Zero To A Hundred – Episode 20: Achieving Financial Freedom With Smart Budgeting And Qube Money!

Accelerators! 🚀 In this episode, we’re joined by Shane Walker, CEO of Qube Money, a revolutionary budgeting platform designed to bring the cash envelope system into the digital age.

Shane dives into how Qube Money is transforming personal finance by helping users budget before they spend. Learn why so many people struggle with managing cash flow, how digital budgeting can empower you, and what steps you can take today for financial freedom.

What’s on the Menu:

💰 The power of the cash envelope system for modern budgeting.

📲 How Qube Money keeps your spending intentional and aligned with your goals.

💡 Key insights on avoiding debt and building a solid financial foundation.

Why Tune In?

Shane’s personal journey and the story behind Qube Money highlight the importance of budgeting in a world where spending is easier than ever. If you’re ready to take control of your finances, eliminate debt, and achieve lasting financial peace, this episode is packed with actionable insights!

💬 Gem from Shane:

“Budgeting isn’t restrictive—it’s the ultimate tool for financial freedom.”

Get in Touch with Shane:

📧 Visit qubemoney.com and use code Z2A100 for a 60-day free trial to experience the power of Qube Money firsthand.

Don’t miss out—hit that subscribe button and let’s take your finances from zero to a hundred! 💥

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Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

Achieving Financial Freedom With Smart Budgeting And Qube Money!

Accelerators, I have something really special for you. It is our guest, Shane Walker, who is the Cofounder and CEO of Qube Money. They are a revolutionary, personal budgeting platform that does something really interesting. They help you budget beforehand with cash envelopes instead of just reviewing your expenses after you’ve spent the money. The topics we will cover will be cash envelope budgeting, finance in the digital age, and why so many people struggle with cash management with all the information that we have out there. Why does it happen? We’re going to talk about it, and we’re going to talk about the solutions.

For those of you who do not know me, I am the Founder of BoxFi. We are the nation’s leading payment consultant, helping you with business growth solutions through payment processing. I am very excited to share the network that I have built over my entrepreneurial journey to help you grow your business and become more profitable. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s accelerate together. Shane, it is great to have you on the show. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you, Jarrod. It’s an honor to be here.

For our audience, we’re going to have a unique conversation. As we’re always focusing on business growth and increasing profits, we’re actually going to shift a little bit and talk about how we help you, as business owners and entrepreneurs, manage your personal finances. I’m going to have Shane walk us through his origin story around his company, Qube, what it actually does, and how it can really help you take your personal finance management to the next level, which is very important. We know that, as business owners, sometimes it’s very difficult to divide your business finances and your personal finances, but we need to budget and learn to do that. I believe Mr. Walker has the answer. Shane, give us a little background on Qube. What are your origin stories, and how did your product evolve to what it is?

Origin Story

Jarrod, Qube is simply a digital bank that uses the methodology of cash envelope budgeting as the way money works. It’s interesting because we all like budgeting, banking, and accounting, and they all have the same numbers. Why are they so separate? Why isn’t it one simple system? I’m just telling you, we’ve created this for individuals, but the business side is coming because I deal with it all the time. I’ve got my budget, I’m trying to spend based on that budget, but it’s not connected. I’m always having to reconcile what’s happened with my budget.

We’re recording that in our accounting system, and none of them are connected. There are always different numbers. I’m like, why is this different? Why isn’t it one and simple? That’s what Qube is. It’s simply an FDIC-insured banking environment, a banking app that allows you to organize your money as you see it in your mind and then spend directly from that organization. You never have to track after the fact or reconcile after the fact. It gives people awareness and control of their money.

The origin story of this is that I have spent almost twenty years in the financial planning world, and my firm has worked with thousands of people. I saw over and over the stress that mismanagement of money causes in people’s lives, in their marriages, and in their individual lives. It was super. Honestly, I really cared about my clients, and it really hurt me to see them going through these things. For the longest time, I actually didn’t think I would be the solution. I was just like, “Yeah, it’s tough. We’ve gone from physical money to credit card. We’ve gone from in-person buying to online buying, and trying to keep track of money is super difficult, but it’s just the world we live in. We can buy everything we want.” I’m sitting in our bedroom because of where it is now.

I was referred in to a couple, my firm, that was super special, and they connected with us in a way that most clients don’t. They were super fun. As we got to know them, it became very apparent that he was the spender and she was the saver. They made plenty of money. They made $250,000 plus a year, multiple business owners, but he would spend it faster than it would come in and have been for over a decade.

When he came to us, he finally was to the point where “I’ve got to change, or we’re never going to reach our goals.” It was this huge moment of hope for this couple. Long story short, they were divorced in ten months, and we weren’t able to help them. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We sat down with a payment processing developer and we said, “Is there any way we could take the methodology of cash envelopes and bring it to the 21st century so it’s easy, digital, you can spend from any of those categories with the convenience of one debit card?” and so that’s what we’ve done.

Financial Management Struggles

Let’s talk about the financial struggle that a lot of people have managing their money. It becomes more and more complicated as a business owner. Your business starts to grow, and you’re actually living off of some of the profit that you’re earning off of that business. Why do people struggle so much with that financial management?

I’ve struggled. I’m a small business owner. This has been a journey for me, too. Actually, I’ll tell you something that’s really personal. In our business journey, we found ourselves with over six figures in credit card debt, and my wife is the saver. She’s the planner as well. Super frugal. She’d feel guilty buying a $25 gift for our son’s birthday. I was out chasing rewards. Actually, about a few months after we were married, my wife’s dad introduced us to the Southwest Rewards Card and the Marriott Bonvoy Card.

Every year, we would earn a free companion pass and 5 to 6 free round-trip tickets, and at least a week’s worth of stay at Marriott. It was so awesome, free money, but the problem is chasing those rewards took us to a place where we never wanted to be, where we were spending money that we didn’t have, to be honest. We tried to budget. We would have those painful weekly meetings where we would come together, but it just takes a lot of time. With children in the mix, we would fall behind, and then we would quit, and we’d restart over and over and over. To be honest, tracking spending after it’s already spent didn’t work for us anyway. It was too late. The money was already gone.

That’s why it’s so difficult, Jarrod, because all of our money is digital. Our bank account is like this black hole where money is coming to and from, and we just don’t know where it’s going. All the budgeting tools are simply tracking tools that don’t do a great job of automating where those transactions should go. You have to consistently be in that budget, making sure that they’re being categorized correctly and reconciling it to what your bank is saying. We’re just not good at that. I’m not good at it. Most people aren’t good at it. They feel guilty for not keeping up on their budget, and then they quit, and if they ever do get their budget up to date, it’s too late.

The money’s already spent, and they’ve already overspent. It’s just this negative experience. Ultimately, this whole thing of buy now, pay later isn’t a good system for money. If you think about it, who does that system help? It’s definitely not me because it’s like, “Don’t worry about your money. Worry about it later,” but the time to worry about the money is when you’re making the decision about whether to spend or not.

Let’s peel back the onion, if we’re going to peel back the onion. This is something you and I have discussed before. When I looked at budgeting at any point in my life, it’s got much better over the last several years as I’ve actually done it properly. It was always, for me, coming from a place of lack. Meaning, if I had to budget, if I couldn’t go buy what I wanted when I wanted, that meant I wasn’t successful, that I didn’t have enough money, that I was failing at what I was aspiring to do as a businessperson and a business leader and be financially free. A budget was lack to me. It wasn’t until later on in my life that I realized that a budget is actually the ultimate freedom.

The truth is, most of this crap that we’re buying, and I want to emphasize crap, is crap because we don’t need it. You don’t need more makeup. You don’t need a deodorant to smell good, but you don’t need five of them. You don’t need an extra blanket for your bed. We spend this money because we live in a consumer-based society. It’s when the big things happen and we have to go back to the credit cards, we have to take out a loan, we have to go to someone personally in our family and say, “Can you loan me money?” that the real stress exists.

The freedom is being able to take care of those little things that happen and write the check versus having to borrow that money and put yourself more in debt. Budgeting, up until several years ago, I always really struggled with because it brought back bad childhood memories of negative relationships around money and lack and not being able to make ends meet.

That’s so true. It feels restrictive. That’s interesting. A lot of people feel that way about it, when in actuality, if you think about it, if you have this dream vacation planned, you want to make every moment count, and you want to realize everything this place that you’re so excited to go to has to offer. What do you do? You put together a plan, and actually, Jarrod, that plan is super fun to make because you’re like, “Yeah, we could do this and this.” It’s super fun.

Likewise, money is the same way. It’s actually super motivating to say, “This is my income. What could I do? What could this do for me and those I care about?” As you put together that plan, it actually becomes really exciting. The frustrating thing in the past was that there was no way to execute that plan. It was just like you created the plan, you swiped, and went. At the end, you tried to figure out, “Did we do it?”

Qube allows you to literally take that plan, fund it with real money inside your bank, because your bank and your budget are the exact same thing, and then watch that money do exactly what you planned it to do and enjoy those experiences that you had in your mind. That creates a very positive, motivating experience with money instead of this nagging, negative experience because you don’t know where it’s going. You’re kind of living.

What’s interesting about what you’re saying, and I want to reiterate this for the audience, is that budgeting only works if you do it prior to spending your money. Budgeting is not a reconciliation of your bank account, “Where did I spend it?” Budgeting is, “Where am I going to spend it?” Putting it in those envelopes and then spending from there. Just when you’re saying this, I’m thinking of all the conversations that I’ve had around finance, as a society, we’ve never been taught that.

There’s never been a tool that’s enabled that in our digital world. Cash envelope budgeting, if you think about it, you’re divvying up your money. This money is for entertainment, this is for groceries. You could do it because that was physical money. As we transitioned away from physical money, there’s no way to do it. Consequently, I guess the finance world has said, well, budgeting is about tracking, not about spending, but that’s not true.

Budgeting is about spending money according to your plan, not about tracking. Anyways, Qube Money has totally brought this back to the essence of what budgeting is all about. It’s super exciting. When people engage with our product, they’re like, “I cannot believe how fun this is. I can’t believe how I have control, and I feel confident and positive about my money for the first time in my life.”

What Qube is actually doing is flipping what the banking industry wants the consumers to do completely on its butt. I’m saying that because I watched a documentary on Netflix, and they do these little 45-minute-long documentaries on money. This one in particular was on credit cards. Someone who keeps a zero balance on their credit card is considered a bad account.

I’m using the wrong language. There is a specific name within the industry, but they don’t like your account. They don’t like your account because you’re not paying interest. If you remember, back in the day, with American Express, you had to pay it every month, but that’s okay because American Express is a bank. They’re not a credit card company. They have credit cards, but number one, they’re a bank. They’re a credit card secondarily.

Credit card companies want you to carry a balance. It’s like with FICO. FICO is never going to tell you that the ideal ratio of credit usage that you should hold on your card is 1% to 3% to get the highest credit rating, which is going to give you the best cards, the best loans, the best rates. You will hear in the marketplace, 20% to 30%. That’s absolutely not true, but the credit card companies are fine with you thinking that’s the number because you’re paying that 19% to 25% interest on that 20% to 30% that you have hanging out there.

Even with the banks, I get a statement from my bank that says, “This is how much you’ve spent this month,” or “This is where the money went,” etc., but it’s never, “Okay, how are you going to allocate for the next month?” You know that you have X amount coming into the bank this month. How are you going to allocate it for now, November 1st, for this month in your spending? Talk to me about how the cash envelope budgets work on your app because I genuinely believe in it. For full disclosure, I’ve just signed up and just started using it.

I don’t have all my accounts connected. I have a lot of stuff going on. I can’t do it all in one night. It was fascinating when I went to go pump my gas and I was like, “Okay, in my gas budget.” I totally was, but I never, ever, Shane, think about money that way. I just spend it. It’s gas. I’ve got to put gas in my car. How does it work for the consumer?

How Qube Money Works

How it works is the money within Qube is in an FDIC-insured bank, just like any other bank. Our technology, when deposits come into Qube, they come into unallocated funds or an unallocated status. This is a holding place. It’s like having a stack of $20 bills on your desk that you’re getting ready to stuff into your envelopes. The first step is to allocate that money into your plan. I have a category for groceries, a category for entertainment, a category for family fun, for date night with my wife. I have my own free money and she has her own free money.

We have our money for our pets, all these things. Actually, our money auto-allocates from unallocated into each one of those categories. When I woke up, I looked at my app and said, “Great, we have $1,100 for our groceries this month. We have $200 for our date night this month.” All my money is here. Actually, I’ll show you. It’s organized exactly like I want it to be organized so that we have a plan to spend from, both my wife and I, so that we know exactly what we want our money to do.

Here’s the crazy thing about that. Money is deposited just like any other bank. We’re a digital bank. We use Plaid to connect Qube to any of the other financial institutions. You can actually set up auto-allocation so that the money automatically allocates into your categories or you can do that with one push to allocate everything at once, or you could do it one by one, whatever you want to do.

Each time I go to spend, I actually have my primary debit card. By design, this card has a zero available balance. There’s no money on it. If someone steals my number, the transaction gets declined because they would have to go into my app. I choose where I want to spend from before I swipe the card because that’s what creates the intention.

I want to be very clear with this. With the app, I’m at the gas station. I have to press on the app that I’m getting ready to pump gas. It then links the card with its own unique card number so that I can swipe it and the gas is charged.

That’s exactly right. There is our plan. If I’m buying groceries, I simply touch that grocery envelope, and instantly, the money is on the card. When I spend using that card, it comes from that category in real time, Jarrod. Literally, as soon as I spend, it closes the Qube, updates the balance, and returns the card to a zero available balance, ready for the next purchase. It creates that look before you spend it.

What happened to us? You won’t believe it. After one month, we had several thousand dollars in our account. Earlier, I was checking my account and looking at my budget, trying to make sure that I had enough money to pay off that credit card. There was always something that nagged me, like a hungry child. No joke. It was just like always on my mind. Now, we have money to do the things that we really want to do.

Eventually, we’re saving for a Machu Picchu hiking trip. My wife and I are super excited about it. Qube creates that intention for us. In fact, let me show you. Here it is, Machu Picchu, right there, and shows you our progress. It shows progress on what we’re doing towards that. It gives us that clarity of what we’re doing.

What I love about this is you’re a business owner, and you pay yourself $10,000 a month. That $10,000 a month can go into your Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, TD account, whatever it is. You link it to the Qube app. Through that Qube app, you allocate each one of those dollars down to what you’re going to spend. You’ve got a certain amount for Starbucks, a certain amount for groceries, a certain amount for gas. You actually start to pay attention when you’re opening that envelope like people used to do.

You pull that money out. You go, “I only have $100, $200, $300 left in this envelope for the month. Let me just be conscious.” Most people say, “There’s $10,000 in the bank. Pay my mortgage, pay my car, pay my insurance, pay the food, and then, “Maybe I could spend a little extra here, or I could buy this shirt here. I could do X, Y, and Z.” Typically, you’re buying things outside of the purview of what are needed.

We don’t really know, and so we’re just, “I think I’m okay.” That’s exactly right.

It’s unique to me because I remember as a kid, my grandmother would be like, “Put money in your savings account for a rainy day,” and then you’re here in business. Depending on what type of business you’re in, you should have 6 to 12 months of reserves in the bank in case anything happens, like sales slow down, there’s an issue within the economy or whatever, so you can keep the business running and alive. The savings is great, but being able to budget to say, “All right, I know I spend $1,000 a month on groceries,” it takes a lot of pressure off of you. If you find yourself in week three and you’ve already spent that $1,000, you can go, “Has meat gotten more expensive? Am I not being smart about my purchases when I go to the grocery store? Do I need to reel things in in terms of my spending?”

We don’t look at it that way. You just use that freaking card and keep moving. I’ve been so guilty of this for decades myself that being aware and going back because you’re forced to take responsibility for your finances with an app like this. It’s because you have a very strict amount within each one of those envelopes that you create yourself and you can change that you have to spend.

That’s exactly right. First of all, “That’s so restrictive.” Actually, it’s so empowering. It’s like, “I know exactly what I’m doing and why I’m doing what I’m doing.” If you’re working with money with a partner, you can get totally on the same page and move in a direction that’s so powerful together. Being able to work with somebody else and be joined in working towards your goals is 5, 10 times as powerful when you’re unified. It does that. Jarrod, can I actually share one other thing that I think is super powerful?

Please do.

In my journey, my income went like this, and so it was hard. Great, $10,000 a month, but then December happened, and it was a really hard time to close business. In January, I didn’t have $10,000. My plan just went into oblivion. Here’s the thing about Qube, too. We actually have a planning screen that allows you to prioritize, “Okay, these categories are the most important, and I want them funded first.” It also allows you to, at any moment, adjust what you want your plan to be. It can adjust with your income very easily and very simply.

I don’t feel like, “We’re not going to make it because I only made $5,000 this month.” I also want to say, Jarrod, that Qube Money is literally a banking account. We do have a sponsor bank that holds the FDIC insurance and is the charter, but you can direct deposit your money. As a business owner, I direct deposit my money directly into Qube. I do have another bank because I like to have a brick-and-mortar for certain things, but it makes it totally turnkey for me.

This, to me, takes away a lot of the stress of personal financial management. It allows you to budget. It allows you to police your money. You’re getting instant feedback. That has shifted the way that we look at money because here’s the thing, and you said this to me before in one of our other conversations. We don’t touch, feel, or have a physical connection to money. I always say you listen to the gurus out there, whether it’s Bob Proctor, Earl Nightingale, or Jim Rohn. Money is energy, okay?

When you have physical money, you actually feel that physical energy of, “I just picked up $100 out of my wallet, and I’m going to hand it to somebody.” It’s tactile. You get your $23.75 in change back after you’ve bought that lunch, and you still have that physical, “Okay, I have $23 left.” With a credit card, you don’t have that relationship. How is Qube replacing the idea of just, on a whim, using a credit card but getting back to that more tactile relationship with money?

It’s a really good point because that’s very powerful. What we’ve done to do that, Jarrod, is the category balance to load the card. What that does is it says, “I have $100 left this month for pet food. That’s how much I have for my pets. I’m not going to buy this toy because I know that we have to buy this food for them.” By touching that, it creates that same recognition. This is real money, and this is what I have for that purpose. In this moment, is this the best decision? It creates that awareness that you need when you’re making spending decisions, that same tactile feeling.

Especially as an entrepreneur and a business owner, and now taking on what we’re doing with Zero to a Hundred and the financial education that I’m getting. Trust me, I thought I really knew a lot about finance and finance management, but speaking with experts like you is upping my game majorly on a weekly basis. I’m almost angry that this didn’t exist before because we’re all told to budget. We’ll use the $10,000 as the example. You got $10,000, you pay your rent, the car, your insurance, your food, your gas, and then you’ve got extra. At no point in time are you, within that process, even if you check your balance, you go, “I got $6,000 left. I got $4,000 left.”

Still, I have a bucket of $4,000. Around that bucket, I have 25 different things that I’m going to do that month. You’re pulling from that bucket, but if you don’t, you might double up on something and not pay attention to it, and/or triple up on something and not pay attention to it or spend outside of what you need to spend. This brings everything into one place and forces you to be responsible. This is probably one of the cooler and more beneficial technologies and applications that I’ve been aware of in the FinTech world in quite some time.

Managing Bills

Thank you, Jarrod. I appreciate that. I think we ought to talk a little bit about bills because everything I’ve talked about has to do with discretionary spending and tapping that to load the card. With bills, you want those to happen automatically. You don’t know when they’re going to auto-draft that from your account, but you also want to make sure, “My mortgage is covered. My power bill is covered. My phone bill is covered.”

What we’ve done in the technology is each time you create a category for bills, it creates its own unique virtual account number and its own unique virtual card. You can allocate funds for your phone bill, your power bill, your water bill, your mortgage. Each one of those categories has its own unique account number and card number that you can give to the provider or the vendor that’s providing that service for you.

Now, they can auto-draft that anytime because they’re always on, but you can turn them off if you ever don’t want them to charge you, one. Two, if they ever have a data breach, it only affects that one category, not your entire account. It keeps you super safe and protected. You have the organization. I know I’m not spending my mortgage. I know I’m not spending my power bill. I know I’m not spending the money for my phone bill because that’s separate. That’s already accounted for. I have the real money in those categories. I’m free to spend this other money because I have awareness. I have a plan.

Security

Each one of your envelopes or each one of your accounts, that’s the automated accounts, at least for the auto-debit. They have their own individual numbers. Talk to me, because, first of all, it sounds like a ton to manage. It sounds like you’re going to have to go, and whether it is for your rent, your mortgage, your car insurance, or your electric, which is already drawn out, you have to change and update that number and that information. It sounds like a lot to manage, number one. Number two, you mentioned a little bit about security. I’d love for you to dive into how you are securing the accounts if you’ve got 25 different bills and 25 different credit cards or account numbers.

Our system was built with security in mind first. That’s really important. When you build an infrastructure that’s security first and you’re not trying to bolt that on later, that is 75% of the battle, but then you create really high encryption levels. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail there because that’s private information, but we take security extremely seriously. That’s why the card is default zero. That is why each one of those categories has its own account number and so forth. Let me talk a little bit about a lot to manage. Ultimately, what I’ve done is I have simplified my life by making Qube Money my primary bank. For my personal, I don’t use credit cards anymore because I found that chasing rewards actually causes me to overspend a lot more than I ever earned in rewards.

Actually 10 to 20 times the amount that I ever made in any rewards. I just made that decision. I’ll also say one other caveat on that, Jarrod. Think about who is actually paying for my plane ticket if I earn that plane ticket through rewards. It’s that interchange. It’s that 3% that they get paid. Actually, I’m in the payment space. There’s not enough money to create a profitable business from just that amount. Ultimately, what is it? You can go ahead and say.

Credit Card Rewards

It’s the merchant who, at the end of the day, is really paying for your rewards, but you’re still paying for the product or the service. You’re paying for it. At the end of the day, you’re actually paying to get those rewards.

That’s actually what I used to think, too, but there’s not enough money in that interchange to make a profitable business based on personal experience. It’s actually the single mom who’s struggling, carrying a $10,000 balance, and paying 25% interest to pay for my plane ticket. I actually have a really moral issue with that. I don’t want the business. On a business side, we’re making decisions, and there’s commercial credit cards and there’s personal credit cards. On the personal side, I’m telling you, it’s the single mom who’s struggling to get by who’s paying for my plane ticket.

That makes sense because if you look at it that way, and it’s funny because, as you know, I’m in the payments business also, and it’s not even how I look at it from somebody who’s been in business for quite some time. If you think about it, it’s the high-balance, high-interest card holders who typically don’t have really high-level rewards programs that are paying for that. By the way, let’s be very clear. That’s the majority of cardholders in the US. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but that’s the majority of cardholders in the US. That’s fascinating, and you’re right. I didn’t think about it that way.

I didn’t either until I started with Qube Money, and I really understood how the merchant fees worked, how much they were, and how much Visa kept. I’m like, “I always thought that was paying my rewards,” but it’s not.

It’s funny. Do you look at Visa and MasterCard? They’re actually in the data game. They make more money on data than they do on interchange because here’s the kicker with interchange. The majority of that money, of that 3%, actually goes to the issuing bank, the card-issuing bank, so Wells Fargo, but Wells Fargo is not Visa. Visa is the card brand. The acquiring bank, which is the merchant’s bank who accepts the payment for the merchant and holds that until it’s transferred to the merchant’s actual business account, then you’ve got the processor, and you’ve got the credit card networks who are getting paid as well.

The processor and the credit card networks are getting paid less than the issuing bank and the merchant’s bank that’s holding the money. It makes sense that you say that MasterCard is not really paying for those rewards. American Express is different. It’s also at a different stratosphere. It’s a very different consumer base. They are a bank within themselves. That money basically comes into them because it’s American Express. Your other standard cards, that makes sense.

Those are the ones that are paying for the rewards, and that interchange isn’t enough to pay for the rewards. That covers the cost of being able to process and all of those costs that that technology requires to run. It’s the interest that pays for the rewards. You’re right.

Your card actually works as a debit card, correct?

It does, but you could use it like swipe as a credit. As with any debit card, you can either put in your PIN or do a non-PIN transaction, which is the same as a credit, but it’s all backed by real money. It creates that reality of, “This is the money I have, and this is where I’m spending.” It creates that connection to your money.

Customer Journey

Let’s say that you are a consumer, and you start using Qube, you’re budgeting through Qube, and you’re seeing a lot of success in that. This is more so a mindset thing. This isn’t technically like perfect financial numbers on a spreadsheet. How have you seen that some of the users’ mindset around money, savings, making large purchases, or being able to invest in other things outside of what their budget requires? How has that changed their lives, and how have they seen growth in other aspects financially?

Just go to the App Store and look at the reviews, Jarrod. They’re like, “For the first time in my life, I’m saving. For the first time in my life, I’m two months ahead.” Let me actually just take you through a customer journey. Coming in, you’re right. Setting up a good plan and a good system does take some time. Same thing with your business. Think about when you started your business. When you set up your banking system and your accounting system, it takes effort. If you don’t ever put forth that effort, your business is completely out of control. You won’t be in business very long.

Coming into Qube and setting up a system that actually is successful actually takes a few months not to set it up, but just to figure out, “This is how I feel comfortable with money. This is how much I want for these different categories. This is what I want my life to feel like with money.” It takes a little adjusting as you start out. What I would suggest is when you come into Qube, start with just 3 or 4 discretionary spending categories. Manage those in Qube, understand the methodology, experience the technology. If you love it, then you’ll say, “I’m going to bring in all my bills. I’m going to make Qube Money my primary banking solution.” That’s what I would suggest doing.

Just start out with a few discretionary spending. You can add a couple of subscriptions to watch how it manages those subscriptions for you. If you love it, you can bring everything in. What you’ll find as you come in is that you’ll actually have awareness of your money. All of a sudden, you’re like, “I actually don’t care about a coffee every day. I’m okay with a coffee a week.” That’s going to save you $25. You’re going to have more of that money going to things like a little trip that you really want to do or you have a hobby that you really want to get into. You’ll have way more money for the things that you want. You’ll start to get 1 month ahead, and then 2 months ahead, and then 3 months ahead, and now you’re going to be able to make really good decisions.

“I actually can get rid of all my debts in the next five months. That’s going to free up another $1,000 a month that I can then put towards my retirement savings.” In Qube, I really highly recommend that you just set up a system where you put away 20% for long-term savings, retirement savings. That 20% should first go to an emergency fund. Build up a $2,500 emergency fund because emergencies happen. If you have that fund, it won’t take you off your plan. After you have a $2,500 emergency fund, use that 20% to pay off all your non-secure debts because you’re not making nearly as much money in the markets as you’re paying interest on non-secure debts.

Get rid of those, and it will free up, for most people, $500 to $2,000 a month. They have 20% plus that additional $500 to $2,000 that they can either stockpile for retirement, or they can say, “I’m going to take that $2,000 I was paying on debt, and the 20% is going to continue to go to save for retirement. I can move to retirement, but I’m going to take that $2,000 and start living the life that I really want. I’m going to save for that trip to Europe. I’m going to save for that trip to Macedonia. I’m going to actually save for that surfboard that I want.” They start having money to do. We actually reserve $1,500 a month for fun, for family fun, for things that we want to do. We never had that money before. It was always being spent on who knows what, but we don’t have any debt.

We have money to do the things we love to do, and we’re saving 25% of our money for retirement. That’s taken care of, too. It’s just super cool. We are ready and prepared. Our money is doing what we want it to do. It’s a process. First of all, emergency fund, then they start paying off their debt. That frees up more money, and then they really are able to stockpile for retirement and have money for what they really want. Over a year to two-year period, their complete financial life will transform because they have a plan and they’re following it.

What’s great about this, and why I really was excited to have you on, is this is so important for our business owners. You already have the stress of being an entrepreneur and a business owner and running a business. Compounding that personal stress can be personal financial stress, which can really be that linchpin that makes everything crumble down.

Having something like this, this is your ultimate advocate. This is beyond any financial advisor, any banker, or anyone in the finance world who’s on your team because this program does something that none of them do because we’re not conditioned to offer you. As a business owner, you can take that personal financial stress away, which gives you financial certainty to be able to build and get to the next level in your business and your personal life.

Jarrod, I can’t tell you how true that is. From personal experience, when I started the Qube, I didn’t have it. We were still doing what most people are doing. I was checking my accounts and calculating my income 2 or 3 times a day, thinking about, “Are we going to be okay?” Actually, by having everything in Qube, I have none of that stress. It’s so simple. I set it up, and it took me time to set it up, but once I got it set up, it literally became a turnkey planning system in my pocket. Instead of paying a coach $300, $400 a month for that advice, I pay Qube Money $12 a month, and it does a much better job. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a coach because sometimes you need that accountability and then they’ll help you set up your plan. In the long term, Qube Money has created that certainty you’re talking about.

I love that.

That’s real.

Rapid Fire

Shane, before we wrap, we’re going to go into our rapid-fire section, which is always a very fun part to learn a little bit about you and your nuances. Let’s dive in, and then you’ll tell everybody where they can connect with you. First question for you, coffee or tea?

Neither. I just drink water. Seriously, I don’t like either.

Funny, I’m not a coffee guy just because it gives me acid reflux, but I’m a tea guy. At night, I drink peppermint and dandelion tea, and I’m not lying, it helps me sleep way better every night before bed.

That’s awesome. Super awesome and super healthy, too.

Rabbit or turtle?

Rabbit. I like this. I should be more turtle, and I admire people that are, but fast and furious is what I do.

What is one of your number one books that you would recommend the audience of business owners and entrepreneurs read, and in particular, in your world, to help with financial management?

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, James Clear. It’s a phenomenal book, and Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win is also a super powerful book. If you’re running a company, both of those books are really good.

I’ve read both of them, they’re amazing. It’s funny, I need to go back and do my Sunday book review on Extreme Ownership, but I’ve done one on James Clear’s Atomic Habits and that is one of those amazing books. If you were going to have dinner this evening, and you had the option to pick one individual, past or present, that you would have dinner with, who would that individual be, and why?

Without question, my wife, Carissa. We’ve been married for many years, and she is like my best friend. We have a lot of fun together, and we have eight children. I know, that’s crazy. Life is super busy, and when I get one-on-one time with her, it’s super cool.

What is one thing in your industry that you disagree with?

Reward systems on individual credit cards. We talked about that, but I really disagree with that. The other one is the tracking budgeting tools. They don’t work for the majority. If you’re already good with money, it’s a nice thing to know where your money went because you don’t need something to change your spending behavior, but even those people, when they start to be intentional about what their money’s doing and their spending, it creates more opportunities to do the things that are most important to them. Giving to the charities, going on those trips, it really does. The whole tracking environment does not work, and actually, it’s a pet peeve of mine.

What are three money-saving tips that you would give our audience of business owners to do in 2025?

The first thing that I would do is I would automate 20% of your income to exactly what I said. Emergency fund first, pay off debt, and then stockpile money in a safe money place that stays liquid for your year’s salary. It will completely change the way you feel and experience money because you have liquid money. That’s the first thing that I would do.

The second thing that I would do is I would find a charity that you’re passionate about, and I would start giving money. The wealthiest people in the world give the most, and they did before they were wealthy. You’re either a master of money or money is a master of you. When you give, you become a master of money, and it’s a great thing to be a master of. It’s a horrible master, no question about it.

The third thing is money is a tool to create joy. Find something that you want to do and start getting laser-focused about saving money for that thing. It’s super fun. Money is meant to be spent, but you don’t want to be a Scrooge and save everything for the future because then you miss out on so much now. There are beautiful memories that happen. Spend it to make those memories. Just be intentional about it. Those are the three things I would say.

Who would you say are the two most important people in your life who have helped you get to the level of success in your business?

That’s super easy. The first is my dad. It’s so interesting, Jarrod. My dad has never had more than $30,000 in the bank. He was a teacher. We did not have very much money, but he was an amazing dad who taught me to work from a very young age. He taught me to love to work and taught me how to treat people and be honest with them. He has totally created a mindset of goodness and happiness. He’s amazing.

The other person is a mentor. His name is Don Garrison. He’s actually in his 80s, but he really taught me how to work with people and always do the right thing. Look at it from their point of view and help them get what they want, and you’ll get what you want. He was a living example. I talked to him, like through a period of my career, 2 or 3 times a week, just realigning on some principles. He also taught me a lot about the art of convincing, which is super powerful, like the fear of loss and urgency and just how to create that within people’s minds so that they move because your team has to move with you. You can’t do everything on your own. You have to have a team moving in the same direction. He really taught me some powerful skills in that area.

Connect With Shane

Shane Walker, it was absolutely amazing. Do me a favor. Tell everyone where they can connect with you if they’d like to connect with you. I also believe you have a little special offer for the audience.

I do. You’re going to have to remind me of the discount code, but as far as connecting with me, the best way to do that is probably on LinkedIn, Shane Walker, Qube Money, because there’s so much going on. As far as connecting with Qube Money, QubeMoney.com. Come and visit us and see what this is all about. If you’re interested in trying out a Qube Money account, you can get a 60-day free trial with Jarrod. What’s the discount code, Jarrod?

The discount code is Z2A100.

Use that code, and you get two months for free. I invite you to come and experience the peace, joy, and freedom that can come with money by building a plan and following that plan.

Shane Walker, again, thank you so much for joining us. You gave the audience something truly tangible that they can sign up for, start budgeting, and get to that place of financial certainty that I know, as business owners, we’re all looking for. Thank you for joining us on the show.

Thank you, but super awesome.

Important Links

• Shane Walker
• Qube Money
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
• Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

About Shane Walker

Shane Walker is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Qube Money, a financial technology company that modernizes the traditional cash envelope budgeting system into a digital platform. With over 15 years of entrepreneurial experience, Shane has been dedicated to ventures aimed at making a positive impact on the world.

His mission focuses on restoring individual freedom through understanding and living truth. Under his leadership, Qube Money has developed a mobile banking and budgeting app that enables users to allocate funds into digital “qubes” for various spending categories, promoting intentional financial decisions and improved financial health.