Speaker 1: LinkedIn News. First of all, I don't look at my
Speaker 1: bank account. I don't need that negativity in my life.
Speaker 2: After a long weekend, I'm like, okay, oh, absolutely, Monday mornings.
Speaker 1: Hold hands, we're going to war. I'm gonna ask myself
Speaker 1: how much ram and do I need to eat this
Speaker 1: week to account for that. I walked by a department store,
Speaker 1: so something said spoil yourself. You have one life, yolo
Speaker 1: That yolo got me broke.
Speaker 3: From LinkedIn News and I heard podcasts. This is Let's
Speaker 3: Talk Offline, a show about what it takes to thrive
Speaker 3: in the early years of your career without sacrificing your values,
Speaker 3: sanity or sleep. I'm Gianna Prudenti, and I'm.
Speaker 1: Jamaie Jackson Gadson. The only thing better than that first
Speaker 1: real job is that first real paycheck, honey making it
Speaker 1: rain in the club on a Friday. But look, before
Speaker 1: you do all that, I know you're asking yourselves some
Speaker 1: real adult questions. What am I even supposed to do
Speaker 1: with this money? I mean, should I buy that new
Speaker 1: phone I've been looking at? Or should I be investing
Speaker 1: my money? What is a four one K or an ira? Honestly,
Speaker 1: all them Letta's numbers and digits and whatever else is
Speaker 1: really confusing for me. And I know that this is
Speaker 1: something that they are not teaching you in school, which
Speaker 1: is why it's really easy to feel kind of lost
Speaker 1: when it comes to money conversations.
Speaker 3: Yes, I feel lost in this all so when it
Speaker 3: comes to personal finance, and that's why the basics are
Speaker 3: so important. Understanding personal finance basics can really set you
Speaker 3: up for long term success and make you feel confident
Speaker 3: about managing your money. So today we're gonna be talking
Speaker 3: all about personal finance and how you can come up
Speaker 3: with a game plan to reach those financial goals.
Speaker 4: Me too.
Speaker 1: See, so I know talking about personal finance is probably
Speaker 1: a little weird. You guys are probably like Jimmy Gianna,
Speaker 1: we did not sign up for personal finance podcast, Okay,
Speaker 1: But the truth of the matter is personal finance is
Speaker 1: extremely important. At the end of the day, you are
Speaker 1: going to go out and make your first big boy
Speaker 1: or big girl paycheck, and you're gonna probably ask the
Speaker 1: same thing I did, Can I spend all of this
Speaker 1: on food? Your first paycheck and your money is going
Speaker 1: to matter throughout your career. But I realized that a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't even know where to start. I mean,
Speaker 1: they don't even know how it plays into the long
Speaker 1: term of your success, especially when you land that first
Speaker 1: job and you don't even know what to do. That's
Speaker 1: why I'm super excited, y'all. We are excited because finance
Speaker 1: expert Vivian two, who you probably know as your rich
Speaker 1: bff online, is coming on to talk us all through it.
Speaker 1: But first, Gianna, let me ask you. What trends have
Speaker 1: you seen in your reporting about gen Z and their
Speaker 1: relationship to money.
Speaker 3: Yes, so all spirts acknowledge like when it comes to
Speaker 3: money management, there is privilege and being able to you know,
Speaker 3: save and budget. Not everyone has that extra income to
Speaker 3: be able to save and invest, and a lot of
Speaker 3: people are burdened with debt and living paycheck to paycheck.
Speaker 3: But hopefully from this episode you're able to, you know,
Speaker 3: gain the tools and strategies to make better financial decisions
Speaker 3: and work toward whatever financial goals you have, even if
Speaker 3: it's just one small step. But I think when it
Speaker 3: comes to like gen Z and our relationship with money,
Speaker 3: I saw a study from TransUnion that found that people
Speaker 3: who are in their early twenties are earning less and
Speaker 3: have more debt than millennials did our age, which, like,
Speaker 3: I'm totally not here to pin the generations against each other,
Speaker 3: but it's the reality of, you know, the moment, and
Speaker 3: so it can really feel impossible for us to get
Speaker 3: financially ahead or build any type of financial wealth in
Speaker 3: today's economy. So we're just full of this financial angst
Speaker 3: and a lot of people I've been seeing this get
Speaker 3: reported out are experiencing what we call money dysmorphia, and
Speaker 3: that's having a flawed perception of your finances, so thinking
Speaker 3: you have less than you actually do, and that can
Speaker 3: impact you know, your spending habits. It can make you
Speaker 3: moll over financial decisions more than you need to, and
Speaker 3: it's very common. A report from Credit Karma showed that
Speaker 3: forty three percent of gen z or suffer from money dysmorphia,
Speaker 3: and that's compared to twenty nine percent of workers overall.
Speaker 3: And a lot of that money dysmorphia is caused by
Speaker 3: comparison on social media. I think, you know, social media
Speaker 3: is great, but of course that's you know, a reason
Speaker 3: why we fall victim to comparison is you see other
Speaker 3: people the way that they're spending their money, and you're like, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm not in that position, even if maybe you are.
Speaker 3: All of this is to say that money management can
Speaker 3: be very anxiety inducing because we don't learn anything personal
Speaker 3: finance out all in school and suddenly you enter the workforce.
Speaker 3: You have a four to one K What is that? Like?
Speaker 3: You have a paycheck? Should you be saving? Should you
Speaker 3: be budgeting? And I swear to God every time my
Speaker 3: mom asked me like are you saving money? Like I
Speaker 3: just booked trip and she's like, well, John, I just
Speaker 3: want to make sure are you saving money? I'm like,
Speaker 3: literally gonna throw up.
Speaker 1: My mother does the exact same thing. She's like, do
Speaker 1: you have a budget?
Speaker 3: V A few weeks ago, I'm working midday, i get
Speaker 3: an email from my mom with a budget template. I'm like,
Speaker 3: or is this coming from I'm going to tell you mom,
Speaker 3: if you're listening. I still have not looked at that,
Speaker 3: but I you know, it just stresses me out to
Speaker 3: get my finances in order. I think a lot of
Speaker 3: people can probably relate to that, this idea of having
Speaker 3: to sit down and look at how much is coming
Speaker 3: in and coming out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a lot. First of all, I don't look
Speaker 1: at my bank account. I don't need that negativity in
Speaker 1: my life. Honestly.
Speaker 3: Look, after a long weekend.
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, oh absolutely, Monday morning, let's hold hands
Speaker 2: and we're going to this idea.
Speaker 1: In it, I'm going to ask myself how much rom
Speaker 1: and do I need to eat this week to account
Speaker 1: for that? I walked by a department store, so something said,
Speaker 1: spoil yourself. You have one life, Yolo. That yolo got
Speaker 1: me broke. Uh huh. So, Gianna, I feel like you've
Speaker 1: sort of I've talked a lot about how gen Z
Speaker 1: feels about this, but like, what has your relationship been
Speaker 1: like with money?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Good questions. I do have to talk about it.
Speaker 3: I guess I'm in the hot seat. Yeah, I think
Speaker 3: I always like grew up being kind of cautious about
Speaker 3: spending money. Also, fun fact, my last name in Italian
Speaker 3: means cautious. So it's just like literally does make sense? Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know me so much?
Speaker 1: Everything sense?
Speaker 3: It was written in the stars. Why I couldn't choose
Speaker 3: this life from myself?
Speaker 1: Jackson doesn't mean anything except the son of jack I guess.
Speaker 3: But you know, my mom grew up like my grandparents
Speaker 3: came here from Italy and you know, they struggled to
Speaker 3: make ends me and she grew up where my grandpa,
Speaker 3: my no no, was very frugal with money, so I
Speaker 3: think she kind of internalized that. And then when I
Speaker 3: was growing up, she always told me siblings, like every
Speaker 3: penny counts, every dollar count So I was always saving.
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, you know, you never know what's
Speaker 3: gonna happen when a rainy day, you know, hits. But now,
Speaker 3: living on my own in the New York City area,
Speaker 3: saving has been a struggle. Like once you so I,
Speaker 3: for context, I lived at home for two years after graduation,
Speaker 3: saved my money, and then you move out and suddenly
Speaker 3: it's like, where did my paycheck go?
Speaker 1: You're like, wow, this is what the adults we're talking about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's like the biggest like adulting one oh
Speaker 3: one reality check. So now I'm balancing, you know, my
Speaker 3: rent payments, my student loan, living expenses. And I acknowledge
Speaker 3: that working in tech, you know, I make a good salary,
Speaker 3: but it's still it's just expensive to live, you know.
Speaker 3: And my mom has always been the one who's really
Speaker 3: helped me on my personal finance journey, Like she is
Speaker 3: like a financial advisor. You know, on the side, she's
Speaker 3: helped me, you know, figure out what investment funds I
Speaker 3: should be in early on and moving some of my
Speaker 3: money out of, you know, just my big account so
Speaker 3: it's just not sitting there collecting to us. But I
Speaker 3: know I can be doing a lot better with budgeting.
Speaker 3: I was saying before, Like the idea of having to
Speaker 3: sit down and understand how much is me in and
Speaker 3: coming out of my bank account really makes me want
Speaker 3: to peeuke. Like it's just I don't have a budget
Speaker 3: and I probably need one, And I also want to
Speaker 3: figure out like my financial goals. I'm at a point
Speaker 3: right now where yeah, one day I would love to
Speaker 3: have a house, but like I'm twenty five, so do
Speaker 3: I start saving now? Like that seems like a little
Speaker 3: bit far off. So I need all the help when
Speaker 3: it comes to just like getting my you know, budgeting
Speaker 3: and financial goals in order.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean, first of all, give yourself credit.
Speaker 1: You're having conversations and even asking yourself questions that I
Speaker 1: don't think a lot of people are asking themselves, or
Speaker 1: at least are in a position to ask themselves. You know,
Speaker 1: you mentioned at the very beginning that some people don't
Speaker 1: get the privilege of talking. When I was your age,
Speaker 1: I was not making good money, so I couldn't even
Speaker 1: articulate really what long term goals are. I knew that
Speaker 1: I needed to make them, but I was like, the
Speaker 1: money gotta come first.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I do. I definitely acknowledge that
Speaker 3: there's a lot of privilege with working in tech because
Speaker 3: I've been able to, you know, have some investments saving.
Speaker 3: But I think it's I like to treat myself like
Speaker 3: I knew too much, you know, so I need to
Speaker 3: I need to scale back. And I really do credit
Speaker 3: all to my mom, like she has really been the
Speaker 3: one being like, you got to get it in order.
Speaker 1: Those books on that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I'm wondering for you, like your early paychecks,
Speaker 3: what was Jammae Little Jamay spending her money on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, my experience with money, first of all,
Speaker 1: has been an interesting one. But my mom really was
Speaker 1: one Like from the young age. She put me in
Speaker 1: like financial literacy classes that were taught at my church,
Speaker 1: which was really nice, awesome. Yeah. She used to sit
Speaker 1: me down and as she would clean out her check books,
Speaker 1: you know, she would do her she literally would go
Speaker 1: she could get down to the dime, her money in
Speaker 1: her bank account, and like she would always constantly check
Speaker 1: and make sure everything was aligned. She showed me how
Speaker 1: she paid bills and all that stuff. So I did
Speaker 1: get the opportunity at a young age to see sort
Speaker 1: of what was be expected. But then I was like, dang,
Speaker 1: I gotta do this now for yourself, for me. Like
Speaker 1: now I I wholly understand why Beyonce said, ladies, leave
Speaker 1: your man at home.
Speaker 3: Now you guys hear parents were always stressed.
Speaker 1: Now I know why. When they came home they said,
Speaker 1: don't talk to me for fifteen minutes, like, let me
Speaker 1: just put some TV on. They the world sucks. So
Speaker 1: you know, I was blessed though that when I went
Speaker 1: to college, I went on a full ride, so we
Speaker 1: didn't have to worry financially about that. But I've always
Speaker 1: been in a very ambitious person, so I still worked
Speaker 1: all throughout college. I've always had jobs, so I always
Speaker 1: wanted pocket money because one thing I don't like is
Speaker 1: for people to tell me what to do with my money.
Speaker 1: Don't tell me what to do here, right, good good thing.
Speaker 1: We're not like, you know, possibly gonna be telling people
Speaker 1: like hey, stop doing this. But I always loved financial
Speaker 1: autonomy and I always felt like powerful in that. One
Speaker 1: of the things, though, that we were talking about, was
Speaker 1: that throughout my career, especially throughout most of my twenties,
Speaker 1: I did not make money enough to be able to save,
Speaker 1: let alone invest and have some of these bigger conversations
Speaker 1: that we're having. I was making enough money to get by,
Speaker 1: and that's why being a lancer, having a side hustle
Speaker 1: is something that is so important to me and that
Speaker 1: I will always talk about because it was those little
Speaker 1: gigs of a two hundred and fifty dollars job or
Speaker 1: a five hundred dollars cover feature that covered me and
Speaker 1: made sure I kept my lights on, especially when I decided, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm going to move to the most expensive city in
Speaker 1: the world, New York. But like I did not make
Speaker 1: wise decisions financially as when you're younger, I still sometimes don't.
Speaker 1: I really much so believe you still have to enjoy life.
Speaker 1: But I now am at a place where I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'll be an adult. You know, yes, you can go
Speaker 1: to the club or the ballers are there. You also
Speaker 1: got to start building out long term strategy growing up.
Speaker 1: I'm growing up. I'm a city girl, but a responsible
Speaker 1: financial city girl. You know, you want to build a home,
Speaker 1: you want to get married, you want to start a family,
Speaker 1: these things really. Yeah, when I hear how much weddings cost,
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, our friends just spent like six figures
Speaker 1: on their wedding. It was beautiful. But yeah, so like
Speaker 1: things are expensive. And so now I'm trying to go
Speaker 1: into conversations with that in mind and really telling myself, Okay,
Speaker 1: if you chip off fifty dollars on your eating out fun,
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean you're depriving yourself, but you can put
Speaker 1: that money into something else. And so I think the
Speaker 1: conversation is changing, and certainly my viewpoint.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it seems like both of us could do
Speaker 3: a little better with money management. Yeah, I think. God,
Speaker 3: we got an expert coming on.
Speaker 1: Oh, tell me what to do, but don't want me
Speaker 1: to give up. Oysters coming up. You really can never
Speaker 1: have enough work besties. So we're bringing in finance expert
Speaker 1: Vivian two aka your rich bff, to help us break
Speaker 1: down what personal finance moves you should be making early
Speaker 1: in your career. So I get it, y'all. Personal finance
Speaker 1: can feel and sound super scary. I mean, honestly, my
Speaker 1: armpits get sweaty just talking about money. I know it's
Speaker 1: a bad things. It feels taboo, but the reality is
Speaker 1: we got to start having these conversations. But we're not
Speaker 1: just going to lean on me and Gianna this week.
Speaker 1: We are going to bring it a heavy hitter who's
Speaker 1: going to talk to us all about the money on Gianna,
Speaker 1: who do we have this week?
Speaker 3: All right? First off, we need to count on how
Speaker 3: many times Jamaze our bits get sweaty during the day.
Speaker 1: It's essentially always sweaty. I am a.
Speaker 3: Snoweaty girl, no problem, we all are, okay, So I'm
Speaker 3: so excited we're bringing on Vivian two. You guys definitely
Speaker 3: know her as your rich bff on social media. She's
Speaker 3: a former Wall Street trader who offers her community of
Speaker 3: over seven million followers advice on how to manage their
Speaker 3: money and better understand the financial landscape. She's also the
Speaker 3: author of rich af The Winning Money Mindset that Will
Speaker 3: Change Your Life, which gives readers tools on how to
Speaker 3: develop their own finance strategies. Vivian, thanks so much for
Speaker 3: joining us. Vivian, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: So let's go in and start off with a question
Speaker 1: that I think a lot of people, myself included, have,
Speaker 1: which is what's a really common early career money mistake
Speaker 1: that you see young people make.
Speaker 5: I think one of the biggest ones is being happy
Speaker 5: and comfortable with that inflation raise. I don't know what
Speaker 5: dork invented that, but it is the worst thing ever.
Speaker 5: It's when you get to the end of the year
Speaker 5: and you don't ask for a raise yourself, and your
Speaker 5: boss comes in smug and they're smiling, and they're like, well,
Speaker 5: I've got some great news for you, like we are
Speaker 5: giving you an inflation raise for working so hard. It's
Speaker 5: going to be two percent. What the hell does that
Speaker 5: get you? Nothing? Okay, that means you are essentially making
Speaker 5: the same amount this next year as you did this year,
Speaker 5: because we all know inflation is roughly two to three percent,
Speaker 5: So your life is getting more expensive. Even if you
Speaker 5: do make that a little additional, you're spending it, and
Speaker 5: you're spending it not on fun things. You're spending it
Speaker 5: on things that like eggs at the grocery store. So
Speaker 5: I think the first one is understanding what an actual
Speaker 5: raise looks like. And knowing that you have to ask
Speaker 5: for one every single year. I always get roasted on
Speaker 5: the internet when I say this out loud, but I'm like,
Speaker 5: every single year you need to be asking for a
Speaker 5: raise of somewhere between ten to fifteen percent, and people
Speaker 5: are always so shell shocked by that number when in reality,
Speaker 5: I'm not saying you're going to get fifteen percent every
Speaker 5: single year. But if you ask for ten to fifteen
Speaker 5: and you end up getting eight, that is actually a
Speaker 5: true raise. That means that your money is going to
Speaker 5: do more for you because you're making more versus just
Speaker 5: keeping up with inflation and your life doesn't actually get
Speaker 5: any better.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that a lot. Usually what I do
Speaker 1: is I add my requests in my performance evaluation. It
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's always going to happen, but at least
Speaker 1: there's something documented that says, this is the money I'm
Speaker 1: asking for. Here is the proof of why I'm asking
Speaker 1: for it, and hopefully we land somewhere so that we
Speaker 1: can have a little bit more money in the bank.
Speaker 3: Vivian, I want to ask you a question about, you know,
Speaker 3: all the things savings and budgeting. You know, this is
Speaker 3: like a lot of people's like first big girl jobs
Speaker 3: are starting to get those paychecks and potentially have some
Speaker 3: money to put aside and save. Before we get into that,
Speaker 3: I'm assuming that the first step to budgeting and saving
Speaker 3: is kind of clarifying those financial goals. So how do
Speaker 3: you determine, you know, what is a goal, is it feasible?
Speaker 3: And then how do you make a plan to achieve them?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think all of our goals are really going
Speaker 5: to differ, but I think it's all about setting up
Speaker 5: that plan. What I like to do is when I
Speaker 5: have a goal, I write out a goal at the
Speaker 5: top of the piece of paper that I have in
Speaker 5: front of me, and then I will say what is
Speaker 5: the timeline for me to accomplish this? And then from
Speaker 5: that timeline, I'll break it out into twenty five, fifty
Speaker 5: and seventy five percent and then the one hundred. So
Speaker 5: if the goal takes six months, I'm going to do
Speaker 5: a check in around a month and a half in
Speaker 5: I'm going to do a check in at three, four
Speaker 5: and a half and then six, And then I write
Speaker 5: down who can actually help me accomplish this goal, what
Speaker 5: I actually need to get this done, and then I
Speaker 5: also write down what are my strengths and weaknesses that
Speaker 5: are going to help and hurt me from achieving this. So,
Speaker 5: for example, if my goal is to save two thousand dollars,
Speaker 5: one of the strengths is, hey, I have a really
Speaker 5: good job and I get a really good salary. Weaknesses
Speaker 5: can be when I see money in my bank account,
Speaker 5: I use the money in my bank account, and I
Speaker 5: get the little treat. I've got the drinks out with friends,
Speaker 5: I got my nails done, I got the lashes done.
Speaker 5: Suddenly I don't have that two thousand dollars saved, and
Speaker 5: maybe that two thousand dollars was for a new laptop
Speaker 5: so I could start a photography business on the side.
Speaker 5: So I think knowing what your strengths and weaknesses are
Speaker 5: is really helpful, and then also building systems to actually
Speaker 5: prevent your weaknesses from derailing you. So in that case,
Speaker 5: sometimes I can be very shortsighted. And if I want
Speaker 5: to have a long term goal or a bigger picture goal,
Speaker 5: what I like to do is so many of us
Speaker 5: these days get paid via direct deposit, and if you're
Speaker 5: a W two employee, you can typically go into your
Speaker 5: workplace portal where you set it up initially when you
Speaker 5: first started the job, instead of putting one hundred percent
Speaker 5: into a checking account, you can put ninety percent or
Speaker 5: ninety five percent and automatically set aside five to ten
Speaker 5: percent into a high healed savings account where your money's
Speaker 5: earning you more money. But also you don't see it,
Speaker 5: it's not there. Just pretend it's not there, and that
Speaker 5: way you won't spend it.
Speaker 3: That sounds really smart when it's at a site out
Speaker 3: of mind, you don't spend it. But when it comes
Speaker 3: to like budgeting and saving best practices, you know, that's
Speaker 3: something that like we obviously don't learn that in school.
Speaker 3: And then to even start creating a budget, to even
Speaker 3: start building a savings feels incredibly intimidating. So how do
Speaker 3: you even start, Like, let's start with budgeting. How do
Speaker 3: you even start to create a budget? What should you
Speaker 3: be putting in as your different line items in the budget?
Speaker 3: How much of your you know, paycheck do you put where?
Speaker 3: How do you kind of go about that?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think one of my favorite budgeting strategies, and
Speaker 5: again a different strategy is going to work for different people,
Speaker 5: But my favorite one, because it's so simple, is the
Speaker 5: fifty to thirty twenty budgeting strategy. It just roughly says,
Speaker 5: fifty percent of your take home pay goes towards needs,
Speaker 5: So that's things like rent, groceries, basic transportation to get
Speaker 5: you to and fro. Thirty percent goes towards wants, so
Speaker 5: this is things like that dinner out, the nails, the
Speaker 5: cute little dress. Twenty percent goes towards taking care of
Speaker 5: future you. So that's saving, that's paying down your debt,
Speaker 5: and that's investing. And this is just a jump off point,
Speaker 5: and I think this is a really good format for
Speaker 5: the beginning of your career. And the hope is that
Speaker 5: over time, as you make more money, as you become
Speaker 5: more financially stable, that fifty and thirty can actually become
Speaker 5: smaller numbers, and that twenty rises and rises and rises,
Speaker 5: you know, so that you are able to set aside
Speaker 5: more and take care of yourself in the future more.
Speaker 3: That seems like such a great first step.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I appreciate also that, like you're not telling
Speaker 1: people just don't spend money on you, because that's so unrealistic.
Speaker 1: You want to be able to enjoy your money at
Speaker 1: every age of your life. But you also need to
Speaker 1: be thinking about tomorrow and hopefully that you won't have
Speaker 1: to work until you're in your li like eighties. So Vivian.
Speaker 1: One thing that I'm always talking with my friends about
Speaker 1: is how money is such a different conversation, particularly for
Speaker 1: people of color. I know, like there are terms that
Speaker 1: are thrown around, like the black tax, where we're evaluating
Speaker 1: how the paycheck that I make is not just supporting me,
Speaker 1: it's supporting my parents, it's supporting the aunts and uncles
Speaker 1: who things happen to whatever. So what tips would you
Speaker 1: recommend on budgeting or even enforcing those boundaries with the
Speaker 1: people who you want to help, but maybe sometimes you can't.
Speaker 5: Yeah, this hits so close to home because you know,
Speaker 5: similar to the Black tax, like there is the dutiful
Speaker 5: Chinese Asian, you know, the daughter, like you have to
Speaker 5: kind of take care of everybody back home. And I
Speaker 5: have so many friends where when they get their bonus
Speaker 5: at the end of the year, there's an expectation that
Speaker 5: they're sending that bonus home because maybe they grew up,
Speaker 5: you know, undersupported in an underprivileged neighborhood and like their
Speaker 5: parents need that money to like fix the car or
Speaker 5: like make sure that like the windows aren't like broke in.
Speaker 5: And so my big tip is never ever lend money period,
Speaker 5: you only gift because when I tell you Uncle Lester
Speaker 5: whoever is going to borrow that, but you're never seeing
Speaker 5: that shit again. No, that is going to cause severe resentment.
Speaker 5: It's just going to make family relationships awkward, and you
Speaker 5: don't want to do that. In the same way that
Speaker 5: you are setting aside dollars for your needs and your wants,
Speaker 5: you can actually build into part of either of those categories,
Speaker 5: like gifting for your family. So if this is like, oh,
Speaker 5: I want to make sure that my parents and my
Speaker 5: siblings or aunts and uncles can have a really wonderful
Speaker 5: winter holiday, that can go into wants. If it's my
Speaker 5: parents need this money to fix the car, my parents
Speaker 5: need this money to help make sure that like my
Speaker 5: little brother can afford textbooks and lunch. That can go
Speaker 5: into needs. But again, you want to budget for this
Speaker 5: and never ever ever loan money. Only gift.
Speaker 1: And also it kind of makes you think give as
Speaker 1: much as you're willing to lose.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly, And frankly, in the first few years of
Speaker 5: your career, very few of us make enough to be
Speaker 5: making a huge meaningful difference. Whereas if we can build
Speaker 5: our own financial foundation in a couple of years, when
Speaker 5: we become you know, a more of a VP level
Speaker 5: or a senior level or even like junior management, you're
Speaker 5: going to have a lot more disposable income to actually
Speaker 5: throw to the people that really really matter to you.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about four oh one k's for a minute,
Speaker 3: a little bit of a pivot. It can be super
Speaker 3: confusing when setting that up, from like selecting you know
Speaker 3: how much of your paycheck you're allocating towards your four
Speaker 3: oh one K to what investment funds you're in. So
Speaker 3: can you break down how you know to set up
Speaker 3: a four one K and the different types, because I
Speaker 3: know that's so confusing, like pre tax roth all the things.
Speaker 5: Yeah, four oh one k's company sponsored employer sponsored retirement
Speaker 5: plans are so awesome and it would be a shame
Speaker 5: for the folks listening to miss out on this. So
Speaker 5: what I always say is take the fifteen minutes. Whoever
Speaker 5: their provider is, go ahead and log in and make
Speaker 5: that account right away. Then find out through your company
Speaker 5: handbook or through the HR benefits team. They typically you know,
Speaker 5: talk to the crew of people who are being onboarded
Speaker 5: what your company matches. If you can contribute and you
Speaker 5: can afford to give up that amount every single month,
Speaker 5: try to contribute as much as your company is willing
Speaker 5: to match, because that is free money, and there are
Speaker 5: very few instances in the finance space where you get
Speaker 5: free money and there's no random, you know, scam happening.
Speaker 5: So truly take advantage of that if you can. And
Speaker 5: then once you get in there, this is the big
Speaker 5: mistake people make. They're contributing those dollars and then they
Speaker 5: don't do anything. They're like, yes, I'm done, I'm investing
Speaker 5: in my foremu one kiit. No you are not. Those
Speaker 5: dollars are sitting in something called cash reserves. Cash reserves
Speaker 5: is the equivalent of you putting that money into a
Speaker 5: savings account and you're not really actually investing. What you
Speaker 5: then need to do is actually choose and pick investments. Obviously,
Speaker 5: every single employer sponsor plan is going to be different.
Speaker 5: Your employer is going to pick what investments are available
Speaker 5: to you. But just as a broad strokes works for
Speaker 5: a lot of people works for most people, is most
Speaker 5: employers will offer target date retirement funds, and essentially how
Speaker 5: these work are their baskets of investments that are diversified
Speaker 5: and risk appropriate based on how far away you are
Speaker 5: from retirement. So what you do is you just choose
Speaker 5: the retirement fund most closely associated to the year that
Speaker 5: you would turn sixty, sixty five, or seventy, depending on
Speaker 5: how aggressive you want to be. But this is just
Speaker 5: a quick, easy way for you to buy one thing
Speaker 5: and essentially be buying hundreds, if not thousands, of actual
Speaker 5: individual assets.
Speaker 3: I appreciate you saying, like, the biggest mistake when it
Speaker 3: comes to form one keys that you can make is
Speaker 3: not setting it up and not choosing your investments. So like,
Speaker 3: whatever you do decide to do is good. I feel
Speaker 3: like it could be overwhelming when there are so many options,
Speaker 3: but it's just about like setting it up and investing
Speaker 3: somewhere and then like assessing it as you know, you
Speaker 3: go throughout your career.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, Vivian, we have a wonderful segment here called
Speaker 1: Dear Work Investie, and I want to ask you a
Speaker 1: question that we got this week from one of our listeners.
Speaker 1: We get to address the questions from people who listen
Speaker 1: to the show, and this week's comes from Mikayla in
Speaker 1: New Jersey.
Speaker 4: So a lot of my friends talk about investing, and
Speaker 4: I'm interested in getting started, but the idea of it
Speaker 4: is completely overwhelming. I don't know where to begin because
Speaker 4: there's so many options, and I'd prefer to be hands off.
Speaker 4: What's the first step I should take? Are there any
Speaker 4: specific funds or type of investments you would recommend?
Speaker 1: Now, Vivian, you literally just talked about this, But for
Speaker 1: someone like Mikayla who doesn't even know like the first step,
Speaker 1: what would you recommend?
Speaker 5: I would say, you don't need to. You can just
Speaker 5: invest the lazy way. So we're not in our parents'
Speaker 5: generation anymore. And as with everything, technology rules my life,
Speaker 5: and so why not let technology invest on your behalf
Speaker 5: and for you? And so what I recommend is utilize
Speaker 5: something called a robo advisor. If you do not have
Speaker 5: the time to pick investments, you do not have the
Speaker 5: time to be worried about all of this stuff, go
Speaker 5: ahead and just search best robo advisors twenty twenty four
Speaker 5: and you're going to get a list from either like
Speaker 5: nerd wallet or bank rate or something that'll show you
Speaker 5: a bunch of really great options. And what you can
Speaker 5: then do is click in find one that you like
Speaker 5: their user interface. You're going to take a quick quiz
Speaker 5: about your money goals. So how much money do you have,
Speaker 5: how much money do you make every year? Do you
Speaker 5: have any debt? How many kids do you have? If
Speaker 5: you have kids? Where would you eventually like to live?
Speaker 5: When do you want to retire?
Speaker 4: Da?
Speaker 1: Da da da da.
Speaker 5: Then this little technology machine goes through the room and
Speaker 5: it spits out a diversified portfolio based on you, based
Speaker 5: on your age, based on your risk tolerance, based on
Speaker 5: all the things that are important to you. And then
Speaker 5: they send you this questionnaire about every year or too.
Speaker 5: And as you get older and you know, maybe you
Speaker 5: make some more money, or maybe you have an issue
Speaker 5: with you know, losing your job and you're making less money,
Speaker 5: your entire financial picture will continue to change, but your
Speaker 5: portfolio gets to change with you constantly. And it's just
Speaker 5: a great way to get invested within forty five minutes
Speaker 5: and not be stressed about the decisions you're making and
Speaker 5: questioning am I doing the right thing? Oh?
Speaker 1: I love that because it feels it makes you feel
Speaker 1: like you're still doing something, like I'm still involved, but
Speaker 1: also something else is doing a lot of the work
Speaker 1: for me. Oh I like that a lot.
Speaker 3: So is this service like investing on your behalf or
Speaker 3: do you then have to go and like it's recommending this,
Speaker 3: you know, this portfolio for you and then you investor
Speaker 3: or is it doing it all for you?
Speaker 1: Like it's actually is your money?
Speaker 3: No, it does it all for you? Oh amazing, Yeah,
Speaker 3: love that way. So earlier in the in the show,
Speaker 3: I talked about money dysmorphia. How does that impact money management?
Speaker 3: And then what's your advice on addressing it.
Speaker 5: I think so many of us have money dysmorphia because
Speaker 5: so many of our relationships with money were dictated based
Speaker 5: on our childhoods. You learn so many of your money
Speaker 5: behaviors from your family, the people you grew up with,
Speaker 5: and maybe they were dealing with something that is not
Speaker 5: even relevant to your life now, but is something that
Speaker 5: is still really, really hard and this impacts people of color,
Speaker 5: immigrant children the hardest. I say that as someone who
Speaker 5: has money dysmorphia, I am in a very different financial
Speaker 5: position now than I was in my early twenties, and
Speaker 5: that is a completely different financial position than my parents
Speaker 5: have ever been in. You know, my parents were the immigrants,
Speaker 5: like they came over I'm first gen and so they
Speaker 5: were constantly worried about scrimping and saving and stuffing money
Speaker 5: under the mattress because they always felt like the other
Speaker 5: shoe was going to drop. You know. They were here
Speaker 5: to survive. But I'm entitled. I was born here, I
Speaker 5: have a blue passport. What are you going to do? Like,
Speaker 5: I am here to thrive, not just survive. But it
Speaker 5: takes a little bit of work on that part to
Speaker 5: remember that, because sometimes, even now, knowing how comfort I
Speaker 5: am in my finances, I'll look at something and belabor
Speaker 5: a decision of should I get it, should I not?
Speaker 5: For hours and then I'm like, on seventeen different websites
Speaker 5: comparing prices seeing where I can do this, that I
Speaker 5: wasted three hours of my time. And I think the
Speaker 5: most valuable thing we need to remember is that, like, ultimately,
Speaker 5: we do not need to let anybody else be the
Speaker 5: main character in our life.
Speaker 1: This is our story.
Speaker 5: We hold the pen. And when it comes to money dysmorphia,
Speaker 5: I think looking at the numbers, as scary as that
Speaker 5: may be, sometimes is one of the most healing and
Speaker 5: honest reflections of what your financial picture actually is versus
Speaker 5: I think I'm doing really badly, or versus the opposite.
Speaker 5: The flip side is like you think you're doing great
Speaker 5: when in fact you've got four dollars and you're about
Speaker 5: to overdraft. So it's just really important to look at
Speaker 5: the numbers because you can lie to yourself, but the
Speaker 5: numbers won't lie to you.
Speaker 3: I appreciate you saying that because I feel like so
Speaker 3: many people around my age are scared to look at
Speaker 3: their finances. Like, honestly, me included, like I earn a
Speaker 3: good salary, but if you said Gianna gol and like
Speaker 3: see how much is coming in and alley, it literally
Speaker 3: makes me want to throw up. So I feel like
Speaker 3: it's all about just like level setting with yourself, like
Speaker 3: stop lying to yourself, and then you know it will
Speaker 3: help you stop losing so much sanity over some decisions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, Vivian, this was so fun. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. If y'all are not following Vivian
Speaker 1: by now, are you living under a rock? Do you
Speaker 1: have findance? But where can the people find you?
Speaker 5: You? Guys can find me across all social media, whatever
Speaker 5: is your favorite platform as your rich bff. I'm teaching
Speaker 5: you all personal finance there as well as my book.
Speaker 5: It's titled rich AF The Winning Money Mindset That'll Change
Speaker 5: your life. But if you go to RICHAF dot me, yes,
Speaker 5: I made the rl a manifestation, you can grab a copy.
Speaker 3: I love that manifest That money y'all yet amazing. Thank
Speaker 3: you so much, Vivian. I love this conversation. I have
Speaker 3: like a million more questions I can ask you, but
Speaker 3: that's all we got for today.
Speaker 5: Thank you guys so much for having me.
Speaker 3: Ooh, lots of great tips from Vivian. That combo makes
Speaker 3: me want to see how my four oh one k
Speaker 3: is doing right now. Actually, I'm kind of scared. After
Speaker 3: the break, every workplace has a apper. Is it you
Speaker 3: that's next? Seriously, that was just not enough time with
Speaker 3: a Vivian.
Speaker 1: I my mind is blown. I have so many more questions.
Speaker 1: I felt like I was doing well until she started talking,
Speaker 1: and then I'm like, Wow, there's a lot of work
Speaker 1: to be done.
Speaker 3: I think the biggest things I'm taking away from our
Speaker 3: conversation one being her fifty thirty twenty budgeting framework. Seems
Speaker 3: like it easy first step. I can definitely do that,
Speaker 3: but the way to get there is my second takeaway,
Speaker 3: Look at your finances. I think it's time I need
Speaker 3: to like audit myself and really just yeah, I got
Speaker 3: I gotta, I gotta face the music.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think we have to see our finances as
Speaker 1: our companions. It's time to spend some time with them.
Speaker 1: Why right, So we have no money for that, no money,
Speaker 1: no money for the wine. For me, I really loved
Speaker 1: the tips that she shared, particularly for communities of color,
Speaker 1: and the pressure that happens when you are trying to
Speaker 1: support a lot of people. You can, but sometimes it's
Speaker 1: good to enforce those boundaries and also know maybe I
Speaker 1: can't give you too much now, but I can give
Speaker 1: it to you later. Look at these things as gifts
Speaker 1: and not loans.
Speaker 5: I like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Another thing that I think was really resonant for
Speaker 1: me was this idea of asking for the money even
Speaker 1: if you know you're not going to get it, Even if,
Speaker 1: for instance, you're not in an annual review cycle where
Speaker 1: their money is a flowing, you're not up for promotion.
Speaker 1: It is so good to document and to ask for
Speaker 1: the money because the inflation rate is not enough's high.
Speaker 3: I want to add that I'm taking away from you
Speaker 3: that putting it in your performance review brilliant thought about
Speaker 3: doing that?
Speaker 1: Why not add a little razzle dazzle up in there,
Speaker 1: little season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've never asked for a raise, So we're gonna stop.
Speaker 3: That's a conversation for another anyways.
Speaker 1: Anyways, so we are now going to toss it over
Speaker 1: and to show the risk sipts. This is a segment
Speaker 1: where we get to take a look at some of
Speaker 1: the headlines and the workplace trends. Maybe Eve had some
Speaker 1: office myths and see if there's any truth to them.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 1: Gee, what are we talking about today?
Speaker 3: All right? We're talking about gen z ors loving yapping
Speaker 3: in the office. Do you know what that means? Do
Speaker 3: you know what a yapper is?
Speaker 1: I know what? My definition is? Someone who just talk
Speaker 1: a whole lot, right, Like it's just like yep, yep.
Speaker 3: Yeah, ramble, ramble nothing important.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, here's the thing.
Speaker 3: It's not really like a new term, but gen Z
Speaker 3: you know, that's the whole thing with us. It's like
Speaker 3: we're just rebranding. It all comes back fun title generation exactly.
Speaker 3: If you guys remember our side Hustle episode with Janie
Speaker 3: and she called herself a certified yapper, which I feel
Speaker 3: like I felt seen in that she woren't proudly yeah,
Speaker 3: and as you should. You know, there's a lot of
Speaker 3: TikTok videos, a lot of articles out there about gen
Speaker 3: Ze calling themselves certified yappers at work, and then there's
Speaker 3: been a lot of reports like is that good in
Speaker 3: the workplace? Right? So some people don't mind it, some
Speaker 3: people are like, shut up. So I'm wondering, do you
Speaker 3: consider yourself the apper? And does the yapping belong in
Speaker 3: the workplace?
Speaker 1: Okay, So before I answer, let's just put some clarity here.
Speaker 1: So a yapper is someone who talks a lot. Are
Speaker 1: they talking about something important or they're just talking just
Speaker 1: to hear themselves talk.
Speaker 3: Okay, So I've definitely like called myself a yapper. But
Speaker 3: I think like in the context of work, the way
Speaker 3: that yapping is being portrayed now is like gen Z's
Speaker 3: coming to work. You know, we've been socially isolated for
Speaker 3: a minute, so we're coming in. We want to talk.
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's not the most important thing, perhaps, but we're
Speaker 3: just we're just letting it, you know, flow got it
Speaker 3: because we're kind of craving, you know, that connection.
Speaker 1: Sort of a thing of like you want the interaction
Speaker 1: with people, so you'll just kind of talk just to yeah, no, no.
Speaker 3: No no. It reminds me like I hate no no, no, no.
Speaker 1: No no a lot of like when people create small talk
Speaker 1: just to do it. It makes me feel like, Okay,
Speaker 1: like if you want to talk about something valuable or important,
Speaker 1: and I mean I'm not saying like those are not,
Speaker 1: but like I don't want to force conversation just because
Speaker 1: you want interaction, but I also can understand why someone
Speaker 1: would want to do that. That's why I have my
Speaker 1: headphones at my desk that I put them on the
Speaker 1: over the ear kind so you kind of miss them.
Speaker 3: I was trying to yap to Jamay and she could
Speaker 3: not hear me because they were noise canceling.
Speaker 1: Absolutely not anything.
Speaker 3: I would like consider myself a yap or honestly, like,
Speaker 3: I'm not ashamed. I do think I can yap, but
Speaker 3: it's situational. Like if I'm at work and I'm like
Speaker 3: at my desk and I'm in the zone, there's a
Speaker 3: there's a time and place, is what I'm gonna say
Speaker 3: for yapping, right, Like if we're walking to get coffee,
Speaker 3: maybe I'm blabbling to you. Maybe we're like having a
Speaker 3: offline you know, conversation. Fine, we're yapping, but like at
Speaker 3: my desk, come up and dest bond me and start yapping.
Speaker 3: Oh my god. No, I'm overstimulated as is and now
Speaker 3: I'm crashing.
Speaker 1: And also I just want to size this for all
Speaker 1: of you morning yappers.
Speaker 3: Count your days. I'm a morning person, but don't talk
Speaker 3: to me before I have my co do.
Speaker 1: Not like the eight o'clockers who are like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: let me tell you about everything that's happening in the
Speaker 1: world and how I want to like solve for world hunger.
Speaker 1: Save it for none, not even noon, not even noone,
Speaker 1: because I'm going to lunch, like please save it. Yeah no, no,
Speaker 1: I think the apping can be effective, but I think
Speaker 1: even more effective is intentional networking, coming in with an
Speaker 1: intention and setting the goal.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you just got to be mindful of other people
Speaker 3: in their time, like people you know not always open
Speaker 3: to the apping.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, no, no, no, no, no, Well I would love
Speaker 1: to know if you all are certified yappers or if
Speaker 1: you guys are sort of a let me put my
Speaker 1: headphones on. I'm gonna skip the app in more dap
Speaker 1: for the tap like to may But anyway, guys, let
Speaker 1: us know. We would love to know. And thank you
Speaker 1: guys so much for listening to this week's episode.
Speaker 3: And make sure you guys are following our newsletter. Let's
Speaker 3: talk offline. We go even deeper into the topics we
Speaker 3: discussed on the pad. There's some exclusive content, all the
Speaker 3: fun things. The link to the newsletter will be in
Speaker 3: the show description. You can also find it on my
Speaker 3: LinkedIn bio. It's called you Guessed It.
Speaker 1: Let's Talk offline, avum, guards, flowers and spring breaking.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: Also, thank you so much to MICHAELA for sending in
Speaker 1: your listener question. You all can also send us your questions.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be shy, okay, Gianna and I
Speaker 1: want to hear from you. Information on how to do
Speaker 1: that is also in the show description. I always tell
Speaker 1: you all this because I know somebody is gonna hop
Speaker 1: it on emails at LinkedIn. Where can I find go?
Speaker 1: Look in the show description. I love you, besty, but
Speaker 1: go look in the show description.
Speaker 3: Also, guys, one last thing, make sure you rate and
Speaker 3: follow the show. We'd love to hear from you, all right,
Speaker 3: before you go, remember We've always got your back, and
Speaker 3: if something comes up, Let's Talk Offline. I'm Giana Prenti.
Speaker 1: And I'm the not Yapper Today Jackson Gads stay Thriving.
Speaker 3: Let's Talk Offline is a production of LinkedIn News and
Speaker 3: iHeart Podcasts. The show is produced by Western Sound. Our
Speaker 3: producer is Sabrina Fang. The show is edited by Savannah Wright.
Speaker 3: Our associate producer is Sarah Dealey. Alex mckinnis is our engineer,
Speaker 3: and Ben Adair is the executive producer.
Speaker 1: Executive producers at iHeart Podcasts are Katrina Norvel and Nikki Etour.
Speaker 1: We got support from LinkedIn's Jesse Humple, Sarah Storm, and
Speaker 1: Ayana Angel. Maya Pope. Chappelle is director of Content, Dave
Speaker 1: Pond is Head of News Production, Courtney Coop is Head
Speaker 1: of Original Programming, and Dan Roth is the editor in
Speaker 1: chief of LinkedIn