Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Kim Azzarelli. Welcome to this brand new season
Speaker 1: of Seneca's Conversations. In this season, we're launching a special
Speaker 1: five part series on young women's financial wellness in partnership
Speaker 1: with Secret Deodorant. It's called Secret Money Tips. We recently
Speaker 1: hosted the Young Women's Financial Wellness Form at the New
Speaker 1: York Stock Exchange in partnership with Secret, where noowned financial
Speaker 1: experts gave young women their best advice about budgeting, saving,
Speaker 1: and investing financial empowerment one oh one. Now we're bringing
Speaker 1: that advice to every young woman through this series. I'm
Speaker 1: pleased to welcome Jamila Souffrant, founder of Journey to Launch,
Speaker 1: an award winning podcast and blog that helps listeners launch
Speaker 1: into financial freedom. Jamila, thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to be here, Kim.
Speaker 1: So tell us a little bit about your personal money journey,
Speaker 1: starting when you were a young girl.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I feel very fortunate to be raised
Speaker 3: by the mom that I was raised by was a
Speaker 3: young single mom, and she actually was born and grew
Speaker 3: up on the island of Jamaica. And I actually was
Speaker 3: born in Jamaica, And so, like many immigrants coming to
Speaker 3: this country. Coming to the US really sparked and showed
Speaker 3: the just determination that my mom had at such a
Speaker 3: young age to provide a better life for me than
Speaker 3: she had. And my money story, I feel like starts there.
Speaker 3: Even though she never sat down and taught me money lessons,
Speaker 3: I believe it was imprinted on me by watching how
Speaker 3: hard she worked, how hard my grandmother worked, coming here
Speaker 3: with nothing, being able to manage the little bit that
Speaker 3: they had to do as well as they ended up doing.
Speaker 3: So my mom came here, she got her degree, she
Speaker 3: went to school, she worked her way up, starting in
Speaker 3: fast food, and so watching that as a little girl
Speaker 3: showed me the importance of saving and earning money.
Speaker 2: And I opened up my first bank account.
Speaker 3: I remember this very vividly because she took me to
Speaker 3: open up My mom took me to open up my
Speaker 3: first bank account at about like six years old, and
Speaker 3: it was a savings account, and she just said, you know,
Speaker 3: anything that you bring in, any money that you make,
Speaker 3: try to save something, it doesn't matter how little.
Speaker 2: And so that as a little girl.
Speaker 3: Growing up and doing that consistently even when I got
Speaker 3: any money for birthdays or Christmases, and then when I
Speaker 3: got my first job at fourteen. I was always primed
Speaker 3: to save, and then as I got a little bit older,
Speaker 3: I started to realize that saving is not enough to
Speaker 3: get me to have the life that I wanted, and
Speaker 3: really investing. When I learned about the power of investing
Speaker 3: in my twenties and especially in my thirties, when I
Speaker 3: actually took more action, I started to see a significant
Speaker 3: change to where I was financially and it led me
Speaker 3: to start journey to launch the podcast and blog where
Speaker 3: I help or show other people what saving, investing, and
Speaker 3: being intentional with your money can do for you.
Speaker 1: Wow. Well that's an incredible journey. And I know, as
Speaker 1: you said, that lesson that you got about saving was
Speaker 1: really important to you. Is that sort of one of
Speaker 1: the main things that you recommend young women start with.
Speaker 1: Why is that so important for young women to have
Speaker 1: their own savings account?
Speaker 2: It's so important. Saving is a safety net.
Speaker 3: Saving allows you to take advantage of opportunities. So not
Speaker 3: only does it save you saving money save you in
Speaker 3: case there isn't an emergency, but it allows you the
Speaker 3: room to breathe and then to take advantage of opportunities
Speaker 3: that come along. So as you're growing up and as
Speaker 3: you are getting your footing in the world, you do
Speaker 3: have a lot of people.
Speaker 2: You know, if you're fortunate to have people.
Speaker 3: That love you and care about you, you're living in
Speaker 3: their household, right and you're not necessarily always earning money
Speaker 3: or managing money on your own. But the earlier that
Speaker 3: you can start to do that, the better, because then
Speaker 3: it allows you that when you do go to college
Speaker 3: or go away and you start to leave the nest,
Speaker 3: you have a better idea of what it really takes
Speaker 3: to live in the world. And I feel like for women,
Speaker 3: especially when we are dependent or have been dependent growing
Speaker 3: up on especially growing into this patriarchal society, we really
Speaker 3: need our own money and we need to have the
Speaker 3: ability to know how to manage it because, like I said,
Speaker 3: you never know when there's an opportunity that you can
Speaker 3: take advantage of, and you know, really important that you
Speaker 3: can leave a situation if it's not serving you or
Speaker 3: if it's unsafe.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more. And I think, you know, starting
Speaker 1: early at six is so amazing that you started that early,
Speaker 1: but it's never never too late to start. I mean,
Speaker 1: one of the things that we've talked about in the past,
Speaker 1: which I think has really had a big impact on
Speaker 1: me in my own journey. Is this magic formula of
Speaker 1: compound interest. I think you were saying you were alluded
Speaker 1: to it earlier that once you realized what you could
Speaker 1: do with your savings, that's when you sort of felt
Speaker 1: even more freedom. Can you tell us about the magic
Speaker 1: of compound interest?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so here's where I realized that saving was great,
Speaker 3: but in order to get to have real, real wealth
Speaker 3: and to have assets, I would need to invest. So
Speaker 3: compound interest is the idea that your money earns money
Speaker 3: for you. It's when your money earns interest, and that
Speaker 3: interest that earns more money to grow your accounts. And
Speaker 3: the way you do that is by investing. So typically
Speaker 3: with the savings account, if you're saving it's just at
Speaker 3: a traditional bank, you may be getting point zero zero
Speaker 3: five percent on any money in that account. And then
Speaker 3: when I learned that investing allows you to you know,
Speaker 3: depending on the market and the asset class, you can
Speaker 3: earn returns you know, anywhere from three to ten percent. Right,
Speaker 3: that shows like how big of a difference you can
Speaker 3: grow your money from just sitting in savings, which is
Speaker 3: great to switching and adopting an investing mindset because then
Speaker 3: you're able to grow your money faster and without as
Speaker 3: much effort, because it's it's money that's earning money on
Speaker 3: top of money.
Speaker 1: I love the way you describe compound interests, this concept
Speaker 1: that your money is making money for you while you sleep.
Speaker 1: I think that's such an, you know, such an interesting
Speaker 1: concept to grasp early, that your money could be put
Speaker 1: to work and could be making more money for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 3: I feel this is something that I wish I knew
Speaker 3: in my teens and even understood more in my twenties
Speaker 3: as I started to work and get my first full
Speaker 3: time job where I earned a salary, because I didn't
Speaker 3: understand how it worked and how the earlier you start,
Speaker 3: you know, the more opportunity that your money has to
Speaker 3: grow and the more that it can make. And not
Speaker 3: that it's ever too late for someone, but I just
Speaker 3: think it's really important for young girls to know that
Speaker 3: you can start early and it's okay even if it's
Speaker 3: not a lot of money, because a lot of us,
Speaker 3: if you're working that young, it's not it's it's limited income.
Speaker 3: But even putting something aside matters. It matters down the line.
Speaker 1: So adopting these kind of building the right habits early
Speaker 1: is key. So what are some saving habits young women
Speaker 1: can adopt right now?
Speaker 3: So some saving habits for young women is to open
Speaker 3: up a bank account if you don't have one already,
Speaker 3: and have a separate bank account for your savings account.
Speaker 3: So if you have an account that's where you pay
Speaker 3: maybe your cell phone bill, or that's the money that
Speaker 3: you take out to go seat with your friends, but
Speaker 3: you should have a separate account for saving money. That way,
Speaker 3: the money is not commingled and you know that it's
Speaker 3: specifically for saving for either an event or a purchase,
Speaker 3: or just something that may come up as an emergency
Speaker 3: in your budget. So that's one of the first things,
Speaker 3: is to have a separate savings account from your checking account.
Speaker 1: That's great advice. And you also talked about how powerful
Speaker 1: it was when you learned about investing. Now I know
Speaker 1: when you're young. I can speak for myself, it's hard
Speaker 1: to even think about investing when you're trying to think
Speaker 1: about savings. But again, it's never too early to adopt
Speaker 1: an investing mindset. What are some ways you can think
Speaker 1: about saving and then using that and putting it to
Speaker 1: work towards investing, even if you have a small amount
Speaker 1: of money.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so everyone is going to be different and every
Speaker 3: situation is different. So it's really going to depend on
Speaker 3: where you are and how old you are and what
Speaker 3: your expenses are, what you're looking to do in the
Speaker 3: next few years. But let's just take a just baseline.
Speaker 3: You know, young woman who maybe is in college and
Speaker 3: she does want to start saving and investing something, but
Speaker 3: has limited income.
Speaker 2: Because she's focused on school.
Speaker 3: So in a situation like that, you know, think about
Speaker 3: maybe some things that you would want to save for
Speaker 3: after college. Maybe you eventually want to get your own apartment,
Speaker 3: or you are saving for a car, and how much
Speaker 3: that would cost, or how much you need to save
Speaker 3: up and how long it would take you to save up,
Speaker 3: and not.
Speaker 2: To get discouraged either.
Speaker 3: If it does take you a while, you may do
Speaker 3: the calculation and figure, well, with my current income, it
Speaker 3: may take me four years to save up to get.
Speaker 2: This thing that I want.
Speaker 3: Or you can think about, okay, but what's my trajectory
Speaker 3: after I graduate?
Speaker 2: What am I looking to earn?
Speaker 3: And then how can I start to think about budgeting
Speaker 3: that money in advance right, think about what your life
Speaker 3: looks like then, so hopefully you get a little boost
Speaker 3: of confidence and where your life is headed. And then
Speaker 3: think about once you do have maybe five hundred dollars
Speaker 3: or one thousand dollars saved, right, I call that like
Speaker 3: a starter emergence fund for a lot of people, and
Speaker 3: at that age, that's a lot of money for someone.
Speaker 3: So even having five hundred to one thousand dollars setting
Speaker 3: a goal, that's just savings in case of an emergency
Speaker 3: or in case there's something that comes up that you
Speaker 3: want to do or buy. You have that there and
Speaker 3: then start thinking about what is a way that I
Speaker 3: can start learning about investing. So I'm very big on
Speaker 3: educating yourself. And sometimes you think that you have to
Speaker 3: actually do something right to make progress or in an
Speaker 3: external action, and a lot of people don't recognize that
Speaker 3: before you can make the external action, So before you
Speaker 3: can go and open up that investment account and then
Speaker 3: have the courage to start investing, you have to believe
Speaker 3: right in yourself. You have to have some knowledge about it.
Speaker 3: So a lot of work actually takes place before action,
Speaker 3: and that's the internal work. So that is educating yourself
Speaker 3: on what are my investment options?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: What is a raw ira? That may be the first
Speaker 3: time someone hears about that, but are you curious? Are
Speaker 3: you going to go now and look up what that
Speaker 3: is and look up the potential places you can open one?
Speaker 2: So a lot of this is also groundwork.
Speaker 3: Before you even need to do anything, so you could
Speaker 3: start having the confidence and education to take the right
Speaker 3: steps forward.
Speaker 1: Well, Jamala, this has been wonderful to talk to you again.
Speaker 1: I wish I knew you when I was young, but
Speaker 1: I'm glad that the young women listening to the show
Speaker 1: can learn from you, and we're looking forward to your
Speaker 1: book and of course your podcast, which is already out.
Speaker 1: It's just a wonderful contribution that you're making.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Kim.
Speaker 3: I'm really excited about this partnership and the fact that
Speaker 3: I get to talk more about this important topic, especially
Speaker 3: for young women saving and investing and really starting your
Speaker 3: financial journey being intentional about it so that you can
Speaker 3: have the options and the happiness in your life that
Speaker 3: you deserve.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Jamila. That was so helpful. So let me
Speaker 1: recap some of what we learned today. First, Jamila tells
Speaker 1: us that every young woman should have a savings account
Speaker 1: in her own name. A savings account gives you room
Speaker 1: to breathe, and it allows you to take advance of
Speaker 1: opportunities as they come up. Second, investing is a way
Speaker 1: to build on your savings, and that's where the magic
Speaker 1: of compound interest comes in. It allows you to earn
Speaker 1: money on your money. You're making money, as Jamila says,
Speaker 1: even when you sleep. Finally, Jamila reminds us that it's
Speaker 1: never too early to build an investing mindset, even if
Speaker 1: you don't have money to invest right now. The first
Speaker 1: step is learning about investing that will give you the
Speaker 1: confidence to take the right next steps. For more money
Speaker 1: advice from Jamila Souffront, listen to her journey to launch
Speaker 1: a podcast. Join me next week for more money tips
Speaker 1: for young women on our next episode of Seneca's Conversations,
Speaker 1: Secret Money Tips in partnership with Secret Deodorant. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening, and please share today's podcast episode with others
Speaker 1: in your life. This is Kim Azarelli, co author of
Speaker 1: Fast Forward and co founder of Seneca Women. Seneca's Conversations
Speaker 1: is a production of the Seneca Women podcast network and iHeartRadio.
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