Thank you guys so much for coming tonight. I appreciate it. My name is Fallen and this is the first time I've done something like this on my own, like I've been on hosted panels, I guess moderated panels in the past. And I think in the middle of last year, I was like, I, you know, you always like think, oh, you have a platform, right, what will you do with it? And I wanted to do something for women. And I
started thinking about this and doing different sessions. And one of the things, you know, Jenny is here, she does the morning show. And Jenny and I we always talk about how we grew up poor and.
We did not learn.
I mean, I don't even think I ever heard the word investment growing up, like ever my entire life. I come from a very blue collar area, and you typically work until you physically cannot work anymore, and that is and then it gets passed down, right, like you just work, work, work.
There is no.
Such thing as retirement, it seems where I'm from in my small Indiana farming commit unity. And so it was a new world to me to even start learning about that. And I started, like my first four oh one k in my twenties living in Rino, Nevada, and then I moved here and I started making more money and which shout out thank you, and so I was like, Okay, I got to figure out what I'm gonna do with this, because I would like the option of retiring at some point.
But it still confuses me. And my husband is one of those people that just seems to understand finance, and I always to trigger him say that I think compound interest is made up it and it triggers him like no other and it brings me joy. But so I just thought, I see these statistics all the time about how women are so much farther behind men when it comes to investing and our finances, and there are lots of reasons.
There's obviously a wage gap.
There are you know, longer absences from work due to taking care of children. Typically women are the ones that take care of the children once they have them. Sometimes they don't go back to work, longer gaps in their careers. So there are many, many reasons, and so I thought, let's bring some experts in and we can ask them questions and you know, hopefully gain a little bit of information to help ourselves and you know, maybe our friends and family moving forward and set ourselves up for I
don't know, a better situation. And so I started, you know, looking into different people, and these are the three amazing women that I found, and I'm going to have them introduce themselves and give you a little information. You probably saw their bio on what I posted, but I want them to, you know, talk about themselves for a moment before we dive into some discussions. So we'll start with Lindsay since she is closest to me.
Yes, I am Lindsay. I am a financial therapist. So I am a licensed therapist and my job is to essentially merge behavioral cognitive therapy with financial education, and so I see clients one on one. I work with individuals and with couples because we know that couples often run into a lot of issues.
So that's the work that I do.
Hi, I'm Elizabeth, Elizabeth Gusofsen. Thank you for having me. So honored to be here, and I really resonate with this room and hope you guys feel open to ask any questions that are on your mind. I'm a lead financial advisor out in why is that up? Based on a team at RBC Wealth Management. So I work with a team of nine and we have quite a bit of industry experience. There's four advisors and our total experience on our team is over one hundred and forty years.
We edit it up, so I've seen a lot of situations. I work with a lot of different types of families and range of ages and clients. So it is my passion, is why I get up every day. I love helping people, and I work a lot one on one with people as well, because it's you know, a delicate, confidential, mostly situation. So it's fun to talk to a group of people and women, especially because I think it's easier to open up when it is a room of women, So I appreciate you doing that. But yeah, So I work at
RBC and we are actually big. Our wealth management is based in Minneapolis, so that's nice. And then we're owned by Canadian Bank, so we have global resources of a bank, and we have private banking and lending and investments and kind of the full range of services in the industry. And I guess I should say I have been in the industry for twenty years myself.
Hi, everybody, I'm Hannah Ryan.
I founded Financially Engaged back in twenty eighteen with my husband Brady, and I am a CPA. I have worked the last ten years as a CPA for a big for a public accounting firm, and then I switched gears and worked at a startup for the last seven years or so, and then back in August, decided to take my side hustle, which was Financial Engage, full time because it is such a passion of mine, as these two ladies have said, as well, to help as many people as I can, I really focus on couples in their
twenties and thirties, provide financial resources like helping people pay off debt and learn how to invest and reach their financial goals.
Okay, thank you.
So I have different categories that I'll kind of go through and start things off, but I really want you all to feel comfortable asking your questions. We have a microphone over here if you feel more comfortable with a microphone coming to you. Jenny is the Vana White of the Evening. She has volunteered to bring the microphone around. I really want you to fill comfortable and safeness environment asking your questions and hopefully you'll get some information.
So I'm going to start off with.
We've all kind of talked about budgeting or you mentioned that a little bit and saving, so I want to dive in first with what are the most common mistakes you see women make when it comes to budgeting and how can they fix them? And anyone can start off, So maybe we'll start off with you, Hannah.
Yeah, I think the number one thing when it comes to budgeting is, especially as women, we feel a lot of guilt it seems, for purchases that we make, and especially I feel the media like to portray women, especially in more of a negative light, always highlighting Oh, women are buying purses or getting their nails done or hair done, all these things that are little things that bring joy, and it's not as often highlighted from the male perspective, and they're doing it just as much as the females.
Men are going on golf trips and signing up for fantasy football and doing all the things.
It's just not highlighted as much.
So I think when it comes to budgeting, one of the biggest mistakes women make is just feeling.
So much guilt.
You really have to zoom out and realize that there's a balance to everything you can have those little joys in life while you're saving and investing for the future.
Hey, do you want to jump in Lindsey.
Yeah.
So I think the most common thing I see is similar to that, but a lot of avoidance we leave that, you know, task, either up to our partners or if you are you know, an individual, and you're like, I just don't want to look at the emails. I don't want to look at the bills. I don't even want to go there because you have some sort of mental block, right, And for me, I'm always like peeling things back and like, Okay,
what is going on here? And what I find is a lot of times we grew up with really confusing money messages. There was a lot of mixed messages like we can't afford that, and then simultaneously they would come home with something that didn't make any sense as to why. You were just told, like, you can't afford a five dollars toy, yet your parents are bringing home, you know, multi hundred dollars worth of something, and so it was very confusing.
And so I think those messages.
Are really shoved deep down in there, but it comes up when we're starting to budget and so instead of actually looking at our numbers. We're really prone to avoiding it and just it'll be fine, we'll figure it out. And so that's most common for sure in what I see. But what I also see then is once we actually like look at the numbers and we start making a plan for your money, it's both scary and relieving at the same time, because shame lives in that black box.
And so once we let light into that box and let we you know, shed some light on what's actually happening with the picture, it can feel really good. Even if the numbers aren't telling you what you want them to tell you, it can feel really good to like not be in this weird abyss of not knowing anymore.
So Elizabeth, Okay, so I'm going to add on to that, but really good points I think for me with the budgeting pitfalls or you know, where it can.
Go wrong is just not having a plan.
So a lot of it is just taking a look, even if it's you know, being simple and looking at your spending you did over the last few months and just really looking at that, and looking at your credit card statements, looking at your checking accounts and really analyzing, you know, we try to keep it real simple, like what is the money coming in the door, what are the housing payments and the things you have to make rent or whatever, and then what is your discretionary And
obviously in our line of work especially, we try to get people to see where they how much they can save every month or put towards deb you know, but in a perfect world, it would be to save and just really trying to get the budget so that you can get to that goal. Because for women especially, I think a lot of us are living in the moment.
We're raising kids, we're dealing with aging parents, husbands, you know, whatever your your you know, or partners or we're going through divorce or whatever it is, and you get thrown into being the person that has to make sure that you're spending money inappropriate way and and also saving for
long term goals. And and if you set those long term goals with a plan, either with you know, an advisor or a financial professional, then you would see yourself getting achieving and getting towards those goals.
With your budget.
It's not just simply how much do I spend on groceries, which you know, those types of costs are increasing too. It's dealing with you know, higher cost of living inflation, and we all see that, and so if that is eating into what you are able to save, you know, kind of tweaking that. And so it's just it's having a plan and then also reevaluating it.
And yeah, I feel like we often see like you should save a percentage of your income or something. Is there a certain amount of your income you should be saving realistically.
I mean, I've heard the ratio fifty percent on must have, thirty percent on wants twenty percent on saving savings.
So but that's just like a rule of thumb.
I think everyone's situation is different and sometimes you can't save that much, but at different periods of your life. But if you can get a plan in place for when you you know, if you and if you do have to switch jobs, or if you do want to stay home with your kids, or you know, take a pause in your career, it's more than just having six months Like the rule of thumb, I would say, is having six months of emergency fund available.
So if you do have to switch jobs, or.
You know, something comes up and you need you know, a new roof or whatever, these things that come up as you're living your life. But also, you know, just having that additional savings helps you even if it isn't the full twenty percent. So you kind of have to look at your situation.
Do you find because I think we've done this even before, like a no judgment, like I've posted, like I think we've posted on social media in the past, like how much I do you have in your savings right now? A majority majority definitely did not have six months saved.
And another thing that I've seen lately and not to bring because I don't follow like the Dave Ramseys of the world, but a lot of things that I have seen lately with him is that with the younger generations saying that he's a little out of touch with the reality of what we are able to save and invest, and how it's like this is not relatable anymore, especially
due to inflation. Because I'm going to guess, when you said saved the rule of thumb, even most rule of thumb, and you said that's gonna be so dependent on each person, I'm going to guess, how many in this room, and you don't have to raise your hand, can save twenty percent of your check each month? No one can save twenty percent. Maybe a couple people, three people can save twenty percent of their check, So the majority of people aren't able to save that much, which I know that
you guys probably run into that quite a bit. Is that is it just being because you said you also mentioned we should have these joys in life. You should be able to, you know, get your nails done or something occasionally that brings you joy. Is there a way you look at that and break it down in a different way that helps you, I don't know, analyze what's coming in and going out, like you said, that helps people get started when they can't in the beginning, especially start saving that much.
I think you really just have to start small. I definitely agree with a twenty percent general guidance, and I mean the thing you'll typically see is like five to ten percent for your short term goals, think like vacations or down payments. So then maybe like ten to fifteen percent for your retirement or long term goals. But again, that's a really high percentage for a lot of people, and so I hate throwing those percentages out because it
scares people. And so you really just have to take small steps, like what is an extra ten twenty fifty bucks that you can save per month and just get started, because once you get started, you can start taking these baby steps and then it doesn't feel so hard to take the next step.
And maybe you can cut back.
On a subscription that you're not really using or you just signed up for six months ago and forgot about, or maybe you can focus on trying to negotiate or raise it at work.
There's all these.
Little things that you could do to help, you know, have more savings at the end of the month, but it's overwhelming to think about all of them. So that's why I always try to guide people to just just pick one thing to start.
And then if they have, you know, debt in the mix. Now you're t trying to pay off debt and also save. Do you have any advice for that?
Yeah, so it depends on the debt, right, And so I usually look at the whole picture of the debt, so I, you know, we lay it all out there and like, what's what is the whole picture looking like, what is the total amount od on each card, say it's credit card debt, right, what's the minimum monthly payment
that you have to make? What's the interest rate on it, and then like look at the whole picture, right, and if those interest rates are super high, then in a lot of cases, it actually doesn't make a ton of sense to be investing aggressively because mathematically, like those interest rates are just going to eat you alive on the credit card, right, And so instead of spreading yourself so thin, you can stay in one lane and say like, this is the one credit card that I'm going to focus on, right,
everything else, pay the minimum payments, you know, drop your investments down to just whatever. Like if you have a match option with like a four oh one K, probably not as much a four or three B. But sometimes then like just do that, right, And so like really stay focused. And I think we get into this all or nothing thinking of like, well, if I can't save ten percent or if I can't save twenty percent, or if I can't max this out, that I'm just not
going to do anything. And that's not what we're going for, right, And so I say, really, like be be cognizant of like what is like the highest priority at this point, and then we can you know, roll that into what's the next priority.
And that's how I like to think about it.
So speaking, of investing. I think that that's a very intimidating thing. And like I said, I don't think I even heard that word growing up.
I don't know.
I mean, I'm sure that like some of the quote unquote richer family where I'm from, they were I was not. My family was not. And so when I realized I
wanted to do that, it was very intimidating. And what I've said to like friends and stuff since learning a little bit more, I'm like, no, you don't have to have like thousands of dollars, like just start with like a little bit here and there, and like you have to find someone that you trust and did it and and you you aren't always gonna like mesh with the person you for.
It's kind of like a therapist.
You probably get this doubly then, but a lot of people like meet with one therapist and they're like, oh, this sucks. I don't mess with them at all. Therapy isn't for me. And then they don't go back. And I always like, no, keep going. You'll find the right one, right and they can be life changing. And I think that's probably the same with a financial advisor, because I've had a couple now and then you find the one that you mesh with and you feel like they understand
you and you're like, ah, this feels right. So what what advice would you give for people who are starting to look into that they're dabbling, that maybe they're a little bit intimidated.
Yeah, I think it is very, very scary to start investing, especially like you said, Falvin, if you don't have a background in it.
The number one DM I get.
Is how the heck do I get started investing? What account do I open? What investment do I buy? Just
please tell me, like the first step. And that was honestly the biggest reason why I wanted to quit my full time job and do this full time is to create a course investing for beginners, to teach people that have never learned it in school or at home how to actually take those first steps, because even if you go to a financial advisor, I think it is so critical to have that basic foundation of investing knowledge to be able to just advocate for yourself and discuss your
goals and make sure that your investment decisions are in line with your goals because you're always going to be your best self advocate, and so having that basic understanding is going to be critical and it's not complicated.
When you see the men in.
Suits on TV like spouting out all these tickers and can it look really complex, investing can actually be very simple. There's strategies to make it very automated and hands off, and realistically that's the best way to go anyways. And like Fallan said, you don't need to have thousands of dollars to start investing. You can literally go on to Fidelity today and start investing with one dollar.
And so a lot of people think.
That there's this huge barrier to entry and that is
just really not the case. And so I'm so passionate about teaching this to people because getting started investing early, even with small amounts, is so so important because of compound interest, which I know you are joking about, but compound interest is a real thing and I won't get into the math behind it, but it becomes a situation where even starting with small amounts, over time you can grow to really meaningful, large amounts of wealth in the long run.
So I think going back to the question is just how to start investing, right, Okay, So I guess my advice would be, you know, one of the biggest concerns that's out there that I hear from a lot of women that I work with is just how much do I need to retire? And like what is that number? You know, I kind of know what I'm studying now and here's what I have saved. And so we work a lot on having as you know, like you set
goals and other areas of your life. When you have a goal with a number tied to it, then you can kind of measure and see how you're getting towards that. So it can be broken down to something really simple as just setting up an IRA and putting seven thousand, you know, over the course of the year.
Or if that's like.
Too much, you know, you just can scale back and do your four oh one K with your employer or four through B or if you're self employed, you can do a set But there are different ways to set up. Simply a retirement account would be probably my recommendation of like getting your foot, you know, getting your toe in the water. And a lot of times they have investment
options that are really simple. You'd be shocked at how they boil this down to something called like a target date fund, and it's simply the date that you know you would retire, you know, sixty or something like that, when your age sixty sixty five, And as you get older, the investment automatically would rebalance so that your investments would be a little bit more aggressive in the beginning and then kind of as you get older, they would rebalance
and you wouldn't have to do much to set that up. And if you do get a match, then your employer contributes as well, so you would just pay attention to that.
But one thing I do, you know, want to stress as well is that And I feel like when I graduated and I started working, I was getting a lot of advice like contributed for okay, that's what you have to do, you know, make sure you do that, like okay, but also you really truly need to build this taxable emergency savings account, investment account, whatever it is that's not in your growing k because if you do reach a point where you need to draw money for I mean,
I guess when you buy a home, there's certain exceptions to the penalty, but there's high penalties to take money out of those accounts. And obviously you know you pay tax, but you know, I think just having access and flexibility and thinking about when you would need the funds and making sure again going back to just having a plan of what is each you know, bucket, what is the best use of the money, and how long you you're
when you're going to be using it. But in terms of investments, yeah, I agree, there's lots of options out there. I mean people have, you know, checking accounts at Wells Fargo and the robo.
Advisors invest their money.
I mean there's all kinds of crazy things that exist now in you know, more than just working hiring an advisor. So I think there's different entry points for different levels of wealth and different options available just simply at your at your bang. You know, don't feel like there aren't people there that you can talk to, but finding a personality and a person.
That you trust.
I think one of the things I was going to say tonight was if you have you know, a friend or a family member or somebody that you've seen has success with doing this, just reach out to them, have a conversation. I know that feels really stressful, but you're not telling them your personal situation. You're just you know, you're just asking for their advice. You don't have to confide in them how much you have in your savings account or whatever.
It's just like, hey, you know.
I've seen you had success with this, Like what would you recommend and who do you talk to and things like that.
So I think we also forget like when you know, if you had grandparents that were investing or parents even that were investing, if they had access to it, the accessibility looks so different now than it did forever ago, right, And so I mean to your point there is like with Fidelity is also the one that I use, and like it's so simple to literally and I will have clients be like, I think we need to book session
because I'm ready, I'm gonna I'm gonna invest. I'm like, okay, great, we're gonna need five minutes, and like literally that's how long it takes. And then we get them going. I give them a super high level overview of like these are your options. Target date funds are one of my favorites because they truly are like a set it and forget it, and you can automate that really simple, like fifty bucks a month in your roth IRA going to this target date fund for you know, twenty sixty five
or whatever. And that's as simple as it needs to be, and it just does its thing. And I for a long time, because I had such little amount in my investments, it wasn't fun to like look at them every month, so I didn't. I would go several months at a time without looking at any of my investments because I was like, Okay, cool, three more dollars.
Kay.
And now that we've been doing it for so long, it is fun to be.
Like, oh yeah, hell yeah, that looks good.
But I think it is important to remember that, Like it is so accessible to you, and it's really like you're in your own head about if it's you know, if it feels overwhelming or intimidating, reach out to literally any one of us, and we can help you very quickly.
Looking at like retirement future planning things like that, what are the most important steps women should take to ensure they're financially secure in retirement? This is like what I Okay, so I am a worst case scenario. I'm always spiraling the world is ending, I'm going to be poor. I'm terrified. Like the number of times a like month I ask my husband because I've set my retirement age and then I set my husband's much older than mine, and.
So I did.
And so I was like, you know, but how do I know when I actually stop working, Jake, that I will have the same amount of money? And he explains, he like comforts me over and over again, but my brain does not work that way. So what are some important supplemens should take to ensure they're financially secure in retirement?
Hannah, Yeah, I mean there's there's calculators.
We built one as well, a retirement calculator. There's a lot of assumptions that go into it. So for example, your current age as well as what age do you want to retire, what age do you want your spouse to retire, What age do you think you're going to live to. What is the level of expenses that you plan to incur in retirement. Do you think you're going to have your mortgage? You know, you're probably not going to have childcare supporting children anymore, so those expenses will
fall off. So there's a lot of variables that go into this decision, and that's why you really have to just kind of massage the numbers a little bit, and especially when you're a ways out from retirement, just to at least get a gut check of Okay, I feel pretty good about this retirement number that I'm planning for and this retirement age that I'm planning for, and seeing those numbers come to life will help you know, you'll
be put at ease a little bit more. And then as you get closer and closer to retirement, you can refine those inputs, you know, as accurate as possible.
So we also have a software at RBC called Wealth Plan, and we build it out for our clients and show them not only just the inputs the assumptions to help them figure out the retirement lifestyle, but it also build in like healthcare costs. It'll factor in if you have Social Security that will end up coming in because you think about, okay, your paycheck's going to stop, what's gonna you know, how are you.
Going to live?
And and it really does break it down and actually they'll give you a number probability number of are you going to meet your goals? You know, the success and so it is kind of fun to tweak it and see, okay, if we do this.
Then you know, the probability go up.
And a lot of times, you know, I work with people that you know the probability is like I mean, when you're younger, it's okay.
You know you have time to change it and tweak it.
As you get closer to the retirement, you want it to be obviously higher and closer to eighty percent, But you can rerun it anytime, and it does use market assumptions, so you can see it change also based on your acid allocation, which I think is pretty powerful. So if you're thinking about, oh, maybe I want to have a little bit more equities, which means I need to invest for a little bit longer to ride out some of the bumps that you get in the market, you'll see
the power that that can have, and it helps. It helps do like a gut check, like is this too risky? You know, can you handle the volatility well? You then you can kind of see what would happen if if you were able to invest that way.
Risk is one of those tricky things because I think a lot of it again has to do with your mindset and your upbringing and what you know about risk and what you know about yourself, and so if you're an anxious person, I don't think there's any way to be like it'll be fine, Like boo boo.
You know, like it just it.
Doesn't work that way, I think if we when you're like, my favorite way to really is just to root yourself in the facts, right. And the facts are over the last hundred years of the stock market, right, we are looking at like the S and P five hundred, so the top five hundred companies in the United States. There's an index fund that literally tracks those five hundred companies.
It's performed at over ten percent, almost eleven percent over year over year, right, And this is on average over the last one hundred years, fifty years even, And so when you can see that like that is that's the likelihood. And yes, we're gonna have years like two thousand and eight in two thousand and nine where things go down, right,
and that's that's a part of it. But that's what Elizabeth is talking about with with withstanding that volatility, is like, if you're a person that that's going to freak out, then just like don't look at it. Then you don't need to look at it. It's all right. It just it that thing, right. But then we kind of a year like last year that had twenty four percent gains and that was amazing and so that I think you know that like in the short term, right, I always say,
like we are long term investors. We are in it for the long haul, because yeah, like I can get excited about having a really good year last year, but I know that that's probably not going to remain true every single.
Year, year over year. So like, if that, if it's going to freak you out to look at it, just don't.
That's all right, Okay, I have to add one more thing, so in terms of market returns and everything. So that is one advantage of having a financial advisor or professional in your life is that there's so much emotion in investing.
And if you are investor during twenty twenty or you know, you mentioned twenty two eight, you've you've seen your accounts go down, and so I think a lot of it, especially if you're new to it, is making sure that you have somebody there because otherwise, if you're watching it and you're watching it go down, you really you know, you're not supposed to say, but having somebody else tell you that and really kind of hold you accountable and talk you off the ledge because it really does happen.
And if you're getting you know, dipping your hotel in the water, and we're championing like invest and do all this. It's yes, the last two years have been really nice, but you know we've all seen the market do do different have different outcomes. So I would just say that it is nice to have somebody that can help you with that emotional part of it.
How could people catch up on retirement savings if they started late?
So with a lot of the like your four oh one K, your IRA, these tax advantage retirement accounts, they have special provisions, especially for people that are age fifty year older, that allow you to contribute more than the
usual amount that you can contribute to those accounts. So if you're in that age group, it's really critical to try to maximize those But if you're not in the fifty plus age group, I mean, just trying to max out or contribute as much as you can to those retirement accounts now is going to be so helpful to you. I mean, again, with a compound interest thing starting now, even if it's a little bit, even if you can max out the whole account, it's going to be really beneficial in the long run.
Yeah, I think no matter what we get in this, like we compare ourselves to everyone else around us, right, and so this is really amplified with where we're at in the world with social media and everything else. And so it's so like I'm thirty two and sometimes I'm like, oh my god, I'm not doing enough, and I'm like.
Wait, chill out.
I have literally thirty three years until I'm going to retire. It's fine, like more than my right, it's insane, but it's so easy to get caught up in that, and so like, yes you could. I'm still kicking myself for not investing when I was fifteen years old working at Plato's closet. Okay, Like, had somebody told me, I would have been investing. This whole thing about being like, oh, high schoolers don't want to learn about personal finance anyway, so we're just not going to teach it to them.
I was like, no, if I was taught this stuff when I was fifteen, I bet your ass I would have been investing. But I but I didn't, right, And so I didn't start until I was later, which so I don't think you know it's ever you're ever gonna feel like you're doing it at like the right time or whatever.
You are.
You maybe always feel late, but yeah, I think to the to you know, your point Nanda is when you can know exactly what it is then that you need to where like how much you can actually invest is a great place to start.
And yeah, I mean just just start, just start.
Yeah, I mean, no time like the present, right, so there's always a chance. But yeah, I agree with the catch up contributions. Make sure you're looking at that if
you're over age fifty. And also just think about you know, maybe there were some other events in your life that you know took funds from you, or you know you had some other expenses, So just reevaluating your plan and making sure that you know, maybe there's some areas that you can take from to start saving again and focusing on the retirement so that you don't have to work, you know, longer than.
You want to.
And not everyone has to like chime in on this one necessarily. But you know, one thing, as I do personally, as I'm investing a lot of people, you diversify your portfolio. I hear this and I'm like, I don't know, okay, let's so. But you know a lot of people I feel like they find the thing like, for me, I'm like doing traditional investing, and but then some people are like, well, maybe you.
Should look at real estate, maybe you should look at this.
There are so many different options, and I just I think I'm kind of curious on your thoughts on that in general. And again not everyone has to like chime in if you don't have a stance on that, but I'm just curious what you think.
Yeah, excuse me.
There's a lot of ways that you can diversify your portfolio. I think, especially for a beginner, is its best to just keep it simple. I mean, you can diversify across asset classes, like you could invest in stocks and bonds, and then there's diversification across industries and sectors.
And ways to get diversification is to.
Buy what we mentioned earlier, the target date funds or index funds you like here a lot which are like ETFs and mutual funds mean the same thing. So for an example, if you were to go and buy the Apple stock, that's just one stock, so if Apple goes down, you lose money. But if you were to buy an hundred index fund, which as we mentioned, is the five hundred biggest companies in the United States, they're all in this one fund.
So if a few companies.
Do poorly, that's okay because there's all these other companies in the fund that can balance it out. And so that's just the simplest way, especially for beginners.
To achieve diversification really easily.
And those funds can be bought with with what's what called fractional shares and so you can again buy these with as little as one dollar. So really really simple and really really easy to do.
Well.
No, I mean, obviously I have experienced with lots of different investments. You know, we don't really go out and help clients buy land or you know, buy a cabin or whatever. But yes, I think it there's a percentage of your of your net worth or your balance sheet that absolutely could be in hard assets in real estate, and you know, it helps in maybe times where the equity market is going down, so it helps you sleep at night frankly, to be just more diversified in general.
But yes, at.
RBC specifically, we would have different options that would be in funds or in alternative investments.
So we do.
We do have options like that available depending on your situation and your financial you know, financial net worth and everything. But yeah, I think it doesn't make sense to put
that saying, you know, all your eggs in one basket. Absolutely, And if you do get an opportunity to invest in you know, a friend's business or you know, as you as you accumulate money and you are are privy to something like that, I think there's a lot of people that have had success investing in private equity, private debt, private private investment options that frankly, you know is very different type of investing.
So it depends on your circumstances.
But yeah, and I think at this point where we are getting a little like advanced, if you will, And so if you are somebody that's like, I'm new to this, like this could already be over your head. And this is the part, I think where it actually starts getting a little overwhelming if you're if you haven't even started yet, right, And so I think just remembering that we all suck at being beginners. It doesn't feel fun to be new
at something. But once you are new and you like kind of get over that hump, and then you can start building that confidence and then you can branch out and then you can start learning more about diversification and then you can write like we just bought our first investment property, so I'm super excited. But I was really nervous to do that because I didn't feel confident in my you know, other investments until now, like it's been a long time, Like Okay, we have enough, we know.
We're safe, we're good. Let's see what this whole real estate.
Endeavor is all about and try that angle, right, But it took me a long time to get there. I wasn't I didn't wake up one day and say like, Okay, I'm now gonna start investing in real estate and then I'm gonna go open some ETFs and index funds and I'm gonna go right, Like That's not how it worked. I small steps and then you learn, you grow that compdence and then you can branch out more.
What do you think about Okay, I know, like obviously there are lots of I feel like a lot of people are trying to figure out how to get rich quick? You know what I mean? Like what can I do to get rich quick? And like for a while it was like and if you have an Airbnb, I'm not knocking. I feel like I feel a lot of people like that was like a route they went right, and and that's still a successful for a lot of people. And but is there I don't even know what my question
is here? Necessarily, how do I get rich quick? Is there an answer to getting rich quick on top of the slow investment portion?
No? If you answer, oh, Hannah, has it hang on hand?
Hannah, has it?
Okay? Good?
Good?
There's no guarantee to get rich quick, obviously, but there's levels of risk to investing. So there's a very conservative risk levels and investing and very risky levels. And obviously, if you're taking on a lot of risk, there's a lot of potential to make a lot of money, but there's also a lot of potential to lose all of your money, so and vice versa. When you're taking a less amount of risk, like bonds are historically less risky, you're not going to earn as much because you're not taking on.
As much risk.
So it's this spectrum that you're kind of on the sliding scale. And you know, when you're hearing about people getting rich quick, they might have and it's because they took a lot of risk to get there.
I do want to start opening it up, and these can be very like I said, personal questions. Mine are kind of broad questions obviously, but I want everyone to feel comfortable to ask personal ones. I told you to bring questions. You don't have to. I never will call on anyone, so don't worry. But did anyone want to kick us.
Off and ask?
Ah? Yes, we love the first person who's willing to dive in.
I love it, Okay, perfect, thank you so much for having this night and everything like that. One of the biggest questions I have is like, I have my company matched retirement account. So I've been doing that, you know, for like eight years now, and I finally opened a high yield savings account. I like downloaded the robin Hood app. I don't know, we'll see, maybe I'll do fidelity instead.
But I really have put on my twenty twenty five Bingo card that I want to meet with like a financial planner or a financial advisor, and I don't even know like how to start, and so I just saved the Instagram post with all of your lady's info, so I feel like that might.
Be step one.
But I'm also so scared about, like if I do a brokerage account and all of a sudden I need to take money out now, Do I need a tax advisor because like I use TurboTax for taxes, and so is it like a financial advisor? A wealth management? Like I don't have wealth, but can I see a wealth manager? Is it a CPA? Can one person be all of those things? Do I need to kind of have somebody for my taxes plus my financial planning? And kind of how would you recommend trying to go down that path?
And do I have to pay you? Or like how how do you all say?
Fair question?
Fair question? Yeah, whoever wants to dive in first, go ahead.
I will happily start on this one. All right, So yes and no to everything you said? Then it depends a therapist's favorite answer. Yeah, So I think it's a really good question as far as all the things, yes, get fidelity.
That would be the first thing I said, got it.
I think that really it starts with educating yourself right, and I think as women like I kind of hate this word because it's so overused now, but like truly to like empower yourself to like know what like you can do right? And if I think it really depends on how complex your situation is, you may not have wealth right now, but eventually you will, right, And so I think when you're starting, I personally think that like, you can certainly invest right now on your own. You
don't need to pay somebody to do so. And if you want to pay somebody, then certainly you can do that, but be very cognizant of the pay structures and the fee structures when it comes to investing.
I had to fire my financial.
Advisor because he was literally taking all of my money and I was like, sir, you're gone, goodbye. So I think understanding that there are like hourly people that you can pay right like, if you don't know what you are paying, this is for everyone. If you don't know what you are paying your financial professional, that's a problem.
And historically that actually has been a problem with these things called AUMs and it's assets under management, and they're not transparent in the fees that they are charging you and how it all goes. So if you can find somebody with like a flat hourly rate, which you certainly can,
that is fantastic. Then when it comes to like taxes and things, if you again have like a relatively non complex issue turbo tax it up, right, But if you are ready for a point where somebody can like you can pay somebody and they're gonna end up saving you,
you know, way more down the road. And that's often what I tell well most women is like take a year, take twenty twenty five to be your year, to learn how finances work, to like read the books, to ingest all the podcast information that you can, right, make this year a little bit harder for yourself, and then figure out along the way who your support people are going to be.
You guys might have different answers, but that's kind of.
Lind Say, do you have a book or a podcast off the top of your head that you'd recommend for that.
Yes, so my podcast Financial Self Care with financial Therapist Lindsay, come on over.
And then my favorite. I have a few a few books that I love. One is called Your Money or Your Life.
I love that book. It's great start there. The other one is I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Remit Sati. Really good book, really really good. So those are the top two probably that I'd.
Say, all right, Hannah or Elizabeth wantapen.
I mean, I totally underscore everything that you just said. I think it all starts with education. Circling back to my first comment, you know, you can.
Hire all the people to help you with all the.
Things, but if you don't have a basic level of understanding of what's going on, you're not going to really be able to be your own.
Best self advocate.
So I totally agree learning how to invest is critical. I created an investing for beginner's course. I would honestly love to have all of you in it. I meet with my cohort of people in the course every single month, live for an hour.
Usually it goes longer.
Because there's just lots of questions, but it's just building that confidence.
Again.
I want you to leave the course feeling empowered to make those decisions and then, sure, if you feel like it's the right choice to go hire a professional and advisor, a tax accountant, you know, whatever it may.
Be, that's great.
But at least you're empowered with the decisions there and knowing what you're paying for those people to help you. And realistically, investing is very easy once you learn the basics. It truly is so easy. Everybody can do it. It just we've been taught our whole life that investing is hard and scary and oh my gosh, I just need to have somebody else do it for me.
You can do it. I believe in you.
Yeah, I think you're on the right track. And great job saving in your four one K and I think just don't rush into anything, you know, like I said, ask your trusted friends, you know, family, There's got to be somebody that a coworker, you know, just figure out who do they use and why do they use them? You know, what is that person doing for them? How is that person adding value? You know you want it to be. I'm sure everyone up here you want it
to be a mutual fit. Right. You know, we're as much investing in you as you are in us, and we want you to succeed as much as you want to succeed. And everyone of you know, the client families that I work with, that that's how I feel.
So you know, it's it's our time.
And and maybe you know there's different levels of advisor and different levels of wealth management. Yes, if you do invest, you would need a tax advisor to help you with capital gains or whatever.
You're on the right track with that.
It might not just be as simple as turbot tax eventually, but do it while you can. I did do TurboTax a couple of years and it really freaked me out.
So but good for you.
But yeah, I would say just to try to ask, you know, people that you trust and friends for recommendations, because we actually get a lot of our clients from our existing clients, get a lot of referrals just because in this industry it's so personal who you connect with and how you relate to them, and so a lot of times it's just word of mouth.
Frankly.
I mean, yeah, there's absolutely tons of education resources available, you know, if you go or you know, tons of podcasts, but and I don't I could tell you later. I'm not going to throughout some right now, but but yeah I would echo that, just don't rush into it.
Thank you very much.
Okay, I'm gonna say, do you have anything else? No, I just want somebody to tell me what to do. But thank you for reminding me that I can do it myself.
I'm the same way you can do it.
I have a question about prioritization.
I think, as someone with add as soon as something gets challenging, I just avoid.
And so.
I'm thinking about the six months of saving alongside investing alongside budgeting, and I think where I get a little tripped up is I worry that not worry, But I think what I focus on is that building up six months of savings feels really slow and arduous, and so I sort of wonder, is there should I be investing to save? Also, like should I be putting money in a four one K puts together uh yes, a roth ira to get to my six month savings? Like should I be just putting a small amount each month to
get me to six months? Like what it feels like I should be focusing on the savings first, but I'm also focusing on the investing. And I fortunately do have a four to one K at work that you know, just comes out automatically, but I tend to overcorrect, and so what I would probably do is be like, Okay, I need to put half my paycheck into a savings account and then I'm going to try to live on
the other half. But then I'll end up pulling money out of the savings and then at the end of the month, I actually didn't save anything, so I'm not like actually making any steps forward, and then I go back to square one. So that is just sort of like what I've spent my whole life doing.
You are thinking to a lot of people everyone.
It's really all about baby steps.
I kind of have this like map in my head, so I like to have people start with a one thousand dollars emergency fund. Regardless of where you're at. If you don't have a thousand dollars, like, something is always going to come up and it's just guaranteed. So having that one thousand dollars set aside, while it might not cover the whole emergency if it's a big one, at least it's something to help you avoid going into credit
card debt if that emergency does pop up. So once you have that set aside, which you can get one thousand dollars pretty quick, like if you're really focused on saving one thousand dollars, you can get that knocked off. Then I have people look at their debt and looking at it, like we said earlier, at the interest rates that are the highest.
So if you have debt that's.
Higher than ten percent interest rate, it's kind of my fluctuation point.
I really want.
To prioritize having that get paid down as quick as possible, because that's just going to be eating away at any of your saving or investing goals, and then once you have that high interest rate debt knocked out, you can go back and kind of beef up that emergency fund a bit more to get to that three to six month of savings and it doesn't have to be like
six months of total savings on a regular year. I like to think of an emergency fund as your required expenses if shit had really hit the fan, Like, what are the required necessary expenses for you to survive and live your life, And that's going to be less than all the fun, frilly things that you're spending money on.
Like you'll easily be able to cut those things out if things are not going well.
And so once you get to that three to six months whatever you're comfortable with, that's when you can really start making the decision for yourself of do I want to pay down other debt that might be lower interest rate, or do I want to start investing. There's kind of this decision with the lower interest rates. It could go either way, and it really depends on the person and how you feel about having debt. Some people it's like the debt is just so psychologically draining that it doesn't
matter how low the interest rate is. It kills them to have the debt. And in those situations, I'm like, just just pay off the debt then if it's really like weighing you down that much. But then on the flip side, there's other people who, you know, if they have a three four percent interest rate on their debt, they're like, it doesn't bother me. And in those situations, it's like, sure, go ahead, let's start investing in the roth ira, the brokerage, you know, whatever it is.
You'll start investing based on your unique goals.
So you could be investing for goals that are five to ten years away, or investing for goals that are thirty years away, or you know, longer if it's retirement. So that's how I break it down. I don't want you to think about it like, oh my gosh, I have to go do all this at once. It's like, these are the steps. Just take one little step and then keep going.
And just a quick question, is a roth iray is an investment account, it's not. You're not saving, Yes, high yield it is a savings account, but you're getting over Yes.
I love high yield saves accounts. I talk about them all the time. Savings is a high heeld savings account is just like a traditional savings account.
It's just that there's not.
A lot of brick and mortar locations, so they don't have to pay the cost of maintaining a building. So then that company can then go and pass on that savings to the customers in the form of higher interest.
Rates, which is great.
And these highield savings accounts are fgic ensured just like traditional savings accounts are, so it's a great place to store your emergency fund or go that you have in the near term. But yeah, then wroth ira is an investment account, and so a lot of people also get confused with the idea of an account and the idea of an investment. A wroth araa is simply on its own, just an empty account. You have to buy investments to go inside the.
Wroth ira.
And so there's all these layers to it. But that's that's a simplified way of describing it.
Since highyield savings is separate from like your typical bank, are there certain ones you would recommend number one, number two when you're starting to pull let's say, or Wells Fargo. You're starting to pull all your savings out to go put it high yield as well as Fargo gonna be like, wait, we will give you that also, or.
No, get out of get out of Wells Fargo.
We're sounds here. Wells Fargo is like the worst bank on the plant.
Oh great to hear, Yes, love that? Okay.
So what are like high yield savings bennies that you like go to?
So there's so many good funds.
I always tell people like, don't spend more than thirty minutes researching high yield saves accounts. They're all so similar. Just pick one and move on. Learn how to invest. Spend your time doing that instead.
But I use Ally, I've used it for years.
I'm not affiliated in any way, but I think they're great. They have these savings bocket features so you can visualize the things that you're saving for inside the account, which is really nice. But I know that other high old savings accounts do the same. I don't know if you guys have any.
Other I use Ally as well, love them. And I actually from like the so again therapist's brain because of the buckets that you were just talking about. From a behavioral side of things. It makes like saving that much easier.
It is because like it's so visually appealing and motivating, and so I like that because for me, I'm willing to forego like zero point two person debt Marcus or like wherever a different you know place is for the aspect of like I'm actually gonna use this savings account and I'm going to use it in a way that's going to like help me accomplish my goals, and especially with like your brain is my favorite brain.
I love a good ADHD brain. Me too.
Most of my clients also were just like over here confused about you know, neurotypical stuff.
But because of that is actually is exactly why I like it.
It actually makes it really really easy and it's like comfortable for our brains.
You don't have anything analysts, but you don't have to deal with well no, I would just say two things. One on the emergency savings, just to clarify, that is something very liquid like money market cash, you know, something that's not invested because you want it to be safe and secure and not exposed to any sort of market risk or whatever. Just to clarify, we're talking about like basic like savings, not sort of separate from we've been through not a lot of terms, but supared from like
an investment account that's not in a retirement bucket. Okay, So I just want to clarify that, and then on just the high yield question.
So interest rates.
Right now are at a very different level than they were a few years ago, so you'd probably be surprised if you did ask your bank if there's ways to get an extra interest. I know at RBC there are some higher yielding just regular money market sweeps, so like shockingly high. So just make sure you're looking into that, all right. Who else is a question?
Perfect, I'll give it to you and then you can pass it down when you're finished.
Okay, Hi, thanks so much for this forum. I think this is incredible. So my question to you is if each of you could walk through, like, what would a first meeting look like? I think there's a huge hurdle for a lot maybe just me, but a lot of us to take step. You know, when we're looking at our finances. You know I come from I have I had a recent divorce and you know, had a financial advisor that was a buddy of my husbands or my ex husbands and you know, it's like, Okay, well, how
would I take that step for myself? And I think it would be helpful for a lot of us to understand what does it look like when we come and meet with you. Is there a consultation, what information would we need to bring or you know, like what what questions are good questions to ask if we do meet with someone?
What a good question?
Yes, So I do fifteen minute consultations free and just make sure that I have an understanding of what you need and that I would be a good fit for you. And then for me, I have kind of two different
avenues that I take people down. One is like the true kind of true form of therapy or money coaching, right, which is our initial session is an eighty minute session, and that's where we I call it like your present problem, right, so like tell me more about like what's going on presently in your life, what's what's like you know, high priority for you to figure out all that kind of stuff. I think the thing that people don't hear often enough is that your money habits are established by the time
you're ten years old. And so there's a research out of the University of Michigan on this, and so I think it's really important to look back and understand again
those money messages that you received while growing up. And so we start going through kind of the timeline of your life, like tell me, you know what comes to mind when you when I ask you about how you grew up around money, and so that first session is kind of focused on that and giving me like the timeline of your life up until now what's going on. I assign homework. So usually at that point we you walk away, I give you an assignment for goals, so
short term, mid term, long term goals. You'll come back. We talk about those. I call them your north stars. Those are now your guiding lights for how we're gonna set up our work together and how you're going to start making purchasing decisions. Next se and then we get into and then we shift into hours, so fifty minutes after that, we just go session based session session and
then we get into the numbers pretty quick. And I have what's called my intentional Spending Planner, and you can fill that out on your own, or if you need, you know, a little bit of help filling it out. I can certainly help with that. But that's a percentage based breakdown, and I use a sixty ten ten twenty model kind of what we were talking about on a budget earlier fifty to thirty twenty, but I do sixty ten ten twenty. And then we talk about what changes
you need to be making. We start making those like habit changes, and then in that you know, are you ready to start investing? What do we need to be doing to fill kind of those buckets? And then from there I downshift into like bi weekly or monthly meetings, and then I put you on what's called maintenance, and
then you spread your wings and fly. I'm a short term solutions focused, short term solution focus brief therapist, so I'm very like, let's get you in, and I think it's a important to hear what your past, what happened in your past.
But I don't sit there. I don't do like deep inner child work.
I'm not doing like family system stuff, but again I think it's important part of the process. And then the second avenue is if it feels more aligned for somebody, I do a two hour deep dive where I actually send you ahead of time that intentional spending planner, and we forego there's a couple of clients that I've had that are just like, I don't really like my upbringing was fine. There was not a lot of trauma there. It wasn't, you know. And they're and I'm like, okay, cool,
and they just really want like the numbers stuff. So then we do that together where we do some planning. Like I said, you fill out the spending planner ahead of time, we come back, we talk it over, we make a solid plan for what is on your goals, and those goals are part of that spending planner, and then you go on your merry way, and I send you an action plan that we came up with together, you know, and then when you need me again in six months, a year or whatever, then you can call
me and my door's always open. But that's kind of how my stuff were. Oh and price transparency, I already said it is very important. The two hour deep dive is three forty nine. The like actual therapy side of stuff for an eighty minute session is two forty nine, and then all subsequent fifty minute sessions are one forty nine.
That was a lot. I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry, Elizabeth.
Okay, So I my team has set up just a little bit differently, and we're probably in the category which you would think of us as long term advisors and we're honestly hired to give investment advice, but we're also you know, we have a certified financial planner on our team. I also do financial planning.
I just don't have the CFP yet, but I have my MBA.
But this, the planning process is going to be our once we you know, kind of see if we're going to be a good fit. That's going to be our main intro to working with us and kind of getting the pieces in place so that we can advise on your situation and your balance sheet as in total, so especially if you're working through life changes like a divorce
or something like that. But again, I think think of my team or RBC in general as like a long term investment solution, and we really do work with people through you know, life cycles and deaths and inheriting money and kind of all the different cycles that people go through with their money. But yeah, meeting with us is you know, it's complimentary until you would engage us, and then there's you know, fee schedules and things like that that we would give you even just in an initial meeting.
I don't know if I want to get into that here.
It might be Yeah, it's a little more complicated, but because it has to do with kind of how you're investing in your different situation, but hopefully that gives you kind of a.
High level Yeah.
One follow up question to that, so with the financial advising and having a firm, is there access to resources like a state planning if you need advice.
Or yes, great, that's like an advanced question here, Okay, Yeah, they're absolutely. I have personally, I have you know, a lot of estate planning attorneys that we work with and in house. There are some resources that we can utilize. Absolutely. We are not you know, CPAs obviously, but we work very closely with CPA firms as well.
So yeah, that's a huge part of it.
And I don't know if it's come up yet, but in addition to retirement planning, a lot of what women need to think about is what if something were to happen to us and our kids and kind of that that side of it, redoing your wills and getting some trust in place and things, maybe you know, thinking about protection as well. So absolutely, and we do we do have avenues that you might have heard of, like life Life insurance and some other a state planning tactics.
Yeah, yeah, And.
Then I'm a little bit different, so I I am more on the education side of things. I don't actually meet one on one with individuals, but all of my products are kind of go at your own pace educational. So I have the investing for Beginner's course, which is really my biggest full blow and like start to finish course. Then I have a debt payoff plan that's really been kind of like our.
Flagship product for several years that.
People have used and you can use it to payoff d It's either Noball method or Avalanche Method. It's super customizable and that's just an Excel download that you can again fill it out at your own pace. And then we have our version of a financial plan budget, if you will.
We call it the cash Dash.
And it really helps align your savings and investing goals.
And we really like to take the approach of.
Having things be oriented than having the focus on like the netpicky little expenses that people fight about in a budget and personally paid budgeting. I've I've budget over the years and we've just found that having a financial plan that's more goal oriented seems to be the one that we come back to the most. So those are three resources right now that you can download at anytime.
Thank you so much.
Hi, I'm gonna take it back to basics. It's a very specific question, but maybe somebody else can relate to it. So in my situation, my husband and I have a common account where we contribute equally for paying bills as well as short term like changes to the house or any other projects that we have. What would be the best format to have that in Currently it's just a checking account at a bank. It doesn't cost anything to take money out, but it doesn't grow either.
Is there a better way to do that?
Or that's it?
What did you say? The savings is being used for.
Bills, and we also put some extra cash in there for like a project that we want to have as renovating our house, so pretty significant chunks go in there every month, but it doesn't grow, And is there a better way to do that?
Yeah?
I mean I like to have a checking account with a just small buffer in there to pay for any bills that are connected to the account, and then any.
Goals like really goals.
Where I'm going to be using the money in the next two to three years, and my emergency fund. I put all of that in my high yield savings account that we talked about, and then you can just easily transfer money from your high ye old savings to your checking whenever you need to.
Use those funds.
And that was going to be my follow up question with a high yelled account.
With the risks?
What would be one of the risks with those type of accounts. So, is in my understanding that when you put money in there, you at least half after a year or so, at least have that amount of money that you started with irrespectable? What happens in the market? Is that correct assumption?
Yeah?
I mean you're not investing your money in a high yield savings Your most high old savings accounts are FDIC insured up to two hundred and fifty thousand. A lot of them actually increase that insurance to like two million. So your money is going to be safe in there if you're at that, you know, wherever you're opening an account is FDIC injured.
Yeah.
So I just have my Intentional Spending Planner. It's compatible with Google sheets and then I actually just keep the Google Sheets app on my phone, and so if I need to plug things into it, I do. I'm a little bit more like I don't like if I'm like out running errands, I'm not going to take the time to like sit in my car and like plug in my stuff. I actually do what's called a money date
every Tuesday morning and for twenty minutes. It literally that's all it takes me is I go back through and I'm like, Okay, what did I spend on my card over the last week, and then I plug them in and so that's how I track it that way. If there is an app that I would choose, I've heard really good things about Monarch. I personally don't use it, but I know a lot of people like it. So that's what I would say about that. I was gonna say Monarch as well.
And I've actually used co Pilot Money, and if I was going to choose any that was the one that.
I would use to budget.
It's super user friendly and I just really like the interface.
Hi guys, So just one question I have is if my company matches both a traditional for one K and a roth for one deferred, is there a better account, Like I know, I believe for one deferred is seven thousand max for a one K traditional twenty three K. I'm not maxing out both of those for sure, but
you know, is there is it better to do? Like matching both in the four to one traditional and in the four to one deferred, or maybe just maxing out in the deferred and then if I am able to max out, start putting into the traditional.
Will they match you in both? Correct? But you have to pick no.
I can put in in both, So right now I'm split, but I don't know if that's the best route.
So I always like to contribute enough to get my full match. So if that's contributing to both accounts to get that full match, I mean that is part.
Of your compensation.
And if you're not contributing in the full match in either account, then you're just leaving money on the table. I usually tend to get the full match in my four oh one K. Then I like to jump over to other accounts like an IRA or even an HSA and contribute to those because those type of great tax
advantages as well. And then if there's more money that I still have to invest, I'll go back to my four oh one K and contribute more to max it out if there's enough funds to do so, Okay, he'll answer your question.
I think so, So stick to one and see how much I would.
I would try to get the full match in both. Okay, not it.
You definitely get the full match and the roth Burro one k. I don't know how you guys feel, but that is like magic. That's so cool. Not everyone offers those I would one percent do that. It's automatic on your paycheck, which is amazing.
We all want automated.
It's after tax money, so now you're creating you know, a separate hate the word, but a separate bucket from your four one k, so eventually you've already paid tax on it. It's easier to use that money down the road.
Yeah.
I love to do that.
Okay, and then sorry, can I just ask one other question? H kind of I think one of you two talked about it, but financial advisors, if you guys could just and if you're in the maintenance phase of your financial advisor, you're meeting with them once a year, once a whatever, one question that you guys would recommend us asking every time we meet, looking into those future goals, hit me with them one question.
I'm not a financial advisor, but I think what's really really important is always understanding what fees you're paying, both to the advisor as well as the fees on the actual investments themselves, So constantly getting a solid understanding of that,
and then also just reiterating and matching your goals. Your unique goals are probably always changing your short term goals and long term goals, and really bringing that up each time you're meeting with your advisor to ensure that your goals are being invest you're investing appropriately to match your goals, because, for example, if you're investing for thirty years away, you may be willing to take on a lot more risk because there's a lot longer of a time horizon for
the market to recover if there was a downturn, Whereas if you're investing right now for goals that are five years away, you might not be willing to take on very much risk because if there was a downturn in the market, all of a sudden, the funds could be gone and that have the money.
For your goals.
So I always try to keep these conversations as goal oriented as possible. And make sure that the advisor is investing according to your goals.
Okay, no, that's helpful, thank you.
I think one thing too that I have learned over the years is like, to your point, your goals are always changing, so I think it's great to keep a pulse on that.
I would say if you're if you're working.
With somebody like like just so you guys know with your four to oh one k, right, your your funds are tied up until you're fifty nine and a half. Same with a wrath ira so and then but then you have like a brokerage account that you have access to that anytime.
It's not tax advantage, so you're not you know.
So it's nice to like have these different options, and so it's your your initial question of like is four o one K better?
Is Wrath better or whatever?
I like to have kind of it everywhere, just because like you never know what life is gonna throw at you at and sometimes you're like, oh, I you know, I'm gonna work until I'm sixty and that's totally fine. And then you get to fifty five and you're like fuck, like I don't want this, but but you know, and and if you had told me five years ago that I was gonna go through being a stay at home mom and then retire my husband and then work full time from home, I would have been like, no way, right.
So like just now knowing that, I'm like, I can pretend like I know what's gonna happen in my life in five years, but I know myself well enough to know that my brain is I get bored easy, and I like to do things so like make room for options.
As much as possible.
I hope that doesn't throw a monkey you're mention in this whole thing, but I would say, like that that is one thing that I'm like, if you can keep your options open, that's that's huge.
And depending on your relationship with your financial advisor, if you've you know, inherited them from your family or you know, it depends on your situation. But I would advocate, as you know, women right to make sure your voice is
heard in the meeting. Send them your questions in advance or something like get your agenda, like because you know, in the moment they're talking about whatever they want to talk about and potentially getting a little bit off track and then they and then the meeting's up and you're like, wait a second, you know, I need, like, you know, twenty minutes to.
Talk about X.
So a lot of times people or or just pick up the phone before the meeting. But I have found in working with families and people lots of different ages, that my most productive meetings are where we have this agreed upon agenda and we're both come to the table with like, what do you want to talk about? Like, first thing, what's on your mind? You know, because I know what's on my mind, and I can go into your portfolio and your performance and you know, you know,
all different kinds of topics. Right, I can use the time, But what's going to be the most valuable for you? What's on your mind now? And the other thing I would say is that if you aren't giving the person like your full picture, then it's also challenging because they can't really give you advice knowing the full picture. So if they just have one investment account that's all you
ever talk about, that's hard. So opening up and maybe find or finding someone else, but opening up and letting them see the full picture and really giving you advice in all areas of your life financially, I mean from all the stuff we're talking about tonight, even just to budgeting. You know, whatever these questions are, you're maybe scared to ask, just get them in advance or something, or they'll before you to the right person to talk to if it's not them, something like that.
Okay, we're going to do one more as we wrap up for you ladies. So I think you kind of just answered this, but just to make sure I understand. So, if my employer allows me to contribute retirement to a four oh one K or a WRATH, obviously I understand like the tax piece of it all. And if I'm fully matched in my WROTH contributions, is it beneficial to also contribute to four oh one K or how would you What would your advice be for that?
Yeah, if we're talking order of operations kind of, so contribute up to the match, right, got that? Then if you have access to an HSA, which only about ten percent of us do, So if you do, then I always try and max out your HSA because that's a triple tax advantage account. Yes, to use for medical expenses, but if you can, you can invest your HSA, not your FSA, but your HSA. Right then I love a good Wroth IRA. So again there's there's income limits to that,
so be aware of what those income limits are. But then that's a great account. And then go back to that four oh one K and and and also consider a brokerage while you're while you're in there is kind of the way that I like to think about it.
There a difference. Mine is a Wroth four oh one K and a four oh one K.
I have both.
Yeah, there's a traditional four oh one k and there's a Wroth borro one k.
And so with Wroth for oh one k, you're paying.
Taxes today and then the money grows and when you take it out in retirement, you're not paying taxes on it. And then the flip side, for traditional you're contributing pre tax dollars and then the investment grows over time, and in retirement you are taking the money out and you're paying taxes.
And does the twenty three thousand, five hundred like max which is this year's new does that apply across both or is it?
How does that work? Twenty three five hundred would.
Be between the two, and then you would not be able to contribute beyond that.
Okay, a four to one K yeah, yeah, okay, any other questions. I think we got it. Okay, Well, I just want to thank you all so much for all of your amazing insight. Can you give them a round of applause please?
Mm hmm