Speaker 1: Episode four ninety seven, Investing for Financial Freedom, a woman's
Speaker 1: Guide with Nicole Stanley. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast,
Speaker 1: where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live
Speaker 1: a life. Here your hosts Jen and Jill. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name
Speaker 1: is Jill, and today we are talking about investing. This
Speaker 1: is something you guys said you wanted more knowledge on,
Speaker 1: specifically investing for retirement, but then also outside of retirement accounts.
Speaker 1: So we are going to cover both today.
Speaker 2: With a woman talking about a woman's perspective and.
Speaker 1: Obviously because we're women and having a woman on, we'll
Speaker 1: be talking about how important it is for women specifically
Speaker 1: to have this knowledge. But first, this episode is brought
Speaker 1: to you by YouTube, not specifically YouTube, not the company
Speaker 1: please don't sue us, but our YouTube channel at Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends on YouTube. We just started a series called the
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Speaker 2: No, you aren't see over on YouTube, but stay here too.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So today we are talking about investing, obviously with
Speaker 1: Nicole Stanley. She is the owner and head money coach
Speaker 1: at a Rise Financial Coaching and she helps women figure
Speaker 1: out their family's net worth and improve their financial situation
Speaker 1: through investing. And we are excited to talk to her today.
Speaker 1: She's she's a kind soul and I think you guys
Speaker 1: are really.
Speaker 2: Going to like her. Let's get into it.
Speaker 1: Nicole, Welcome to Frugal Friends. We're so happy to have
Speaker 1: you here.
Speaker 3: I am so excited to be here.
Speaker 2: This is such an important conversation for us to be having,
Speaker 2: and we don't talk about it a ton on this podcast,
Speaker 2: which is also why we turn to experts to bring
Speaker 2: in just more perspective on this theme of investing, but
Speaker 2: specifically looking from the lens for women. I'm curious how
Speaker 2: you see investing strategies maybe be different for women. How
Speaker 2: much do we need to know to get it done right?
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts here?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I really love how financial coaching can bring
Speaker 3: a different perspective to something that's long been almost accepted
Speaker 3: as like too complicated for women. So one of the
Speaker 3: cool things about being a financial coach instead of an
Speaker 3: advisor is you get to focus more on like the
Speaker 3: education of your clients and helping them understand why investing
Speaker 3: is important, how they can find more money to invest,
Speaker 3: and then ultimately how to understand how fees work, et cetera.
Speaker 3: And that was something that when I started my investing
Speaker 3: journey maybe about seven years ago, wasn't something that was
Speaker 3: very popular. So when I started investing, my husband and
Speaker 3: I were making collectively fifty six thousand a year and
Speaker 3: we had our first child, and I remember like going
Speaker 3: and interviewing all of these financial advisors and kind of
Speaker 3: having them like laugh at us because of the amount
Speaker 3: that we were starting with per month and feeling like, ah,
Speaker 3: is this even worth it to get started because between
Speaker 3: you know, we were doing a few hundred dollars a
Speaker 3: month and we didn't have a ton of money in
Speaker 3: extra you know, assets that we were rolling over since
Speaker 3: we were so young. But I look back at that
Speaker 3: time and I'm so grateful that I decided, you know, okay,
Speaker 3: we're just going to make this important, even if we
Speaker 3: feel kind of dumb doing this as like young kids
Speaker 3: in our early twenties starting to invest. And so that's
Speaker 3: one of my main goals today when I'm teaching classes
Speaker 3: about investing for women, is helping women understand that the
Speaker 3: concept that investing is too complicated for them to understand
Speaker 3: is a little bit of a marketing technique to just
Speaker 3: kind of offload it to someone else, right, And so
Speaker 3: I think that it's never been easier to be a
Speaker 3: woman and to start investing. And that's why I probably
Speaker 3: never shut up about telling women, you know, hey, if
Speaker 3: you think that this is too difficult for you, honestly,
Speaker 3: if you pass high school algebra, I think you can
Speaker 3: learn how to do this.
Speaker 2: It's such a shame that we feel like we need
Speaker 2: so much to begin investing and we are told that, Like,
Speaker 2: it's so sad to me that you felt like laughed
Speaker 2: at laughed out of the office. Well they literally laughed. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I did just feel that way. It's what happened. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's insane.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought up the marketing piece because yeah,
Speaker 1: like financial advisors market their services, they want you to
Speaker 1: think investing is too complicated. But also like marketing for
Speaker 1: women in personal finance is so different, Like so much
Speaker 1: of investing marketing is made with men in mind. When
Speaker 1: we reach out to investing companies, robo advisors, brokerages, they
Speaker 1: don't want to work with us because our our audience,
Speaker 1: especially fintech apps, they don't want to work with us
Speaker 1: because our audience is eighty five to ninety five percent female,
Speaker 1: and all of their marketing is directed at men. I know,
Speaker 1: because I know you can go into the back end
Speaker 1: of Facebook ads and see all the Facebook ads that
Speaker 1: any company is running, right, and they're all directed towards men. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: for women, anything finance related is has to do with
Speaker 1: saving money, like correct coupons, deals, rebates, those companies would
Speaker 1: like love to work with us, but we don't want
Speaker 1: to like push as much stuff. We're trying to go
Speaker 1: away from that. But so, yeah, it's just like there's
Speaker 1: so much marketing saturated in the idea of investing. So
Speaker 1: when we overcome this, this marketing bias, this cogni bias, what,
Speaker 1: what do you think the order of operations should be
Speaker 1: for women to be investing for both working women and
Speaker 1: women who maybe stay at home spouses or parents.
Speaker 3: That's a good question because I think that, yes, there
Speaker 3: is a marketing bias. What I also think that it's
Speaker 3: important to note that many women feel like investing is
Speaker 3: too complicated for them to understand. They also feel that
Speaker 3: investing is something that's for people who are already rich,
Speaker 3: and so if they are not wealthy, if they don't
Speaker 3: have kind of those people around them, it can be
Speaker 3: very difficult to kind of invite for them to self
Speaker 3: invite themselves to start to say, well, maybe I can
Speaker 3: figure this out. Right. So one of the best things
Speaker 3: that I think is, you know, helpful for women is
Speaker 3: for them to know that statistically women are better investors
Speaker 3: than men. They've done studies and they've seen that we
Speaker 3: outperform men by I think it's like two or thre
Speaker 3: three percent that we outperform them in the long run.
Speaker 3: And so they're actually you know, very very well positioned
Speaker 3: to learn about investing. The next thing is for them
Speaker 3: to kind of realize that you don't have to start
Speaker 3: investing with you know, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 3: in the bank. You can start investing with ten dollars,
Speaker 3: which is a really radical concept, right like, because we
Speaker 3: were kind of always taught that you didn't, you know,
Speaker 3: start doing something until you had more of it to do.
Speaker 3: And I also think that many women are already investing
Speaker 3: without them realizing it. Right, So if you have had
Speaker 3: past jobs where there's been a four to one K
Speaker 3: or a four or three B, you are already investing.
Speaker 3: And so you know, I don't think that any woman
Speaker 3: gets to say anymore while somebody else can handle that
Speaker 3: for me or I don't have to think about that.
Speaker 3: It's like if we don't learn how to do it,
Speaker 3: then the only person that suffers is us, right because
Speaker 3: we don't get the maximum you know, hard work from
Speaker 3: our money that when it's starting to compound. And so
Speaker 3: I think that for many women, it's for them to
Speaker 3: know they're already in the game, whether or not they
Speaker 3: realize it, whether or not they want to be. You know,
Speaker 3: we all are kind of in We're all starting to invest,
Speaker 3: whether we want to or not. And so if we
Speaker 3: could just say, well, you know what, where are the
Speaker 3: resources that I can start to learn about this on
Speaker 3: my own so that I can know what I'm invested
Speaker 3: in and what its purpose is, I think that that's
Speaker 3: ultimately going to be a huge, huge benefit to every
Speaker 3: single woman who's listening, right, regardless of if it's something
Speaker 3: that you thought of yourself before. And it's even more
Speaker 3: important for women who aren't working. I believe to be
Speaker 3: investing because there are so many benefits to making sure
Speaker 3: that you're putting away some of your money for your future.
Speaker 3: That gives you just ultimately more choices.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: That was when I started investing, was when I was
Speaker 3: a stay at home like really starting to invest, and
Speaker 3: so I think that many women can feel like, well,
Speaker 3: I don't have the extra money, but there are so
Speaker 3: many benefits to getting started anyway.
Speaker 2: Nicole, what are some of those terms that you think
Speaker 2: when someone is kind of getting started, even if they
Speaker 2: don't have a lot of money to begin with, or
Speaker 2: they feel like, I don't actually know much about this,
Speaker 2: Like what are some of the base level terms that
Speaker 2: you think we should be aware of.
Speaker 3: I think that the first term that I think got
Speaker 3: me the most excited with investing was first finding out
Speaker 3: how compound interests worked. So I kind of look back
Speaker 3: at my early twenties because I got married young, and
Speaker 3: my husband and I were not making a lot of money.
Speaker 3: We could kind of barely afford our wedding, and I
Speaker 3: had a lot of financial stress and anxiety around that.
Speaker 3: And so I remember when I was engaged and I
Speaker 3: saw my first compound interest chart. It was you know
Speaker 3: of the two brothers where one starts investing at nineteen
Speaker 3: and he invests for seven years, and then his brother
Speaker 3: and then he stops investing, and then his older brother
Speaker 3: starts investing seven years later and then ends up investing
Speaker 3: for the rest of his life, and between the two brothers,
Speaker 3: you end up seeing that the younger brother, who only
Speaker 3: invested for seven years, ends up with almost a million
Speaker 3: dollars more than his older brother, who invested like five
Speaker 3: times his amount. And that was the first time that
Speaker 3: I really had like the fire under me realizing that
Speaker 3: time was actually my best asset when it came to investing.
Speaker 3: It wasn't necessarily how much money I made or what
Speaker 3: my strategy was, but rather that I just learned the
Speaker 3: basics to get started. And I kind of look back
Speaker 3: at that time as my million dollar mistake, because even
Speaker 3: after seeing that compound interest chart, it still took me
Speaker 3: another six years to start feeling comfortable to invest in
Speaker 3: my own And so I think for me, I didn't
Speaker 3: know the resources of where to get started, and so
Speaker 3: some really really great resource versus that started me on
Speaker 3: my journey of learning about the financial independence movement, which Jill,
Speaker 3: I don't know, are you guys into the financial independence
Speaker 3: movement at all?
Speaker 1: We dabble.
Speaker 2: For sure, we are not all the way fire, but
Speaker 2: absolutely we will talk about, you know, ways to kind
Speaker 2: of achieve some levels of financial freedom in ways that
Speaker 2: makes sense for each individual.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So for me, I grew up watching I grew
Speaker 3: up in a Puerto Rican American household and my dad
Speaker 3: was a very successful software engineer in the early two thousands,
Speaker 3: and I watched him just really fret about his own
Speaker 3: retirement most of my childhood, my adolescents, my young adult life,
Speaker 3: and so I had this innate fear in me about
Speaker 3: retirement and about this concept of being financially secure that
Speaker 3: I brought with me everywhere when it came to money.
Speaker 3: I thought about it when I was accepting my first job,
Speaker 3: when I stayed at home. And so when I learned
Speaker 3: about the financial independence movement, that was the first time
Speaker 3: that I realized, like, wow, you know, if I can
Speaker 3: learn how to invest and how to just do so early,
Speaker 3: then and I could kind of not have those same
Speaker 3: worries that my dad had, right, like if I could
Speaker 3: learn how to prioritize it as early as possible. And
Speaker 3: so when I kind of disassociated the concept of retirement
Speaker 3: being attached to investing and use the phrase instead financial independence,
Speaker 3: which really is the same thing. Retirement and financial independence
Speaker 3: are the same thing.
Speaker 2: It's just a.
Speaker 3: Much sexier word, right, And so financial independence is just
Speaker 3: when you're able to no longer have to trade your
Speaker 3: time for money, but rather your money makes you enough
Speaker 3: money that you can stop working. And so, as an
Speaker 3: early twenty mid twenty year old, I became very interested
Speaker 3: in this concept, and that's what really spurred me to
Speaker 3: get started investing and to start prioritizing it, And so
Speaker 3: I think those two concepts. If somebody you know decides
Speaker 3: for the first time today to take a look at
Speaker 3: a compound interest calculator with their age as well as
Speaker 3: to see for them, Okay, how much money do I
Speaker 3: need to be considered financially independent? Right, that can be
Speaker 3: a really powerful concept for people to be motivated by.
Speaker 3: I see it. Like for me, it was because once
Speaker 3: I got that number, right, I knew that we needed
Speaker 3: X amount when we were going to be able to retire.
Speaker 3: Then it just became a game of Okay, how can
Speaker 3: I figure out how to find this extra money? So
Speaker 3: for me, I started, you know, nanning on the side.
Speaker 3: I did some side hustles, and I was motivated because
Speaker 3: I knew that, Okay, if I could put this extra
Speaker 3: money here, then I can hit that. So at age
Speaker 3: twenty seven, my husband and I we had made fifty
Speaker 3: six thousand on average since we had gotten married, and
Speaker 3: we collectively had our first one hundred thousand saved in
Speaker 3: investment accounts, and that was what we hit when we
Speaker 3: hit coast fire, which is basically a term for those
Speaker 3: of you listening who might not have heard that before.
Speaker 3: It's when you've saved enough money in your investment accounts
Speaker 3: and invested it that even if you never invest another dollar,
Speaker 3: you can know that you're going to retire right and
Speaker 3: you're going to be able to retire safely. And as
Speaker 3: a kid who watched my parents so much about their retirement,
Speaker 3: that hitting that achievement was I didn't realize like the
Speaker 3: stress I was carrying around in my life just not
Speaker 3: knowing if I was going to end up in that
Speaker 3: same place, wondering am I going to work till the
Speaker 3: day I die?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so powerful to recognize that we can learn
Speaker 2: the skill, that there are resources available for us to understand,
Speaker 2: even if we feel completely inadequate, inept at this topic.
Speaker 2: And like you're saying, just the power of compound interest,
Speaker 2: that we can utilize that to our advantage, even if
Speaker 2: we're only bringing home, you know, sixty thousand dollars a year,
Speaker 2: that it still is possible if we start, even if
Speaker 2: we start small, if we start early. And so I
Speaker 2: think it's really helpful to hear stories like yours of Yeah,
Speaker 2: people laugh at me, but I still kept going, compound
Speaker 2: interest is on my side. Okay, So we're listening to
Speaker 2: this and we're hearing, yeah, I want to start, I
Speaker 2: want to do something, or I want to keep going.
Speaker 2: How do you recommend women choose which accounts our best,
Speaker 2: especially for those who might be self employed or you know,
Speaker 2: maybe stay at home. How do we go about choosing
Speaker 2: what's going to be right for us when it comes
Speaker 2: to investing.
Speaker 3: Well, I think the first place to start is with
Speaker 3: a good education. So some of my favorite books are
Speaker 3: I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sati.
Speaker 3: Another really great book is The Simple Path to Wealth
Speaker 3: by J. L.
Speaker 2: Collins.
Speaker 3: And then if you are somebody who's a total numbers nerd,
Speaker 3: which I kind of am. And so another great book
Speaker 3: is called The Little Common Sense Book of Investing by
Speaker 3: John C. Bogel, who was the creator of Guard and
Speaker 3: so he writes a really great statistics book essentially like
Speaker 3: it's just an It's the whole book is a math problem,
Speaker 3: and he writes about how the average person can learn
Speaker 3: how to invest simply and get their fair share of
Speaker 3: market returns. So I think a lot of women kind
Speaker 3: of think that if they're going to start investing, they
Speaker 3: need to learn how to be like a stock trader,
Speaker 3: and that is not the case. That's not statistically the
Speaker 3: best case for many women. So I would start with
Speaker 3: those resources because that gives you a knowledge of like, Okay,
Speaker 3: what am I going to buy in these accounts? Because
Speaker 3: many people say should I invest in my four one K?
Speaker 3: Should I invest in my wrath ira? But it's like,
Speaker 3: you know, really what matters is what are you going
Speaker 3: to buy within those And then the second part of
Speaker 3: that is you choose which account based on the tax
Speaker 3: benefits typically and the tax consequences of being in that account.
Speaker 3: So in America, there's like if you're a US based listener,
Speaker 3: there's a couple main types of accounts. There is retirement
Speaker 3: accounts where you pay your taxes upfront. That would be
Speaker 3: something like a roth ira, where you use after tax money.
Speaker 3: There is a there are retirement accounts and different accounts
Speaker 3: that you get to save on taxes today, so you
Speaker 3: pay before taxes and then it grows tax free, but
Speaker 3: then when you have to take it out later, you're
Speaker 3: going to pay taxes on it, whereas the first one
Speaker 3: you pay taxes today, it grows tax free and then
Speaker 3: you can take it out without tax. And then the
Speaker 3: third option is that there is you know, the regular
Speaker 3: old investment account or a brokerage account where you use
Speaker 3: after tax money, it grows with tax consequences, and then
Speaker 3: you also pay taxes a different tax rate depending on
Speaker 3: when you take it out. So I think for many people,
Speaker 3: most of us aren't utilizing the tax benefited accounts that
Speaker 3: we have because there's certain maximums and minimum not minimums,
Speaker 3: but there's maximums every single year. And so I think
Speaker 3: that if you're just getting started investing, one of the
Speaker 3: best things you can do is pick which tax benefited
Speaker 3: account you're going to use, and then understand what you're
Speaker 3: going to be investing in so that you can make
Speaker 3: good decisions in the long run, because I think one
Speaker 3: of the worst things that can happen to someone, I mean,
Speaker 3: I guess this isn't the worst thing. The worst thing
Speaker 3: would be like losing a kid or something. But the
Speaker 3: one of the worst investing with takes that can happen
Speaker 3: is when you know, maybe you start investing because somebody
Speaker 3: told you told you to write, or you meet up
Speaker 3: with an advisor and they say, well, I'm going to
Speaker 3: invest it in here for you, but you don't really
Speaker 3: understand why you're that, why you're in that fund, what
Speaker 3: the fees are how it works, and so all it
Speaker 3: takes is a couple of years later, the political climate changes,
Speaker 3: the economic climate changes, and then all of a sudden
Speaker 3: you say, oh, I want to switch what I'm doing.
Speaker 3: And I think that that's really where people end up
Speaker 3: making bigger errors. I think about you know, I don't
Speaker 3: want to talk about anyone specifically, but I know someone
Speaker 3: in my life who, you know, they just didn't have
Speaker 3: investing education, and when they retired, they it was you know,
Speaker 3: two thousand and seven and two thousand and eight hit
Speaker 3: and because they didn't have a financial education, they ended
Speaker 3: up pulling out all of their money during that time
Speaker 3: and that really changed the rest of their retirement and
Speaker 3: still affects them today. And so I kind of always
Speaker 3: go back to this idea of, you know, you can
Speaker 3: hire the best advisors in the world, but if you
Speaker 3: don't have a financial education, that's going to be your
Speaker 3: biggest liability. I think that's so true.
Speaker 1: I I've always wondered when so when we are talking
Speaker 1: about retirement accounts. We live in Florida, where we only
Speaker 1: have a federal tax, we don't have a state tax.
Speaker 1: We're not highly taxed, so for us, it makes a
Speaker 1: lot more sense to invest money that is, you know
Speaker 1: already been taxed, right, But for people who are in
Speaker 1: states and cities where there is not just a federal
Speaker 1: tax but also a state tax and then potentially also
Speaker 1: a city tax, do you find that it can go
Speaker 1: either way on whether you're recommending like or the number
Speaker 1: could go either way, and whether like a pre tax
Speaker 1: or a post tax retirement account could work, or because
Speaker 1: I feel like there's just so much across the board
Speaker 1: that's like, get a roth Ira, get a wroth Ira.
Speaker 1: But is it always the best choice, especially in those
Speaker 1: highly taxed areas.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's a really good question. One. I mean,
Speaker 3: who doesn't love a roth Ira. And I don't know
Speaker 3: what part of Florida you're in, but I grew up
Speaker 3: in Florida too, So my dad always talks about the
Speaker 3: tax benefits of Florida.
Speaker 2: Yeah, love it. You gotta love it beautiful.
Speaker 3: So, and it's funny because I live in Massachusetts now,
Speaker 3: which is affectionately known as Taxachusetts, and so I can
Speaker 3: see the differences. My good friend, who's a CPA, so
Speaker 3: a certified public accountant, she is huge into the fact
Speaker 3: that you know, this is a divisive issue. Like if
Speaker 3: you talk to one CPA, they'll have one opinion, another
Speaker 3: one will have a different one. So it's kind of
Speaker 3: a you can make an argument for both, but she
Speaker 3: always is on the side of like I always take
Speaker 3: the tax benefit today. You should never ever not take
Speaker 3: a tax benefit today because you can always you know,
Speaker 3: roll you can always roll over your account. That's a
Speaker 3: four to one case, so that would be a account
Speaker 3: that you use post or sorry pre tax money into.
Speaker 3: You can always roll that into a roth IRA later
Speaker 3: and pay tax, but you can do it at a
Speaker 3: time when you make less money. So most people in
Speaker 3: their thirties are making the height of what they're making,
Speaker 3: so there is a argument to say, well, you'll be
Speaker 3: making less later, so better to pay taxes later. But
Speaker 3: all of that is really, I think where a lot
Speaker 3: of women get overwhelmed. Right. My initial advice for someone is,
Speaker 3: if you are out of high interest at if you
Speaker 3: have at least one month of cash savings, you should
Speaker 3: be investing a portion of your money every single month automatically,
Speaker 3: and it's typically going to be best to use one
Speaker 3: of the tax benefited accounts. You're not going to shoot
Speaker 3: yourself in a foot in the foot either way. But
Speaker 3: as long as you're using the tax benefits that we
Speaker 3: have here in the US to your favor and you
Speaker 3: know what you're investing in and why, right, that's going
Speaker 3: to be what puts you ahead of the pack. Right.
Speaker 3: It's why the average American I think this year has
Speaker 3: like about four hundred and fifty thousand dollars in their retirement,
Speaker 3: which is not enough to be able to retire. And
Speaker 3: so if you can just pick which tax advantage account
Speaker 3: you're going to use, there are always some really general rules,
Speaker 3: like you always want to take your company. If they
Speaker 3: offer you a match, you want to invest up to
Speaker 3: that match, and then after that, depending on what other
Speaker 3: benefits they have, you would then switch potentially to a
Speaker 3: roth Ira. Some people make too much money for that
Speaker 3: and they just have to stick with the flour one K.
Speaker 3: If you're self employed, you can choose between similar accoun
Speaker 3: options that are for self employed people, a step I
Speaker 3: RAY or an individual But at the end of the day, right,
Speaker 3: what's going to make you the most money as an
Speaker 3: investor is going to be did you get yourself out
Speaker 3: of high interest stack?
Speaker 2: Do you have at.
Speaker 3: Least a month savings? If not, more. And then the
Speaker 3: last part is how much money are you going to
Speaker 3: put in every single month? Like that's that's a budgeting thing,
Speaker 3: and that's something I feel for many women. We're like, well,
Speaker 3: we know how to do it, right. If we want
Speaker 3: to find three to five hundred dollars to do something
Speaker 3: we want, we can find it. And so if you're
Speaker 3: able to find out how to do that with investing,
Speaker 3: you're going to be in such a better place.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, time in the market is better than which tax
Speaker 1: advantage account you choose. It's all samantaic. You choose one,
Speaker 1: as long as you choose one of them. The rest
Speaker 1: is semantics. And yeah, we've always I've you know, never
Speaker 1: had a self employed retirement account. We've always had access
Speaker 1: to either a four oh and K or a roth Ira.
Speaker 1: So we've kept it as simple as possible kind of
Speaker 1: just like for that reason. So many other things can
Speaker 1: be complicated, but this doesn't need to be. Okay, So
Speaker 1: once we feel like retirement is covered, we know how
Speaker 1: much we want to save every month, we've kind of
Speaker 1: hit that goal and we want to still be you know,
Speaker 1: we've got some extra money now and we want to
Speaker 1: be using it efficiently. Not just sitting around making point
Speaker 1: oh one percent in the checking account. Where should we
Speaker 1: look next to invest outside of retirement accounts?
Speaker 3: I think that if you are somebody who is looking
Speaker 3: to build wealth and you're wanting to have the money
Speaker 3: to do that, I first usually like to ask, like,
Speaker 3: what are the goals associated with that? Because that really
Speaker 3: tells you where to be looking at for your investments.
Speaker 3: For some people, you know, their goal is they want
Speaker 3: to have more time with their kids, and or they
Speaker 3: want to spend less time working. Maybe they're like really
Speaker 3: a slave to their corporate job. And so the next
Speaker 3: part of that might be starting a business, right because
Speaker 3: a business allows them to control their own hours, It
Speaker 3: allows them to you know, take better control of their time.
Speaker 3: That's obviously a very risky way because forty percent of
Speaker 3: businesses I think make it or forty percent don't make it.
Speaker 3: I don't remember which stat that is, but that's one
Speaker 3: way to build wealth. Another way is, you know, many
Speaker 3: people look down the real estate pathway. And then the
Speaker 3: last one, which is my favorite one, is just you
Speaker 3: can use retirement accounts not just for your own retirement.
Speaker 3: There's a lot different ways that you're legally allowed to
Speaker 3: use that money, and so many people just say, well,
Speaker 3: if I'm covered to be able to retire at sixty five,
Speaker 3: well what would happen if I could retire at forty
Speaker 3: or forty five or fifty, Right, And so knowing what
Speaker 3: your goal is really can help you decide which is
Speaker 3: the best way to use that money, to use that
Speaker 3: extra money that you want to make work for you
Speaker 3: the best, right. But I think that there I always
Speaker 3: say that there's like a million ways to make money,
Speaker 3: but not every single way is perfect. There's no like
Speaker 3: you will be successful if you do X, and you
Speaker 3: will not be successful if you do why Because you
Speaker 3: know I could start a farming business and fail. You
Speaker 3: could start one and totally rocket. The difference is our goals,
Speaker 3: our motivation, And so I think that knowing why you
Speaker 3: want to build well for what purpose can really help
Speaker 3: you with the plan of how to get there. That.
Speaker 1: Yeah, We've had a lot of people ask us how
Speaker 1: to invest more sustainably, and like, the first thing I
Speaker 1: come to is like, well if the next like stage
Speaker 1: most people say after the stock market is real estate,
Speaker 1: and I feel like it's it's not for everyone, and
Speaker 1: I'm finding it's not for me but I'm definitely glad
Speaker 1: we tried it and still like recommend it with that caveat,
Speaker 1: but it is a way like I have found as
Speaker 1: infuriated as I get with private equity backed like real estate,
Speaker 1: and how hard it is for people to get in
Speaker 1: there now without some kind of backing, Like you can
Speaker 1: invest really well into your local community by being a
Speaker 1: really ethical landlord, and it's a really good way to
Speaker 1: build wealth and be kind to people. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: loving that aspect of It's really the only aspect that
Speaker 1: keeps me going in it, I think, do you know.
Speaker 2: What keeps me going though? And it's got a lot
Speaker 2: of aspects to it.
Speaker 1: And is super ethical and sustainable and kind not backed
Speaker 1: by private equity. The Bill of the week. That's right,
Speaker 1: it's time for the best minute of your entire week.
Speaker 1: Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams.
Speaker 3: Maybe you've paid off.
Speaker 1: Your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to
Speaker 1: not have to pay that bill anymore. That's bills, bffalo bills,
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week, Nicole.
Speaker 1: Every week we ask our listeners or our guests to
Speaker 1: share with us their favorite bill for the week, and
Speaker 1: we would love to hear yours.
Speaker 3: So I actually took this as your least favorite bill
Speaker 3: of the week. That's how I had prepared for this.
Speaker 3: So I mentioned at the beginning of this that we
Speaker 3: moved from Denver to or we moved to Massachusetts. So
Speaker 3: we live in Massachusetts now, which is a very high
Speaker 3: cost of living area, and we have just gotten through
Speaker 3: our first winter. Well we're not through it. We're kind
Speaker 3: of in the midst of it. Because it's March. And
Speaker 3: if you can believe it, would you like to hear
Speaker 3: my energy bill this past month in the month of February.
Speaker 3: Who wants to hear it?
Speaker 2: Give it to us, Give it to us.
Speaker 1: How old is your home? Let's preface it.
Speaker 3: So I'm going to tell you this. Okay, First thing
Speaker 3: is I rent this home because I am a landlord
Speaker 3: on my past home in Colorado, so I owned that
Speaker 3: home and then we decided to move kind of quickly
Speaker 3: because of some health stuff in my family, and we
Speaker 3: rented this house that you know is a bit older.
Speaker 3: It's from the seventies, right, yeah, seventies, And there's a
Speaker 3: very cold area in the house. It's not insulated very well.
Speaker 3: But I mean I lived in Arizona, so I know
Speaker 3: high electric costs or so I thought.
Speaker 2: Is that so your heat is primarily primarily electric?
Speaker 3: Well, this is the thing. Our heat is oil.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: So I'm about to give you our electric bill, our
Speaker 3: electric bill in the month of February. Get your like
Speaker 3: if just pull up those pants. This is horrible. Our
Speaker 3: electric bill was six hundred dollars. Plus we're paying home
Speaker 3: oil heating, okay, which comes out between two and three
Speaker 3: hundred dollars a month. That is the bill that I hate.
Speaker 3: This week I had budget. I'm like, you know, at
Speaker 3: the worst case, right, we're paying two three hundred dollars
Speaker 3: a month for this home oil. Right, but we have
Speaker 3: this tiny part of our house where we've been running
Speaker 3: space heaters because it's so cold.
Speaker 2: Oh, my goodness, six.
Speaker 3: Hundred dollars everybody, Okay, So if you wanted to hate
Speaker 3: a bill today, I'll give you fine my electric bill
Speaker 3: for the month of February.
Speaker 2: Oh we all hate that bill, Dang it you. It
Speaker 2: sounds like it would be worth investing in some insulation.
Speaker 2: Well you could probably spend six hundred dollars just sealing
Speaker 2: it all. Y, yeah, just throw some a pile of
Speaker 2: stuffed animals there.
Speaker 1: All the kids stuffed animals just go in that corner
Speaker 1: and nobody lives there. There's your insulation that's red or friendly.
Speaker 1: If I own this house, it would be a different story.
Speaker 1: But thank god, I'm in this house for a year.
Speaker 1: We're finding where we're gonna buy next, and so I'm
Speaker 1: just like, it's all going.
Speaker 3: To be okay. But I was surprised by that bill.
Speaker 3: He was not welcome.
Speaker 2: That bill is a surprise in my head.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not that good kind created a scenario in
Speaker 1: your house where there are I don't know how young
Speaker 1: your kids are if they have stuffed animals, but like
Speaker 1: lots of stuffed animals just in this area of the house,
Speaker 1: like all over the walls, on shelves, and they are
Speaker 1: the insulation. And it's a little creepy in my mind.
Speaker 1: But if you're a renter with kids, try it out
Speaker 1: and send me a picture and see if it is
Speaker 1: in reality as creepy as I am visioning it in
Speaker 1: my head.
Speaker 3: I think it would be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you all listening have a bill that you
Speaker 2: want to share, if it's about your least favorite bill
Speaker 2: and you just want to vent to us. If you
Speaker 2: are a person named Bill, you just want to vent
Speaker 2: about literally anything going on in your life. We can't
Speaker 2: wait to hear it. Visit Frugal friendspodcast dot com, slash
Speaker 2: Bill leave it for us, And now it's time for.
Speaker 1: The lighting around, all right, for today's vulnerability, I mean
Speaker 1: lightning round. Oh, let's talk about what was your first
Speaker 1: ever Big girl investment?
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm here. Would you like to know every big Girl?
Speaker 1: Yes, guest of honor?
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, So I share this because this was probably
Speaker 3: one of the best days of my life. Okay, But
Speaker 3: so the year is twenty twenty. Okay, ooh, set the stage.
Speaker 3: The year is twenty twenty. And I had been investing
Speaker 3: just like a regular old girly does, a few hundred
Speaker 3: bucks a month, and I had a large emergency fund,
Speaker 3: a little too large. And so when the stock market crashed,
Speaker 3: when COVID hit, right, I this sounds so horrible, but
Speaker 3: I was so excited, okay, because I knew stocks were
Speaker 3: on sale, and I knew that statistically the market always
Speaker 3: comes back. It's gonna be fine, right, But I had
Speaker 3: never done like a self managed trade before, like on
Speaker 3: the website, because at that time, I still had an
Speaker 3: advisor who was doing it. But I was like, I
Speaker 3: am going to buy more right now. Okay, that's what
Speaker 3: I'm gonna do. I'm so excited to do it. But
Speaker 3: my dad and I have very different investing theologies or
Speaker 3: like methodologies. He is a stock trader, I'm not. And
Speaker 3: but I had to call my dad, okay, because my
Speaker 3: dad knows how to work the website and I didn't. Okay,
Speaker 3: which website?
Speaker 2: Was it?
Speaker 3: Fidelity? Like that one was the better one?
Speaker 2: Dang?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah? And so I call my dad okay, and
Speaker 3: my dad and I'm like, Dad, I'm gonna invest in
Speaker 3: extra couple thousand dollars because the stock market's down and
Speaker 3: I don't know what buttons to press, okay, And my
Speaker 3: dad is like, Okay, this is what we're gonna do.
Speaker 3: We're gonna wake up when the market wakes up, right
Speaker 3: because again, my dad's like a classic stock trader. And
Speaker 3: we wake up in the morning and I call my
Speaker 3: dad and my husband's on with me, you know, and
Speaker 3: we purchased our first you know. It was again a
Speaker 3: really easy kind of situation because we weren't planning to
Speaker 3: sell it. We still hold those stocks today. But just
Speaker 3: to purchase it on my own and to make a
Speaker 3: big transaction. And I remember I couldn't even like sleep
Speaker 3: the night before. I was so excited. I just couldn't
Speaker 3: believe that I was going to do this right. And
Speaker 3: so I just remember that day being so fun, and
Speaker 3: you know, me talking to my dad and being like,
Speaker 3: because it's confusing, right, these websites are made for people
Speaker 3: who do this professionally, and I was making again, a
Speaker 3: very simple transaction. But I remember just how delighted I
Speaker 3: felt like, I felt so powerful, and that was really
Speaker 3: what pushed me down the path of saying, you know,
Speaker 3: let me see how I can do this a little
Speaker 3: more right, let me see how I can figure out
Speaker 3: how to invest in diversified low cost market funds like
Speaker 3: and do it on my own to save. And that
Speaker 3: was really the beginning of it. And so the market
Speaker 3: went down, I invested more money, so I didn't stop investing.
Speaker 3: I was not trying to time the market. I just
Speaker 3: knew it was an opportunity, and I decided to put
Speaker 3: more money in and the market recovered maybe a week later,
Speaker 3: and I remember just being like, that was fun. That
Speaker 3: was so fun. It was like a little drug, which
Speaker 3: makes me it makes me sound like a crazy person. Okay,
Speaker 3: but I just remember, you know, it's like it made
Speaker 3: me feel like Warren Buffett. I mean, granted I wasn't
Speaker 3: investing that much money, but I felt like Warren Buffett. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: that's it. I felt like, h.
Speaker 2: When you can understand the stock market because of the
Speaker 2: research and the knowledge and the skills that you've built. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you feel like I really understand this and I can
Speaker 2: do it. And that's the kind of power and confidence
Speaker 2: that we can all have when we can understand and
Speaker 2: what is very understandable. Just we've not been given all
Speaker 2: the tools to enter into that world. But that's so
Speaker 2: exciting for me. Not nearly as cool as yours, although
Speaker 2: I felt so accomplished. Was opening are my roth Ira.
Speaker 2: I think it's a great like one of those check
Speaker 2: like big life checkboxes, you know, like even larger than
Speaker 2: completing the to do list. But okay, I know that
Speaker 2: this is something that I need to be doing, and
Speaker 2: I'm finally at a place where I feel like I
Speaker 2: can be investing monthly in this Still not a ton,
Speaker 2: but that felt so good to know this is something
Speaker 2: that I should do and I finally did it? What
Speaker 2: about you, Jen? So my.
Speaker 1: Fun investing story, I think would be I got to
Speaker 1: invest in an IPS which is an initial public offering,
Speaker 1: and they're very rare that you get to be that
Speaker 1: regular people get to get in on IPOs. But essentially
Speaker 1: the IPO is theoretically the lowest value that a stock
Speaker 1: will have, so you can get in and like, you know,
Speaker 1: make a good game. You got to hold it for
Speaker 1: so long. Yeah, but we have been Airbnb hosts since
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, so when Airbnb went public, they gave the
Speaker 1: opportunity for their hosts to invest in their IPO and
Speaker 1: it is still to this day the only single stock
Speaker 1: that I own. And it was just a couple thousand
Speaker 1: dollars and it has more than doubled. So yeah, but
Speaker 1: I was like, I am, I feel very cool, Like
Speaker 1: investing in an.
Speaker 3: Eye that is very cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's super cool.
Speaker 3: I remember seeing I think the CEO of Bumble when
Speaker 3: her company went public and it went on the market.
Speaker 3: She rang the bell I think of the Nasdaq with
Speaker 3: her toddler on her hip, and I was like, that's it.
Speaker 3: That is it, you know, like just being able to
Speaker 3: do something cool and like historic like that.
Speaker 2: M hmmm, yeah, that's cool, we can do it. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much, Nicole for this really helpful and just
Speaker 2: strengthening message and encouragement to just keep digging in, start
Speaker 2: investing now. If people want more from you or can
Speaker 2: they find that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you are listening to this and you say
Speaker 3: to yourself, I would love to learn more from a coach,
Speaker 3: learn more resources. You can follow us on Instagram. Our
Speaker 3: handle is Arise dot financial, dot coaching. We put on
Speaker 3: free investing classes just for women all the time because
Speaker 3: our goal is to dmail to find investing for women.
Speaker 3: And if you want more individual help, like let's say
Speaker 3: you've been budgeting, you've been doing it and you feel
Speaker 3: like you can't find the extra money to get out
Speaker 3: of debt to finally start saving, and you say, you know,
Speaker 3: maybe maybe it's time for me to hire a financial coach.
Speaker 3: Consider us. You can always apply to work with us.
Speaker 3: We offer a free consult and we can talk about
Speaker 3: if we're a good fit to help you reach your
Speaker 3: financial goals.
Speaker 2: Cool. Thanks so much, Nicole.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on the show, Nicole.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me longtime dream.
Speaker 2: All right, that was fun. I think it's really helpful
Speaker 2: to hear just more and more perspectives and voices about
Speaker 2: investing that can help to lower the barrier of entry
Speaker 2: push away some of the stigma around it. I mean,
Speaker 2: I know, for me, I still feel inept in this category,
Speaker 2: and I got to wonder how much of that has
Speaker 2: to do with being socialized as a female and just
Speaker 2: kind of in general not totally entrusted or welcomed into
Speaker 2: this space or believed that this is information that I
Speaker 2: should hold rather than maybe you know, the men holding
Speaker 2: this information. And so I think anytime we can talk
Speaker 2: with somebody who can break it down in an understandable way,
Speaker 2: in an approachable way, and an encouraging way to know
Speaker 2: we can do this regardless of what income level we
Speaker 2: may find ourselves at, that it's never too late or
Speaker 2: too early to begin, and we can really see a
Speaker 2: big difference in our financial landscape as a result. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I hope this episode made spark some questions, more specific
Speaker 1: questions that we can get into. So if so, definitely
Speaker 1: head to our YouTube channel and click on one of
Speaker 1: the Sunday resets. There's going to be a link to
Speaker 1: leave a listener question and leave your question in there
Speaker 1: if you have a more specific question that we didn't
Speaker 1: answer in this episode, because we would love to get
Speaker 1: into more investing topics and answer really specific questions to
Speaker 1: give you some strategies. Obviously we can't answer like personal
Speaker 1: like we need to actually know you and your situation things,
Speaker 1: but we will try to get as specific as we
Speaker 1: can speaking to a national and international audience.
Speaker 2: Well, thanks so much everyone for listening, for being here.
Speaker 2: We hope it was helpful for you. We also are
Speaker 2: so appreciative of the kind reviews that you're leaving for
Speaker 2: us on our book by What you Love without Going Broke,
Speaker 2: like this one from Tuhana says, can't get enough five stars.
Speaker 2: I can't get enough of this book. I have the
Speaker 2: audiobook and listened in the car every chance I got.
Speaker 2: Now I want to take notes, so I bought the
Speaker 2: Kindle to start my new journey again. I wish they
Speaker 2: would make this a college senior year must reach. I
Speaker 2: love that. I want to start a book a slash
Speaker 2: podcast club in my area, but I have not heard
Speaker 2: back from anyone in the community on Facebook. I am
Speaker 2: open to it. You both have inspired me in so
Speaker 2: many ways. I have always been a couponor but lost
Speaker 2: some of my hope and strength because of the medical
Speaker 2: issues and frustration. Wow, I'm so glad that this has
Speaker 2: been a bright spot in your journey.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for reading the book.
Speaker 1: If you haven't gotten the book by what youlovebook dot com.
Speaker 1: There's also instructions on that page if you want to
Speaker 1: request it or how to request it at your library
Speaker 1: if your library doesn't have it. And thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: If you've read the book, we would love for you
Speaker 1: to leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. And if
Speaker 1: you have, then we would love for you to review
Speaker 1: the podcast on Spotify or Apple. It helps people know
Speaker 1: what they're getting into, what we're going to help them with,
Speaker 1: and what we are not going to help them with.
Speaker 2: See you next time.
Speaker 1: Gorugle Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. We have some
Speaker 1: exciting new things coming in April.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we do.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited. Two of them. I'll talk about one.
Speaker 1: The first one that's coming up the first Monday of April.
Speaker 1: It's called the Weekly Money Move. So it is a
Speaker 1: new thing that we are starting. You should go follow
Speaker 1: it Weekly Money Move on Instagram. We're gonna be sending
Speaker 1: it out on the friend letter on Mondays and on
Speaker 1: that Instagram page on Mondays, something you can do every
Speaker 1: single week to either stay on top of or organize
Speaker 1: your finances. So if you've been in this game for
Speaker 1: a while, you still need to be doing annual checks
Speaker 1: on a lot of things, and it can come sometimes
Speaker 1: get overwhelming, like there's so many things you need to
Speaker 1: keep track of that you can just ignore them because
Speaker 1: you're like, I'm a I'm AARTI in this.
Speaker 2: I'm fine.
Speaker 1: No, But we're going to organize you for you and
Speaker 1: tell you what to check every week. And if you're
Speaker 1: feeling overwhelmed because you are not organized and you don't
Speaker 1: have anything here, we are with the step by step
Speaker 1: every week, one thing to do, and I'm very excited
Speaker 1: to get started on Monday.
Speaker 2: You know what, I realize I need. It sounds like
Speaker 2: I'm queuing up the bill of the week. I'm not
Speaker 2: bite size, bite bite sized things. Just bite size. Give
Speaker 2: it to me, bite size, make it manageable. Cut it
Speaker 2: up for me before you hand it to me, is
Speaker 2: the thing. Don't chew it up. I don't I'm not
Speaker 2: a bird. Cut it up, but just these Okay, if
Speaker 2: I can do this five minute thing, this ten minute thing.
Speaker 2: I'm on track, and you're gonna keep serving me those
Speaker 2: bite sized pieces. It's what I want. It's what I
Speaker 2: want in learning about like proper new attrition or exercise
Speaker 2: or like sometimes these these bigger topics feel so overwhelming
Speaker 2: and she's like, yeah, but like what do I do
Speaker 2: real time right? Agible thing? So we don't have it
Speaker 2: covered for you on like all the other parts, but
Speaker 2: we're going to do the financial part.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're not giving you something new every day. We're
Speaker 1: not going to overwhelm you with a deluge.
Speaker 2: But no one wants a delusion. No bite yes, right,
Speaker 2: you know what else is bite size? Again? Not my
Speaker 2: own self queuing up sushi. Sushi. Sushi is bite size.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we will be having our annual planning meeting
Speaker 1: with sushi today.
Speaker 2: That's exciting. That's coming up. That is exciting. Yeah. Okay, well, okay,
Speaker 2: get the friend letter, follow us on Instagram.
Speaker 3: Bye.
Speaker 2: So yeah,