Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2: Hey besties. Today on the bright Side, we sit down
Speaker 2: with financial planner and best selling author alexav Tobol. She's
Speaker 2: on a mission to empower women to be fearless with
Speaker 2: our finances. It's Tuesday, April twenty third. I'm Simone Boyce.
Speaker 3: I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from
Speaker 3: Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 1: Simone.
Speaker 3: What do you eat for breakfast before we get into recording,
Speaker 3: and do you eat it at home or do you
Speaker 3: eat it in the car?
Speaker 2: I eat it at home like a normal person. I
Speaker 2: drink coffee in the car and I eat breakfast at home.
Speaker 2: Right now, I'm really into my yogurt parfes. I have
Speaker 2: made this berry syrup that I sprinkle on it because
Speaker 2: I use plain Greek yogurt, and it tastes like your
Speaker 2: mouth is cement, you know the feeling that I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: So I made this berry syrup that I put on
Speaker 2: it and granola and it's actually delicious. So that's my
Speaker 2: breakfast at the moment right now.
Speaker 3: I always break it up with honey, but I love
Speaker 3: a syrup so good. I'm having trouble finding time for breakfast.
Speaker 3: I'm stuffing my face with like some sort of bar.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I forget and I can hear my stomach grumble
Speaker 3: on the microphone when we're doing interviews.
Speaker 1: It's so funny and I'm like, can the interviewee hear this?
Speaker 2: We have really good microphones, y'all.
Speaker 3: One thing we agree on is coffee. We always have
Speaker 3: our coffee.
Speaker 2: Hell yeah, I am wired right now from this cold brew.
Speaker 3: I have a cutoff at eleven. I will not drink
Speaker 3: a sip past eleven.
Speaker 2: Am. Oh, well, that's wonderful for you, But my life
Speaker 2: is a bit different, and I normally have a really
Speaker 2: high coffee tolerance. But this cold brew is like, I'm
Speaker 2: wired up right now. I'm electrified.
Speaker 3: Well, you grew up partly in Miami, and every time
Speaker 3: I go to Miami, I always get Cuban coffee and
Speaker 3: it wires me like nothing else.
Speaker 2: It's the best. This is the thing that I miss
Speaker 2: about Miami the most. I have been saying this for years.
Speaker 2: Somebody needs to open up just a little walk up
Speaker 2: window of Cuban coffee in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: At some and should be you.
Speaker 2: It should, but listen, maybe we'll kick start it.
Speaker 1: I like it. Should we get into the show today.
Speaker 2: Let's do it. We're gonna start with some share news, y'all.
Speaker 2: She is getting her flowers from the Rock and Roll
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame. She is officially in the class of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, along with Ozzy Osbourne, a tribe called Quest,
Speaker 2: Mary J. Blige, and so many more. I'm so happy
Speaker 2: for all of them.
Speaker 3: I feel confused because in December, Chaer said that they
Speaker 3: couldn't pay her. If they gave her a million dollars,
Speaker 3: she wouldn't be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: And now she's being inducted, which is I'm glad she
Speaker 3: had a change of heart because she deserves to be
Speaker 3: in there.
Speaker 1: She is such an icon.
Speaker 2: You know, we do need some clarity around that situation.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you brought that up, Danielle, because Chare's been
Speaker 2: quiet on social media about that. But I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe she's just maybe she's accepting the win now, maybe
Speaker 2: she's taking the w I.
Speaker 3: Think another person who should be inducted is Lenny Kravitz.
Speaker 3: That to me feels overdue.
Speaker 2: We have a big Lenny Kravitz crush on the right side.
Speaker 1: He's our short thing forever.
Speaker 2: Also, this is interesting nominated, but did not make the cut.
Speaker 2: Mariah Carey mem that's got to happen eventually, right, I
Speaker 2: think so.
Speaker 3: Speaking of talented musicians, the Spice Girls. These Spice Girls
Speaker 3: were united at Victoria Beckham aka Posh Spice's fiftieth birthday
Speaker 3: party over the weekend and performed the Stop dance at
Speaker 3: the party.
Speaker 2: My heart skipped a beat whenever I saw this. Yeah,
Speaker 2: our hearts stopped completely. Cardiac arrest.
Speaker 1: How many puns should we make? We always make puns?
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: David Beckham, like the good husband that he is and
Speaker 3: the good Instagram boyfriend that he is, shared a video
Speaker 3: of it to Instagram, and then Victoria shared it on
Speaker 3: her page with the caption hashtag spice up your life.
Speaker 1: Okay, here's the best part.
Speaker 3: All of them were there, including Melby, who recently shared
Speaker 3: that she got kicked out of the group chat for
Speaker 3: talking about a potential reunion.
Speaker 1: Was this what she was talking about? Is this the reunion?
Speaker 2: The reunion was at Victoria Beckhams fiftieth birthday party.
Speaker 1: I'm just wondering.
Speaker 2: Guess who else was the Thomas Cruise Tom Cruise jump
Speaker 2: on the couch Cruise Listen, He's evolved since then, Okay.
Speaker 3: Of course he's the most incredible action hero of our time. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I was gonna say of our time, but sure of
Speaker 3: all time. Also true doesn't mean he didn't jump on
Speaker 3: a couch on Oprah however.
Speaker 1: Many years ago.
Speaker 2: I'm a Tom Cruise fan.
Speaker 1: That's because you used to do red carpets like I did.
Speaker 3: And anybody who does Red carpets knows that Tom Cruise
Speaker 3: is the nicest to every reporter on a red carpet.
Speaker 3: He speaks to everybody from the front of the line
Speaker 3: to the very back. And when we started and we
Speaker 3: were in the very back of the line, we appreciated
Speaker 3: Tom Cruise.
Speaker 2: It's so true. He looks at you, he acknowledges you,
Speaker 2: makes eye contact. But also, I am obsessed with top
Speaker 2: Gun Maverick, unhealthy obsession with me. It's incredible. I love
Speaker 2: that movie so much. I listened to the soundtrack whenever
Speaker 2: I work out. It's the best motivation. Anyways, we digress.
Speaker 3: I don't know how this became about Tom Cruise, because
Speaker 3: this was about the Spice Girls. I used to I
Speaker 3: watched that movie at my basement in Chicago before school
Speaker 3: on repeat.
Speaker 2: I just love that they were all there, that seems
Speaker 2: like a big scheduling feat. Okay, Danielle, I saw the
Speaker 2: cutest story on the Washington Post this morning. An eleven
Speaker 2: year old girl and her dad were fossil hunting on
Speaker 2: a beach in England when they discovered not one, but
Speaker 2: two extremely rare fossils. So Ruby Reynolds and her dad
Speaker 2: Justin later learned that both of those fossils were actually
Speaker 2: part of the jawbone of a new species of marine reptile.
Speaker 2: So they discovered a new animal together.
Speaker 1: This is so special.
Speaker 2: Isn't that cute?
Speaker 3: My dad and I used to read books together, but
Speaker 3: we did not discover a new animal together.
Speaker 1: That is really really cool.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is how big their discovery was. They
Speaker 2: wrote to a local paleontologist who told reporters that he
Speaker 2: was blown away because ninety five percent of the time
Speaker 2: when he gets calls like that, people just find rocks.
Speaker 2: But they actually found a new species.
Speaker 3: How do you think paleontologists who have worked their whole
Speaker 3: career to find something like this feel about daddy daughter
Speaker 3: duo on vacation finding this.
Speaker 2: Honestly, I would give up at that point. I would
Speaker 2: just throw my hands up. I'm done. I'm done, I mean,
Speaker 2: just give up.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: I recently saw some chatter about the perils of kindness
Speaker 3: and it really stuck out to me because I've never
Speaker 3: thought of kindness as being perilous. I've always thought of
Speaker 3: it as a great thing. But this article says that
Speaker 3: in relationships sometimes kindness can do more harm than.
Speaker 2: Good because we're not being fully truthful in the name
Speaker 2: of trying to be kind to someone, We're holding back.
Speaker 1: Is that why, Yes, that's exactly it.
Speaker 3: So there was a writer for Psychology Today that calls
Speaker 3: it the truth or care dilemma. So he says there
Speaker 3: can be tension between two competing ways to show respect
Speaker 3: for someone you care about. Basically, are you hitting someone
Speaker 3: you love with a truth bomb or are you keeping
Speaker 3: it to yourself?
Speaker 2: But aren't we putting a false binary on this? Can't
Speaker 2: you do both? Can't you have kindness and candor at
Speaker 2: the same time?
Speaker 1: For sure?
Speaker 3: I think part of what he's saying too is like
Speaker 3: you have to have tact with it. But what I'm
Speaker 3: wondering is if you switch it up depending on who
Speaker 3: you're talking to, Cause I know in my friend group
Speaker 3: there's some people that I know can handle the truth
Speaker 3: bombs and some people that probably just want my ear.
Speaker 2: I think that speaks to the time that you've spent
Speaker 2: with that person, the history that you have in that relationship,
Speaker 2: and also it speaks to the person's willingness to change.
Speaker 2: And also I think in friendships and probably romantic relationships too,
Speaker 2: the best kind of feedback is feedback about something they
Speaker 2: can actually change. If you offer feedback about something that
Speaker 2: they cannot change about themselves, then that's I think where
Speaker 2: feelings get hurt.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think sometimes though, feedback makes people feel not seen
Speaker 3: because they feel like you're not understanding where I'm coming from.
Speaker 3: You don't see me or my point of view on this.
Speaker 3: So I'm actually really careful about feedback. I'm more of
Speaker 3: a listener. If somebody asked me for my feedback, then
Speaker 3: I give it.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: When I was younger, I used to just dish.
Speaker 3: Out my feedback. In college, I don't know why people
Speaker 3: were friends with me. I was a real truth teller,
Speaker 3: and I think through therapy I learned that for me
Speaker 3: it's better to Sometimes you got to ask like, hey.
Speaker 1: Do you want an ear or do you want do
Speaker 1: you want to know what?
Speaker 2: I think? I think that's the best question that you
Speaker 2: can ask is do you just want to vent right
Speaker 2: now or do you want me to prescribe something.
Speaker 3: So I actually interviewed an expert on kindness a few
Speaker 3: years ago. His name's Houston Kraft, and he wrote a
Speaker 3: great book about it. And I said to him, I've
Speaker 3: always hated this phrase, do nice guys finish last? Because
Speaker 3: I love nice, I love kind And he said, nice
Speaker 3: guys do finish last. Kind guys finish first. And the
Speaker 3: difference is that kindness has boundaries. Nice is just nice
Speaker 3: for the sake of it, and that's not great either.
Speaker 2: I also think this article is speaking to a larger
Speaker 2: phenomenon in our society where we tend to catastrovize the
Speaker 2: consequences of being really candid. We always think that it's
Speaker 2: going to cause more harm than it actually does. But
Speaker 2: telling the truth in relationships can actually enhance your life.
Speaker 2: I wasn't sure about this until I came across this
Speaker 2: study where researchers ask people to be honest in every
Speaker 2: single interpersonal conversation for three days. And of course the
Speaker 2: participants expected that they were going to ruin their friendships
Speaker 2: and romantic relationships with all that honesty, But they actually
Speaker 2: found that it was extremely pleasant and positive, both for
Speaker 2: their well being and for their relationships.
Speaker 1: I really like that, Simon. Yeah, it's not as bad
Speaker 1: as you think it's going to be.
Speaker 3: Exactly Up next, what are three things to consider before
Speaker 3: taking on debt?
Speaker 1: We'll find out after the break.
Speaker 2: We're back, Danielle. Today we're taking the veil off of
Speaker 2: a taboo subject. Money. It's something that I love talking
Speaker 2: about with other women because we're often socialized not to
Speaker 2: talk about it.
Speaker 1: That is spot on.
Speaker 3: Alexa mon Tolbo is the founder of Inspired Capital and
Speaker 3: the best selling author of Financially Fearless. I like that
Speaker 3: word fearless when it comes to money, and she's here
Speaker 3: to tell us about the importance of starting financial education
Speaker 3: at a young age. I'm talking playground wheels on the bus,
Speaker 3: Kittie Pool, Plato kind of young, Simone.
Speaker 2: See, that's when it needs to start. And Alex's latest
Speaker 2: book is a children's book for kids called Money Matters,
Speaker 2: A Guide to Saving Spending and everything in between.
Speaker 3: I'm going to go out on a limb here and
Speaker 3: say I could probably use that book as well.
Speaker 2: I think we could all use this book, Alexa.
Speaker 1: It's so great. To have you on the bright side.
Speaker 4: Hi, guys, very happy to do this with you.
Speaker 2: Guys.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you.
Speaker 3: Okay, So it's financial literacy month. Why is financial literacy imperative?
Speaker 5: Financial literacy and the education piece of it matters so
Speaker 5: much to me because for every human being on this planet,
Speaker 5: money is a big part of our lifeline.
Speaker 4: It's absolutely critical.
Speaker 5: I have three little kids and I care about them
Speaker 5: being empowered in their wallet. Money gives you choice. Let
Speaker 5: me be clear, do not support the quest for money.
Speaker 5: We're not trying to get as much money as possible.
Speaker 5: That's a pretty miserable life actually, to be on the
Speaker 5: quest for only money in life. Money does not equal happiness,
Speaker 5: but money gives you choices. If you're in a job
Speaker 5: that really doesn't suit you and your miserable, money lets
Speaker 5: you change jobs and find something that lets you be
Speaker 5: happier in your life. If you're in a bad relationship
Speaker 5: and you need to leave, money allows you to have
Speaker 5: the options to leave.
Speaker 4: If you need to.
Speaker 5: Go and see an important doctor that isn't totally paid
Speaker 5: for by insurance, money allows you to do those things.
Speaker 5: And so for the most critical things in life, money
Speaker 5: gives you choices, and I care that more people on
Speaker 5: this planet have choices.
Speaker 3: One of the parts of your work that I feel
Speaker 3: really drawn to is changing our habits at a young age.
Speaker 3: And you said you want financial literacy taught in elementary schools.
Speaker 3: How old are we when we start to pick up
Speaker 3: habits around money?
Speaker 4: Sure, and so first, very important for every parent out there.
Speaker 5: There's a new study out of the University of Michigan
Speaker 5: that tells you that as young as let's call it five,
Speaker 5: it's three to five, kids are already learning how to
Speaker 5: feel about money based on how we exhibit the tone
Speaker 5: of how we behave around money.
Speaker 4: So if every time money.
Speaker 5: Comes up it's a stressful, anxious filled they have now
Speaker 5: proven that fifteen years later, twenty five years later, that
Speaker 5: that child will have a less healthy relationship to money.
Speaker 5: And if the tone in your household is matter of fact,
Speaker 5: can do positive And that doesn't mean you're always telling
Speaker 5: your child they can get what they want. I regularly
Speaker 5: tell my children, so sorry, you're not going to get
Speaker 5: that toy. But the tone matters. And so back to
Speaker 5: your point on habits. Just like our kids see us
Speaker 5: wake up, brush our teeth, brush our hair, get dressed,
Speaker 5: and go out the door and through osmosis they pick
Speaker 5: that up. We need to show our kids the same
Speaker 5: thing with money, and not only should they see us
Speaker 5: talk about money. It's no longer taboo, guys. It's twenty
Speaker 5: twenty four. Money is a It is a part of
Speaker 5: our lives. We should be empowered at it, we should
Speaker 5: talk about it. But two, they see our habits. They
Speaker 5: see us be matter of fact in a habit around
Speaker 5: going to work. I tell my kids when I leave,
Speaker 5: mommy loves work, Mommy things work is awesome. I'm like,
Speaker 5: I feel companies all day and it's big puzzles and
Speaker 5: complicated ones, and Mommy loves it. So starting in forming
Speaker 5: new associations with money that are positive. And then the
Speaker 5: second piece to your habits is I force them to
Speaker 5: take a chunk of it and put it in the
Speaker 5: bank account. It's on the kitchen counter, everyone can see it.
Speaker 5: You want that same habit to be so deeply ingrained
Speaker 5: in them.
Speaker 2: And making it tangible, actually forcing them to feel it,
Speaker 2: to touch it. That is so important too, because I mean,
Speaker 2: we all know how easy it is to spend money
Speaker 2: now with Apple pay, It's like blop, three hundred dollars
Speaker 2: gone and you never see the money. It's just there's
Speaker 2: nothing there.
Speaker 5: I mean literally, men, imagine your five year old living
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty four. Boxes arrive every day to my
Speaker 5: house from like a magical man, and they just show
Speaker 5: up and when you open them often they're filled with
Speaker 5: like delicious and yummy things, snacks and gummy bears and
Speaker 5: toys and present and so back to your point, it's
Speaker 5: so important that we make it tangible. I do a
Speaker 5: few key things that I think are really important. Number one,
Speaker 5: my kids have allowance. They have piggy banks. I put
Speaker 5: the money in it. They see it. It's physical, it's real.
Speaker 5: As kids get a little bit older, those go into
Speaker 5: actual bank accounts and then you pull out the statements
Speaker 5: and you show them this is your Ira, your wroth Ira.
Speaker 5: And I started a retirement account for my daughter's nine.
Speaker 5: Here's what's in it, and let's watch it grow. Now
Speaker 5: she's learning about compounding interests without doing anything.
Speaker 2: Alexa, you're so successful now at this point, I mean,
Speaker 2: you're a founder, you're an author. But I'm curious, what
Speaker 2: are the narratives that formed around money for you as
Speaker 2: a kid that you had to unlearn as an adult.
Speaker 5: One of the major reasons that I started spending more
Speaker 5: time on trying to learn about money is very unexpectedly.
Speaker 4: I lost my dad, but I was fourteen years old
Speaker 4: and my mom.
Speaker 5: Became a single mom with two older brothers, and I
Speaker 5: remember in that moment, in thank goodness, we were financially stable,
Speaker 5: but my mom for the first time had to take
Speaker 5: care of the money in our household. And it struck
Speaker 5: me at fourteen profoundly that I was like, I can't
Speaker 5: believe not only does she have to manage us and
Speaker 5: manage just like massive, massively big trauma in our family
Speaker 5: just was to go learn about money, managing.
Speaker 4: Our money for the first time.
Speaker 5: And so when I went to college and I started
Speaker 5: trying to like, Okay, I'm going to learn about money,
Speaker 5: and then I was like, where's the classes. And I
Speaker 5: went to Harvard and there was a single class. And
Speaker 5: so I was really on this quest to get really
Speaker 5: good at just managing money so that it could be
Speaker 5: something that I could feel empowered for my whole life,
Speaker 5: for the rest of my life, to be on my
Speaker 5: own two feet no matter what life throughout me. I
Speaker 5: was very fortunate my dad was somebody who showed me
Speaker 5: my bank statements and let me watch it grow and
Speaker 5: made money feel like something I could manage, and so
Speaker 5: I had a very positive association despite having a big
Speaker 5: traumatic life event. I had the foundation of I could
Speaker 5: manage it. But then I went out there to find
Speaker 5: out and manage it and get good at it, and
Speaker 5: I couldn't find the content.
Speaker 4: So that was the huge thing that I had to
Speaker 4: really overcome.
Speaker 5: And it's also hopefully helped you understand why I'm so
Speaker 5: authentically passionate about just paying this forward to boys and
Speaker 5: girls all across the country at all ages. I want
Speaker 5: everyone to feel powered in their wallet, and all of
Speaker 5: us feel negative about money a little bit at times
Speaker 5: because there's always someone who has more, and you have
Speaker 5: to learn that does not matter. It's about feeling in
Speaker 5: control of your life, and that's the goal with money.
Speaker 3: That's my favorite thing that you've shared, because it really
Speaker 3: is about control.
Speaker 1: I've personally felt that.
Speaker 3: You know, you've been really emphatic about writing this book
Speaker 3: for a specific audience, and it's girls. You wrote it
Speaker 3: for kids, but particularly girls, Like why did you write
Speaker 3: this for girls in particular.
Speaker 5: As a mother of two daughters, as someone who has
Speaker 5: been successful in business, there are still not enough women
Speaker 5: at the top. I mean that is just not acceptable
Speaker 5: in my mind, on every level, board, CEOs, sea, level, suite,
Speaker 5: all of it. Still it's part one, and then I
Speaker 5: won't get into all of the politics of everything. But
Speaker 5: I think women's rights and our choices, the fact that
Speaker 5: we are having to work through fighting for those of
Speaker 5: you all over again, and I actually, I think it's
Speaker 5: really important that one girl see I have choices, I
Speaker 5: can be strong and smart with my money. And I
Speaker 5: think that more and more women need to see role
Speaker 5: models of people that are actually at the top doing
Speaker 5: great things, so that all of our little girls just
Speaker 5: know that that is absolutely within their reach.
Speaker 2: We're taking a quick break. We'll be right back with
Speaker 2: more from Alexa von Tobol. Welcome back. We're here with
Speaker 2: Alexa on Tobo. Alexa, you have a chapter on investing
Speaker 2: and it includes stock market basics. Now I can already
Speaker 2: hear the skeptic saying, wait a minute, this is too young,
Speaker 2: Like why would we even be bringing up stocks with kids.
Speaker 2: I love that you included this because as a parent,
Speaker 2: I plan on gifting my kids stocks and so I'd
Speaker 2: love for you to tell us what is the best
Speaker 2: way to approach investing with kids.
Speaker 4: So, first of all, it's so fun. Let me just
Speaker 4: start there.
Speaker 5: So investing is something all of us have to do,
Speaker 5: every human listening right now.
Speaker 4: Investing. You know, if you look at the last one
Speaker 4: hundred years, you look.
Speaker 5: At you take the S and P five hundred and
Speaker 5: you just take a long point of view, take a
Speaker 5: whole hundred year view. On average, it's been about ten
Speaker 5: percent growth year. We are on average, everyone listening, we
Speaker 5: have to invest in our retirement accounts. That's what the
Speaker 5: purpose of a retirement account is. So investing is the
Speaker 5: most important thing we all have to do in our
Speaker 5: wallet to have enough money.
Speaker 4: It's critical.
Speaker 5: So because it's so important, I'm like, of course you
Speaker 5: should teach a child to understand it. And what is investing?
Speaker 5: Investing is looking around in normal life when you see
Speaker 5: a product that you're using all the time, thinking to yourself,
Speaker 5: humh who makes that company? Is that a company that
Speaker 5: I could buy a share of? And the way I
Speaker 5: explain it to my kids is it's okay to actually
Speaker 5: be really smart and lazy in your wallet.
Speaker 4: And what that means is I want my money working
Speaker 4: for me when I.
Speaker 5: Am sleeping, when I'm on vacation when I am doing
Speaker 5: absolutely nothing. And that's what investing is is all of
Speaker 5: the people at that company when they go to work,
Speaker 5: they are going to work for you and your dollars
Speaker 5: because you're a shareholder. And I think it's just a
Speaker 5: very important way to teach kids to understand investing. And
Speaker 5: that does not mean stock picking, to be clear, not
Speaker 5: trying to teach your kid to go and pick a
Speaker 5: single stock. You want them to buy ets and index
Speaker 5: funds of baskets. But the point is what goes in
Speaker 5: those baskets of an index fund is five hundred companies
Speaker 5: and helping them understand what a stock is, plain and simple.
Speaker 5: And let's say your kid ates some cereal this morning,
Speaker 5: General Mills. It's a company, and you could buy a
Speaker 5: share of that company if it's if it's breakfast that.
Speaker 4: You eat every day.
Speaker 5: Just helping them make it relate. They know what Coca
Speaker 5: Cola is, they know what her she is. Helping them
Speaker 5: just understand those basics.
Speaker 4: Is so important.
Speaker 2: Hearing you talk about investing, I think we've been approaching
Speaker 2: it all wrong. I think we should have always done
Speaker 2: it from a children's point of view, because it just
Speaker 2: makes it so much easier to digest, Like it took
Speaker 2: me years as an adult to feel comfortable with understanding
Speaker 2: the stock market and how it works. But I'm sure
Speaker 2: a lot of people are listening to this wishing that
Speaker 2: they had your book when they were kids, but unfortunately
Speaker 2: we did not. So what are your top three tips
Speaker 2: for becoming financially literate? Now?
Speaker 5: So I'm going to start with tip number one, which
Speaker 5: is really important, which is rip the bandit off and
Speaker 5: throw the shame away. Every single one of us feels
Speaker 5: a little ashamed about money in some way. Every one
Speaker 5: of us does, and I think that that's sort of
Speaker 5: really step one to being really empowered in your money
Speaker 5: is to say, of course I made some mistakes. Of
Speaker 5: course I got something drunk. Guys, I'm sitting here the
Speaker 5: number of mistakes I've made, it's laughable. I was applying
Speaker 5: for credit cards and they were like, girl, you don't
Speaker 5: have a job about like miss bills because I just
Speaker 5: didn't even know where I was supposed to pay it online.
Speaker 5: Rip the bandid off, like forgive yourself. After you forgive
Speaker 5: yourself and throw the shame away, figure out how to
Speaker 5: get empowered around your wallet, sit down and decide to
Speaker 5: make a plan and say, this year twenty twenty four,
Speaker 5: I'm going to change my life around my wallet.
Speaker 4: And the third is.
Speaker 5: Set some goals and maybe even set some goals with
Speaker 5: an expert. So go find I'm a Certified Financial Planner,
Speaker 5: which is a Doctor of Money CFP. Find yourself somebody
Speaker 5: that could work with you. And even when you don't
Speaker 5: have a ton of money, there's so many digital companies
Speaker 5: out there now online where you can go find a
Speaker 5: place where you can start to have a healthy relationship
Speaker 5: with money. And part of that will look like And
Speaker 5: this is my zero point three sub bullet point. I
Speaker 5: want you to do three things. I want everyone listening
Speaker 5: to do three things. The first thing is I want
Speaker 5: you to have an emergency savings account. If you're really young,
Speaker 5: that should be about three months. If you're older, it
Speaker 5: should be more like six.
Speaker 4: To nine months.
Speaker 5: Number two, everyone needs to pay off your credit card
Speaker 5: debt in full.
Speaker 4: Get it to zero. That may take you a few years.
Speaker 4: If you have a lot, if you have very little, rip.
Speaker 5: The band it off, pay it off now, don't go
Speaker 5: out for the next three months.
Speaker 4: Do whatever you got to do. Get it to zero.
Speaker 5: And then the third is everyone needs to start a
Speaker 5: retirement account. Every single person, as early as you can
Speaker 5: in your twenties should start contributing something to retirement because
Speaker 5: compounding interest is not magic, it's math, and.
Speaker 4: If you start saving a bit, it will grow. Those
Speaker 4: are your three goals and just.
Speaker 1: Get them to you fantastic. I like those. Didn't Einstein
Speaker 1: talk about compound interest.
Speaker 5: I mean it's like the most beautiful thing is watching
Speaker 5: money compound.
Speaker 3: Yes, I agree, Alexa. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Alexa.
Speaker 4: You guys are amazing things. So much for having me.
Speaker 4: What an honor.
Speaker 3: Alexavon Tobel is the founder of Inspired Capital, a financial journey,
Speaker 3: and the author of the new children's book Money Matters,
Speaker 3: A Guide to Saving spending and everything in between.
Speaker 2: Danielle, I'm going to be honest. When I heard there's
Speaker 2: a money book for kids, I was like, huh, that's interesting.
Speaker 2: But after talking to Alexa, it's so important. It makes
Speaker 2: so much sense. I think every home should have one
Speaker 2: of these books.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I totally agree with you. I think we both
Speaker 3: had that same sentiment. I feel like I need the book.
Speaker 3: I mean, just a few years ago, I finally told
Speaker 3: myself I was going to stop being quote bad with money,
Speaker 3: and I felt out of control. And Alexa mentioned that
Speaker 3: a lot about money is control. And I went through
Speaker 3: all my credit cards, I went through process like I
Speaker 3: did a whole deep dive, and I actually do feel
Speaker 3: in control with money now. And it doesn't feel good
Speaker 3: to not understand something so crucial to your life and
Speaker 3: well being. And I think that a book like this
Speaker 3: is going to help kids not even form any of
Speaker 3: those limiting beliefs.
Speaker 2: They'll just grow up understanding. You know, it's Financial Literacy Month,
Speaker 2: and I want all of us to be financially literate.
Speaker 2: But I like Alex's approach because she's going to the
Speaker 2: root cause of the problem. She's going to the source
Speaker 2: and trying to catch kids when they're still really malleable
Speaker 2: and can learn good money habits. So I was really
Speaker 2: convicted when she talked about the studies that show that
Speaker 2: as early as three to five years old is when
Speaker 2: kids are forming attitudes around money. I mean, I have
Speaker 2: two kids that are in that range, and so I'm
Speaker 2: thinking about, Okay, how am I discussing money am my home?
Speaker 2: What are my emotions around money now? And what can
Speaker 2: I be teaching my kids about money? At this age.
Speaker 3: Do you think that you've you've been a positive influence
Speaker 3: so far or are you changing things.
Speaker 2: I've either been a neutral influence or a negative one.
Speaker 2: I don't know that they're old enough to pick up
Speaker 2: up on, you know, discussions about money when my husband
Speaker 2: and I are feeling stressed about it. I don't know
Speaker 2: that they're old enough to do that. But I'm definitely
Speaker 2: going to be way more mindful about how we talk
Speaker 2: about money in the house, and also how I frame
Speaker 2: work for me and how I frame it as something
Speaker 2: that's life affirming and that it gives me purpose.
Speaker 1: I liked when she said that.
Speaker 3: What did she say, Mommy's going to work and mommy
Speaker 3: loves work.
Speaker 2: Mommy loves puzzles. She's going to go solve a bunch
Speaker 2: of really big puzzles.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was so affirming. Well, the good news is
Speaker 3: Alexa talked about forgiveness.
Speaker 1: So tomorrow is a new day.
Speaker 3: If you feel out of control or stressed about money,
Speaker 3: you can decide tomorrow to change that forgive yourself.
Speaker 2: All right, Bessie, Speaking of tomorrow, we are in for
Speaker 2: a treat with entrepreneur James Beard Award winner and the
Speaker 2: brains behind Jenny's Splendid ice creams Jenny Britton.
Speaker 1: And that's it for today's show.
Speaker 3: Listen and follow the bright Side on the eye, heartradio app,
Speaker 3: Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: I'm Simone boys. You can find me at Simone Voice
Speaker 2: on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1: And I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 2: Hit me up, see you tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on
Speaker 2: the bright side.