Speaker 1: Episode three seventeen, When Women Have Money with Gene Chatsky.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life. Here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and today we are talking about the.
Speaker 3: Lady shout out to you.
Speaker 1: I mean, this whole podcast is very female centric. We
Speaker 1: have a small male contingency that we love to shout
Speaker 1: out because the men that listen to our show are
Speaker 1: the bomb. But we're not going to hide the fact
Speaker 1: that this is a podcast Bye ladies for ladies. Hey,
Speaker 1: but there are a lot of misconceptions about women and money,
Speaker 1: and I think that this podcast being about frugality, we
Speaker 1: always identify ourselves as the buyers of the household, the
Speaker 1: money savers, and women hold a lot of wealth in
Speaker 1: the economy and that number is growing and that's what
Speaker 1: we are talking about today. How can we lean in
Speaker 1: to this new wave of identity that we are having
Speaker 1: with money And so we're talking with Gene Chatsky, who
Speaker 1: is the founder and CEO of Her Money.
Speaker 4: But first, this episode is actually brought to you by dads.
Speaker 1: Every woman has one, and while this episode is not
Speaker 1: about men or for men, it would be of men
Speaker 1: to listen to it because as dads with daughters, even
Speaker 1: if you don't have daughters, you might have daughter in
Speaker 1: laws one day. It's important to know that we are
Speaker 1: going to be on a fast trajectory to running this economy.
Speaker 1: Now that we outnumber the number of CEOs named John, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we are controlling more and more wealth. And also, if
Speaker 1: you're listening to this on the day of releases, Father's
Speaker 1: Day is just around the corner, So thank you, dads.
Speaker 1: Listen up, dads, and if you have a dad, bring
Speaker 1: this up on Father's Day. The stuff you're about to
Speaker 1: learn in this episode, Dad's.
Speaker 3: Weren't you supposed to segue free stories with that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I freestyled that one, and you could telling. You
Speaker 1: could tell I freestyle died that one. But also, if
Speaker 1: you have debt and you're trying to pay it off
Speaker 1: and you want some inspirational stories, head to YouTube dot
Speaker 1: com slash Frugal Friends and listen to all ten debt
Speaker 1: free stories. One of them is from a dad, but
Speaker 1: every single debt free story is from somebody who has
Speaker 1: a dad.
Speaker 3: Man, Jen, welcome back.
Speaker 5: Having two kids has really benefited you in some remarkable ways,
Speaker 5: and I'm here for it. We're only getting better. And
Speaker 5: I love that our dads sponsored the show. And essentially
Speaker 5: you're just like dads. Watch out girls run the World
Speaker 5: and watch our debt free stories.
Speaker 3: And that's it.
Speaker 1: As a woman with two sons, yeah and no daughters, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna teach my sons to respect the power that
Speaker 1: women have in the economy. And that's what Gene Chatsky
Speaker 1: is trying to teach women at large again. She's the
Speaker 1: founder and CEO of her money dot com. She is
Speaker 1: the host of the her Money podcast. She hosts coaching
Speaker 1: programs like Finance Fixed and Investing Fix, all to help
Speaker 1: women grow their wealth, so not just to be the
Speaker 1: spenders of the household, but to be.
Speaker 4: The wealth builders of the householder.
Speaker 1: She's an award winning journalist, broadcaster, New York Times, Wall
Speaker 1: Street Journal, best selling author. She has been in this
Speaker 1: game for a long time. She knows what she's talking about,
Speaker 1: and so she's seen this trend ahead towards more wealth.
Speaker 4: Being held by women.
Speaker 1: So we're really excited to talk to her today.
Speaker 4: So, without further ado, let's get into it.
Speaker 3: Our Stewart.
Speaker 1: Geane, Welcome to the Rugal Friends podcast. We are excited
Speaker 1: to have you with us today.
Speaker 6: I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much for
Speaker 6: the invitation.
Speaker 5: You are a wealth of wisdom and just a pure
Speaker 5: professional og in this space. So what a delight it
Speaker 5: is to have you here and glean whatever it is
Speaker 5: that we can on this conversation specifically around women and money,
Speaker 5: and I think you've got a lot to say with both.
Speaker 5: And to start off, could you tell us, in all
Speaker 5: of your years of experience and what you've seen and
Speaker 5: the people you've helped, what are some of the common misconceptions.
Speaker 5: Let's start there, because we like starting with the fun
Speaker 5: stuff surrounding women and money. What are some of the
Speaker 5: stereotypes or misconceptions you've seen.
Speaker 6: Big misconception that women are more risk averse than men.
Speaker 6: Big misconception that women are not managing the household finances.
Speaker 6: We absolutely we are, and there's a lot of data
Speaker 6: to prove it. Big misconception that we're the only ones
Speaker 6: who sort of have a shopping habit. Men have it too,
Speaker 6: They just call it collecting. I mean, we could just
Speaker 6: whoh wow. Yeah, we could go down we could go
Speaker 6: down this road. But I think the bottom line is
Speaker 6: this is a really important point in time for women
Speaker 6: with money. We've got more of it, more of it
Speaker 6: beyond that is coming our way thanks to friends and inheritances,
Speaker 6: trends and education, and we have a chance to really
Speaker 6: grab hold and secure our futures in a way that
Speaker 6: we didn't before.
Speaker 1: What are some of the changes you're seeing from like
Speaker 1: the gen and the baby boomer women that it's kind
Speaker 1: of different for millennial or gen Z women.
Speaker 4: Are you seeing ships?
Speaker 6: I am, and it's a really good question. So two
Speaker 6: things I would point to. One is that they're savers.
Speaker 6: Gen Z saves money. They have more trust in financial
Speaker 6: institutions than the generations that came before them. They're really
Speaker 6: more understanding of the fact that they have to start early.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: If you ask people my age, what's your one big
Speaker 6: regret about money, almost all of us will say, Gosh,
Speaker 6: I really wish I had gotten my act together in
Speaker 6: my twenties or even my early thirties to start saving
Speaker 6: and investing with so much energy and vigor. And I
Speaker 6: waited until I was really almost forty, and I blew it.
Speaker 6: These people, These young people in their twenties, despite the
Speaker 6: fact that a lot of them have student loans, are
Speaker 6: really getting their act together and saving and starting to invest.
Speaker 6: So I think that's amazing. The other thing that I've seen,
Speaker 6: and I've seen it. I have a twenty six year
Speaker 6: old daughter, so I've seen it with her and with
Speaker 6: a number of her friends, is they know their value
Speaker 6: and they are negotiating. They are asking for more money.
Speaker 6: They are doing their research, their job, hopping to get
Speaker 6: the money that they believe that they're worth. And you
Speaker 6: know what good for them?
Speaker 5: What do you think is leading to that this kind
Speaker 5: of increased you reference kind of this point in time
Speaker 5: where we currently sit and how the narrative used to
Speaker 5: be women do this, these are the misconceptions, and now
Speaker 5: it seems as though the pendulum is swinging or we're
Speaker 5: at this pivot point. What's is our gen z just
Speaker 5: better listeners what's going on?
Speaker 6: They may be better listeners, but I think they're also
Speaker 6: watching what's happening in real time, right And if you
Speaker 6: look at the experience that many of these young women
Speaker 6: had on college campuses, what you saw was this big
Speaker 6: imbalance of women to men. Right last year I think
Speaker 6: the number is that for every one hundred men who
Speaker 6: graduated from college, one hundred and thirty two women graduated.
Speaker 6: And that shift is putting more earnings, more power into
Speaker 6: the hands of women. These young women saw that. Now,
Speaker 6: it's not reversing everything. The pandemic did set women back, right.
Speaker 6: It took a lot of women out of the workforce.
Speaker 6: We still have a very stubborn gender wage gap. We
Speaker 6: still have women who are choosing careers that will make
Speaker 6: it easier for them to also simultaneously have a family,
Speaker 6: run a family, raise children if that's something that they
Speaker 6: want to do, and so they are these forces that
Speaker 6: are that are fighting each other a little bit. But
Speaker 6: I think that's where it comes from. I also think
Speaker 6: this generation is kind of the first generation that grew
Speaker 6: up with mothers in power positions they weren't necessarily. I mean,
Speaker 6: when my mother was young and in the workforce, she
Speaker 6: either had to be a nurser or teacher, right, that
Speaker 6: was it. I came out of college and I went
Speaker 6: right into journalism. But my friends went to law school
Speaker 6: and they got MBAs, and they went to med school,
Speaker 6: and our daughters are now these representatives of gen Z.
Speaker 6: So they've had different role models.
Speaker 1: Dang, I didn't think about that. Yeah, like my mom
Speaker 1: did work outside the home, but her mom didn't. My
Speaker 1: mom had more of like a secretarial job. So that
Speaker 1: is so interesting. So what are I know that you
Speaker 1: have at her Money? Have done some surveys and there's
Speaker 1: tons of surveys out there about women and money. Do
Speaker 1: you have any surprising data points or insights like numbers
Speaker 1: about women and money that people may not be aware of?
Speaker 6: My favorite and this comes from a piece of research
Speaker 6: that we did with what we call the Her Money Council.
Speaker 6: So for your listeners who don't know about her Money,
Speaker 6: we are a home for women and money. And if
Speaker 6: you go to her money dot com and sign up
Speaker 6: for our newsletters, which are free, by the way, you
Speaker 6: can also join our council, which means we'll invite you
Speaker 6: to happy hours and zoom happy hours for the most part,
Speaker 6: but you can drink and invite you to take part
Speaker 6: in these in these studies. And so we've got a
Speaker 6: few thousand women on our council. And one of the
Speaker 6: interesting findings from our State of Women research in twenty
Speaker 6: twenty two was ninety three percent of women say they
Speaker 6: are either drying financially alone or driving with the partner
Speaker 6: right only seven percent, we're seeding control to their partner wholeheartedly,
Speaker 6: and I think that's I think that's huge. It means
Speaker 6: we understand that we not only have a stake in
Speaker 6: this game, but that we have an important role to play,
Speaker 6: and that it's better to know what we're doing when
Speaker 6: it comes to our money when we're not at a
Speaker 6: terribly stressful point in our life. It's better to gain
Speaker 6: these skills just during more calm, routine times so that
Speaker 6: when a stressful situation with it hits, which of course
Speaker 6: it will, because life happens, you're ready to handle it.
Speaker 5: So I can affirm, even in my own anecdotal experiences,
Speaker 5: I handle the finances for my husband and I, and
Speaker 5: yet I do still feel this reality of I still
Speaker 5: feel inept at it. There's other people who are better
Speaker 5: than me, and I can take on some of those
Speaker 5: misconceptions you named at the beginning of This is a
Speaker 5: man's world, and there's complications here that I'm going to
Speaker 5: need to seek out a professional on. And but yet
Speaker 5: we are as you're identifying the main financial drivers at
Speaker 5: least of our homes, and that disconnect is just so
Speaker 5: interesting to me. I don't know if you've got more
Speaker 5: to say why you think.
Speaker 6: That is so, I have a lot to say. I
Speaker 6: think you have to sort of split that world into
Speaker 6: two pieces, right there are there's the budgeting spending piece.
Speaker 6: Women have handled that for a very very long time.
Speaker 6: Then there's the investing growing the wealth piece, and women
Speaker 6: are newer to that part of it. And when you
Speaker 6: think about questions just in general, not necessarily financial questions,
Speaker 6: but in general, there are some questions that have correct answers,
Speaker 6: and there are some questions that for which correct answers
Speaker 6: perfect answers don't exist. So if you ask me what
Speaker 6: is the best credit card for somebody who wants a
Speaker 6: balanced transfer, I can answer that question, and I can
Speaker 6: be right because I can do the research. I can
Speaker 6: look at the lay of the land. I can say
Speaker 6: it's this one at this time. You ask me what's
Speaker 6: the best mutual fund, what's the best investment? I can't
Speaker 6: answer that question. I mean I can give you a
Speaker 6: very good answer. I can give you an answer that's
Speaker 6: based on history. I can give you an answer that's
Speaker 6: likely to hold up. And I can talk about diversification
Speaker 6: and how you should do it this way, and that
Speaker 6: if you do it this way, we get I had
Speaker 6: a really good chance of making your money grow for
Speaker 6: the future. But I can't be perfectly right. And for
Speaker 6: a lot of women, and for women like me, by
Speaker 6: the way, that not being able to be right is
Speaker 6: really hard. Right. I like to know the right answer
Speaker 6: to any question before I even ask it. And so
Speaker 6: being in this world where you can control interest rates,
Speaker 6: you can't control inflation, you can't control the market, you
Speaker 6: can't control what the CEOs of these publicly traded companies
Speaker 6: are going to do. That requires faith, right, and sometimes
Speaker 6: it does require additional expertise. I have a financial advisor, right.
Speaker 6: I have had a financial advisor for years, in part
Speaker 6: because I want another set of eyes on my financial picture.
Speaker 6: And I don't view that as a weakness. I think
Speaker 6: it's an important checkpoint because you're looking at a lot
Speaker 6: of different different data and information coming in at all times,
Speaker 6: and there are a lot of things that you're trying
Speaker 6: to solve.
Speaker 3: For yes, oh, thank you for that permission.
Speaker 5: I think we can get caught up in the if
Speaker 5: I can't do it all on my own, if I
Speaker 5: can't be an expert on all of it, then what
Speaker 5: business do I have doing it at all?
Speaker 3: That kind of all or nothing thinking.
Speaker 5: But you bring up a really great point that I
Speaker 5: haven't thought of in this way, that sometimes there are
Speaker 5: very right answers for things, especially as it relates to finances,
Speaker 5: and then sometimes there's this gray area or it needs
Speaker 5: to be individualized, or there's freedom and how you do it,
Speaker 5: and that can trip people up. Which time is it
Speaker 5: there's a right answer, and which time is it? Well,
Speaker 5: you need to decide for yourself and kind of try
Speaker 5: different things out. And that ambiguity can be really hard
Speaker 5: in any aspect of life, but especially as it relates
Speaker 5: to what my future might hold, how it's going to
Speaker 5: play into my retirement. That ambiguity does not feel very great.
Speaker 1: It doesn't, Yeah, And it allows for more predators to
Speaker 1: prey on that ambiguity, which is scary.
Speaker 6: Yeah. And that is why when you're choosing a financial advisor,
Speaker 6: it's a really important decision and it's something where you
Speaker 6: do have to do your due diligence, make sure that
Speaker 6: you've got somebody not only who isn't a crook, right,
Speaker 6: and they're not many out there, but you know, not
Speaker 6: only who isn't a bad actor, but you're doing due
Speaker 6: diligence to make sure that their areas of expertise lining
Speaker 6: up with the services that you need.
Speaker 5: I think we're kind of circling around this a bit,
Speaker 5: but I'm curious your thoughts on what are some of
Speaker 5: the ways that women can improve their financial well being,
Speaker 5: maybe bring into alignment the reality that most of us
Speaker 5: are managing the finances but then feel equipped to do
Speaker 5: it and confident in doing it.
Speaker 6: The part of it is the data, and part of
Speaker 6: it is actually looking at the data. I started a
Speaker 6: coaching program during COVID, a financial coaching program called Finance Fix,
Speaker 6: and we've been running classes monthly. They're small group classes
Speaker 6: with one on one coaching and group accountability. It's going well,
Speaker 6: but one of the most important things that we ask
Speaker 6: people to do in that class is to do what
Speaker 6: we call getting dirty with your data. And the methodology
Speaker 6: for this, I'm just take a step back. So for
Speaker 6: years and years on OPRAH and The Today Show, I
Speaker 6: did a lot of money makeovers. People would my producers
Speaker 6: would say, oh, let's do a money makeover, and I
Speaker 6: would say, great money makeover. And the process that I
Speaker 6: put people through I sort of honed it over time,
Speaker 6: but it always started with tracking your spending because I
Speaker 6: don't think you can budget in a forward direction. I
Speaker 6: actually think you have to budget backwards, which means knowing
Speaker 6: where your money is going and then deciding thank you
Speaker 6: for that, and then right you know where your money
Speaker 6: is going, and then you can make changes about where
Speaker 6: you want your money to actually go.
Speaker 3: A lot.
Speaker 6: It's a lot, So that's basically you know, we put
Speaker 6: some tools in so you don't have to track by hand,
Speaker 6: but that's part of the process that we take you
Speaker 6: through in Finance Fix, and it's where I think everybody
Speaker 6: needs to start, whether you are going into retirement, whether
Speaker 6: you are trying to work your budget in your thirties,
Speaker 6: whether you're just starting out in your twenties. Both my
Speaker 6: kids have gone through this exercise, and it's the building
Speaker 6: block of everything else. Because you want to save fifteen
Speaker 6: percent of whatever it is you're earning. Yeah, I want
Speaker 6: you to save fifteen percent of whatever it is you'r earning,
Speaker 6: But chances are, if you haven't looked at your numbers,
Speaker 6: you're not even close. And then the amazing thing is
Speaker 6: we play and we play a game called guess you're
Speaker 6: spending in me in the in the program where it
Speaker 6: is so dangerous and it's so fun. We ask people
Speaker 6: at the at the start of the at the start
Speaker 6: to guess they're spending. And then once they're in it
Speaker 6: and we've got the tools working, we show them where
Speaker 6: their money is actually going. And people are just like,
Speaker 6: oh my god, oh my god, Like I had no
Speaker 6: I had no idea. My dog was so expensive. Who knew, right,
Speaker 6: I mean.
Speaker 3: It's that, yeah, it is.
Speaker 4: It's mostly the dog.
Speaker 1: Yes, we're being honest.
Speaker 6: My dog, my dog is oh my god, he's on
Speaker 6: allergy medicine, he's on a hydrolyzed protein diet. I mean
Speaker 6: he is like he is like the most expensive member
Speaker 6: of my family.
Speaker 3: He's in the room.
Speaker 6: He doesn't even feel a little bit bad.
Speaker 3: I'm telling you, that's right. You take care of me.
Speaker 5: That I mean, that game sounds amazing to observe and
Speaker 5: horrifying to be a partisn.
Speaker 4: And other people's expense.
Speaker 5: That sounds like my worst nightmare. And I think maybe
Speaker 5: it's telling and this kind of motivation for us and
Speaker 5: what you're saying of come to self knowledge on you
Speaker 5: not waiting for someone else to point it out. Sometimes
Speaker 5: it does need to happen that way, but for me personally,
Speaker 5: I would much rather be the one to discover the
Speaker 5: things that need to shift and have someone on TV
Speaker 5: tell me the thing. I mean, whatever it's gonna take.
Speaker 5: But we should be the ones digging in. I love
Speaker 5: the get dirty with your data, do it yourself, rather
Speaker 5: than like, yeah, wait until it's pointed out. And some
Speaker 5: whether it's on a game show or in life, and
Speaker 5: you're hitting this really tough point of man, where did
Speaker 5: it all go? And I wish I had started earlier?
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's I mean, it's you make it
Speaker 6: sound horrifying. It's not completely hard, you know, and people
Speaker 6: people learn a lot and they're saving a lot in
Speaker 6: this program because they feel in control in the first time.
Speaker 6: I did a big study for one of my early
Speaker 6: books on money and happiness, and the most the finding
Speaker 6: that I still go back to from that piece of
Speaker 6: research is that it's not how much money we have,
Speaker 6: it's how much control we have over the money we
Speaker 6: have that makes us happy.
Speaker 5: Ooh, jeens got mic everyone, Yes, that is that's exactly it.
Speaker 1: That's why we have this podcast. Is that statement right
Speaker 1: there that is that's the goal. So shifting a smidge
Speaker 1: from the control on spending. So once we focus on that,
Speaker 1: like how can women feel more empowered or feel more
Speaker 1: confident to make wealth building decisions that maybe there's no
Speaker 1: perfect answer, there's just you know, good you know, finding
Speaker 1: the good answer for you. How can we head in
Speaker 1: that right direction?
Speaker 6: So it's not rocket science. That's the first thing to
Speaker 6: just acknowledge it. It's not rocket science. The same good
Speaker 6: answers are pretty much good basic answers for everyone. You
Speaker 6: do not have to be a stock picker in order
Speaker 6: to get this right. You have to save enough, right,
Speaker 6: because if you don't save enough, and I do like
Speaker 6: to see people get to that fifteen percent level, because
Speaker 6: if you're not saving enough, there's not enough to grow.
Speaker 6: And then you have to put it to work. And
Speaker 6: on the whole, you want to put it to work
Speaker 6: in a diversified portfolio that is low cost and tax efficient,
Speaker 6: and that basically means index funds or ETFs that cover
Speaker 6: your bases. Right, you could do a total stock market
Speaker 6: fund and a total bond market fund and in the
Speaker 6: proportions that make sense for you and call it a day.
Speaker 6: But if you do it, that way, you do have
Speaker 6: to get with the rebalancing program to bring your asset
Speaker 6: allocation mix in line at least once a year, or
Speaker 6: you just put it in a target date fund and
Speaker 6: you keep adding to it, knowing that that target date
Speaker 6: fund is costing you a little bit more because it's
Speaker 6: doing the rebalancing for you, but also knowing that it
Speaker 6: is going to prevent you from taking too much risk
Speaker 6: at an inopportune time. That's it, right, I mean those
Speaker 6: that is that is basically all you have to do.
Speaker 6: And then as you get to the point where you
Speaker 6: are looking to other goals, you want to sort of
Speaker 6: take the same approach.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: You want to invest as tax sufficiently as possible. That means,
Speaker 6: you know, once you exhaust your four oh one ks
Speaker 6: and your iras, you're saving you guys both have kids,
Speaker 6: you're looking for college. Right, you put the money in
Speaker 6: a five twenty nine, you invest automatically. I can't even
Speaker 6: I can't even stress enough how important the automation piece is,
Speaker 6: because human beings are really bad at saving money, right
Speaker 6: where we're really good at spending it, we're really bad
Speaker 6: at saving it. But when automatic enrollment was added to
Speaker 6: four oh one case, the participation in four to oh
Speaker 6: one case jumped from fifty percent to eighty or ninety
Speaker 6: percent because inertia, because we you put me in it,
Speaker 6: I'm just gonna sort of stick with it. And in
Speaker 6: that case, it's a really good thing. The problem is
Speaker 6: we don't have automatic enrollment for five twenty nine's for
Speaker 6: health savings accounts for emergency cushions. So you want to
Speaker 6: put yourself into it on an automatic basis, so that
Speaker 6: every time you get paid a little bit of money
Speaker 6: going toward those goals as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think so often we don't make the
Speaker 1: choice to invest in the IRA, the five twenty nine,
Speaker 1: the HSA because we think, oh, I only have like
Speaker 1: twenty dollars a month, It's it's not even worth it.
Speaker 4: I'm not going to sign up.
Speaker 1: But I mean everyone was like so excited when automatic
Speaker 1: four o one K enrollment came about because then you know,
Speaker 1: twenty dollars just started going in and you got to
Speaker 1: see the growth. And then once you see a little
Speaker 1: bit of growth, that motivates.
Speaker 4: You to do other things.
Speaker 1: Yes, So knowing that it's even a little bit, the
Speaker 1: earlier you start, the less you have to invest.
Speaker 6: Well, that's absolutely right. But you made another really important
Speaker 6: point seeing the growth. So you have to visit your
Speaker 6: savings accounts. I know it sounds ridiculous, but you know,
Speaker 6: once a month, take a tour, or once a quarter,
Speaker 6: if the markets are down right and you don't want
Speaker 6: to really going along swimmingly, visit your accounts. Give yourself
Speaker 6: that affirmation that you're doing a really good job. And actually,
Speaker 6: if you're contributing on a regular basis, even though the
Speaker 6: markets are down, chances are you're doing okay. Gene.
Speaker 5: I love the simplicity and I think you've given us
Speaker 5: in the last five minutes just the map, the roadmap
Speaker 5: for how we can become wealth growers and confident in
Speaker 5: our money. Even if we're not going to long term
Speaker 5: be financial advisors ourselves, we can do it. And I
Speaker 5: think that stands out to me in so many interviews
Speaker 5: that we have and people we talk to who have
Speaker 5: been in the space longer than us still will say
Speaker 5: the tried and true message is simplicity. And it's just
Speaker 5: so affirming to hear that from you again and encouraging
Speaker 5: and empowering. So thank you, and speaking of simplicity, we
Speaker 5: love it.
Speaker 3: We just love the put it on automatically.
Speaker 5: It's simple, it's motivating, never going away. Yeah, about an
Speaker 5: object emotional stay in motion. And that's what this segment is.
Speaker 3: The bill of the week.
Speaker 2: That's right. It's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 2: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 2: is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your
Speaker 2: car died and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 2: that bill anymore. That's bills, butffalo bills, Bill Clinton.
Speaker 3: This is the bill of the week, Jeane.
Speaker 1: Every week we invite our listeners or our guests to
Speaker 1: share with us their bill.
Speaker 4: For the week, and we would love to hear yours.
Speaker 6: So I was I knew this was coming, and I've
Speaker 6: been toggling in my brain between two. But I think
Speaker 6: my bill of the week is my new favorite expense,
Speaker 6: which is a gym that I joined. Actually, so I
Speaker 6: have been a runner for my whole life, pretty much
Speaker 6: since high school, and it's basically the only exercise that
Speaker 6: I do. And now I'm in my fifties and I
Speaker 6: know I need a little core work, I know I
Speaker 6: need a little balance. So after walking past this gym
Speaker 6: for a year, I went in and I did a
Speaker 6: trial it's semi personal training, so it's it's you. It's
Speaker 6: four people and a trainer. And I did a little
Speaker 6: trial and then I signed up and now I'm doing
Speaker 6: eight a month, and so it's I think it's two
Speaker 6: hundred than twenty nine dollars for those eight sessions a month.
Speaker 6: But I feel I can see I can see muscles
Speaker 6: in my arms that I haven't seen in years. So
Speaker 6: I'm feeling pretty good about this.
Speaker 3: Amazing.
Speaker 1: Muscles are so important, especially for women. I mean, we've
Speaker 1: got to do it.
Speaker 6: I had a moment. I had a moment where where
Speaker 6: a person who I won't call out, but somebody who
Speaker 6: is supposed to love me, said I wouldn't wear that
Speaker 6: sleeveless on television anymore. I know, And so I went
Speaker 6: to the gym.
Speaker 5: Oh my goodness, not not the truth you needed, but well,
Speaker 5: they're in trouble.
Speaker 3: But also, you wear whatever you want jeans.
Speaker 1: You will be right thanking yourself for building the muscles. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that person also is in trouble.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: The thing that I think too in this moment is
Speaker 5: as we experien operience well being in one area of
Speaker 5: our lives, it often rolls over into others and there's
Speaker 5: so many people that I hear who have gotten really
Speaker 5: good with their money and then it's kind of this
Speaker 5: turn to other areas of life of mental wellbeing and
Speaker 5: physical wellbeing and then being able to pay for up
Speaker 5: keeping the well being, which is amazing because then it
Speaker 5: becomes a value in the one thing. Just it's a
Speaker 5: it's a good cycle, not the negative cycles.
Speaker 3: Yeah, to get it.
Speaker 6: And it's so it's so true. So when we did
Speaker 6: the debt Diet on Oprah's show, we found that our
Speaker 6: debt dieters who were there to pay attention to their
Speaker 6: finances lost weight.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 6: Yes, and a lot of them lost weight, Like across
Speaker 6: the country. We had like a million people doing these
Speaker 6: steps on the debt diet and people were they lost weight.
Speaker 6: And there's there's research on willpower that says you really
Speaker 6: shouldn't attempt to diet when you're budgeting or budget when
Speaker 6: you're dieting. It's better if you put your efforts to
Speaker 6: focus on one thing at a time. But you're completely right, Jill.
Speaker 6: The skills are the same, and once you show yourself
Speaker 6: that you can do one thing, that you can benchmark
Speaker 6: your way to a particular challenge, then you can do
Speaker 6: the other ones beautiful.
Speaker 5: I love that your bill is a Jim. I hope
Speaker 5: Bill's not offended that Jim's out here stealing the bill.
Speaker 5: If you are listening and you want to submit a bill,
Speaker 5: even if it's a bill about another male name, that's
Speaker 5: totally fine. Or you've just got she's a comedian people
Speaker 5: some other type of Lucy Goosey, something related to Bill.
Speaker 3: You know, we're here for it.
Speaker 5: Sky's Thelimit, Frugal friendspodcast dot com, slash Bill, leave us
Speaker 5: your bill.
Speaker 3: And now it's time for the ling.
Speaker 5: We don't have a budget for sound effects, so it
Speaker 5: comes from many are.
Speaker 1: Our own sound effects for sure. I'm just waiting until
Speaker 1: we get our membership to the Screen Actors Guild as
Speaker 1: boys actors like that. Nobody has sent us anything, and
Speaker 1: I feel like it's time, after five years.
Speaker 4: Of doing this, that we're ready, you know.
Speaker 1: So anyways, so this is our vulnerability segment, and we
Speaker 1: didn't I mean, there is not as you know, women
Speaker 1: talking about money on podcasts. I feel like we get
Speaker 1: more vulnerable than other podcasts. So this one was really
Speaker 1: a difficult one. So kind of just making it fun.
Speaker 3: This is today.
Speaker 1: It's lighthearted, So what's the most creative or you way
Speaker 1: you or a woman you have seen done with her
Speaker 1: money or managed her money something that maybe a man
Speaker 1: wouldn't do.
Speaker 6: I mean, I've got to say there's a lot of
Speaker 6: creativity on TikTok, and I do think when we started
Speaker 6: to see cash stuffing on TikTok, I thought it was
Speaker 6: creative and I thought, oh my god, you just stole
Speaker 6: a page from your grandmother because she did the exact
Speaker 6: same thing. She just called it the envelope system. So
Speaker 6: I think I think that's that's interesting and creative in
Speaker 6: its old fashioned miss going back to cashm yes.
Speaker 5: Jill, similar to what your identifying gene. I'm not going
Speaker 5: to say that this is the best way to be
Speaker 5: a woman and manage money. But man, have I seen
Speaker 5: some scrappy women throughout my life. I mean, from my
Speaker 5: grandmother to my mother to my day job is in
Speaker 5: so so I've intersected with women from all walks of life.
Speaker 5: And we stash we do, we stash it away, we
Speaker 5: squirrel it up for a rainy day. And I think
Speaker 5: just the creativity and where it gets stored, whether it's
Speaker 5: our undergarments or the freezer or the cosmetic drawer in
Speaker 5: the bathroom.
Speaker 3: Just squirreling away.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think it's an indicator sign of some
Speaker 5: other red flags that are happening in life. But it
Speaker 5: is creative and scrappy and squirreling some cash away in
Speaker 5: some creative places is what I've seen from some of
Speaker 5: the women in my life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you guys totally took mine without realizing. But I
Speaker 1: was going to say, a woman who tried to hide
Speaker 1: money in her winter coat and put it away in
Speaker 1: her closet until next winter.
Speaker 6: I love them.
Speaker 3: Are you speaking about me?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So I have learned Oh my goodness, And you're so right.
Speaker 5: I've learned it because I've seen it, so Gene, yes,
Speaker 5: that's a story about me. And I sometimes will do
Speaker 5: it intentionally, like ILL hide money so that I can
Speaker 5: find it, because I love those surprises and they don't
Speaker 5: happen to me anymore as an adult, so I have
Speaker 5: to like give myself a surprise. And even this year,
Speaker 5: I was talking about putting some cash in with my
Speaker 5: Christmas tree.
Speaker 3: We have the fake Christmas tree.
Speaker 5: As I put it away, I'm like, oh, I could
Speaker 5: shove some twenties in here, and when we pull out
Speaker 5: the Christmas tree next year.
Speaker 3: It'll be fun to have this money fly out.
Speaker 5: And my husband just laughed at me, and I'm thinking, oh, yeah,
Speaker 5: that's a good idea, and.
Speaker 3: Then I go to do it. He's like, this is crazy, No,
Speaker 3: do not do that.
Speaker 5: But I guess it's what I've seen. You just stash
Speaker 5: it away all over the way.
Speaker 3: You find it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, no, it happens to me when I'm running. Because
Speaker 6: so I have a collection of leggings that have pockets. Right,
Speaker 6: you gotta have pockets in your leggings, right, this pockets
Speaker 6: on the side.
Speaker 3: I don't buy leggings without them.
Speaker 6: And you and you only wear leggings in the winter, right,
Speaker 6: you wear shorts in the summer. And so in the
Speaker 6: winter when I pull out my leggings routinely, I will
Speaker 6: because I don't like to go out without a twenty
Speaker 6: or you know something, right, will routinely find it at
Speaker 6: least at least ten bucks. Stuff in my leggings not
Speaker 6: so fun, it's so fun.
Speaker 1: There's a Christmas tree, Jill, which is even more bizarre.
Speaker 1: You want to put the twenties in the Christmas tree? Yep, yep.
Speaker 5: So for more money tips just like this one, Jeane
Speaker 5: dashing money in your stretch pants. Where else can people
Speaker 5: find you if they just want all of your goodness?
Speaker 6: Well, I hope that they'll come sample that Her Money
Speaker 6: podcast and come to Her Money. Be part of our community,
Speaker 6: you know, sign up for our newsletter and start paying
Speaker 6: some attention.
Speaker 3: Beautiful, Thanks for be in here with us. Was fun,
Speaker 3: so good.
Speaker 5: My favorite takeaway is stashing the money, but Gene has
Speaker 5: a lot of other really great things to say too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that was the worst takeaway, but it's
Speaker 1: stash your money in smart ways, not in Christmas trees.
Speaker 4: I think that is the real takeaway.
Speaker 3: So always money in the banana Stan.
Speaker 1: There's all us, And you know how that turned out.
Speaker 1: No spoiler alerts. That episode's been out for like fifteen years.
Speaker 5: Oh what a what a great, what a what a luxury,
Speaker 5: what a privilege, what a whatever word you want to
Speaker 5: put on it. But so great to hear from Jean,
Speaker 5: So great to feel affirmed and just encouraged that, Yeah,
Speaker 5: there's just simplicity and we can feel so confident in
Speaker 5: our money. So I enjoyed it. Hope that you all
Speaker 5: enjoyed it. Thank you for listen, and we're here again.
Speaker 5: To tell you that we've got a membership. If you
Speaker 5: just listen to this podcast and you're like, I've binged
Speaker 5: all of the.
Speaker 3: Backlog, Now what I need more?
Speaker 5: Yeah, We've got a membership for you, our listeners, and
Speaker 5: many of the people in our membership are paying off debt.
Speaker 5: We offer monthly money challenges and you can find accountability
Speaker 5: groups there so other like minded individuals with similar goals,
Speaker 5: which we all need on that journey.
Speaker 3: We can't do it alone. I know you heard Gene
Speaker 3: talk about that.
Speaker 5: So get an accountability group, and we want to congratulate
Speaker 5: one of our members for a big win. This comes
Speaker 5: from Alisia Miller, who shared when I have clear financial goals,
Speaker 5: I'll simply tell my friends and family that I'm watching
Speaker 5: my spending so that I can pay off debt and
Speaker 5: or take a vacation or whatever the goal might be.
Speaker 5: I then suggest something free or within my budget. Most
Speaker 5: of my friends and family know about my awesome spending
Speaker 5: plan and spreadsheet that I'm super proud of, so I
Speaker 5: make the discussion about my goals instead of a saying no.
Speaker 5: That shift and perspective really helps, and I generally get
Speaker 5: a positive response when I frame the conversation in those terms.
Speaker 5: This is a conversation just about setting up boundaries and
Speaker 5: how can we stick to our goals when we're with
Speaker 5: other people. And Alicia, you found a fantastic way of
Speaker 5: doing that.
Speaker 1: Yes, and you can actually get our spending plans spreadsheet
Speaker 1: for free if you sign up for our three day
Speaker 1: spending makeover that's at Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash makeover.
Speaker 4: It is so beautiful, it is very, very beautiful.
Speaker 1: And yeah, that's a great way to reframe it, to
Speaker 1: stop saying no, which just the word leads you to
Speaker 1: feel deprived, but make it about bigger things that you want,
Speaker 1: the values that you really want to pursue.
Speaker 4: So congrats Alicia.
Speaker 5: And again, if you want to check out this membership
Speaker 5: we're talking about, head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com
Speaker 5: slash club.
Speaker 3: You can check it out. You could probably meet Alicia,
Speaker 3: so yeah, it's worth it.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's a group of women that are all trying
Speaker 1: to reach financial goals, so come hang with us, see
Speaker 1: you next time.
Speaker 4: Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Siriani.
Speaker 5: Jen Mmmmm, I missed you, I missed this. I missed this,
Speaker 5: Banta and.
Speaker 3: I know ben so I Eric and I.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm diving in with a story because I missed
Speaker 5: you and you missed this.
Speaker 4: I know we haven't talked in like forty eight hours.
Speaker 5: I think this was last weekend. Eric and I went out.
Speaker 5: We're trying to find plants for along our fence. Eric
Speaker 5: built this fence and it's beautiful. But when I look
Speaker 5: out my window, all I see is fence, and we'd
Speaker 5: really love it to look more like a jungle. But
Speaker 5: we've taken our time and we really want to find
Speaker 5: the best thing for the best price. And we went
Speaker 5: out on a hunt, didn't find anything, and came home
Speaker 5: empty handed.
Speaker 3: We were two minutes.
Speaker 5: Away from our house when we see this sign that
Speaker 5: says yard sale and plant sale and it had a
Speaker 5: time from nine am to one pm. I think it
Speaker 5: was a Sunday. It was three pm though, so I'm like, oh,
Speaker 5: we are two hours past the ending time on the
Speaker 5: last day of this sale. But Eric, swing aright, let's
Speaker 5: just see you never know, you never know.
Speaker 3: We roll up.
Speaker 5: Sure enough, the person is still cleaning up from this sale.
Speaker 3: Over. This is how I talked to Eric.
Speaker 4: Yeah, how she talks to Eric. Yeah, he loves it.
Speaker 3: He does.
Speaker 5: Let me he lives for that, and so we get
Speaker 5: out beautiful woman named Regina. She has lived in this
Speaker 5: area for decades and she has done all of her
Speaker 5: own landscaping on her property. Beautiful goals hashtag pie in
Speaker 5: the sky goals are happening on Regina's property. And because
Speaker 5: the sale's over, we just get to chat make a
Speaker 5: new friend. She brings us behind her fence into her
Speaker 5: backyard and shows us more of the beauty that she
Speaker 5: has cultivated over decades. And learned from her that the
Speaker 5: best time to plant a tree is today, and isn't
Speaker 5: that also true about our finances? The best time to
Speaker 5: start investing?
Speaker 3: She just trained.
Speaker 1: Wisdom on you today.
Speaker 5: Yeah, she grew most her plants from seed. She'll collect
Speaker 5: the seeds that her own plants drop plant new ones.
Speaker 5: So it's a cultivated, beautiful jungle. Anyhow, because it was
Speaker 5: the end and she started to like Eric and I,
Speaker 5: she just she started digging.
Speaker 3: Up stuff for us.
Speaker 5: She let us take the last of the plants that
Speaker 5: were for sale. Why kid you not. We came back
Speaker 5: with probably ten different types of plants and palms for
Speaker 5: fifteen dollars And then Jen doesn't stop there, wouldn't you know.
Speaker 5: She also had a rack of clothing that already had
Speaker 5: a free sign on it. She wasn't going to bring
Speaker 5: it back into her house. She just wanted rid of
Speaker 5: this clothing. And Regina has some good taste in clothing.
Speaker 5: And while she's probably about thirty five years older than me,
Speaker 5: we're about the same size. And Regina didn't buy junk.
Speaker 5: Regina bought some good stuff. I'm wearing one of them
Speaker 5: in Regina's on her kind, isn't it. It's it's this
Speaker 5: cotton button down with kind of stick figure drawings on it.
Speaker 5: I look like an art teacher from the nineties, which
Speaker 5: is exactly what I'm going for.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very good.
Speaker 3: Uh huh, thank you. So thanks to Regina.
Speaker 5: We yeah, two hours after the sale ended, and we
Speaker 5: thought we were coming home without plants, but no, no, no,
Speaker 5: Regina hooked us up with some clothes and plants, and
Speaker 5: it was the best day of my life.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I'm so happy that happened for you.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I mean, you look great, and I'm sure the plants
Speaker 1: are going to grow up great in your backyard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's going to look beautiful, more beautiful than it already does.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 5: Thank you Regina, Thank you Regina, the true he Regina
Speaker 5: of this show. She's a woman who manages her landscape
Speaker 5: and probably her finances.
Speaker 4: I mean probably probably a force to be reckoned with.
Speaker 3: Yep.