Speaker 1: Episode to Understanding your workplace retirement accounts with Dahianne Barrios.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 1: save money, embrace simplicity, rice and liver with your life.
Speaker 1: Here your host Jen and Jill m M. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name
Speaker 1: is Jill, and today we're talking about something that may
Speaker 1: not be seen on the surface is very interesting, but
Speaker 1: it is something that so few people fully understand, and
Speaker 1: it is workplace retirement accounts. It's the four oh one K,
Speaker 1: the four oh three B, the four seven, the YadA,
Speaker 1: YadA YadA. They are all very similar. So we're not
Speaker 1: going to go through everything individually. We're gonna talk to
Speaker 1: our good friend Alien Barrios about the differences though, and
Speaker 1: what you should do with yours, how yours may differ
Speaker 1: from another one. Can you have multiples? So this is
Speaker 1: going to be a super important episode, even if it
Speaker 1: doesn't have the sexiest name. All these numbers and letter
Speaker 1: combinations in parentheses, like what in the world do they mean?
Speaker 1: And in many ways makes sense that we don't talk
Speaker 1: about this very often because it is one of those
Speaker 1: things that in general at most we're looking at it
Speaker 1: once a year, maybe less. If you've been at your
Speaker 1: place of employment for a while, you kind of set
Speaker 1: it and forget it, or you don't set it because
Speaker 1: you don't understand those numbers and letters. So hopefully Delian
Speaker 1: will be able to explain a little bit more to
Speaker 1: us and then mostly just provide the motivation we need
Speaker 1: to do the thing to do the thing once. Yes,
Speaker 1: So if retirement and investing is something you're looking to
Speaker 1: learn more about, we do have a lot of investing
Speaker 1: episodes that are specifically focused towards keeping investing simple, keeping
Speaker 1: it retirement focused, and keeping it reasonable. Uh So, some
Speaker 1: of our favorite ones are episode two oh five, which
Speaker 1: is how to Say for Retirement and episode ninety four
Speaker 1: which is Retirement one oh one, and those are really good,
Speaker 1: but also our minimalist investing episode I forget what number
Speaker 1: that is, but that one is very good as well.
Speaker 1: And somebody who knows a lot about investing, I am
Speaker 1: somewhat of a nerd when it comes to investing for retirement,
Speaker 1: not all investing per se. But somebody who is a
Speaker 1: nerd about all of it is our friend Delian, and
Speaker 1: you might know her as Delian the Money Coach on
Speaker 1: TikTok on Instagram. She is an investing coach and she's
Speaker 1: been named one of the most influential voices on money
Speaker 1: by Time, and she was the host of Diversifying, which
Speaker 1: was the first personal finance podcast produced by CNN. She
Speaker 1: is a rock star and she is just as relatable
Speaker 1: and nice in person as she is on social media.
Speaker 1: So super excited if you don't know her to introduce
Speaker 1: her to you. Yes, let's do first. I'm ready. I was,
Speaker 1: it was too. This episode is brought to you you
Speaker 1: were wondering. I knew you were wondering too. This episode
Speaker 1: is brought to you by Debt Free Stories. And I
Speaker 1: can't believe that I forgot this one because this one
Speaker 1: is a brand new one. So Daffree Stories is our
Speaker 1: new YouTube series that just launched this week and is
Speaker 1: releasing weekly through February. Because you guys continuously ask us
Speaker 1: for more Debt Free Story interviews and we can't possibly
Speaker 1: fill the entire show with them because there are so
Speaker 1: many other things we want to talk about, like workplace
Speaker 1: restirement accounts for you know, we're selling you what you want,
Speaker 1: but we're giving you what you need. We're putting what
Speaker 1: you want on YouTube. We have a ten episode series
Speaker 1: exclusive to YouTube where we are interviewing listeners just like you,
Speaker 1: who have paid off debt in various ways. That's another
Speaker 1: reason I'm very excited about the series, because it's not
Speaker 1: just experts and entrepreneurs and all of these people you
Speaker 1: continuously here on podcast paying off debt. We got listeners.
Speaker 1: We got you guys to share your stories, and we're
Speaker 1: celebrating with you. And you have provided so much inspiration
Speaker 1: and wisdom in these interviews. I'm so excited for everybody
Speaker 1: to hear them. We've got a variety of people, variety
Speaker 1: of backgrounds, and so we hope you'll find it as
Speaker 1: inspirational as we did. If you want to catch that,
Speaker 1: head to YouTube dot com slash Frugal Friends and subscribe
Speaker 1: to the channel and turn on notifications because the first
Speaker 1: episode is out and you want to get a notification
Speaker 1: for every episode when it drops each week. Yes, I'm
Speaker 1: so excited for this YouTube, but even more excited in
Speaker 1: this moment for Delian. Delian, welcome and thank you for
Speaker 1: hanging out with us today to talk about this like
Speaker 1: rifeting really sexy topic, salacious um I do think it's sexy. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I take offense to that. So you're very welcome. This
Speaker 1: will be a rated our episode. We're gonna have to retirement. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm so excited. I'm just delian. You are a force.
Speaker 1: Just reading your bio before we jumped into this, I'm
Speaker 1: so excited for you to be here and explain all
Speaker 1: of these numbers and letters and the ways in which
Speaker 1: they combine to mean something for our rate in our episode.
Speaker 1: Can you can? Can we start there with the four
Speaker 1: oh one ks, the four or three bees, the four fifties,
Speaker 1: seven bees, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. There may not be that
Speaker 1: many ETCeteras. You'll know better than me, But what are
Speaker 1: the differences between these accounts? What are they? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: think first, you know, a good place to start is
Speaker 1: why do they have these awful names? So like, could
Speaker 1: they not have come up with a better name for
Speaker 1: these accounts? Please? Yeah? The sad truth is that they
Speaker 1: just literally plucked the section out of the I R.
Speaker 1: S Code and was like, oh, this is section four
Speaker 1: oh one K. I know, we'll name this this account
Speaker 1: four oh one K. I'm like, wow, you guys are
Speaker 1: just really reserving that creative energy for other things. Okay, cool. Um,
Speaker 1: so that's where that those names come from. It's from
Speaker 1: the I R S Code, and um, I think people
Speaker 1: get overwhelmed. Yes, there's so many front accounts. But the
Speaker 1: good news is that for the most part, they're very,
Speaker 1: very similar, Like their similarities are way more than their differences.
Speaker 1: So whatever you know, whenever I'm talking about investing in general,
Speaker 1: like you guys have here, a lot of the concepts
Speaker 1: that we discuss apply across the board. So that's the
Speaker 1: good news, right, But today I guess we're gonna highlight
Speaker 1: a little bit more of like what the differences are.
Speaker 1: But the biggest similarity between them though, are that these
Speaker 1: are employer sponsored plans, so these are accounts that you
Speaker 1: need to get through your employer. Although I'm gonna make
Speaker 1: a caveat already it's that there are so low for
Speaker 1: one case and set I raise, which are for the
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs out there. So if you're like, hey, I'm a
Speaker 1: business owner, I'm self employed, and I left out of
Speaker 1: this conversation, I would say no, like listen in, like
Speaker 1: this is still gonna apply to you. Because everything that
Speaker 1: we say for the four oh one K and everything
Speaker 1: else is going to apply to the solo for one K,
Speaker 1: so it's all going to translate. Um, so both entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: and employees can benefit. But yeah, I think the you know,
Speaker 1: the other difference between them is they apply to different
Speaker 1: groups of employees. So you've got the four O one K,
Speaker 1: which usually applies to people in the private sector, right,
Speaker 1: that's like most of America. And then you have the
Speaker 1: four H three B s which are nonprofits things like
Speaker 1: you know, people who work for legal aid or any
Speaker 1: other kind of nonprofit, who's a teacher, um. And then
Speaker 1: you have the seven which is for government employees, so
Speaker 1: people in the military, any kind of other government establishment,
Speaker 1: they usually get access to the four seven. That's the
Speaker 1: biggest difference between them. There's a few other things that
Speaker 1: will probably highlight as we go, but that's that's the
Speaker 1: biggest distinguishing factor there. Nice, And all of these are
Speaker 1: retirement accounts, is that correct? Correct? So the the there
Speaker 1: specifically you know, retirement accounts that are going to provide
Speaker 1: you some and a tax savings, which is why you'll
Speaker 1: sometimes hear them being referred to as tax advantaged accounts. Um.
Speaker 1: So whenever you hear anybody say, oh, investing your tax
Speaker 1: advantaged accounts. They're talking about these traditional retirement accounts in
Speaker 1: addition to like things like your I A. And then
Speaker 1: when you hear people say non tax advantage account, that's
Speaker 1: usually the brokerage account, right where that's not tied to
Speaker 1: your employer at all. Yeah, that's that's like when you've
Speaker 1: maxed out all of all of the things that they
Speaker 1: put a limit on, means that you should like try
Speaker 1: and max those out first, because that's the reason there's
Speaker 1: a limit on it, because there's some kind of like
Speaker 1: tax advantage. So, yeah, we don't talk much about the
Speaker 1: brokerages because most people, for most people like really the
Speaker 1: employer sponsored program is fine. And then potentially a rap
Speaker 1: ira which is like a different episode. But is that
Speaker 1: what you find you work with like a lot of people.
Speaker 1: Have you found that to be true or any like
Speaker 1: common exceptions? Yeah, I think you know, America is mostly
Speaker 1: made up of four oh one k millionaires. And again
Speaker 1: I'm using the four old one k colloquially because that
Speaker 1: could also include like four or three v millionaires and millionaires,
Speaker 1: but four oh one k millionaires meaning people who are
Speaker 1: just like everyday normal people who are working their everyday
Speaker 1: normal job that's not very glamorous and just like you know,
Speaker 1: living life, and they are putting money slowly and surely
Speaker 1: into these accounts, and over a period of thirty or
Speaker 1: forty years, boom, they have a million dollars in these accounts. Right,
Speaker 1: like just doing a very boring like tried and true investing,
Speaker 1: long term investing, which is what I preach, which is
Speaker 1: what I teach, and it's what I practice. And so
Speaker 1: it is possible to become a millionaire you know, through
Speaker 1: these accounts, absolutely, and people do it all the time.
Speaker 1: Um Am I going to say, like every single person
Speaker 1: can do it. Obviously I can't say that because we
Speaker 1: have you know, insane amount of income inequality in this country,
Speaker 1: and there are some people who are like, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to get food on the table. I cannot invest.
Speaker 1: So I'm not gonna sit here and be like everybody
Speaker 1: you know is going to be able to achieve this.
Speaker 1: But for a lot of people, right for um and
Speaker 1: I would say for probably the majority of Americans, you
Speaker 1: can make this happen with a little focus and a
Speaker 1: little automation. So the boring can be sexy, is what
Speaker 1: I'm hearing, That's what I'm saying. I'm like, like, when
Speaker 1: I think about like all these you know, stock grous
Speaker 1: who are out there screaming into the ether about the
Speaker 1: stocks that they pick and all the stuff, I'm like,
Speaker 1: y'all aren't retired, Like do you guys really love looking
Speaker 1: at these stock charts and like playing in the market, Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess some people like that stuff, but
Speaker 1: I can guarantee that for the most part, most people
Speaker 1: do not care. They do not care what's happening with
Speaker 1: the FED and if they're raising interest rates and they
Speaker 1: don't care, you know, if like apples down or if
Speaker 1: Tesla is doing this, they don't care. They just want
Speaker 1: to live their lives, but know that their money is
Speaker 1: like growing on their behalf, and they want to do
Speaker 1: it in a way that's not gambling, and they're gonna
Speaker 1: lose all of their savings overnight, right, And that's the
Speaker 1: best where I am. And I'm in this space and
Speaker 1: I have no interest in picking stocks. So these accounts
Speaker 1: are basically the way you need to think about them
Speaker 1: is that they are vehicles to those to that life, right,
Speaker 1: Like you can get to that by using these vehicles.
Speaker 1: And most four O one case four through the S
Speaker 1: four the sevens will not allow you to buy individual
Speaker 1: stocks anyway. So that's another big, big distinguishing factor here
Speaker 1: is that most of the time you can't even dip
Speaker 1: your toe into that hole, let's pick stocks situation. So
Speaker 1: it already takes out some of that um temptation, right,
Speaker 1: But there are going to be a list of investments
Speaker 1: inside of it, and you are going to get to
Speaker 1: decide what goes into it. For most people, um, some
Speaker 1: four O one case, some of these plans, your employer
Speaker 1: will choose it for you. Most of the time they'll
Speaker 1: be like, hey, we're just gonna throw you in this
Speaker 1: thing called the target date index one or target date
Speaker 1: fund or mutual fund. And you can change it though,
Speaker 1: like you have a right to change it, and I
Speaker 1: think most people don't know that, Like I think they
Speaker 1: just assume, hey, this is what my employer put me in,
Speaker 1: this is what's best for me, and it is what
Speaker 1: it is. But you actually do have a right to
Speaker 1: change it, and you can change it as many times
Speaker 1: you want. I don't suggest doing that right, like going
Speaker 1: in and changing it every quarter, but you should know
Speaker 1: that you have those options. There. It's such a helpful
Speaker 1: reminder to hear that doing this, this kind of simple thing,
Speaker 1: it might take some time for a day to look
Speaker 1: into this, make sure that you are signed up for
Speaker 1: the right types of accounts and putting money into it regularly.
Speaker 1: But beyond that, we don't have to be keeping a
Speaker 1: pulse on the stock market or have infinite amounts of
Speaker 1: play money to be able to do singles, talk investing,
Speaker 1: or do other types of risky things with our money
Speaker 1: to see a payoff it with it. I think myself
Speaker 1: included in many of our listeners like, that's just not
Speaker 1: the financial situation that we're in. And yet we want
Speaker 1: to know what are the wise choices we can be
Speaker 1: making with our money to see ourselves in a better
Speaker 1: financial position in the decades to come than than maybe
Speaker 1: we are right now. And so it's just such a
Speaker 1: helpful reassuring reminder that like the slow, steady, boring thing
Speaker 1: can be the sexy R rated lifestyle we all want. Yes, yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, I think the other thing that
Speaker 1: we can't obviously gloss over is the biggest benefit of
Speaker 1: these accounts is the free money right that you get
Speaker 1: attached to. I mean when your employer offers you that
Speaker 1: employer match, that's like a no brainer to me. That
Speaker 1: is the no brainer of the investing world. If you
Speaker 1: can get that employer match, which literally doubles your money,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get a hundred sent return on your money.
Speaker 1: But you're not gonna get right away in the stock market, right,
Speaker 1: that would take forever. But you can get an immediate
Speaker 1: percent return, meaning like, oh, your employer offers three percent match,
Speaker 1: and some people are like, what does that mean? Three
Speaker 1: percent of your salary and that's usually pre tax, your
Speaker 1: pre tax salary that you put in three percent, they're
Speaker 1: going to put in three percent. Boom. You just doubled
Speaker 1: your money. Right, So for me, when somebody asked me,
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense for me to participate and there's a
Speaker 1: match immediately, yes, like immediately as definitely at least up
Speaker 1: to the match. If you can keep going beyond the match, fantastic.
Speaker 1: But if that's all you can do, then do that.
Speaker 1: And I encourage people to do and this is gonna
Speaker 1: be controversial. I encourage people to do this even if
Speaker 1: they have debt. Okay, even if you have credit card debt,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I know, even if your credit card debt.
Speaker 1: I encourage you to do this because that is money
Speaker 1: that is going to compound so much over time, and
Speaker 1: I don't think that anybody should leave that on the table.
Speaker 1: And also I could say, are that a part of
Speaker 1: your compensation? Your employer surely did when they hired. They
Speaker 1: took that into consideration when they made your job off,
Speaker 1: or they're like, oh, if this person ops in and
Speaker 1: they take this match, look how much extra money we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to give to this employee. So you should
Speaker 1: be considering it part of your conversation as well. Yes,
Speaker 1: I say that all the time. It's that your employer
Speaker 1: is paying you less because they have factored in this
Speaker 1: match and they're hoping you don't take advantage of it
Speaker 1: and they save money. So by not meeting your match,
Speaker 1: you're actually refusing three to six percent of your salary.
Speaker 1: And that's the way like to look at it. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the yes, the getting the employer match. It's usually very
Speaker 1: little and you don't even like notice it. It's pre tax.
Speaker 1: It comes out pre tax, so before they take out
Speaker 1: fight US, Social Security and all those other taxes that
Speaker 1: make your paycheck look so skinny. After you take it
Speaker 1: you're like, you know, you're like, where ago before they
Speaker 1: take any of that for Uncle Sam gets his grubby
Speaker 1: little hands on your paycheck, you get to take that
Speaker 1: money out first and put it into your investment account.
Speaker 1: And that's why I say that money is so powerful
Speaker 1: because pre tax money can grow faster, right because it
Speaker 1: has not yet been taxed. So, um, I'm a huge
Speaker 1: fan of these accounts, and it frustrates me that a
Speaker 1: lot of employers don't offer education around this, Like why
Speaker 1: isn't it standard that when you get hired that you
Speaker 1: get an orientation that includes an explanation of your four
Speaker 1: own K, your four or three B three B benefits.
Speaker 1: A lot of employees don't get that, which definitely I'm like,
Speaker 1: it blows me away. Yeah, So you touched on the
Speaker 1: tax benefits of these these accounts, So what are the
Speaker 1: biggest like tax advantages, because I know some people are
Speaker 1: like itemizing their deductions on taxes. Most people are not,
Speaker 1: so that the pre tax doesn't matter as much to them,
Speaker 1: so they go with a rath like what are some
Speaker 1: of the advantages to these employers sponsored accounts over just
Speaker 1: getting an i RA and and sticking with that? Right? So, first,
Speaker 1: of all is the contribution amount. Right in IRA, as
Speaker 1: we know, you can only contribute six thousand dollars per year.
Speaker 1: It's going up to sixty next year, big book, thanks
Speaker 1: for raising i r s again just like you said, right, Joan,
Speaker 1: Like they put a cap on it for a reason,
Speaker 1: because hello, who doesn't want to grow their money tax free?
Speaker 1: So with the with these plans, though, the cap goes
Speaker 1: up much more. Right. It's it was hundred this year,
Speaker 1: it's going up to twenty two thousand, five hundred next year,
Speaker 1: I believe. So imagine sucking away twenty two grand a
Speaker 1: year in pre tax or even RATH money, because now
Speaker 1: employers are starting to offer a four oh one k
Speaker 1: RATH option. So imagine how having a giant raw IRA
Speaker 1: allowing you to put away twenty two thou dollars a
Speaker 1: year tax that lets you grow money tax free? Right,
Speaker 1: So how does the tax benefit work? If you go
Speaker 1: if you use a traditional for one K, which means
Speaker 1: pre tax, you're getting the money taken out of your paycheck.
Speaker 1: Like I said before Uncle Sam gets his hands on it.
Speaker 1: So let's say you made a hundred thousand dollars and
Speaker 1: now you're putting dollars into your four one k. Uncle
Speaker 1: Sam basically closes his eyes and he's like, oh, oh
Speaker 1: my bad, you did not make a hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: this year. You made eighty thousand dollars this year. He
Speaker 1: pretends that you did not make that extra twenty dollars
Speaker 1: that you put into your four one k, so your
Speaker 1: taxable income actually comes down, right. So I usually tell people,
Speaker 1: if you're in a higher tax bracket, consider a traditional
Speaker 1: pre tax account to bring down that taxable income. But
Speaker 1: if you're in a lower tax bracket, consider locking in
Speaker 1: that lower tax bracket and going the Roth route, right,
Speaker 1: so that you can lock in that low tax bracket
Speaker 1: because my my, again, everybody nobody knows what taxes are
Speaker 1: going to be in the future, but everybody assumes that
Speaker 1: taxes are going to increase, especially because our debt is insane, right,
Speaker 1: Our national debt is through the roof, So the chances
Speaker 1: are that taxes are going to go up. So if
Speaker 1: you can lock in your tax bracket now, you can,
Speaker 1: like I said, not have to pay taxes on that money. Ever. Again, yeah,
Speaker 1: it is a very nuanced like balance. So when I
Speaker 1: had UM, when I was maxing out a four oh
Speaker 1: one K and a roth Ira I made, and they
Speaker 1: also offered the rath furrow one K I made. I
Speaker 1: like just did a like straight even balance, like half
Speaker 1: of it went to regular and half of it went
Speaker 1: to Roth because I was like, you know, I think
Speaker 1: my income is gonna go up, but I don't know
Speaker 1: how the tax bracket is going to be, and I
Speaker 1: just want to like have all my apples in separate baskets.
Speaker 1: And so that you brought that up because I am
Speaker 1: such a fan of tax diversification, which is exactly what
Speaker 1: you did, right, And that's what I did too in
Speaker 1: different parts of my career. So I'm glad you said that.
Speaker 1: Because these choices are not all or nothing, So you
Speaker 1: don't have to be like, oh, I'm going all pre tax,
Speaker 1: are all roth. You can actually split up your contribution
Speaker 1: and you can decide. You can be like, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do eight pre tex roth or like you did
Speaker 1: fifty fifty. So I I love that you did that.
Speaker 1: And the other thing that people get confused about is, oh,
Speaker 1: if I put money in my wrath for one K,
Speaker 1: does that mean that I can contribute to a rath
Speaker 1: I array, Yes, you can. Those are completely separate accounts.
Speaker 1: They do not affect each other, so really important, I
Speaker 1: think also to know how these different accounts interact with
Speaker 1: each other. Right, but if you have more than one
Speaker 1: of these four oh one K, four or three B
Speaker 1: four seven, Oh again, I'm gonna put the fourth seven
Speaker 1: in a separate category. Now, if you have a four
Speaker 1: O one K in a four O three B, you
Speaker 1: can only put in like the total, right, so if
Speaker 1: the total is dred, that's your max across those accounts.
Speaker 1: So you can't just dump twenty grand into a four
Speaker 1: one K and twenty grand into a four oh three B.
Speaker 1: Now Here comes the four seven to save the day.
Speaker 1: This is one of my favorite I have two great
Speaker 1: features that I love about the fourth the seven. So
Speaker 1: if you have access to this account, kudos to you.
Speaker 1: I hope you're taking advantage of it, because here's one
Speaker 1: one of the benefits. You can contribute to a four
Speaker 1: oh one K and a fourty seven and max out books,
Speaker 1: so you can actually dump twenty grand into one twenty
Speaker 1: grand into to the other. I know most people can't
Speaker 1: afford to do that, but if you can, go for it.
Speaker 1: And the other second benefit of the fourth seven is
Speaker 1: that you can withdraw from it any time without paying
Speaker 1: the temper cent penalty, So it does not have that
Speaker 1: fifty nine and a half requirement like the four oh
Speaker 1: one K does. So this is a great account for
Speaker 1: early retirees. You guys know them all about, you know,
Speaker 1: retire early, relaxed early, as I like to call it.
Speaker 1: UMO seven is an awesome account for early retirees because
Speaker 1: you can pull money from it without paying the tempercent penalty.
Speaker 1: You are going to have to pay taxes obviously if
Speaker 1: it's a pre tax account, but you get around that
Speaker 1: teen percent penalty, which is huge. Is that on on
Speaker 1: money you put in and growth that you avoid. That
Speaker 1: that's great because on the raw fire only the what
Speaker 1: you put in you would still see a penalty on
Speaker 1: the growth. Yeah, fantastic, right, nice? Who is that for?
Speaker 1: Fifty seven being normally accessible to usually government employees? So
Speaker 1: if you work for some kind of government agency, government
Speaker 1: employees usually people like in a military or some form
Speaker 1: of that. Okay. So, so speaking of all these different
Speaker 1: types of accounts in the sandbox of retirement accounts, how
Speaker 1: do they play together? Like? Can an employer offer more
Speaker 1: than one type of retirement plan? Can you take advantage
Speaker 1: of all of them. Do you have to pick and choose?
Speaker 1: Like what you You're kind of hitting on that a bit,
Speaker 1: but could you say more about how they play in
Speaker 1: the sandbox. Yeah, an employer can definitely um offer more
Speaker 1: than one, and I've seen that many many times over,
Speaker 1: so you you don't have to. Sometimes they do enroll
Speaker 1: you in it. For instance, I've seen something like a
Speaker 1: four oh one K where they it's a profit sharing plan,
Speaker 1: so they're like, oh, you can't contribute to this plan,
Speaker 1: but we're dumping profit sharing money in here. And so
Speaker 1: in addition to this four oh one K pseudo four
Speaker 1: oh one K here, we're also going to give you
Speaker 1: access to like a four oh three B where you
Speaker 1: can actually contribute money. So sometimes they'll have different you know,
Speaker 1: requirements like that are different restrictions. And then the fourth
Speaker 1: the seven is usually an account that I see coupled
Speaker 1: with many other accounts. So you'll have a fourth seven
Speaker 1: and a four h three B. That's like the most
Speaker 1: common one that I see because nonprofit and government usually
Speaker 1: goes together a lot um. But yeah, you can participate
Speaker 1: in all of these accounts. Again, just like I said,
Speaker 1: you can have them. You can contribute to all of them.
Speaker 1: You guys just have to be aware of like where
Speaker 1: the caps are depending on which accounts you have. So
Speaker 1: just again four oh one K, four or three B
Speaker 1: the caps overlap, so the most you can put in
Speaker 1: there is that twenty dollars. But then when you factor
Speaker 1: in the four fifty seven, that's the little anomaly one
Speaker 1: where you're allowed to max out the four one K
Speaker 1: and the four fifties seven you can double dip. Right.
Speaker 1: So but you know, as far as like which one
Speaker 1: should I choose? I've had that question a lot, like,
Speaker 1: oh my blur offers both, which one should I pick?
Speaker 1: The first thing you want to look at is again
Speaker 1: which accounts are is the match being offered in? Because
Speaker 1: it's not always both, So first of all, which one
Speaker 1: is the match coming in? So prioritize that one. And
Speaker 1: then the other thing I would look at is the fees.
Speaker 1: You know, what kind of investments are being offered and
Speaker 1: how much are they charging in fees because that is
Speaker 1: how they will eat away at your profit, right, and
Speaker 1: sometimes the fee can be oh high, especially in four
Speaker 1: or three V accounts, which is crazy. I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: those are the accounts where the fees should be the best.
Speaker 1: So this is like where most teachers are at right
Speaker 1: there are are taking a mantage of and it's the
Speaker 1: ones that are usually the worst that I've seen. Is
Speaker 1: there a way to get a quick answer on that.
Speaker 1: I feel as though if this type of thing, the
Speaker 1: paperwork is extensive, it is. It's very frustrating, and so
Speaker 1: I've had um people call, you know, instead of like
Speaker 1: digging through all the statements, because it's not always in
Speaker 1: the statement, they purposefully hide these things like they're not
Speaker 1: just gonna have a big, weird Whaterally, you have a
Speaker 1: bunch of choices. You have only a few choices. Don't
Speaker 1: call for me. But they don't want you to know
Speaker 1: how much you're paying in fees. They don't want you
Speaker 1: to know. Honestly, I don't I'm not a conspiracy theorist,
Speaker 1: but this is the fact of the matter. So they're
Speaker 1: not going to have a page that is clearly marked
Speaker 1: in big bold letters, Hey, this is how much you're
Speaker 1: paying in fees, you know, because that could suade people
Speaker 1: from participating, and they want people to participate, but you
Speaker 1: need to know what your fees are. So you're looking
Speaker 1: for words like fees, expense ratios, um, oh god, there'll
Speaker 1: be so many different names right for fees, and so
Speaker 1: sometimes the best thing is to either go to your
Speaker 1: HR person and be like, can you walk me through this?
Speaker 1: Or who is our plan administrator so that they can
Speaker 1: walk me through it. I want somebody to clearly tell
Speaker 1: me how much of my paying fees inside this plan
Speaker 1: because sometimes it can be so high that it will
Speaker 1: destroy whatever tax benefit you're getting inside of the account. Right,
Speaker 1: So if you're paying something like one or one and
Speaker 1: a half percent in fees per year, that's where the
Speaker 1: tax benefits starts through erode, and then it may not
Speaker 1: make sense to be in that account anymore. Yeah, asking
Speaker 1: those questions, even if we feel silly while doing it,
Speaker 1: ultimately is going to benefit us. I mean, we're talking
Speaker 1: about our lives beyond having to hold down a career
Speaker 1: like this is this is huge for our own future.
Speaker 1: So it's worth uh sucking it up a little bit
Speaker 1: and asking the questions. Yeah, I mean I tell people,
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is money coming out of your paycheck literally, right,
Speaker 1: money that could have been going in your pocket, in
Speaker 1: your bank account. If it's coming out of your paycheck
Speaker 1: and going into this mysterious black hole that you're like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on in there. It's time,
Speaker 1: this is the time we need to, you know, demystify it,
Speaker 1: because you should know what's going on with your money.
Speaker 1: And this type of like throwing your hands up. I
Speaker 1: don't want to deal with its um attitude. I get
Speaker 1: it because I've done it too in my twenties and
Speaker 1: and that's one of my regrets. But if I can
Speaker 1: encourage you guys to, like, you know, like you said,
Speaker 1: take some time, go bug hr, go have a conversation
Speaker 1: with somebody and learn what's going on inside these accounts.
Speaker 1: It might surprise you. You You might learn some things that
Speaker 1: could make huge impact in your financial future. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And a lot of the times it is not that hard.
Speaker 1: Like I my sister in law wanted me to look
Speaker 1: at her four oh one K to see what was
Speaker 1: going on, and it ended up being a fidelity account
Speaker 1: and she was in a life cycle fund that was
Speaker 1: the right amount of you know, diversified and like aggression
Speaker 1: for her. She didn't really have the option to break
Speaker 1: it out into like the total stock market and the
Speaker 1: bond and she didn't really have that option, which was
Speaker 1: unfortunate because it would have saved her a bit on fees.
Speaker 1: But ultimately, if you're going down in a tax bracket
Speaker 1: because you contribute to a four oh one K, then
Speaker 1: like a quarter of every dollar almost is you're getting
Speaker 1: that back to put into your account. So, like, taxes
Speaker 1: are one of the biggest fees and one of the
Speaker 1: biggest expenses you'll have every year. And so to take
Speaker 1: advantage as much as possible on paying your future bills
Speaker 1: now and saving money on future bills now by saving
Speaker 1: your money in this big place. You know, we're not
Speaker 1: talking saving like three or five percent on your utility bill,
Speaker 1: like now, you could be saving essentially on the dollar
Speaker 1: for your utility bill when you're a d doing that now.
Speaker 1: It's just like it's a like a perspective shift that
Speaker 1: when I realized that's what I was doing, I was
Speaker 1: saving money on future bills by investing. Now, it put
Speaker 1: investing for retirement into perspective for me. Is like that
Speaker 1: tax saving is very significant, whether you get it from
Speaker 1: the employer plan or the I r A. Absolutely, And
Speaker 1: I tell people like, investing for your future is something
Speaker 1: that is difficult for most people because it's hard to
Speaker 1: picture yourself in the future. Right. It's hard to picture
Speaker 1: yourself as a little old lady, right, but I do.
Speaker 1: I do that all the time. I visualize myself at
Speaker 1: sixty years old all the time to make it really
Speaker 1: palpable and to make it like really you know, like
Speaker 1: like real to me, Like that's a real person. She's
Speaker 1: gonna be here someday, and I want her taken care of.
Speaker 1: And when I finally get tired and I want to
Speaker 1: stop working, I don't want her to have to live
Speaker 1: like a broke college student. I want her to live
Speaker 1: and have a nice life and have a dignified retirement
Speaker 1: and still be able to like, you know, have a
Speaker 1: drink by the beach and like, you know, hassle the
Speaker 1: young cabana boys and like have fun and do all
Speaker 1: the things and not have to scrimp and stress about
Speaker 1: every single dollar. I want her to like really enjoy herself,
Speaker 1: just like I enjoy myself now. I want that to
Speaker 1: continue into the future. Right. So that's what I tell people.
Speaker 1: I'm like, like, have some love for that, for that person.
Speaker 1: You're building for that person, right, Like they're not here yet,
Speaker 1: but they're going to be in the Chances are that
Speaker 1: most of us are going to live until we're eighty
Speaker 1: nine years old, right as much as and Z wants
Speaker 1: to tell me that we are, you know, hurtling through
Speaker 1: space and we're catapulting through a count toward the comment
Speaker 1: and we're just gonna, like self implode. I'm like, y'all,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stay positive. And you know, to be a
Speaker 1: saver and to be an investor, you have to be optimistic.
Speaker 1: If you're a zooming gloom type of person, it's going
Speaker 1: to be very hard for you to you know, execute
Speaker 1: on these things, because how can you counter that. I
Speaker 1: love the picture that you're painting for yourself as as
Speaker 1: an older why peling the Cavana boys and drinking by
Speaker 1: the beach and I'm sure other things too, But also
Speaker 1: I love what you're describing here. I think it's an
Speaker 1: important exercise, especially for those who might be a little
Speaker 1: bit of verse, to understanding the combination of these letters
Speaker 1: and numbers and what it all means and why is
Speaker 1: it important to me now? Because there is something to
Speaker 1: be said for thinking about and caring for our future selves,
Speaker 1: and not just our future selves, but others who lie
Speaker 1: and depend upon us. When we talk about retirement. We're
Speaker 1: also talking about our kids or others in our our spouses,
Speaker 1: our family, and the better and kinder we are to ourselves,
Speaker 1: both in the here and now and in the future,
Speaker 1: the more kind we're able to be to those around us.
Speaker 1: If we have thought about and set up a good
Speaker 1: retirement for ourselves, that's a gift not only to our
Speaker 1: future selves, but those in our community and the space
Speaker 1: around us, because they are now not burdened with the
Speaker 1: financial pressures of needing to provide for us. So there's
Speaker 1: there's so many different layers here and reasons to be
Speaker 1: looking at this and to be making wise decisions within
Speaker 1: our means. Yeah, I mean, and sadly for many of us,
Speaker 1: we are going to be in that situation where we're
Speaker 1: our money is gonna have to support three generations, our kids, ourselves,
Speaker 1: and our parents. Right Like, I'm child free by choice,
Speaker 1: so I don't have children, but I do have a
Speaker 1: parent that financially I support, and she has zero savings
Speaker 1: to her name. My mom does nothing about saving and investing.
Speaker 1: You know, she works, she's responsible with her money, but
Speaker 1: she does not. It doesn't go beyond that, right, It's
Speaker 1: like a very paycheck to paycheck mentality, which is how
Speaker 1: we grew up. And so when I think about saving
Speaker 1: and investing now, it's not just for one person. It's
Speaker 1: for me and it's for her, and it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a big burden to take on that.
Speaker 1: It's it's a lot. It's like, I understand, I don't
Speaker 1: have children. I don't understand what that feels like, but wow,
Speaker 1: caring for a parent is also extremely stressful, and I
Speaker 1: want her well taken care of, right, And a lot
Speaker 1: of us are going to find ourselves in this situation.
Speaker 1: So the sooner you start, you're doing yourself a favor
Speaker 1: down the road, right, to make that situation easier for yourself. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm so glad we're talking about this. It's a little adjacent,
Speaker 1: but Jill, do you remember the bill of the week
Speaker 1: we had recently where this uh this woman called in
Speaker 1: and she was thankful that she had her frugality allowed
Speaker 1: her to have the savings um and essentially retirement savings
Speaker 1: to when her Hurricane Ian hit uh Port Charlotte in
Speaker 1: South Florida. Her parents home was destroyed, their retirement home
Speaker 1: was destroyed, and she had the savings enough to take
Speaker 1: care of herself. That she could also then move her
Speaker 1: parents out to Colorado to be closer to her, so
Speaker 1: she could, you know, care for them and this unexpected
Speaker 1: thing that had derailed their retirement plans, and like that
Speaker 1: is that is the reason we are discerning with our money,
Speaker 1: and we choose to say no to things that don't
Speaker 1: matter now so we can say yes to things that
Speaker 1: money can't buy in the future, which is that's that
Speaker 1: peace of mind and that care for the people that
Speaker 1: we love, and that's yeah, that's why I think saving
Speaker 1: for enirement is so freaking important. Is that it is
Speaker 1: We're all going to be there in some capacity, whether
Speaker 1: we want to believe it or not. I tell people,
Speaker 1: you know, I used to, I still say this investing
Speaker 1: is a privilege, but it's not a luxury. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not a luxury. It's a necessity. So I don't
Speaker 1: put it in the category of luxury. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people do so that they can swipe it
Speaker 1: away and be like, this isn't for me. Um, I
Speaker 1: don't have money to deal with this, so I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna I'm not gonna think about it. And that really
Speaker 1: hurts me because I'm like, oh my god, if they
Speaker 1: only knew that this is just as important as like
Speaker 1: paying a light bill or your health insurance bill or
Speaker 1: your mortgage. It's just as important, right, It's like it's
Speaker 1: on that level. So, um, I tell people, and you know,
Speaker 1: I don't like tough love. I don't. I don't use it,
Speaker 1: but but I sometimes I feel like I need to
Speaker 1: shake people a little bit. And I'm just like you guys,
Speaker 1: if your income doesn't allow you to put some money
Speaker 1: away in an investment account, you need to do something
Speaker 1: about that, like a S a P. Because investing is
Speaker 1: a must, Like it's in the necessity, like you have
Speaker 1: to do this, right. We have no safety nets in
Speaker 1: this country, no safety nets, okay, so like we are
Speaker 1: on our own. Help is not coming. So it's so
Speaker 1: important that people prioritize this. So sometimes I do feel
Speaker 1: like I have to like shape people a little bit
Speaker 1: because I think that they think, yeah, investing is like
Speaker 1: for ritual, it's nice, it's for rich, especially when they
Speaker 1: hear me talking about retiring early, which is an extreme
Speaker 1: privilege that I will admit. I'm retiring early is very
Speaker 1: um privilege, but it's still like being able to retire
Speaker 1: at some point, so you're not working the day you die.
Speaker 1: I think that that's a part of the human experience
Speaker 1: that you're entitled to like have, right Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: retiring at sixty is essentially retiring early because most people,
Speaker 1: the average is the average retirement age, people say they
Speaker 1: want to retire sixty five. The real average retirement age
Speaker 1: is sixty three. And I haven't looked at the data,
Speaker 1: but I don't think it's because people are pleasantly surprised
Speaker 1: by what they're saving, right yeah. So, I mean retiring
Speaker 1: early doesn't mean retiring in your thirties or forties anymore.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be that. But if we can
Speaker 1: plan for the best and the worst at the same time,
Speaker 1: that's really the gift that time gives us. Okay, and
Speaker 1: last question, So we've we have touched on how important
Speaker 1: these accounts are. What if your employer doesn't offer one,
Speaker 1: Oh what did you do? Then? So if your employer
Speaker 1: doesn't offer one for small boo boo for that employer,
Speaker 1: Like what I mean, I worked for small companies that
Speaker 1: can't afford these planks. Fine, so I get it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I get it. But also I'm like, if you're a
Speaker 1: company who can offer a retirement plan. I almost think like,
Speaker 1: maybe you can't afford to have employees, So think about
Speaker 1: that because having again, like I said, having a retirement
Speaker 1: plan is a necessity, and if your employer doesn't offer that,
Speaker 1: you're immediately cutting yourself off right there, right, So they're like, oh, shoot,
Speaker 1: now what do I do? So obviously there are other
Speaker 1: accounts that you can use what you guys have discussed before,
Speaker 1: like the raw iiarray, the brokerage account right. And then
Speaker 1: if you do start a side hustle, which not everybody
Speaker 1: has the time or the energy to do. But if
Speaker 1: you do end up having a side hustle or a
Speaker 1: side business, you can open a solo for one K,
Speaker 1: so you actually, you know, can bypass the employer and
Speaker 1: go have a solo for one K and get access
Speaker 1: to all the things that I just um described to
Speaker 1: you guys here. But like I said, I I don't
Speaker 1: think that that avenue is available to everyone, especially if
Speaker 1: you've got kids and you're already working sixty seven hours
Speaker 1: you're a week. You're like, where am I supposed to
Speaker 1: get the time of the energy to side hustle? Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you're working sixty seven hours a week and your
Speaker 1: employer still doesn't offer them plan. Then that is a
Speaker 1: different story. Agree, that's a different episode that you should agree.
Speaker 1: We need to have a kind of sit down. But
Speaker 1: the raw Ey raise there the brokerage account, which again
Speaker 1: I don't want people to be like, oh no, but
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna get all these tax benefits and a
Speaker 1: brokerage account like I'm you know, it's this is such
Speaker 1: a bad option. We don't have time to go into this.
Speaker 1: But the brokerage account does indeed have tax benefits. Okay,
Speaker 1: they actually have a whole different little tax bracket that's
Speaker 1: called long term capital gains tax. When you guys have time,
Speaker 1: if you haven't talked about brokera we can do a
Speaker 1: whole podcast episode on brokerage accounts. I love talking about them.
Speaker 1: There is a whole different tax bracket for investors in
Speaker 1: those accounts as long as you hold your investments for
Speaker 1: at least a year. So the tax brackets are zero percent.
Speaker 1: There's a zero percent tax bracket, there's a fift percent,
Speaker 1: and there's a twenty percent. So those those tax brackets
Speaker 1: sound helloo right. They sound way lower than income tax brackets. Yes,
Speaker 1: this is why investing in America is like what the
Speaker 1: wealthy do, and they use brokerage accounts to create wealth
Speaker 1: and to lower their taxes. So don't discount the brokerage acount. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I always think that's so funny that that labor is
Speaker 1: taxed at a higher rate than cash sitting in a brokerage.
Speaker 1: I think it's funny too, like funny funny, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that type of funny. Do you know what's funny happy?
Speaker 1: Not always funny, but like sometimes really funny and just enjoyable.
Speaker 1: And every week we've got one for you. It's the
Speaker 1: that's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 1: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 1: is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your
Speaker 1: car died, and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 1: that bill anymore. To bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this
Speaker 1: is the bill of the week, Bill of the week.
Speaker 1: Get part of it, Okay, I love that. I love that,
Speaker 1: all right, Diliane. Every week we invite our listeners or
Speaker 1: our guests to share with us their bill for the week.
Speaker 1: It can be when you pay, it can be when
Speaker 1: you don't pay, it can be your neighbor bill, whatever,
Speaker 1: it's vague for a reason, and we would love to
Speaker 1: hear yours today. I know I wish I had a
Speaker 1: bill and a funny story to share, like a person bill,
Speaker 1: but they are the best. But mine is going to
Speaker 1: be Um. I'm ditching one of my credit cards. So
Speaker 1: I have the MX Gold and I'm going to be
Speaker 1: canceling it um because I'm moving to Portugal and that
Speaker 1: is not a very like travel friendly card and they nobody,
Speaker 1: nobody in Europe likes MX. I don't like what happens.
Speaker 1: Don't sue me, MX UM. But basically I went to
Speaker 1: port a goal and nobody wanted to take it. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, that's a what two fifty annual fee
Speaker 1: that I'm paying for a card that's not really going
Speaker 1: to be useful to me. So I have said goodbye
Speaker 1: to MX, and that's one less bill I need to
Speaker 1: worry about. Yea yea. For the side update of this
Speaker 1: move to Portugal, I'm so excited to hear that. That's
Speaker 1: so fun and yeah, cutting a bill that just won't
Speaker 1: serve you anymore, it's excellent and Amex misses nothing because
Speaker 1: you have canceled Llian. But Jill just got the card
Speaker 1: with the flowers. Did I just got the platinum? Oh boy,
Speaker 1: now I gained a bill. You lost a bill. I
Speaker 1: gained a bill. But that card is beautiful and I
Speaker 1: just love looking at I'm not going to get it
Speaker 1: because I won't use of the benefits, but I like
Speaker 1: looking at it. I will milk that card for every
Speaker 1: benefit they can give. You should should and then maybe
Speaker 1: I'll move to Europe. Yeah, but don't use it there.
Speaker 1: Don't say that. When I'm done, you can come with day,
Speaker 1: can I? I mean, if you want to, um, well done, Delian.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited for you, and you're moved to Portugal.
Speaker 1: Hopefully means other benefits to your bills and your finance.
Speaker 1: Isn't just your life in general? If you all listening,
Speaker 1: have a bill about amazing move to Europe or slicing
Speaker 1: and dicing credit cards are gaining credit cards are just
Speaker 1: a person named Bill, you know the Drill for Girlfriends
Speaker 1: podcast dot com slash Bill, leave us your bill. Actually
Speaker 1: we're really ready for it because our bill takes to
Speaker 1: do we need. Yeah, we were six months behind and
Speaker 1: now we are. Now we're looking for them. Now we
Speaker 1: will be up to Dave's going to call episodes a
Speaker 1: week really shot us through the last six months back up.
Speaker 1: So please call. If you meet somebody named Bill, I
Speaker 1: don't care, just have him call you have Bill call us.
Speaker 1: And now it's time for Wow the sound effects are
Speaker 1: We told you we yell at you a top podcast
Speaker 1: here you should you should know the production quality of
Speaker 1: a top producing podcast. And that's us. I mean, you
Speaker 1: guys have set the bar at a different level. For sure.
Speaker 1: There is here. It's what we only bar is on
Speaker 1: the corner. We've We've said it so high I can't
Speaker 1: even see it. That's why I haven't been able to
Speaker 1: see it for years. All right, So today's lightning round
Speaker 1: question that we will all take turns answering is and
Speaker 1: I made the mistake of abbreviating because I have pregnancy brain.
Speaker 1: And uh so I said, what's the biggest SP mistake
Speaker 1: you've ever made? And then that was interpreted in many
Speaker 1: different ways. Right now I'm reading it and I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: isn't ESP like psychic stuff? Yeah? Wait what? Yeah? Okay?
Speaker 1: So and you can answer in any way that you want,
Speaker 1: like what's the big exp psychic stuff like mistake you've made,
Speaker 1: But the original intent of the question was, what's the
Speaker 1: biggest mistake you've ever made with your employer sponsored plan.
Speaker 1: We're gonna we're gonna blame the pregnancy brain on it,
Speaker 1: because that's what I do for everything now. So Deliane
Speaker 1: is our guest, we would love to hear your biggest mistake. Yeah,
Speaker 1: mine was probably something that a lot of people do too,
Speaker 1: which is they just ignore that plan right when you
Speaker 1: first get a new job. You're like, what's the four
Speaker 1: one K That sounds really boring and weird, and oh,
Speaker 1: it's something I won't need till I'm sixty years old. Cool,
Speaker 1: I don't need to worry about that right now, And
Speaker 1: then you don't sign up for it. And I found
Speaker 1: out three years later, oops, that I've been missing out
Speaker 1: on all this free match money, that this is money
Speaker 1: that could have been growing. And this was like during
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight to two thousand and ten, Hello,
Speaker 1: prime time to be buying investments, And so I missed
Speaker 1: out on a lot of sales. But finally, my HR director,
Speaker 1: who was a black woman and is the only person
Speaker 1: in my fourteen year career as an attorney who ever
Speaker 1: spoke to me about money or investing, and she came
Speaker 1: to me and said, hey, why aren't you participating in
Speaker 1: the four O one K? What the hell are you doing?
Speaker 1: This is a really important plan. You need to sign
Speaker 1: up for it. So she kind of like you know,
Speaker 1: sat me down, quickly explained it, and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that sounds important enough that I should consider it. Oh
Speaker 1: and I get more money? Yeah, cool, sign me up
Speaker 1: for that. So I did miss out on three years
Speaker 1: of investing, but lesson learned. Well done for her seeking
Speaker 1: you out and and helping inform you. That's that's some
Speaker 1: females helping females right there. I was just thinking. I
Speaker 1: was like, Yes, women helping women make money. I love it.
Speaker 1: I'm like, let's have more people do that leave? Yes? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's those mistakes that that drive you into
Speaker 1: this different direction where you've not only made up for it,
Speaker 1: but you are helping others make up for it in spades.
Speaker 1: So that is yes. Um, so Jill, how about you?
Speaker 1: My biggest mistake is never being employed by a company
Speaker 1: or organization whatever offered these you know e s p
Speaker 1: s out there, they don't offer the psychic have no
Speaker 1: psychic stuff available to me. Now I just know nothing
Speaker 1: about my future. Yeah, but I am currently an approved
Speaker 1: adjunct profect sir at a previous university that I attended,
Speaker 1: and they do offer even as an adjunct. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it is the four oh one K or
Speaker 1: like a version of it within the education realm, something
Speaker 1: along those lines. That was so excited. As I was
Speaker 1: filling out all the paperwork, I'm like, yep, I know
Speaker 1: what this is. Sign me up for the most I
Speaker 1: can put away. I mean, adjunct professors don't make much.
Speaker 1: It's going to be like a very small paycheck. But
Speaker 1: I was so excited, like the first time ever this
Speaker 1: has been offered to me. Yeah, did you ever hear
Speaker 1: from like friends about did they ever talk about it?
Speaker 1: And you're like, what's that your employer offers? No? Sure,
Speaker 1: I don't live under our crock. I've heard about all
Speaker 1: these amazing things that other people get to take advantage of.
Speaker 1: But I have always worked in the nonprofit sector, very
Speaker 1: small organizations where they just were getting like star it
Speaker 1: up nonprofits. So think about startup businesses, start up non
Speaker 1: profits they didn't have Yeah, yeah, yeah that was. That
Speaker 1: was my first job out of college was and I
Speaker 1: loved that job. I worked there for five years and
Speaker 1: they were just it was such a community focus. It
Speaker 1: wasn't a nonprofit, but it was community focused to where
Speaker 1: they charged the bare minimum for services and I so
Speaker 1: supported that. But when I had the opportunity to go
Speaker 1: to an employer that had a far oh one K,
Speaker 1: I definitely took it. And uh then my biggest mistake
Speaker 1: came when I left that employer eight weeks before I
Speaker 1: gave birth to my son. I was the investing writer
Speaker 1: for this company. That is what I covered. I covered investing,
Speaker 1: I covered the fire movement, and I left and I
Speaker 1: was I gotta roll over my you know four oh
Speaker 1: one k, we'll do this and now you can do
Speaker 1: now services will do it for you, like capitalized. But
Speaker 1: I was like, I just you know, I can do this.
Speaker 1: It's Vanguard. Um, I'm just switching from Vanguard to Vanguard.
Speaker 1: And I wake up a year later from having a
Speaker 1: child and realized I rolled over the money, but I
Speaker 1: never invested it. It sacks in And this was so
Speaker 1: it wasn't a horrible time, like things were kind of
Speaker 1: like stagnant to going down, so it wasn't like a
Speaker 1: huge miss. But sorry, no, it was like twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: so maybe a little Yeah. Yeah, so I um be
Speaker 1: invested of like almost or something in twenty nine, not
Speaker 1: to poor salt on the wound. Sorry yeah so but okay,
Speaker 1: so this was twenty nineteen when it when it came out,
Speaker 1: it was when I realized it. It was like April
Speaker 1: when I realized it. So you know, it wasn't the
Speaker 1: worst thing. Yeah, that was actually great timing. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: then my husband, we didn't wait for him. I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm not making this mistake again. So we we started
Speaker 1: to roll over his in March of this year. We
Speaker 1: kept it for a while. It was in Fidelity and
Speaker 1: when we started it had to have been March or April.
Speaker 1: And then that for some reason, they were going to
Speaker 1: send us a check instead of like mailing it to Vanguard,
Speaker 1: And in the thirty days that we had that check,
Speaker 1: we were moving, so we just you know, when we
Speaker 1: get to the new house, we're going to do it.
Speaker 1: And we ended up by like putting it in right
Speaker 1: at the dip, so we were able to avoid that
Speaker 1: dip for that month and then kind of buy at
Speaker 1: the bottom. And I was like, this is nothing that
Speaker 1: should be times. But I think we're two for two.
Speaker 1: I think we're I mean, right, we're bad gamblers, but
Speaker 1: I guess we're good investment timers lucky, right, and yeah
Speaker 1: you acknowledge that, like, hey, we got some people will
Speaker 1: take that luck and be like I'm a master and vestor,
Speaker 1: I know how to time the market now, And then
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, no, don't extrapolate like your luck into like,
Speaker 1: oh now I can read the market and read candles,
Speaker 1: and I know how to predict our Our wisdom was
Speaker 1: on accident. It was uh newborn phase and moving so
Speaker 1: we got yeah, definitely by accident. Well done with this
Speaker 1: vulnerable lightning ground, as Jen always loves it to be.
Speaker 1: We all make mistakes. Hopefully you can learn from ours.
Speaker 1: If you're currently making one of these mistakes, let's correct it.
Speaker 1: We're here for you. And also, Deli Anne, I mean
Speaker 1: you've got you're an expert on so many things. Where
Speaker 1: can people get more from you? I basically live on Instagram,
Speaker 1: so that's the best place to find me, is that
Speaker 1: Delian the Money Coach. You can also find me on
Speaker 1: TikTok or Delian the Money Coach dot com. I am
Speaker 1: always They're always posting a ton of free content, so
Speaker 1: come check out it's all very helpful. So thank you
Speaker 1: so much Jillian for hanging out with us today and
Speaker 1: making this quasi boring seemingly boring subject not boring. I
Speaker 1: think we did a good job. Yeah, I think we
Speaker 1: didn't check check that box rated. Are it's done? Jill?
Speaker 1: Was that everything you were hoping it would be? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I love it when I can be enlightened on things
Speaker 1: I'm not an expert on. I have made it very
Speaker 1: clear throughout the last four and a half years on
Speaker 1: this podcast that I'm not an expert when it comes
Speaker 1: to retirement savings and investing. But because of this podcast
Speaker 1: and you, Jen, I'm learning more and I think conversations
Speaker 1: like this are just super helpful and at bare minimum
Speaker 1: remind us to be looking at these things and what
Speaker 1: should we be thinking about, what can we be doing?
Speaker 1: So so grateful to learn from the experts here too.
Speaker 1: This is why we bring on guests on the podcast,
Speaker 1: is why we do interviews to fill in the gaps. Absolutely. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that we were able to share that in
Speaker 1: a way that was not dry and boring like you'd
Speaker 1: get on most investing podcasts. So and just the chance
Speaker 1: to hang out with Delianne for for a little bit
Speaker 1: on a Monday afternoon, So thank you and whatever day
Speaker 1: you're listening to this for hanging out with us. And uh,
Speaker 1: I'm We're so appreciative of you, and that's that's why
Speaker 1: we do this. How we're glad you're here. We hope
Speaker 1: you got some helpful and nation from Delhiane and from
Speaker 1: this episode. Many of you also know that we have
Speaker 1: a membership for our listeners, something where you can get
Speaker 1: plugged in beyond this podcast, and many of our members
Speaker 1: are in debt, payoff journeys or saving more money, have
Speaker 1: a variety of financial goals and it's there that we
Speaker 1: do monthly money challenges, kind of a fun way to
Speaker 1: engage and make better decisions with our finances. There's also
Speaker 1: accountability groups within the memberships, opportunity to connect with other
Speaker 1: fellow frugal friends and encourage each other and share your
Speaker 1: own tips and tricks along the way. And we want
Speaker 1: to congratulate one of the members from from our membership
Speaker 1: for a big win named her name is Christie l
Speaker 1: and said little things add up. I was thinking about
Speaker 1: my Amazon Prime membership and was wondering how many channels
Speaker 1: I was streaming. I just went in and canceled them
Speaker 1: all for a savings of thirty four dollars a month.
Speaker 1: I had no idea I was spending that much on subscriptions.
Speaker 1: This is a huge win for me, Holly smokes Christie,
Speaker 1: that is a massive win. We were talking about minimizing
Speaker 1: and simplifying our digital lives and the impact that that
Speaker 1: can have on our finances in a variety of ways,
Speaker 1: but definitely in this way. When we realize how many
Speaker 1: things digital things we're paying for and usually we don't
Speaker 1: need them all a month, I mean, that's that's a
Speaker 1: pretty big dent when it comes to discretionary expenses. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's actually more than the monthly cost of them membership.
Speaker 1: So just being in there now you've recouped it and
Speaker 1: you are simplifying your digital life, which can simplify your choices.
Speaker 1: So congrats Christie, thank you all for listening. If this
Speaker 1: sounds fun to you, these monthly money challenges gamifying our finances,
Speaker 1: where there's also all kinds of courses and interviews and more,
Speaker 1: challenge longees head to Frugal Friends podcast, dot com slash club.
Speaker 1: You could check it out, you could join there, you
Speaker 1: could just get all the Frugal Friends in all the
Speaker 1: different directions, YouTube membership podcast. Do it and we'll see there,
Speaker 1: or we'll see you next time. Bye. Frugal Friends is
Speaker 1: produced by Eric Sirianni