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