. Jason says \u201cHonestly it was a lot of high fiving! Going to Domestic Violence calls, 9 times out of 10, that fight started over something financial. It happens all the time. The key to this is being on the same page. That\u2019s what it takes to have the mindset shift, being vulnerable enough to say I am worried about our finances and being vulnerable enough to listen.\u00a0 If you can do that you have bigger problems because that\u2019s an important aspect of marriage. That\u2019s being a good partner in every aspect of our marriage. You have to come at it from that point of view.\u201d What held it together was the commitment from both sides. There was no resentment. It was an agreement.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">Katie\u2019s contribution<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">Katie\u2019s sister is a blogger, while Katie had just started her own journey of blogging. She offered Katie an opportunity to go to a blogging conference in Turks and Caicos. Fresh out of debt, Katie approached Jason about going to the conference and he agreed. However, Jason was not paying for the conference. Jason said, \u201cI have been working my butt off to get out of debt and we are on the same page there, why should you get to go drink mai tais and go on a blogging conference?\u201d Katie wasn\u2019t working outside of the home at the time. Their big mindset shift about finances happened when they stopped using his money and her money. They changed their mindset to \u201cOur money.\u201d\u00a0 Jason admittedly says he reverted a bit at that moment when he said he wasn\u2019t paying for Katie to go on vacation. \u201cHad we not had the awareness of money and a connected understanding of what our plan was for our family, I (Katie) would have been resentful for that.\u201d Instead, Katie posted on Facebook asking if anyone needed help sorting paper. A friend of Katie\u2019s said she needed help in her home office and took before and after pictures. The pictures were posted, and Katie was mentioned as transforming her space. \u201cShe Katied the bejeezus out of it\u201d Jason told me. Two hours later, Katie had two more clients and it kept growing from there. \u201cI needed $1500 to go on vacation. I made that money plus some and I remember sitting in the hot tub in Turks and Caicos by myself and I thought that was fun. How I got here was fun, do I want to keep doing it? I had people on my books for when I got home from vacation. I was aiming to be out of the house and be helpful. The name of my business Katie can help is so spot on because I go in with this heart to help. It\u2019s very law enforcement-esque. It was an organic way of answering the call to do this. Had we not had the same mindset about our finances I don\u2019t think I would have had that push to do that.\u201d What started out as a way to bring in $1500 grew to last year Katie made $50,000 to help support their family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">Part of this journey was for Jason to also find another way of bringing income that wasn\u2019t him being out on the street. It inspired a whole other part, another dimension of his life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">Jason\u2019s inspiration for creating this other part of his was that he lives to protect and serve. \u201cI got such a charge of getting out of debt. Dave Ramsey is amazing, but he is not a cop. Cops don\u2019t trust anybody but other cops. So, I took his message and geared it towards law enforcement. We need to know how to get out of the overtime trap. \u201cI wanted to speak in the lives to other cops because they would listen to me. I\u2019ve walked in their shoes.\u201d Jason mentions that he especially wants to get his message out to new police officers. \u201cI want to help the baby officers see the potholes that may exist in their life and career. I know how it feels to feel better through retail therapy and work 80 hours of overtime while missing my family. That\u2019s why I created MotorcopMindset.com and an online course teaching people how to budget based on their real-life numbers\/debt.\u00a0 I also wrote a book Badges and Budgets sharing our story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">Jason and Katie, your story is so inspiring to help people overcome that overtime cycle and to stay out of debt and keep moving forward. Jason\u2019s book is available to anyone. Just visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.themotorcopmindset.com\/\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">MotorcopMindset.com <\/a>and type in your email address. If you live in the Bay area and need help organizing your space, reach out to Katie at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.katiecanhelp.com\/\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">katiecanhelp.com<\/a>!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jason and Katie Hoschouer discuss the overtime trap and how to avoid the cycle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcasts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/code4couples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/code4couples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/code4couples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/code4couples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/code4couples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/code4couples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/code4couples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/code4couples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/code4couples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/code4couples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}