DREAMKPR - Trista's PL8STORY Podcast Plate 38 with Author, Bonnie Burkett

This week we meet Bonnie Burkett of North Carolina. In Bonnie’s own words, she is a happily married empty nester. Bonnie has run her own business of over 35 years, and still has more dreams to keep!! She is the author of ENOUGH! The College Cost Crisis: How to protect your wallet and your student's financial future. Bonnie shares her wonderful plate story and vast knowledge of how to affordably get your student through college. 

Find Bonnie Burkett online - https://www.lightwayenterprises.com/ Get her book ENOUGH! The College Cost Crisis: How to Protect Your Wallet and Your Student's Financial Future here - https://www.amazon.com/ENOUGH-College-Cost-Crisis-financial-ebook/dp/B0868Z6F7Y/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=bonnie+burkett&qid=1601221775&sr=8-1 Subscribe to Trista's PL8STORY Podcast on Apple Podcast (http://bit.ly/itunespl8story), Google Podcast, Spotify or your favorite podcast app and access all published episodes Nominate a plate - https://www.pl8story.com Meet your host - https://www.iwokeupawesome.com Visit Our Sponsors and support future episodes - https://www.iwokeupawesome.com/pl8storypartners.html

Transcript of Episode:

DREAMKPR

Trista, Host: [00:00:00] [00:00:00] Welcome to this week's episode of Trista's PL8STORY   (Plate Story)   Podcast. I'm Trista Polo from iwokeupawesome.com and I am your host. Each week, we learn the story behind that vanity plate. You know, the one you saw driving down the road... what did it say? What did it mean? Why did they choose it?  

This week we meet Bonnie Burkett of North Carolina. In Bonnie's own words, she's a happily married, empty nester. Bonnie has run her own business for over 35 years and still has many more dreams to keep. She is the author of "Enough! The college cost crisis: how to protect your wallet and your students' financial future" . Bonnie shares her wonderful plate story and vast knowledge of how to affordably get your student through college. She has some other fun stories to share as well. Let's go meet Bonnie.  

Good morning and welcome to this week's episode. I have Bonnie Burkett with us from [00:01:00] North Carolina and her license plate is DREAMKPR, which I love. Welcome Bonnie.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:01:06] Thank you, Trista. So great joy to be with you today.  

Trista, Host: [00:01:09] I'm so happy to have you. So tell me about this license plate, DREAMKPR.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:01:17] Well, it's the, it's the license plate that ended up started as a simple thing and ended up much broader, you know, that little thing you do, and then you realize later on, Oh, that was just the beginning.

Well, the license plate is spelled dream D R E A M with KPR. Which always throws people a bit. and I got it when I got a new car, a while back. let's just put it that way. And then the vanity plates and that's what they are. were kind of all the rage. And I thought, you know what? I'd like to try to do that.

And then the blank comes and you're like, well, what is it that you think can encapsulate what you do or what you like to do? In a [00:02:00] word a lot harder than it looks well, we get eight down here, but it doesn't help. I finally settled on DREAMKPR because in my, you know, in my daily work, I try to help my customers and my clients help keep their dreams, protect their dreams, work with their, with their dreams because I've learned something we don't spend any time   working with our dreams.  

And even the good book says without vision, the people perish. And I don't, I used to think that meant like, you know, big groups of people or countries or nations or whatever. I'm beginning to have to rethink that a little bit and thinking that it may apply individually, that we are given dreams and we're, for whatever reason, we need to pay attention to those dreams in our hearts.  

Trista, Host: [00:02:58] Well, I definitely [00:03:00] believe that because if we don't have a place we're looking toward, then we're just going to end up any old place.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:03:09] Well, There's too much ...hate to say it... life isn't the easiest thing. And there's too much hard stuff in life that you don't need to have something about what you're doing somewhere in your, your life that really, gives you great joy resonates deeply.

We have a saying down here in the South "Whirls your gig", just something that just makes that smile come that natural happy, I am where I need to be, and I'm doing what I need to be doing.  

Trista, Host: [00:03:39] Did you say whirls your gig.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:03:42] Yes I did.

Trista, Host: [00:03:44] I've never heard that before. Do you know the origin of that saying?

Bonnie Burkett: [00:03:47] I am. I do not. And I'm actually afraid to find out, so  

Trista, Host: [00:03:52] we'll just let that lie. Well, that's a lie, but I love it. So it's something that whirls your gig. Now, you said that you protect [00:04:00] people's dreams. Tell us a little about what you do.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:04:03] Well, my, my day job is, I run a, an insurance agency for a major company.

I'm still doing that. So we're going to leave that kind of on the quiet side of things and have been connected in the insurance and financial services area for quite a while. And it's a great pleasure to try to do what I can, what people will let you do to help them go beyond just their immediate needs, but into, Hey, I'd like to fill in the blank.

I'd like to have a second home. How are there ways to help people get to their dreams  

Trista, Host: [00:04:37] now? I mean, that's a tough one for a lot of people because we're all living up to our means.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:04:45] Or beyond...  

Trista, Host: [00:04:47] Well, I wasn't going to go there, but yea if we're going to call it out or beyond, for sure. How do you work   people through that process?  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:04:54] Well, a lot of my work starts with covering and helping people with their [00:05:00] protecting what they already have. But one of the ways to do this, just to say, have you thought about plans for your children's future? Have you thought about plans for your retirement?

What is your program? And by the way, don't anybody feel guilty? This is not guilt trip. 98% of us don't have one and that's terribly normal. So what I've learned over the years, you just can't blow it all away. Cause the reason they don't have it, one is they think they have to have 475 steps planned out.

Most of us work on one step, two step stumble, work back up to the second step. So when they find out they can just do a simple step here, a simple process there, a simple idea here and make those plans   towards the dreams. I think it takes all the mess out of it, all the worry out of it. And so not, everybody's going to want to do that.

Some people just can't they're [00:06:00] afraid and that's okay. That's all right. Work with what you can.  

Trista, Host: [00:06:04] And I think you're right on the money there.   Looking just a step or two 10 steps put together with a coach, a mentor, a guide, an advisor, an expert.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:06:16] Exactly knows something besides leaning over the fence post.  

Trista, Host: [00:06:21] Yeah. Yeah. Somebody who has the vision to fill in the blanks. So it's a more realistic plan that you can actually put in place.

Bonnie Burkett: [00:06:29] You also have to be willing to work a little bit like a squirrel, you know, squirrels. They gather nuts and then they park them in all kinds of places. I mean, we don't even want to know where some of those places are. So you gotta be able to say, you know, I need to be a little bit more like a squirrel. I need to hide assets or money for myself, not saying hide, do you know where it is? And, I work that way. If I don't have it in my wallet, [00:07:00] I can't spend it. Yeah. Unless I really need to go get it . That makes me think about, is it a real need or just a wish need?  

So sometimes you fulfill wishes. That's part of it too, but if you can squirrel this stuff away and get it out of your line of fire with your wallet or your debit card or whatever we're doing these days, then chances are, you're going to have a little bit more than you had otherwise.  

Trista, Host: [00:07:24] That's great. I love that philosophy.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:07:27] Squirrles and nuts  

Trista, Host: [00:07:28] squirrels and nuts. That is so simple. Being able to take it out of the daily routine so that it's not there for, to use. Because I find that if I have it in my account, if I don't move it to savings, Or some other thing, they just, all of a sudden it's like, where did that go? Where did he go? I thought that money was in there.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:07:51] I am that person. And I think that's where the philosophy comes from because I, I would, if it's there, then that means I should have access to it and I should be able to [00:08:00] do what I need to do with it. So the best thing that ever happened to me was starting to get deductions out of my checks.

You know, when I'm paying payroll, deduct everything I want to do in the squirrel world. Then I just, it hurts   for two months, and then after a while you just get used to it. And then every so often, if you get a pay raise, then you give a little bit more to the squirrels. After a while, suddenly you open up a statement, you go, woo. That's not bad. And that's, that's more than I would have had if I hadn't tried that for others, that doesn't work. You have to do other things, but if I hide the money for myself seems to work for me. And I gather, I have plenty of company on that. Absolutely.  

Trista, Host: [00:08:40] Now you said that you protect other people's dreams. What are some of your dreams?  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:08:44] Oh, well, I have had a lifetime of dreams and I'm a, just a, just a smidge older than you are. I think so. and that's really kind of the whole thing.

What happened with DREAMKPR. DREAMKPR started out as a professional reminder to [00:09:00] myself. But over the years, it has become a personal reminder. And I think that that has helped me more almost than the first way. It was almost like it needed to start one place and work with another. because again, we are people who thrive when we are working in our dreams and working with our dreams.

I'll give you a true story. I went to college in a tiny little school out in the middle of nowhere, I would call it a Cheers college, you know, where everyone knows your name and most of your business. And we used to have something called a convocation. That is how old I am. And we would meet at twice a twice a week and have this hour long presentation where I'm supposed to get educated from.

Well, one program was a TaeKwonDo presentation, you know, where they kick the boards and break them. And that was fascinating. Problem was, I didn't have the time or the money to go get   lessons. I was fascinated so fast forward life happens. [00:10:00] Yeah. You know, things happen. You go to school, you finished school, you find someone you love, blah, blah, blah.

All of a sudden it is three weeks before I am 40 years old. And I happened to run across a TaeKwonDo school and I went now, Bonnie. If this thing goes at this phase, the next time you look at this, you'll be close to 60 and that's not, not a good time at all. To start that hobby. So I walked in and said, do you teach slightly older students?

And I'm telling you that my dream was spot on. I am tall. I have long legs and I have long feet. And oh my what a lovely advantage. So I took for a number of years and my dream was to, could I ever possibly earn a black belt? And I did, I had a detour. I tore my ACL, and had to go through rehab, including the humbling experience of being in the beginners class with a black belt.

Tell me about that. Sure. Yes. Very humbling. Storal all the mory here is this. I [00:11:00] am glad I did that when I did that. I'm glad I had it that opportunity. I loved it. It just resonated with me, but I didn't know that and I couldn't do it when the dream first arrived. So. Anyway, a lot of fun. and no, everyone says, well, gosh, could you, could you still do that?

And I said, yeah, I'd be in traction for three days.  

Trista, Host: [00:11:25] I did some TaeKwonDo when I was in my... probably early thirties and I really enjoyed it. The challenge for me was I was working in Manhattan at the time, which was a two hour commute each way from where I lived. So I could never seem to get out of work early enough. But when I was taking the classes, I really enjoyed it.

Bonnie Burkett: [00:11:48] Well, it's, it's opposite of, as you know, opposite of everybody's sort of cartoon version of it. We're very much that if you're in a fight, you've, you've already lost because you're supposed to [00:12:00] deescalate any, any tensions. So it's, anyway, lovely experience and a great, true story about - sometimes dreams just sit until the right time.

And I think that's important.  

Trista, Host: [00:12:11] I think timing, yeah. Timing is everything,  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:12:14] well, you know, we, we truly are all connected. we've gone through a very rough year. but I think out of this, I've been thinking a little bit about that. I want to tell you, the other story about a little weird dream and how it's come into fruition. my state, they deemed the work I do, to be quote essential.

I'm grateful, but I thought that was interesting. And, Right in the beginning, when we didn't know everybody's shutting everything down, you didn't even know if the grocery store is going to be open. The next day, I sort of had this little thing about, I am blessed to be essential. So if I'm blessed to be essential, what can I do to help some people?

So I sort of, as a person of faith, sent up a little prayer and [00:13:00] said, show me that. Well, that was a fast response. I was able, to, connect with, a family, with a medically sensitive, child. Now they can order their groceries online. But if you do that, sometimes you don't get what you order, you get what they had, or the closest thing that they think is a match, which is always entertaining.

So I helped another one, another person as well as this family. So I became the grocery store detective. If it wasn't in mine, I was going to go to the other one. If it t wasn't in that one. I can best forgive me for, it's not about me and I'm not looking for praise. I'm serious about that. The, it was so much fun to have something to do for someone else and to be so determined in this horrible time, to bring a small smile to a kid's face because they couldn't get it in their order, but I found it somewhere else.  

Trista, Host: [00:13:57] That's awesome.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:13:59] No, no. And it's not about [00:14:00] me. That's not...  

Trista, Host: [00:14:01] i, and I, I get that. You're humble about what you do. You don't do it for the praise. I get that. And that is so freaking cool that you took this thing that could have been a really just disappointing upsetting thing for the families. And you turned it into a game for yourself, which you clearly enjoyed immensely. You brought joy to them because you fulfilled the need they couldn't fulfill on their own. It's mega beautiful.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:14:32] And I can tell you that again, I know that was happening everywhere because I listened to other people when you can finally connect through the masks and everything else.

I heard story after story of people doing better things than that. So just, you know, I'm just using it sort of simple example of what can I do with what I like to do and what I am capable of doing to make something positive out of this just difficult time. And it did the [00:15:00] most for me from a mental health point of view, I can't explain.

So what, I guess what I'm saying is, what are accidentally wonderful little bright candle. It's just nothing but a single candle, but Oh my gosh, that just meant so much to me.

I think I, I truly believe I got more out of it than anybody else, but you know, that's just, it, I'm still helping. So happy to happy to participate, but that's part of, I think we need to do, we need to connect up with what we need to get to do, or what are we permitted to do that we can do to help one another.

And I think that is part of what helps us get through tough times.  

Trista, Host: [00:15:41] And I think you're right. That even a small thing makes a big difference   I don't need to do a hundred times more than I can do, but if a hundred of us do small things, it makes a big, big difference.

Bonnie Burkett: [00:15:54] It really does.   So anyway, so the other thing is, I also think dreams can sometimes have [00:16:00] time limits. I think this is important to also to, to keep up with, even though I believe in the beautiful, broad newness of it, I believe most dreams have time lengths from very long lengths, but there are time limits in some cases.

Let me give you a true story there. My husband grew up in new England and he yeah was a, was a terrific well-trained skier. His skiing style, most of your listeners don't even know who this is, but there was a famous skier named Jean-Claude Killy and from France and he stayed with his, Skis, probably about an inch apart.

He could go down a mountain with what looked like it was one, you know, one thing, my husband skis very similarly. Me on the other hand, having learned as an adult look much more like an elephant on skis. So,  

Trista, Host: [00:16:49] A tall elephant  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:16:50] A very tall open with long feet, but I mean, seriously, I'm much more, I'm less graceful.

So. When we, we got married, I opened my [00:17:00] business. It was those early years where every penny and every nickel needs to be accounted for, but we wanted to go skiing and he had never been out West. So we. I'm signed up for the local ski club and they would have this trip, the big trip every year. And it was so well discounted.

It was like about 60% of what it would have cost. So we signed up the membership. We never went to meetings, but we sure went on the trips and we saved orr nickels and rubbed our nickels and planned on how much we had to spend in the whole thing. And we did this for maybe five or six years, seven years in a row.

We had so much fun. Went out West of places he had not been. We loved it, had great adventures, funny stories to tell, and this is not a terrible thing, but a day came when that was no longer possible. he had to have a couple of neck surgeries because women lose calcium, but a lot of men grow calcium and, These are neck surgeries involving putting in a nice little titanium [00:18:00] pieces and his neck, and the guy said, and you will not be snow skiing anymore.

Now that's pretty hard. You know, it's not the easiest thing in the world to hear that, but I did remind him, well, I'm sorry that this chapter has closed. But I am not sorry for all the great memories. Do you remember when and off we went down memory lane and we still do ...not frequently, but enough. And it's just a reminder to remember the dreams can also have a door opening and a door closing, and you don't know when the door's going to close.

So pay attention.  

Trista, Host: [00:18:38] Yeah, absolutely. And I think what you're really pointing to is when you have an opportunity to take advantage of a dream, do it because it won't be available forever.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:18:52] That's true. And I will be the first to tell you, there were times when I think we got the, you know, the eyebrow cocked by [00:19:00] friends.

Well, you know, you must be doing really well to do this trip. It wasn't our only vacation. and yes, I guess we were well enough to do that and I recognize some folks never get to do that. so I'm appreciative, but I am so glad that we listened to our hearts and we sacrificed to make that happen when we could.

Trista, Host: [00:19:21] Yeah, that's wonderful. Now, in addition to your profession and your day job, do you have other things that you're pursuing that you'd like to share?  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:19:31] Well, I, I am. And it's another dream.  

Trista, Host: [00:19:34] Let's talk about it then for sure.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:19:36] Well, let's go back to college. so I was going to, my original plan was to be a college professor, graduate school and I did not get along and I fine.

I did fine in it, it just I didn't make the best choice. Didn't understand the system ology and ended up in the work I'm in which I love. All right. But during college, I had a college professor write on a paper I turned in and he thought I [00:20:00] had one to three books in me and I was like, huh. And I never could get that out of the back of my head.

It just stuck there, like a piece of gum on a shoe. No, I'm not in academia. So you write an academia and you know, I'm an, okay you know, I can write notes and emails, but so along comes a time to get the daughter to college. And, Oh my gosh, we had this crazy journey. She needed a specialty school for her work.

She had the grades, but we didn't know, where that was going to be. We slid in sideways we're it's November of her senior year. We didn't have her school. It was just this crazy mess. And there were these new things called FAFSA is and comma apps and stuff that I had never dealt with. I felt like an absolute idiot.

Well, we managed to get it all done. We managed to get her going. We managed to get her through [00:21:00] and she managed to get through in four years because I told her the bank of mom was going to close in four years. And then I just watched more of my clients are talking about this, right. And more of my clients are having similar problems and the cost is outrageous.

I mean, it was bad enough for her and then the price keeps rising. So I just kept watching this. And I just kept talking about it until my dear and best friend said, would you please stop talking and start writing? You need to write a book. And, you know, sometimes words come from those that you trust. And you're like, Oh, so I, so I got around to it.

And so I wrote a book this time, last fall, I was busy writing my book and the book is titled "Enough: the College Costs Crisis; How to Protect Your Wallet and Your Student's Financial Future." And I did publish it on Amazon and it [00:22:00] did, rise to a number one new release in three categories. So we're excited.

Trista, Host: [00:22:05] Well, that's very important, timely, critical information for people to have, right? I mean, this student loan thing is just I'm hearing that people are helping their grandkids. And so now there are grandparents having student loans. Yeah.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:22:24] It's so bad that I think it is endangering an entire generation, the average student loan debt, if you don't mind, a few statistics, average student loan debt is over $30,000. That's a 340 some dollars a month payment on the 10 year plan.  

Trista, Host: [00:22:41] And that sounds low from what I hear from people I talked to too,  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:22:45] depends on what you're doing and where you're doing it. We have a problem with our perception about what we should be doing.

We have this mantra in our head is it's a dangerous one. Number one, our kid has to go to college. And the backdrop of that is because everybody else's kid [00:23:00] is going. And number two, I have to be able to pay for it all. Well, the cost of college since 1975 has gone up 945%.

Yeah. Let that sink in 945%. CPI has gone up just over 300 smidge over 300%. We, there is no way. I actually did a calculator last night, Trista, just in case you asked, if you wanted to afford to send your student to college today, if you had a baby this week, In my neck of the woods where college was pretty affordable. It's only $25,000 for a public, you know, regional level public university school a year to have that money for 18 years from now, you need to save $538 a month. Well, I can buy a house for that down here. I had fixed it up, but I have to buy a house for that down here. So yeah, I'm just saying [00:24:00] we've got to rethink it.

And the whole point of my book, firstly, in the book is tell you all the problems with everything. You know, the FASFA is, is playing poker with the financial aid office and they have the, you have the see-through cards and they don't, they know all your numbers, they project what you can afford, whether you can or not.

The middle part of the book is about getting to know your students. I, I have, seen an awful lot of parents, very frankly, did not involve their student in this decision. I'm a huge advocate of higher education. I'm a huge enemy of its cost. Let me repeat that. I'm a huge advocate of higher education.   I'm a huge enemy of its costs.  

I also, include in the higher education, those kids who are extraordinarily, technically competent love the idea of being a plumber or a diesel engine whisperer... I know a diesel engine whisper who makes $110,000 a year and works as an independent contractor. That's decent money down here.

So I'm just saying, [00:25:00] get to know your kid. And then the third of the final third of the book is the secret sauce. And I don't mind sharing it with your, with your listeners because the book tells you how you have to do it, but there's a secret sauce out there where you can get almost two years of college credits for under $5,000.

Trista, Host: [00:25:18] Wow.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:25:19] Yes, ma'am. Let me, tell you what it's called. It's called the college level exam placement. The short letters are C L E P. CLEP. CLEP is available at 80% of all colleges and universities, private and public. Gotta be honest, Harvard's probably not playing along, but everybody else is. College level placement are the 33 courses that the college board, you know, the nice folks that brought us and the ACP, they, they have these 33 courses and you can go in and do [00:26:00] these courses.

You can do them while you're in high school. You can take a gap year and do that roughly what they cost. It might cost you about 60 bucks to take them, of course, and get the online training. It'll cost you 125 bucks to go to a local, these testing centers with the headphones and they watch you like a hawk and video you and everything. Like, you know, don't take a pencil out of there. Anyway, for under $1,000, you can get three to four credit hours. Yeah. It's pass/fail. Who cares? And so I did the math on it for around $3,500, you can get nearly two years. Now, here's the problem. You have to reverse engineer your degree. You can't go off to school. And I don't think you should today hoping and thinking, and maybe kind of like, I'm going to go to a big, giant buffet and I'm going to check out this and I'm going to try that flavor. You can't  

Trista, Host: [00:26:52] guilty  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:26:53] We all did that. It was, it was encouraged  

Trista, Host: [00:26:57] finding myself.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:26:58] Finding [00:27:00] myself, you know, in the college course, we all did that.

I'm I don't want to even admit all that I did on that, but anyway,  

Trista, Host: [00:27:08] that's a different podcast altogether.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:27:12] So. You can't afford that anymore. So what you need to do is put the work in ahead of time, get a sense, I suggest career placement tests. I suggest learning about through Myers Briggs, Enneagrams, journaling, that's the middle part of the whole book, so that you get a sense of what your students might be good at.

And then you say, well, you know, It sounds like you might consider a business. Let's just pick business major and you're really good with numbers. So maybe finances a minor. Now you go to the school that, you know, you're going to be accepted at your safety school at least, and maybe others. And you reverse engineer that you get to the academic counselor.

What are the required general courses for this major? And you checked them off the CLEP and [00:28:00] you go into the CLEP. So you can be at home. You can be working. You can do a class every six weeks. Think about it. Six weeks is about what an everyday class would be. If you didn't have the day break between them.

So you could do eight classes in a year and still have four weeks vacation.  

Trista, Host: [00:28:18] Wow.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:28:19] And you can do that for one, one and a half, one and three quarters and walk in as a late sophomore or a first, first junior. Now you have worked. Now you have money in the bank. Now you can go in and borrow for your last two years if you have to, but  

Trista, Host: [00:28:37] that's brilliant,  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:28:39] but you have to have a program.

You have to have a plan. You have to reverse engineer. Our daughter got through college in four years because I set those boundaries. I said, sweetie, you got one year to change your major after that. You're locked and loaded. I hope you make a good choice. [00:29:00] She didn't change your major, but she added a minor.

We had some credits that she could use through her AP courses and she locked and loaded. She went to her academic counselor, said I have to get out of here in four years. And he said, all right, rolled up his sleeves, put her on the program. And I tell you how rare that is. Do you know what the national graduation rate is for four years?

Are you, are you ready? Want to guess?

Trista, Host: [00:29:26] I don't, I'm scared.

Bonnie Burkett: [00:29:29] Guess over 50% you're wrong. Wow. National average for graduation in a four year program in four years is a measly 41%. Now folks, I, you know, I'm sorry, that's an F in any grading scale I've ever run into, but we're handing them 25, 30, $40,000 a year.

And our kids have to take five, six and seven years. And nobody's planning for that. I mean, you can't save enough for four. How are you going to save [00:30:00] for five, six, and seven? So we've got to reverse engineer this. We are the consumer and forgive me. It's time to start acting like it.  

Trista, Host: [00:30:10] That's brilliant. Now I have a question.

Your book obviously lays it out. Do you offer individual or group coaching of any kind for people who need some extra help? Because this is a lot to navigate.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:30:23] It is. yes, I do. I will admit that I am not an admissions counselor. There are professionals who do a fine job of that. I am not trying to get your student into wherever you have a dream college.

However, I can certainly provide one-on-one. I'm looking into some group coaching calls for a small fee. I'm not trying to make a bunch of bucks at this. I'm just wanting people to look at things differently. Truth, be known. If you will follow what's in the book, you probably won't need me. But if you still wanted me, I'd love to talk to you.

And I have [00:31:00] a personal website. If anybody's interested, I also have a weekly blog. And people want to sign up for it. Let me tell you why. October one, which is the first day you can file your FAFSA.

And why you want to do it, especially in my state. So, I'm I really took, went out of the Eagle view of everything, big high, 30,000 foot level. And I've dropped way down into that practical to help families do that. Some a blog is about how to deal with this pandemic and all these other things, what you need to be doing and working with your kids.

But this week I said, you know, with FASFA, we're going to talk about that. Let's let's get that going. So, yeah. So let me give you that website, if it's all right.  

Trista, Host: [00:31:36] Yeah. And we'll make sure it's in the show notes too. Cause a lot of people listen to podcast driving, but yeah. Give it to us now.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:31:42] It's www. LightWayEnterprises.com and then forward slash if you want to hit the blog as a forward slash blog, you can sign up for free. I will protect your web. I will protect your [00:32:00] email. I will never share or sell. So there.  

That's awesome. I don't even have children and I'm overwhelmed by the whole going to college thing.

Here's a couple, here's another tidbit, the FASFA, which is the free application for federal student aid. And yes, that's hard to say fast. Really is a financial revealing and they don't care if you have a mortgage and they don't care if you have a car payment, none of that's part of the calculation about how much money you should be able to afford to pay.

And the colleges count on that number. They call the expected family contribution, EFC, and they, you can find out, in, quickly for your, for your listeners. The government's gotten smart. If you go to the, education department, which is, you know, ed.gov type in FAF, SA the number four, and then the word caster like CAS T E R- FASFA [00:33:00] 4caster.

They've put out a practice FASFA. It's a mini doesn't count. It's not official. But you can get an idea of what they think you can afford with about maybe 30 questions versus the 109 I had to do. And it is revealing because again, you don't want to, they don't care what your debt is. They only care what your assets are and they expect you to spend them.

We've got families with one, two, three kids. Oh, gracious. That's insane. what. They do. And the only thing is people say, well, you know, if it's a low number, that's great. I said, no, they're just going to lend you more money. If they only spent you contribute three or four or 5,000 are going to lend you more money, Pell grants.

Everyone's like, Oh, I'll get a Pell grant there. This year's Pell grant is $6,135. Well, that's a good, good number if you're going to community college down here, but not much else.  

Trista, Host: [00:33:58] And this, this assets [00:34:00] versus expenses thing. when I was going to college, I chose a state school.

Cool. So that I could have it affordably. I was a resident assistant so that I could help pay my expenses. I worked the campus jobs so I could help pay my expenses. And I was very lucky. I had no debt from student loans.  

And now it's even worse. It sounds like.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:34:19] Well, it is, for instance, work study, people don't realize that the federal government has a formula and they dumped the money on the school and the school decides who gets work study.

You don't get to ask for it. They're like, okay, we'll help you with this. Right. So unless your need is. Close to dire. That's probably not going to be a real option for you. Pell grants are the same way. Essentially, if you, if your family makes under 30,000, you got a good shot at a Pell grant. If it makes between 30 and 50, you got a modest shot, anything much over that toasted out.

So these are the things that our parents and I didn't know. So that's why it's [00:35:00] in my book. Because I just wanted to grab as much core what I call four. One one, if you want the, if you want the big, every question on FASFA explanation, I'm going to put a plug in for the Princeton review and capital and all the other big companies.

They put out a new one every year and I read it. I don't know how I survived it, but I read it so that I would understand, but they're perfect with that. If you need that detail. Great. I'm trying to get you enough to know. I don't want this. I want to move here or I want, need to do it differently. I'm trying to help parents get out of this cultural spinning spiral we've got about.

Well, my kid has to be admitted to the flagship university. Like all of her, his friends, why. Right.  

Trista, Host: [00:35:52] Yeah. And I think the middle part of your book is probably the most crucial because if we're doing the disservice to the [00:36:00] child, they're going to have a struggle. It's going to be harder for them to finish in the amount of time, et cetera.

And like you said, you don't have to go to college to make a good living.

Bonnie Burkett: [00:36:08] We have 5 million vacancies in the trades right now, across the country and there, and my, my area there is sure shortage of machinists that the local community college has this program.

Yeah. Is everywhere. I'm saying it because I want you to know it's somewhere around your corner, too. The local community college interviews, you, they give you a test to see if he really has the basic core gifts for that. They will pay you to go to college. They will pay your tuition, books and materials.

Yeah. And at the end of your two and a half to three year training, you will be now a journeyman, which is a starter. A welder or machinist, and you have 10 companies competing to give you a job standing job offer six months before you graduate.  

I tell you the last time I checked, [00:37:00] I still need plumbers. The last time I checked, I am not a good person around a circular saw. I need my trades folks and I want them to be talented.

I want them to love what they do just as I hope people want me to do the same thing. So we really need to get back to what are your gifts and what are your callings and what are your, what makes you, what whirls your gig  

Trista, Host: [00:37:23] What whirls your gig!  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:37:26] For that and help our students grow. And grow into what they're gifted towards.

Yeah. There is hard, you know why it's so hard for us to figure out what we're good at, because I actually think we're endowed with more gifts than we realize.  

Trista, Host: [00:37:42] Yeah, I would agree.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:37:44] And I've found that theme in my life, in everything I designed continuing ed courses, cause this stuff is so boring in my field.

I love to be able to do versions of that. And you can find sometimes a big calling is not the direction you end up, but you can find little ways along [00:38:00] the way to kind of you know, scratch that itch, right?  

Trista, Host: [00:38:04] Well, I think so. So what would you say the theme of our whole conversation is  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:38:12] act on your dreams.

You may not be able to do it today, but don't stuff them away. There's a reason you have some dream. and sometimes it's a really weird thing. For instance, I love trees. I've been a tree hugger most of my life. We built our humble little home and our humble little Lakeridge. They volunteered to get rid of the trees in the back.

And I said, if you do you die now, please? I'm not a threatening person, but I wanted to make a point. and I've also had a thing about woods. I have wood furniture in my home. And one of my first vacations was on a 300 foot bark in teen ship. I didn't want to go on a metal cruise ship. I wanted to go on a wooden cruise ship and I just had a blast fast forward a little bit.

My, family, and [00:39:00] my dad was career military. didn't really have any family history. Nobody could get it past a particular fast forward a little bit. Yeah. My husband's grew up in new England, so he was one of the ones who happened to the descend from all the people who came over in the big ship.

And so we did his, we knew what it would be, but we did his genealogy and then he gave me for mother's day, my genealogy. Well, it turns out in spite of the fact that we never lived in New England, that I go back to that same time and that same ship. And we cross in our histories. One of them is one of his predecessors and one of my predecessors were both hung on the same day.

At the Salem Witch Trials. Yeah. We'll just leave it at that. So now my daughter can officially call us, I guess, the decendents of witches.  

Trista, Host: [00:39:53] Oh my goodness.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:39:55] what we found out is that I have relatives in a wonderful state of Maine and one of them, [00:40:00] one of them help build the only five mastered schooner in the world.

Out of the town of Waldoboro, Maine. Wow. So tell me again, why I love things wood., well, his son went into the woods and sold the lumber down to Boston. And why is this   thing that I have about wooden ships and why do I love sailing and, you know, even though I don't actually own it, I sure like getting on everybody else's... why do I like that?

I don't know, but it kind of makes me wonder, and that was one of my little minor dreams was to go sailing on a big wooden ship. So listen to your dreams. They may have a connection that is kind of really crazy, and it may answer another dream, which for me, was finding out my background in history.  

Trista, Host: [00:40:52] I love that.

That's beautiful. And I think that really what you're saying is Pay Attention to the little minor [00:41:00] markers in your life, because they tell us a lot and help us to not only figure out what our dreams are, but also how to see them become a reality.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:41:12] And I want to make a, if I don't mind, if you don't mind a final comment, women are so, built and oriented towards helping everyone else fulfill their dreams.

if they happen to be in a marriage, they tend to fulfill their partners, help their partner fulfill dreams. They've helped fulfill their children's dreams. I'm gonna speak, especially to women. The last person on the list is ourselves. And I would say, I understand I've done that too, but I also believe that you need to reserve a small percentage and make sure you're getting some dreams done too.

I think it makes you a better person. I think it helps you enjoy life more. I think it's really hard to give anything out of your life, if there's nothing in your bucket to pour into somebody else's. So don't forget to fill up your bucket. And [00:42:00] my suggestion is it comes from your dreams.  

Trista, Host: [00:42:04] Absolutely agree.

I love that. And I think it's the perfect place to wrap up. I always like to turn the tables and see if you have a question for me. Do you have a question you'd like to ask me?  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:42:17] I do. What are you going to do in the next 30 days to act on a dream of yours?  

Trista, Host: [00:42:26] I am   wanting to start a podcast on entrepreneur shift mindset, positivity. What does it really take to succeed when you go out on your own and I've recorded the first segment with my dad and I just have to say he has we'll say an undisclosed number of years worth of experience behind him. And he has a lot of   wisdom that I have been very grateful receiver of. So we're [00:43:00] starting this process of recording his advice and his wisdom and his guidance and his mindset, brain surgery type lessons.   So that's a dream I have is to see his body of wisdom, become something that others can take advantage of for their own mindset.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:43:24] You've got a webinar going.  

Trista, Host: [00:43:27] I know I have big, big, big, big dreams for it, and I know what I need to do.

Bonnie Burkett: [00:43:32] I hear a webinar all day long.  

As I work my way through podcasting, I'm sitting here going, Oh gosh, I need to put together the webinar. I have been preparing for that for my entire life. That's a new thing for me. let's get down to reality and let's help people break this grip and I I'm passionate, as you can tell, I just want to help folks.

Trista, Host: [00:43:53] Absolutely. And I'm very clear on that. And I, so thank you for being with me and sharing yourself, your plate [00:44:00] story and all the other stuff we covered. It was really wonderful to have you on the show.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:44:04] You are. You've got a great thing going here. Thank you again for letting me be a part of your show.  

Trista, Host: [00:44:10] Oh, thank you so much. Have a great day.  

Bonnie Burkett: [00:44:12] Thank you. Bye bye.

Trista, Host: [00:44:13] Thank you for joining us for this week's episode of Trista's PL8STORY podcast. Please subscribe to Trista's PL8STORY podcast to get the story behind all those vanity plates, driving with you on the road. And if you would like to nominate the owner of a license plate, including you... Or visit any of our partners and sponsors come and see us www.pl8story.com. That's P L number eight story.com and give us the details.  

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