Speaker 1: What's up, everybody. I'm Gammy and this is positively gamed.
Speaker 1: Last season, I did an episode on retirement. This time,
Speaker 1: I want to focus on how to say for your retirement,
Speaker 1: because I really don't think I did that all that well.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to have a financial expert join me on
Speaker 1: today's episode, so let's get into it. BOWLISHA Coombe is
Speaker 1: a certified financial education instructor, finance expert, best selling author, speaker,
Speaker 1: and founder of Clever Girl Finance, a financial education platform
Speaker 1: and community for women, empowering them to achieve financial wellness
Speaker 1: and live life on their own terms. Hi Bolo, welcome.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 1: I'm at the age where a lot of my friends
Speaker 1: are retired or starting to retire, and we're constantly talking
Speaker 1: about how we wish we knew to save earlier in retirement,
Speaker 1: and I definitely did not do that. And I think
Speaker 1: it's really difficult for people a lot of times because
Speaker 1: we get so overwhelmed with just making it day to day,
Speaker 1: you know, making sure you have enough funds to pay
Speaker 1: the bills, and then you know you're trying to set
Speaker 1: aside funds for you know to be able to enjoy
Speaker 1: some vacation. And I think when you're young, you just
Speaker 1: don't think about retirement. It seems like it's so far away. Yes,
Speaker 1: So when should people start saving for retirement? Well, the
Speaker 1: best time to start saving for retirement is pretty much today,
Speaker 1: as soon as you can, right, and this is because
Speaker 1: of the power of time and your ability to take
Speaker 1: advantage of compounding, appreciation and dividends. However, even if you
Speaker 1: are starting late, it's important to keep in mind that
Speaker 1: retirement is not a day. So the average retirement lasts
Speaker 1: about twenty to twenty five years, and most people don't
Speaker 1: get to the statured retirement age of age sixty five
Speaker 1: and just stop working. Many people take on second careers,
Speaker 1: take on part time jobs, etcetera. So there is the
Speaker 1: opportunity that if you're starting late with saving for retirement,
Speaker 1: that you can also take advantage of catch up opportunities
Speaker 1: with things like the i R a UH, the Individual
Speaker 1: Retirement Account where for two you can contribute up to
Speaker 1: six thousand dollars, but if you're over fifty you can
Speaker 1: contribute seven thousand dollars, and then also catch up savings
Speaker 1: with things like the four one K four, three, b
Speaker 1: et cetera. Where you can save an extra I believe
Speaker 1: sixty dollars if you're over the age of fifty. So
Speaker 1: there are opportunities for you to catch up. But while
Speaker 1: you're young, the best time to start saving for retirement
Speaker 1: is right now. So is that like as soon as
Speaker 1: you start working. Yeah, so as soon as you get
Speaker 1: that first paycheck, you know, and you lay out your budget,
Speaker 1: one of your goals should be to think about your
Speaker 1: future self and put a small percentage aside. Right, the
Speaker 1: more time you have, the less amount of money you
Speaker 1: need to save, because over the long term, that money
Speaker 1: will compound and appreciate and gain dividends as that investment growth.
Speaker 1: So you know, while you're young, you get your first job,
Speaker 1: start saving. Okay, So as an older person, let's say
Speaker 1: in your fifties, right, how much what percentage of your
Speaker 1: salary would you be needing to put aside compared to
Speaker 1: you know, a young person who's just starting out. It
Speaker 1: really depends. I would say that for an older person,
Speaker 1: you definitely want to take advantage of those catch up savings.
Speaker 1: So with the I R, like I mentioned, there's that
Speaker 1: extra thousand dollars you can save with the four one k,
Speaker 1: four three four seven bees, there as the extra six
Speaker 1: you can save, and then whatever else you have to spare.
Speaker 1: After you have met your day to day obligations your
Speaker 1: other shorter term goals, you can think about putting that
Speaker 1: towards retirements. It's important to keep in mind that you
Speaker 1: when it comes to retirement savings. Right when you get
Speaker 1: to your retirement age that you decide to retire, you're
Speaker 1: not going to cash out your entire retirement portfolio in
Speaker 1: that one day. Ideally, what you're gonna be doing is
Speaker 1: taking out a certain amount every year, which means that
Speaker 1: you still have a chunk of money that can continue
Speaker 1: to grow for you even during retirement. So you want
Speaker 1: to think about taking advantage of those catch up savings
Speaker 1: and then contributing whatever else you have extra towards saving
Speaker 1: for retirement. I guess I was thinking more of a
Speaker 1: percentage like of your salaries should put aside, compared to
Speaker 1: a younger person who may only need to put maybe
Speaker 1: five percent, like I don't know. Yeah, So it's kind
Speaker 1: of hard to say because it really depends on the
Speaker 1: person's financial obligations. The rule of thumb is that you
Speaker 1: should put aside ten of your income. That's the general
Speaker 1: rule of them. But if you're trying to catch up,
Speaker 1: then it all depends on your obligations. In terms of housing.
Speaker 1: You know how much you're paying for housing, how much
Speaker 1: you're paying for your other financial obligations. But a rule
Speaker 1: thumbs ten percent, and then if you are trying to
Speaker 1: catch up or more, if you can fit it into
Speaker 1: your budget. So what are some of the most common
Speaker 1: challenges when it comes to saving for retirement? The bills
Speaker 1: that you had, your daily expenses, are those kinds of
Speaker 1: things that kind of get in the way of saving
Speaker 1: for retirement. Absolutely so, a lot of people worry about
Speaker 1: just not having enough in their paycheck to save for retirement.
Speaker 1: A lot of people worry about the fact that or
Speaker 1: they kind of give up a little bit if they
Speaker 1: didn't start early enough and they're like, Okay, what's the point,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be able to save much? And
Speaker 1: then a lot of people worry about not having enough
Speaker 1: when they get to retirement, even though they're saving right now.
Speaker 1: A lot of you know, a lot of what I
Speaker 1: see is people worrying about how do I make get
Speaker 1: spare money within my existing budget to put aside for
Speaker 1: my future self when life is happening to me right now.
Speaker 1: And how can people leverage an I RA or four
Speaker 1: oh one K for retirement? Basically, you set up an
Speaker 1: account rate you can set up depending on your employment status.
Speaker 1: Your employer may offer you a retirement savings plan that
Speaker 1: you can set up and have automatic peril deductions taken
Speaker 1: out of um your paycheck, or you don't have to
Speaker 1: worry about it. You just set up your percentages. Or
Speaker 1: you can open your own account with a brokerage right
Speaker 1: like a trow Price a Vanguard of Fidelity, for example,
Speaker 1: open your own traditional IRA A savings account and start
Speaker 1: to make contributions that you build into your budget into
Speaker 1: that accountant every time you get paid. Okay, now, what
Speaker 1: about people that don't want to just have their money
Speaker 1: sitting in a bank. What are some other ways that
Speaker 1: you can invest or other ways that you can't get
Speaker 1: a good return on your dollars? Like I somebody who
Speaker 1: never still don't understand stocks and bonds, but I know
Speaker 1: and cryptocurrency. Like that's like speaking Greek to me. What
Speaker 1: can you say that would be helpful in the language
Speaker 1: that we can comprehend about other ways to invest your
Speaker 1: money besides just putting in a bank and IRA. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so when it comes to investing, their variety of different ways.
Speaker 1: But the key thing that you want to keep in
Speaker 1: mind is broad diversification, and that basically means that you
Speaker 1: don't want to put all of your eggs in one basket,
Speaker 1: so you want to diversify. You can invest in stocks,
Speaker 1: which is where you buy, you know, part of a company.
Speaker 1: You become a part owner in a company. You can
Speaker 1: invest in in funds, which is an aggregation of different
Speaker 1: stocks into one fund, where you become a part owner
Speaker 1: of several different companies. So you may hear people talk
Speaker 1: about index funds mutual funds as an example, where they
Speaker 1: could have an arrogate of different types of companies within
Speaker 1: the fund. You can invest in bonds, which are essentially
Speaker 1: an IOU when you make a loan to the government
Speaker 1: or a corporation and in return they pay you interest
Speaker 1: as they pay you back their loan. And of course
Speaker 1: they're the more trendy investments like cryptocurrency n f T s.
Speaker 1: And then another investment is investing in business, whether it's
Speaker 1: your own business or somebody else's small business. The key
Speaker 1: there is diversification, understanding your risk tolerance, what's gonna cause
Speaker 1: you not to sleep well at night, and make sure
Speaker 1: you do your research. And I know a lot of
Speaker 1: people feel comfortable keeping their money in bank accounts, but
Speaker 1: really you want to put your money to work for you.
Speaker 1: And in the bank account. It's great for short term savings,
Speaker 1: it's great for emergency savings, but inflation eats away at
Speaker 1: your savings in the bank account. Right So, prior to
Speaker 1: the pandemic, the average inflation rate in the US was
Speaker 1: about two and a half percent, and I recently read
Speaker 1: an article that says as a result of the pandemic,
Speaker 1: inflation is about six to six and a half percent
Speaker 1: right now. And think about the interest rates that banks
Speaker 1: are giving you all less than one percent right now.
Speaker 1: The longer you have that money there when you think
Speaker 1: long term, the less it's worth. So anything that you
Speaker 1: need your thinking about investing for the future, your long term,
Speaker 1: you want to put it to work for you. So stocks, funds, bonds, business,
Speaker 1: real estate. That's another great way to invest and realistic.
Speaker 1: It's not just about renting property. You could buy farmland,
Speaker 1: you could buy into our resorts, you could buy into
Speaker 1: commercial property. You could buy into car washes. There's all
Speaker 1: kinds of real estate diversification ongoing. And then as you
Speaker 1: said about crypto, you know, it's new, it's highly volatile
Speaker 1: when it comes to investing in crypto n f T S.
Speaker 1: If you struggle with sleeping at night and you can't
Speaker 1: afford to lose it, that's it. I think that's really
Speaker 1: important for people over fifty to consider, like really be
Speaker 1: I do know that much like you have to be
Speaker 1: careful with what you decide to invest in because we
Speaker 1: can't afford to be that risky. So we want to
Speaker 1: be careful with the decisions that we make on what
Speaker 1: we and how we're going to invest our money. Where
Speaker 1: As a younger person, you know, they have a little
Speaker 1: bit more time and they may be a little bit
Speaker 1: more willing to take those risks. You were talking about
Speaker 1: investing in real estate and farmland, and you know, I
Speaker 1: just want to say that, you know, there there are
Speaker 1: a lot of young people that are working and coming
Speaker 1: into large amounts of money right and it's exciting and
Speaker 1: it feels good and you want to kind of splurge
Speaker 1: and take advantage of luxury items and all of that.
Speaker 1: But I feel like there's a lot of young people
Speaker 1: out here that are really doing well for themselves, and
Speaker 1: I just hope that they're getting the proper financial counsel
Speaker 1: because we have to provide for ourselves, We have to
Speaker 1: provide for our communities, and you know, we have to
Speaker 1: take on that challenge and responsibility for ourselves. We can't
Speaker 1: always be looking for somebody else to give us something.
Speaker 1: And creating your own business. Real estate, there was an
Speaker 1: article not too long ago where people and it was
Speaker 1: being highlighted in social media where people were buying farmland
Speaker 1: because land is money. Real estate is money, you know,
Speaker 1: and those are investments exactly. Those are investments for the future,
Speaker 1: investments for your children. So we gotta kind of get
Speaker 1: past the fancy cars and the diamonds, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. I couldn't agree with you more. I'm a
Speaker 1: firm believer of building wealth, prioritizing. You can have the
Speaker 1: nice things. You can have the fancy cars, you can
Speaker 1: have the jewelry, but you want to prioritize building wealth,
Speaker 1: and not just building wealth for yourself, but also passing
Speaker 1: on the knowledge that you gain in your community, in
Speaker 1: your family, and teaching your children the value of a
Speaker 1: dollar before you just hand them the dollar. That's where
Speaker 1: that generational wealth building begins, instilling the values and understanding
Speaker 1: the value of a dollar. You don't have to have
Speaker 1: a million dollars to transition generational wealth, transition generational knowledge
Speaker 1: to start building that generational wall. Yeah, and you were
Speaker 1: also talking about investing in business, like, for example, if
Speaker 1: there's a baker who wants to own their own shop
Speaker 1: later in life, or like I really love skating and
Speaker 1: I wanted to buy a skating make and my husband
Speaker 1: was like, that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard,
Speaker 1: and we're not doing that, but it would have been fun.
Speaker 1: But he didn't really see that, and he was probably right.
Speaker 1: He didn't see that as an investment is something that
Speaker 1: was going to financially benefit us. And so that's the
Speaker 1: Those are the kinds of things that you have to
Speaker 1: think about when you're investing in a business. Am I right? Yes,
Speaker 1: you are right. So when you're investing in business, first
Speaker 1: of all, you have to make sure the numbers work
Speaker 1: for you have to, you know, you can't just be
Speaker 1: I want to buy a bakery, What does the bakery?
Speaker 1: What's it gonna earn? You want average? How much money
Speaker 1: do you have to put into start it up? And
Speaker 1: how much mon need you estimate you're gonna get from
Speaker 1: this bakery every month. You're gonna need to know your
Speaker 1: numbers so you can get some clarity and before you
Speaker 1: kind of go into delve into this business full time,
Speaker 1: you also want to make sure that you have a
Speaker 1: backup plan for yourself right start to save money. Put
Speaker 1: money aside for your emergencies. Put money aside to cover
Speaker 1: your day to day bill so that when you put
Speaker 1: your full focus on that business, you have a window
Speaker 1: of time, a buffer where your bills are taken care
Speaker 1: of while you focus your energy and getting your business
Speaker 1: on its feet and getting it to start generating income.
Speaker 1: Another really important thing about owning a business is that
Speaker 1: just like you have emergency savings or you should have
Speaker 1: emergency savings for your personal life in case life happens,
Speaker 1: you also want to start. Once your business starts making money,
Speaker 1: a percentage of your profits ten start putting it aside
Speaker 1: to create a buffer for your business. Because every business
Speaker 1: has a slow season. You want to meet payroll, You
Speaker 1: want to be able to make your products and services.
Speaker 1: You want to continue to market your business so that
Speaker 1: way you've built this buffer of cash that when things
Speaker 1: get slow you can tap into of it. Especially you know,
Speaker 1: when you think about happening to the pandemic and black
Speaker 1: and brown communities being locked out of the PPE loan option,
Speaker 1: there was no fallback. Lin. So I'm a huge advocate
Speaker 1: of businesses having you know, buffer is the same way
Speaker 1: you create a buffer in your own personal life. I
Speaker 1: want to speak a little bit because I have a
Speaker 1: lot of friends who are um have job opportunities now,
Speaker 1: like with contract work and freelance work or part time
Speaker 1: work that is bringing in extra dollars. And also speak
Speaker 1: about entrepreneurship because there's so many entrepreneurs out here, so
Speaker 1: they don't have access to for a one K that's matching,
Speaker 1: you know, the money that they may be setting aside
Speaker 1: for themselves, what do they how do they invest or
Speaker 1: how do they manage those dollars that there those extra
Speaker 1: dollars that they're making. It might be as small as
Speaker 1: three hundred extra dollars a month and they decide, oh, well,
Speaker 1: I'm just going this is just my play money. So
Speaker 1: you have people that that are just have that kind
Speaker 1: of extra money, or people that are making thousands of
Speaker 1: dollars because some of these contracts, some of this contract
Speaker 1: work is particularly in healthcare, they're making really good dollars,
Speaker 1: and so how do you manage that money properly so
Speaker 1: that you really are saving the way you think you
Speaker 1: want to? Because it I mean, I think if I
Speaker 1: was bringing home that much money, it would be I
Speaker 1: would be like whoa you know, and it would be
Speaker 1: difficult for me to just say, Okay, now you're doing
Speaker 1: this for a reason. You're doing this to help plan
Speaker 1: for your retirement. What is the best way to handle
Speaker 1: those extra dollars? This is a great question I want
Speaker 1: to get asked for very often. So the first thing
Speaker 1: you want to do as you're making money each paycheck,
Speaker 1: especially if your contract based is you want to set
Speaker 1: money aside to pay your taxes, because come end of
Speaker 1: the year, you're gonna get that tax bill from Uncle Sam.
Speaker 1: And Uncle Sam doesn't play when it comes to his money.
Speaker 1: So about that income should be put aside separate account
Speaker 1: to cover your tax obligation. If at the end of
Speaker 1: the year you don't owe that much in taxes, that's great.
Speaker 1: You have extra money to save to invest to pursue
Speaker 1: your goals. The second thing you want to do is
Speaker 1: to create a budget. And a lot of times when
Speaker 1: people are working on contract basis, they have an inconsistent
Speaker 1: income and so they have low income paid low windows
Speaker 1: of income and high income high windows of income. And
Speaker 1: you want to determine what is your average what are
Speaker 1: your average expenses that you have to pay for every month,
Speaker 1: and know that once you have that high window of income,
Speaker 1: you're gonna put money aside to be able to cover
Speaker 1: those monthly expenses when you have that low period of income.
Speaker 1: So you want to know what your average expenses are
Speaker 1: and create that ash buffer to cover yourself when your
Speaker 1: income is lower. The next thing you want to do
Speaker 1: is say for retirement. And there are several options that
Speaker 1: have tax deferred benefits, meaning you don't pay taxes now
Speaker 1: on that money, and your money has the opportunity to
Speaker 1: grow tax free into the future, and you can say
Speaker 1: for retirement and they're actually really great plans. So the
Speaker 1: one we all know about is the individual Retirement account
Speaker 1: the IRA, and you can open one of those at
Speaker 1: a brokerage. It allows you to save up to six
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. However, depending on how you have structured your
Speaker 1: business or your freelancing work or your contracting work. There
Speaker 1: are other investment options like the s c P I
Speaker 1: RA or the simple I RA or the self Employed
Speaker 1: for one K that are specific for business owners and
Speaker 1: self employed individuals where you can save more money. So,
Speaker 1: for example, with the step I ra UM you can
Speaker 1: contribute up to twenty of your up to a maximum
Speaker 1: of I believe sixty one thousand dollars every year into
Speaker 1: a retirement account tax deferred, and if you have inmployees
Speaker 1: you would have to contribute to that for them as well.
Speaker 1: A Simple i R is for business owners who have
Speaker 1: less than a hundred employees, where you can also contribute
Speaker 1: up to fourteen thousand dollars in two right, and a
Speaker 1: self employed foreign K is specific to individuals who are
Speaker 1: self employed with no employees other than their spouse and
Speaker 1: they can also contribute up to twenty dollars tax deferred
Speaker 1: in So there are options for you to save for retirement.
Speaker 1: As a business owner, entrepreneur or self employed person. You
Speaker 1: want to make sure that you understand the eligibility requirements
Speaker 1: and you can simply do that on the I r
Speaker 1: S website or talk to an accountant. But don't think
Speaker 1: that because you don't have an employer offering you a
Speaker 1: form on K that you cannot save. You absolutely can,
Speaker 1: and you can actually save more on average than someone
Speaker 1: who's employed by a company. You know this. Even listening
Speaker 1: to you, Bola, I'm still overwhelmed. I'm still really overwhelmed
Speaker 1: because it is so much information, and I'm feeling like,
Speaker 1: is it worth investing in a financial advisor to help
Speaker 1: you kind of figure all of this out? Because I'm
Speaker 1: just listening to you, I'm I'm still like, yes, I
Speaker 1: always tell people, you know, it's always when we talk finances,
Speaker 1: there's always a lot of information. But pick one place, right,
Speaker 1: and it could be starting with a financial advisor. And
Speaker 1: if you're someone who is overwhelmed by all the different
Speaker 1: plans and terms and you're not sure where to start,
Speaker 1: a financial advisor financial planner is a great place to
Speaker 1: get help with managing your finances, get that professional guidance.
Speaker 1: But it's important to remember that this is a relationship, right,
Speaker 1: So you have to be clear on your goals. What
Speaker 1: do you want to accomplish with your money. You have
Speaker 1: to be clear on your risk tolerance, right. The financial
Speaker 1: advisor cannot read your mind, and you want to make
Speaker 1: sure that they're creating a plan for your hard earned
Speaker 1: money in a way that it's gonna work for you
Speaker 1: and allow you to sleep well at night. So when
Speaker 1: you're thinking about a financial advisor, you definitely want to
Speaker 1: ask them for their credentials, right, what qualifies you to
Speaker 1: be a financial advisor or financial planner? How do you
Speaker 1: typically best money? And make sure it aligns with your
Speaker 1: risk tolerance? Right? You don't want them taking risks with
Speaker 1: cryptocurrency if that's not what you're interested in doing and
Speaker 1: you don't feel comfortable with that. You want to get
Speaker 1: a sense for their values and their ethics to make
Speaker 1: sure that they are in line with yours and they're
Speaker 1: going to put it be putting your money in investments
Speaker 1: that aligned with you. You also want to get a
Speaker 1: sense of their fee structure. What is it gonna cost you?
Speaker 1: Do they charge you a flat fee, are they going
Speaker 1: to charge you a percentage based on how much you
Speaker 1: invest with them, or are they going to charge you
Speaker 1: based on commission? And ultimately, when it comes to any
Speaker 1: financial advisor financial planner, they should be working in your
Speaker 1: best interests first and not trying to sell your products
Speaker 1: and services ahead of that. So what is the best
Speaker 1: way to even find a financial planner for yourself? Like,
Speaker 1: do you just go to the bank or are you
Speaker 1: asking a friend or you know, how do you find
Speaker 1: that person? Yes, so the most popular way of finding
Speaker 1: a financial planner is through word of mouth from referrals,
Speaker 1: friends and valily because they already trust that person. You
Speaker 1: can certainly walk into your financial establishment and asked to
Speaker 1: be paired with one, or you can visit a CFP
Speaker 1: dot net, the certified financial Planning board that can assign
Speaker 1: you or showcase to you financial planners in your area.
Speaker 1: But again, it's a relationship, right. This person is handling
Speaker 1: your hard earned money. You work really hard for it,
Speaker 1: so you can ask them questions, you can do research
Speaker 1: on this person. You can take your time getting to
Speaker 1: know them before you hand over your money, because you
Speaker 1: want to feel comfortable with this person who's going to
Speaker 1: be handling your money for you. Okay, let's talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about social security because I feel like people
Speaker 1: don't feel like they can live off the social security anymore.
Speaker 1: I guess back in the day they could, but the
Speaker 1: cost of living now is so high. First of all,
Speaker 1: let me say this, most of my friends and family
Speaker 1: typically have multiple streams of income. I don't know too
Speaker 1: many people anymore. Number one, I don't know anybody who
Speaker 1: can afford to have a wife that stays home with
Speaker 1: the kids. Like most households, both partners are employed. And
Speaker 1: most of my friends that have retired also have taken
Speaker 1: on second careers because they don't feel like that they
Speaker 1: can live off of Social Security. So, how does saving
Speaker 1: for retirement affect your social security? You know? That is
Speaker 1: it's so true. And my mom is at retirement. My
Speaker 1: mom is seventy one, and she gets a security check
Speaker 1: every month and it's about six and she can't do
Speaker 1: she can't do much of anything with that money. So, um,
Speaker 1: it's really important not to rely on social Security as
Speaker 1: your plan. I continue to hear updates and read updates
Speaker 1: about how it may not even exist for the younger generation.
Speaker 1: Right may not be available, and so it's important to
Speaker 1: start saving for yourself right. You know, second career, second
Speaker 1: jobs is some sometimes what many people have to do
Speaker 1: because that Social Security check is not cutting it. And
Speaker 1: sometimes when people start collecting their social Security benefits early,
Speaker 1: So early is when you start collecting it. I believe
Speaker 1: at age sixty two, you actually get smaller monthly payments
Speaker 1: than what you would if you waited until your normal
Speaker 1: retirement age of sixty five, between sixty five to sixty seven.
Speaker 1: So Social Security, you know, back in the day, it
Speaker 1: was something that was meant to support people into retirement, right,
Speaker 1: but it's so longer the case, and at this point
Speaker 1: it's almost pretty much everyone for themselves. It's six dollars
Speaker 1: that my mom gets cannot I mean, you can't even
Speaker 1: pay rent. So yeah, we have to prioritize our own
Speaker 1: retirement savings, our own multiple streams of income, like you said,
Speaker 1: just doing what we can to bring money in for ourselves. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I guess you have to really pay attention. And
Speaker 1: the Social Security sends out you know that your information
Speaker 1: to you every so often. You just really have to
Speaker 1: pay attention to win is the best time for you
Speaker 1: to retire? I guess because I'm really it's really frustrating
Speaker 1: to work all of those years and then not be
Speaker 1: able to really benefit at all from Social Security. I mean,
Speaker 1: like you said, six hundred dollars, who can live off
Speaker 1: for six hundred dollars. It's a real challenge and it's unfortunate.
Speaker 1: You know, if my mom didn't have. My mom still works,
Speaker 1: you know. She started a second career as a nurse,
Speaker 1: as an infant nurse, and so that's how she brings
Speaker 1: money in addition to whatever she had saved for retirement
Speaker 1: over the last several years. So was she in health
Speaker 1: care before? No, my mom wasn't banking. And then in
Speaker 1: her fifties, she went to nursing school. Okay, okay, yes,
Speaker 1: and took on a second career. Yeah, and she loves it,
Speaker 1: doesn't she. Yeah, I'm sorry, she loves her. I know
Speaker 1: I'm missing so much. But anyway, that's a whole another conversation. Okay, Bola,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. This was really um an interesting conversation.
Speaker 1: I hope it was helpful for the listeners. Now it's
Speaker 1: time for the segment. Wouldn't you like to know before
Speaker 1: you go? Bola? I have a couple of rapid fire
Speaker 1: questions for you. What book are you currently reading? I'm
Speaker 1: actually about to start a new book that I have here,
Speaker 1: and it's called His Only Wife. It's a novel by
Speaker 1: peace Adzo Media. So I'm hoping it's a good one.
Speaker 1: All right, sounds good. I had to put that on
Speaker 1: my list. It's set in West Africa. Yes, all right,
Speaker 1: what is one positive thing you want to get off
Speaker 1: your chest? The one thing is encouragement to people to
Speaker 1: know that it is possible to achieve financial wellness. But
Speaker 1: it starts with adjusting your mindset first and believing that
Speaker 1: you can, because that belief will help you take those
Speaker 1: first small actions. And a lot of people feel that
Speaker 1: those actions are too small to be significant, but they
Speaker 1: do add up over time, making the effort to save
Speaker 1: the small dollars, to invest the small dollars, to learn
Speaker 1: more about finances, to budget, it all adds up. So really, people,
Speaker 1: I want to believe that it is possible to achieve
Speaker 1: your own financial wellness, right, And I mean even if
Speaker 1: it's as small as five or ten dollars a month,
Speaker 1: you know you have to start somewhere and you really
Speaker 1: have to make it a priority for yourself. So maybe
Speaker 1: you have to skip you know, getting your nails done
Speaker 1: or you know, getting your hair done or whatever that
Speaker 1: may be. But you really have to start investing early
Speaker 1: because you know you're so right, Social security is not
Speaker 1: going to do it for you, lad us, but not least,
Speaker 1: what's a model that you live by? Always do my
Speaker 1: best I'm a mom to twins of a business owner.
Speaker 1: Not every day is a great day, but I do
Speaker 1: my best. I love it. I love it. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining us today, Bola. Tell people where
Speaker 1: we can find you on social media. It was such
Speaker 1: a pleasure, and you can find me at Clever Gonna Finance,
Speaker 1: on Instagram, on YouTube, and on Facebook. Thank you Bowlad
Speaker 1: for stopping by Positivity Gammon talking to us all about
Speaker 1: saving for retirement. Appreciate you. Thank you. So this is
Speaker 1: my major takeaway from this episode is that I know
Speaker 1: it sounds like a lot of money and the average
Speaker 1: person just doesn't have it. The important thing is that
Speaker 1: you've got to start to save, even if it's just
Speaker 1: a dollar. You've got to start saving and planning because
Speaker 1: social Security is not going to do it for you.
Speaker 1: And join this episode of Positively Gam, then subscribe to
Speaker 1: the Positively gam series to catch up on all of
Speaker 1: season two. Now it's time for Gams Corner, where I
Speaker 1: answered band questions from my listeners. Okay, what was your
Speaker 1: favorite thing about being a nurse? Wow? How about everything?
Speaker 1: I absolutely loved being a nurse. I missed it so much.
Speaker 1: I made that decision kind of late in life. I
Speaker 1: was like maybe twenty seven when I went to nursing
Speaker 1: school and I was the oldest person in my class.
Speaker 1: But I just I loved it. My father was a doctor,
Speaker 1: my brother in all was a doctor, and I used
Speaker 1: to go to the hospital with my dad when he
Speaker 1: would make grounds. Now he couldn't take me, you know,
Speaker 1: of course, into the patient's rooms or anything like that,
Speaker 1: but I just I liked being in that atmosphere that
Speaker 1: back in the day of Provident Hospital, they had an
Speaker 1: operator and I would sit with the operator, the telephone operator,
Speaker 1: while my dad made his rounds. And I just it's
Speaker 1: kind of in my blood and I just enjoy healthcare
Speaker 1: and everything medical. And we are a family of service.
Speaker 1: So everybody in my family it has a role that
Speaker 1: is in service to the community some way, and this
Speaker 1: was my way and just health and healing. It's just
Speaker 1: something that I loved, and I chose a specialty women's
Speaker 1: health that was important to me, and it was basically
Speaker 1: a happy place. I was a mother baby nurse and
Speaker 1: bringing life into the world and participating in that just
Speaker 1: brought me so much joy and I truly miss it.
Speaker 1: The second question is if you could trade lives with
Speaker 1: someone for a day, who would it be? Okay? So
Speaker 1: this is what I'm gonna say about that. You never
Speaker 1: know what's really going on behind closed doors. You never
Speaker 1: know the challenges that other people have to deal with.
Speaker 1: So I am grateful for the life that I have
Speaker 1: and the life that I live. So I choose to
Speaker 1: say in my own seat, today was a great episode.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys so much. You can submit your
Speaker 1: questions to positively gam at red table talk dot com
Speaker 1: for a chance to hear me read them on my
Speaker 1: next episode. And that's our show for this week of
Speaker 1: positively gam. You can follow me online at gammy nors
Speaker 1: and now on TikTok at gammy Nors. Also help us
Speaker 1: out by leaving a five star review on Apple Podcasts
Speaker 1: and by hitting the follow button on I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Stay grateful, y'all. Positively Gam is produced by Red Table
Speaker 1: Talk Podcast and I Heart Radio. Executive producers are Adrian Vanfield,
Speaker 1: Naris Valin, Jethro and Jada Pinkett Smith. Our audio engineer
Speaker 1: is Calvin Bailiff, and our associate producer is Irene Bischofberger.
Speaker 1: Our theme song is produced by d Beats