March Round-Up: Bank Failures and Another Year without a Shrinking Pay Gap
Welcome to our first-ever monthly round-up! During the last week of each month, Allegra will be joined by three Factora women - Whitney, Pam, and Steph - to chat about what's going on in the world and in their wallets. Each woman will bring her unique financial perspective and experience in the stock market, business, and real estate investing, plus career and lifestyle design.
What you’ll learn:
How we feel about another year gone by without a decrease in the gender wage gap
Advice on how to advocate for yourself when negotiating a raise
How the March bank failures could impact real estate investing
The importance of FDIC insurance as a business owner and investor
The group's current financial goals and upcoming money moves
Featured in this episode:
Download our FREE financial framework workbook
Learn more about the Wealth Circle
WATCH THE VIDEO
LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF COFFEE & COIN
-
Welcome back to another episode of Coffee and coin. We have a new type of podcast for you today. This is going to be our first ever March round up. Well, our first ever round up, but we're starting in March. And basically, we were talking about how there's so much that happens in the world and in our wallets. And I thought it would be fun to let our listeners in on what has been going on financially that month that you could be discussing and what is going on with our personal finances. Because it's a marathon, not a sprint. We're always working towards more wealth building. And so I invited Whitney, Pam and Steph, to join me on this roundup series. So the way I kind of thought about it was, I'm a Business Builder. I love building wealth through business. Whitney is a stock market lover, she is absolutely our paper asset girl. Pam has had a corporate career track. And so she is a salary negotiation, awesome coach starting to be and Steph is our real estate guru in the community. So I thought it would be fun to have our different perspectives and our different positions to come together and talk to you about what's been up. So welcome, everybody. I'm so excited to be here. APL just quickly even though I gave a brief intro of why have you on this pod? Can you tell people who you are. Let's start with Whitney. Hi, listeners. fun to be back on the podcast in this new format.
I'm Whitney from TeenPact Torah. And as a Laker said I'm your girl next door stock market investor. I've been investing in the stock market since 2007 have really focused on my account structure and setting up my auto contributions making sure I have all the right stock market accounts and you know was able to grow my investments to seven figures. At that point. I was like oh maybe I should diversify kind of get into stuffs realm do some real estate in addition to investing in some business assets, but ultimately the stock markets my my true love. I love it. Steph, tell us about you. Hi, y'all. I am Steph Douglas. I'm a co founder of Open House Austin. We're an education focused real estate brokerage in Austin. And I'm also a real estate investor. I have 20 units 30 doors and started in 2013 And you know, kind of right Right Place Right Time. Austin has been booming since then. And so it's been really interesting with this climate. I'm really excited to talk to y'all and to backdoor community in general just because, you know, things are happening right now. It's exciting and kind of scary.
And otherwise I think that's that's it I just love talking about investing. I love talking about money and really factorial brought me to my paper portfolio. I had zero paper before I met Allegra and now it's a small portion what kind of like Whitney like real estate is my first love. But I'm dabbling in the paper world right now. I was gonna say you guys are just the opposite all stock market and then thought me get into real estate and stuff was all real estate and thought, ooh, let me get into paper. So Pam, what's your portfolio and world looking like? Hi everyone excited to be here. My name is Pam. And as Allegra mentioned, I am just a very like regular boring corporate web to him. For me. I'm a director at a tech company and so have really built my my career around tech over the last 10 years. I joined Factoria like factor community and early 2020. And since then I've really sort of like diversify the things that I get excited about. I've done some angel investing like Allegra mentioned, I also do like consulting on the side have recently started doing salary negotiation coaching because if you see me around the factory community, I'm always there to give two cents about negotiating your salary and how to get more. So I would say I kind of feel like I dabble in a lot, some paper assets, some business investing, and then I own my primary home. So that's a little bit about me. I love it. And y'all know me. I'm the founder and CEO of Factoria. I love wealth building. I love women wealth builders and I love talking money. So let's get into it. We decided that in March the two biggest things that happen were a bank collapse and another year gone by without shrinking the gender pay gap, which is pretty rough.
I think I actually want to start there. Because, as Pam said, she's in the factorial community always trying to help women advocate for themselves and make their full earning potential.
So what do you guys think about this, the fact that we just celebrated another International Women's Day, and it was kind of glum news to have the data reveal, there's been no movement in closing the gender pay gap in the last year. Shocking, right? Because
I feel like women have made so much progress in, you know, the working world, in just like education, like women are definitely rising up. So why is it not reflected in the pay gap? I mean, the mystery is, as I'm sure stumping you as much as it stumping me, like, I don't have an explanation as to why this is happening. I'm stumped. It made me really, really realize how important community is in this, in this specific issue. If you don't know what your colleagues and your cohorts or even other women are making, there's no way that you're going to be able to advocate for yourself. And so, when I heard this news, I was like, Damn, we are so lucky. Because all of us make a lot of money. And so we just need I mean, I feel like we're This podcast is addressing this issue in that we're going to talk about it. But like, I just feel so incredibly, I feel angry, and I feel like we we are the ones like I just feel like we're we're in this position of influence. And like, we get to talk to women, and hopefully we can make our tiny dent and maybe it can be even bigger, because community is it? Well, before I go to Pam, because I really want to hear what she's you know, you're you seemingly are on the frontlines. Pam, because you're talking to women who are going through salary negotiations, and they oftentimes come to the factory or community, right? When it's happening, you know, like, you don't really think about it, and then suddenly, it's been a year, you need to advocate for yourself and figure out how to get a raise, and then you need someone there pans there. So I can't wait to hear what what you're seeing. But I guess the thing that I'll say, what you just brought up for me staff is like, I feel motivated. I don't necessarily feel angry. I feel like
the time is now. And I'm so glad that people talk about money more and more and to your point.
Community is everything. Because the reason that employers don't want you talking about the money that you make is because that is what allows the inequity to remain when you don't really know what your colleagues are making or even what other people in your industry is making, then it's a gray area. And you can continue making less, because the number that you go into a company at is the most important number because all of your bonuses and annual increases are based off of that first number. And people get really mad at the company, but I don't I own a company, I know that it's a company's responsibility to make the most money for its shareholders not to make the most money for its employees. So the employee has to advocate for itself, just like the company has to advocate for its shareholders, which means keeping costs of expenses down, and employees are an expense. And so I know a lot of people don't look at themselves that way. Because we're humans, we don't want to feel like we're a cog in the wheel. But that is how business works. So it's so important that you advocate for yourself and that you understand what people are making in different industries. That's why in the first wall circle call, we're like, what's your salary? And what is your career path? Because yeah, a graphic designer sitting in a breakout room with a tech worker are going to make different things. But hey, I might as a tech worker, I need to hire a graphic designer, and it's good to know what your rates are. So it behooves the company for us to be quiet and not share these details, not us and somehow it's just been years of of people thinking it's bad to talk about how much money we make, and I feel like the hood has been ripped off. We all know that that is not in our favor now. So I'm I'm stoked. So I felt like as I was like preparing for this episode, I got like so fired up about there's so many ways to like approach this and talk about this. And Whitney to your point. I think I was like taking a step back. And I saw the same the same article that you did and saw that we haven't made any progress since like 2002. I think like 2002 was like the peak of the amount that like women make to men and like essentially since then it's been
stagnant. So I am one both not surprised. But I think seeing that like 2002 statistic made me reflect on, you know, it wasn't till like 1974. And I ended up doing a little bit of research that women could actually like hold credit cards in their own name. So we're talking about being only 50 years removed from that, and that both feels far apart. But it's really not. I mean, like, we're all in our 30s. Like, you know, you're talking about talking to your probably maybe parents, grandparents who like remember this specific moment. And then, as I was then thinking about like, Okay, well, what did it take to get women to parity in the financial system? What is it going to take to close this pay gap, the other kind of reflection that I had was one, the importance of community, but also the importance of ally ship, because like, I can coach women all day long to ask for more money. But at the end of the day, some of the data is actually pretty depressing. That's like, women get penalized more when they ask for for money. And so I feel like almost a little bit of like, my call to action would be to people who are managers, because I think Allegra to your point, like, at the top of the company, you know, no one is really going to care about the pay gap. But like, my sort of call to action would be like, if you're a manager, and you are a dude, you know, what the people under you are making. And you should be advocating for women on your team, and like checking your own implicit biases on like, why am I paying like, the white dude named Chad? more money than like a woman on my team? So I think it's a little bit of like, both and like, I want to encourage women to like, always ask for more, but I don't think we're gonna get anywhere without any ally ship, like, that's what made the bill for financial, like system parity be passed, and like 1974 for Women and male ally ship, but also female to female female ally ship. We need both. And it's just like such a good reminder that, yes, we've come a long way. But there's still a lot of catching up that we have to do. Did you ask for more when you got your first job offer with a first job offer? I did not ask for more what I did, because I they brought us all in at a class in a class. So everyone got the same offer. What I did was went out and got multiple offers. And then I took the best one. Now that my career has grown, and I know my worth, I would absolutely negotiate every job since I've negotiated on grounds of my my skill set and my value, but it is very hard to negotiate for your first job like, you know, right out of school. Yeah. So on your first job you didn't What about you, Pam, also kind of similar. I started in public accounting, which is like very much every first year in your class makes the exact same amount of money. Now what happens after that I left public accounting after a year, but you start to be there's like, obviously, performance, and you actually start to be graded against your peers. And I think that was the time to then ask for more for more money, but I didn't negotiate my my initial like very first job out of school and stuff. What about you? My first job out of school was a public school, elementary school, elementary teacher, and there is state pay. So they would have laughed in my face if I had asked for more money.
But I've started in the, you know, a public district and I, I knew that if I went charter I would make more money. So I spent two years in public school. And then I made I was making $43,000 a year, and I jumped up to $50,000 a year and I just felt so rich. I was like, you know, I loved it. But my my way to address I mean, there's a ceiling teaching there's a ceiling they started doing a merit based pay at the Charter, which is amazing. I loved it. I you know, I was checking all those boxes. I was like the highest paid teacher in the district. But my address it by starting a business. And so I'm just I feel so lucky to know people who are in the corporate structure and to, to know so intimately from y'all. Because I've never been in I've never worked in corporate, I've never done what y'all are doing. Yeah, well, first of all, I love that. Just in this group of women, we have such different backgrounds and how we started into earning income. I also did not negotiate for my first few jobs, like the first three really, and it wasn't until I had a boyfriend who actually helped me realize how underpaid I was that he helped me. So
formalised how I was going to ask for a raise, I was in sales at the time, he was like, You got all these numbers in your favor. And I, I kept saying, Yeah, but they're telling me I'm green, I'm new in sales. And he's like, does not matter if look how much money you're making them, you need to go and get more. I did, I got a $25,000.
Within three months, it was like, into chunks,
raised to my salary. And then they clawed back my commission, which meant it was time to leave. But it was such a great
ally ship, you know, his learnings got to infuse me and my confidence. And then I took that and have ran with it ever since. But I do regret those first three jobs, accepting on the spot, the offer that was given me not even thinking anything, but oh my god, I'm so grateful that I'm getting this job. There was never a thought beyond that of, well, I should look up how much other people would be earning in this role. And make sure I'm at the very top because I'm going to do the very best I can. While I work here, that makes me think of like a tip like to your point your your boyfriend at the time, a tip that I always give women when they're like, I don't even know what to ask for. Like, with all these like salary transparency laws, you'll see the ranges, like I don't know if you've been looking at these job postings, but how many 100,000 to 250,000. It's like, what, like this huge range. But my tip to women is to always ask a trusted male colleague and say, This is what I make. Do you think that's like what I should be making? And they will either then share their salary with you if again, it has to be a trusted male colleague, or they will tell you know, he's probably making 10 $30,000 more. And I think that tends to be really eye opening for people. And I had a male colleague who did that for me early on in my career, and it was so so helpful. Yeah, I feel like there was some comments around closing the pay gap that it was like, go out and ask a white male colleague, what he's making in the same role, and make sure that's what you're asking for. Find that guy? Well, we know our male colleagues, they love to talk about money, doesn't make them as uncomfortable. So they are the right group to go ask. Absolutely. And that's part of this, I think, I mean, obviously, patriarchy and all of this, you know, societal things, but they're way more, they're more comfortable talking about money, and they don't feel the shame that we were made to feel about wanting to have money. You know, oh, men are supposed to want more money if and me as a woman, I remember feeling greedy. I remember feeling like I shouldn't I'm not doing I'm not in this for the money. No, I am I want to have more money. And men don't feel that as much as we do. Yeah, that's so true. I think that
there is a huge fear when it comes to women and money, not wanting to have stress, but not wanting to have too much. And in fact, Torah, we're all about to have too much. Because what does that give you? It gives you additional opportunity and the means to give back. Women are so generous with their money. So the more we have, the more it can go into our communities and into the causes we care about. And
the real thing I care about is more money, funding women businesses. And right now, like we've all heard, what's going on in venture, it's only like 2% of women founded companies that are getting venture dollars, which is kind of a perfect segue into the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. Because for those of you listeners who aren't too familiar, Silicon Valley Bank was really a top venture bank. And this is part of the demise situation, because you should be more diversified and who your debit errs are, but they were really focused on the venture industry and banking, not just VCs but VCs portfolio companies. So
Silicon Valley Bank got taken over by the FDIC, midday on Friday, March 10, which is highly unusual to not even let the bank's finish out a day in the markets before seizing them. And
what do y'all think about that? I'd love to kind of go around and talk about how you felt and what your reaction was when you heard first heard the news about the silicon bank Valley. banking collapse. I no joke was in the epicenter of Silicon Valley when the news
Okay, I was driving on Sandhill Road, which for those who don't know, that's where all the VCs are lined up. And so it was like crazy surreal to get the news. Like, where I physically was in the moment. And like, I couldn't help it. I admit, I had immediate flashbacks to 2008. I was like, here we go again, like another bank collapse, like another crisis. But you know, that that immediately was put to rest. When I saw, okay, the FDIC immediately stepped in, you know, this is a bank run due to a concentration of very similar connected clients, as opposed to more of a crisis around taking risky fraudulent lending practices.
So
again, like a very shocking news, but also very different from the financial crisis. Yeah, I was, I was on the opposite side of the US, I was in Miami had a conference, and I was laying by some palm trees, also having all the fields, wondering if this was going to cause some really horrible downstream effects. And, you know, downstream is, never ends, right. So we don't actually know what the full Fallout will be. We're recording this on March 23. This only happened two weeks ago.
But I do remember thinking, this is why it's so important to be aware of not just your personal finances, but how the financial industry in the place that you live works, because I don't know if a lot of people understood what the FDIC is and what it is meant to do and why it would be taking over the bank. And so I immediately took to my Instagram to start telling people like, what it is and why it's important, and why you want to make sure that your funds are FDIC insured when they're held at a bank.
So South, let's go to you, how did you feel when you heard this news. So I'm always looking at things through a real estate lens. And the economy has been way too good for way too long. And that's why last year in May, the Fed hiked the rates, double what they've been for the past couple of years. And that basically halted our buyers streams. And like a B people, people were really nervous about getting into real estate, because interest rates are so high. So a little bit of backstory on that. But when I heard this, and basically, they've been waiting for the economy to slow so that they can then decrease the rates, which will then help the mortgage rates go down. And so when I heard this, I was like, Oh, yes, maybe now the Fed will decrease the rates and the mortgage rates will go down. Like it's finally happening, like, Yeah, I knew something's gonna break with these, these rate increases, we were just waiting to see when and what was gonna break Exactly. And definitely not wanting anybody to suffer because of this. But just that was my first thought, like, oh, maybe this will be the thing, because every report, the inflation is not slowing enough, the job market is still really strong, like all of these things are continuing to go really strong, despite all the talks of them and impending recession. So that was my first thought. And then I got a call, we had submitted an offer for good friends on a house, and they didn't get it. And we submitted a backup offer. I got a call Friday at 3pm. And they said, the buyer that was under contract, lost his job due to the bank. And I was like, Oh my god. So like, immediately, I was very excited for my friends. But then I was like, wow, people aren't really taking quick action. That is scary. So I kind of had this like pendulum swing of like, okay, and then I called my friends who are both in tech, and I was like, I have some great news. You're getting the house and they were like, actually, we're kind of nervous too. Yeah. So that was my Friday. Wait, so did they move forward with it? Or did they decide not to roller coaster of a weekend because over the weekend, it was made clear that the everyone was gonna get their funds back and that, you know, it was going to be fine. And so initially, they were like, No, we're, we need to back out. And so I was like, just take some time, you have an option period, you're gonna you know, we have time to back out. They said, We're gonna back out, canceled their inspection, and then came back and said, Actually, nevermind, we're gonna stay with it. And they close next week, so we're out. Wow, we're good. But it was wild. Yeah, it i sums up what that weekend was like for everybody. Totally. And I also think it's so interesting, because in that exact example that you just shared it. It became obvious to me that a lot of people actually don't know where their company banks are
Right. So they weren't sure if they worked at a tech company if they were getting paid in the next week when they heard this. And so yes, the FDIC stepped in and made sure that everyone's deposits were going to be available. But oftentimes you get paid through a payroll system, you don't even see what bank your company banks with. So you just have complete trust in your company, which, back to one of Factoria and my personal values is questioned the quote like just question beyond what you can see, it's important to think through that stuff. I'm curious stuff on the, you know, it was like this happened two weeks ago, and then we were all kind of waiting for the announcement. What was it yesterday or the day before? If they were gonna raise the rates again, because I think everyone was kind of like, hey, look, this is there is some volatility happening right now in the banking system that has were rated from SBB. So I'm curious your perspective on like the Fed continuing to raise rates despite this happening? Yeah, so they raised rates, not a wild amount, point two 5%. And I do think that we're seeing a little bit of a crest, I'm hoping that this is the peak, and that there is and then from now, we'll see, you know, decrease in rate from the Fed moving forward. Again, no one has a crystal ball. But that is kind of like, I feel like the consumer confidence is cracking a little bit. And so they're going to be able to believe that the rate hikes, I hope, I really hope like that's, I mean, I'm always like a contest. I'm always optimistic. And so I always have like a very rosy outlook on things. But so everyone should take that with a grain of salt, but I do I feel pretty confident that this is gonna be kind of just a blip. And we'll get back to you know, I think we'll get into the low fives by the end of the year. Now, where are we right now? Where are you seeing rates house is low sixes and you can you can buy points into the into the high fives each thing, though, because with the Fed, you know, raising rates, even though, you know, by a smaller margin than they had originally implied, it's still saying, like, inflation is, is bad, it's still bad enough that we're gonna let the banking system go through what it did, it cracked a little bit, but we still need to raise rates a little bit to get inflation under control.
So if I'm with the staff, I want to be optimistic. But I just also think it's interesting that
I mean, I've huge,
you know, fall out like that didn't even pause, a rate raise wild and stuff. What has been the typical average for mortgages over time, because I think we're all used to kind of coming up in this super low mortgage rate environment, I have less than 3.3 on all my properties. But that's not typical. No, it's I mean, those lows were incredibly unprecedented. And over the past 50 years average is much higher than where we are now. I mean, I think the average, somewhere between eight and 10%. I'm gonna guess that I couldn't remember. So I didn't want to misquote. But I mean, if you've got one, talk to your parents about how much they were paying for mortgages, it's shocking. 12 First, I know my husband's parents paid 10% or their mortgage. Yeah, first and I and we, you know, if you don't our school, you're always an ally. And when you when people say like, oh, well, we'll, you know, mortgages were less expensive back then, when you look at the actual relation to what people were making, they weren't that much less expensive, you know, it's really, really comparable, the the ratio of mortgage to salary. So yeah, so like, we're we're very, very spoiled. And that is kind of why this is happening. The pandemic made the government really like lay it on. So that would aid people in this time of economic stress. And now we're suffering the consequences. Next month, we need to check back in with you and see if more real estate buyers have hit the market. Yes, because of this, we've already seen an uptick and mortgage application. So it's already we're already going to have our biggest month of the year. Yeah, in April. So So I guess to wrap up on SBB Have there been any personal actions that you've taken as a result of this bank fall out? I will say that like Whitney, I had a lot of fear on Friday, it was like Friday 11am The news broke. And I was like, Is this gonna be like 2008 I'm pretty diversified in my paper assets. So just in terms of being worried about the stock market overall, I don't have a lot of fear with that. But we do have some like holdings and my partner's like employer stock. And I was like, I think we need
To sell it all, like I feel
like we were like on a walk with the dogs just talking about everything. My partner is also in tech and knows the finance space pretty well. And we were just like talking and I was like, I think we should like sell sell it all. And he's like, and I was like, Can you can you run a few models for me to see how much we're gonna lose? At what point I'm like such a financers. And I'm like, Okay, let's run some models. Let's, but thankfully, I like really I took that afternoon and was just like, I don't want to make any immediate, you know, decisions. So even though I had that fear, and I was still like, let me just like look at everything. See how long VLA we like took the weekend, I talked about FCB to literally everyone that I knew that we were like, if you were talking to me that weekend, I was giving you like the lowdown of the fractional reserve banking system that we had, and how 50% of startups being good SVB and like no one who works at startups really knew that.
So anyhow, all that to say is did not make any changes, though, I will say I did take advantage of some of the downturn with specific banks. So I did buy some Charles Schwab stocks specifically because they're, they're in for the long haul. I'm not worrying, but they took a really big, I think like a 30% Dip. So I just bought a little bit of Schwab stock for fun. Okay, I love that. That is definitely the taking advantage of you know, crisis situations is when investor confidence goes down on an industry, it means there's gonna be less demand more supply prices are down, it's a great time to buy it feels so counterintuitive if you're not in the financial headspace to understand that, but for us, it's, it's awesome, right. And like, I'm also
very bullish on Schwab, I actually just consolidated everything over to Schwab. And it is the ugliest, most antiquated, literally the worst user interface of them all. And yet, I don't care. That's not what matters to me. What matters to me is longevity and stability. And so I guess, just to wrap up the SBB thing, I just want to tell you guys what the FDIC stands for, because I didn't say that in the beginning, but it's the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. And it was created by the Banking Act of 1933, after the Great Depression, to try and restore trust in the American banking system. So what it does is it gives you insurance over your deposit at banks that have the FDIC insurance, and typically it's for 250,000. But banks can have more than that back to are actually banks with a bank that gives you up to a million dollars in FDIC insurance. And then there's also something on the flip side called si PC insurance, that kind of does that but for security. So that's the securities investor protection Corporation, and is going to protect customers if their brokerage firm fails.
So just wanted to make sure you guys know a little bit about that. And I think my life I've had so many questions over the weekend of people asking, should I move my investment account? And it's like no, that the FDIC is for cash in banks, right like that, that does not protect your investment accounts. The SPI C is for your investment accounts. So when we talk about bank failure, just make sure your bank is FDIC insured, make sure you have under the FDIC, see limit in that bank account if you have more than that, either open a bank account at a different bank, or add a joint owner on that account because the 250 is as per person. Yeah, so just to give numbers to Whitney's example, if you do bank somewhere that has the $250,000
insurance offer, but you have 300,000 in the account, you can move 50,000 Either to another bank or two a joint account. So it's the separate account that is insured. Yeah. And then I think also just with that piece as well, like I think, because we don't this is really the first time like in sort of, in the last 15 years, we've gotten a look into like how fractional banking works. It essentially works like you deposit $100 in the bank, the bank is going to keep $10 in the bank for you and they are going to lend and invest the other $90 Now like the government regulates that and since like 2008 There habit, there hasn't really been that kind of like risky lending that has occurred where like, money's just going to go up in flames and that's why like FDIC is so important to have that insurance, but your brokerage account works different
Lee, you know what I mean? Like you are investing putting your money. It's not like somebody else is like messing around with with your money. It's all because of the fractional reserve with the banking system specifically with your cash. Well, there's just, it's risky to have a ton of cash. Yeah, invest it. That's yeah, I was like, how about you? When has 250 cent in the bank account? Let's rethink that strategy. Yeah, I'm never I mean, I don't
know at you.
At coffee money date?
Yeah, it's, it's so true. One, even it relates back to the gender pay gap, you know, we don't have to make as much as women or even when we're not making as much. If we're investing more, we can be earning more like that's another avenue for us to get to that equitable wealth building spot.
And this goes, again, with understanding your personal finances, understanding the financial system, don't just trust in banks, because I don't know why. Actually, people think banks are so safe and great at like, you're constantly hearing something in the news, like, this bank is writing fake accounts to tell their shareholders that they've grown X much last quarter, and it's all crap, or this one has really bad hiring practices. So like, they're not in my plus 2008. We saw a bunch of issues. Actually. Did anyone know that? I thought this was so interesting. The let me not mince quote. But there was a guy at SVB, who was formerly
oh, gosh, here he is Joseph. Gentile was the chief administrative officer at SVB securities. And prior to joining the firm, he was the CFO for Lehman Brothers. When they fell. I saw that I didn't read up I saw on it. But yeah, wild lending incidents. Okay.
Well, I feel like we've done a lot of talking about SBB and the gender pay gap. Let's talk about what's happening in your wallets. I feel like a Capital One commercial.
Has anyone got any cool investments or financial changes they're making? Maybe we'll start with you stuff. Well, the funny I mean, this is a huge confession. But I was I had my auto invest on crypto for, you know, every week, which is silly, let small, tiny amounts of crypto and I couldn't Coinbase is so hard to figure out. This is not good. But I was just like, Okay, I'm just putting it off putting it off. And so I was auto investing into crypto and crypto just shot up because of the bank stuff. And I was like, Okay, great. But a very small amount of micro that is not even worth talking about. I am we just bought a house and earlier this year, we have a 5.99% interest rate not great, but the property was good enough to where we are cash flowing that property. So
I've I'm an example of buying in any market can be a good deal. With any interest rate. You're not You're not You're not about it's not about the interest rate. It's about how much you can cashflow. And then I'm investing heavily in that quote. They always reference you marry the house and you date the rate and you marry them. Yeah, exactly. The refinancing is always a possibility. Like I just it I know there's so much in that was so much hype in the zeitgeist right now, it's not a good time in this economy. You're not by you know, all of those things. And it's just, it depends on your situation specifically. So our company is all about letting people know their options. You don't have to follow the crowd. So I'm going to continue to buy but I also in my new paper journey since factura. I'm investing heavily in my 401k Since it's pre tax, and we just got 401 K's as company owners, which is exciting. And then also in my taxable brokerage, just like kind of funneling as much cash as I can into the fire sale. That is the stock market right now. I love it. And just for our listeners, Steph bought a primary residence that also has a second unit on the property. So that's how she is choosing or that's how she's able to cashflow on that house. Because we talked a lot about how hacking and this way people can be not in her home space but with that second property, which is your purpose of why you bought that place. Yes. So I bought this one last year and then we closed on one this year as well. But yeah, since since the rates have gone up I've purchased two homes
and one was my primary residence that has a garage apartment and then another one was a two unit with a with the potential for three unit
And it was just too good of a deal to pass up, even though we have a higher than recent interest rates, again, over the over the time average is much higher. But But yeah, so so as long as there's a plan in place, house hacking is so helpful.
It just, it just is not ever a good or bad time blanket statement for anyone deaf always be buying. Yeah.
All right, Pam, what are you up to? Um, yeah, great question. So I took a six month sabbatical last year from like, July to January, and started a new role about two months ago. So really, my focus over these past few months, and I think over the next few months, is to rebuild, like my emergency fund, back to what I want it to be, which is around $25,000. And then the other piece I'm actually curious to get your thoughts on is, and I asked the Factorio community, this, which was always like, so great to get people's, you know, thoughts and kind of use the power of community. But I've worked in tech, like my entire, my entire career, but it's always been at startups. And so my husband transition to a public company, and we got, you know, a large portion of his compensation is in stock. And I asked the fact to our community, I was like, when a large portion of your compensation is in stock. And when the stock vast, which is usually at the year mark, you get an entire zero for stock, and then invest like quarterly. After that. I'm like, what do you what it like, what do y'all do with that money? And the most compelling thing that I heard from someone was, think of it as a cash bonus. And if you would not invest 100% of that cash bonus in the company, immediately, you should just sell like, don't hold it just like immediately sell.
And what did I do? The day came, and I was like, I'm gonna hold really tight to this investment strategy. I feel really strongly, but the share price had dropped 30% Since the high, and I decided to hold. And that has not been, that has not been the right decision. It's leveled out at this point. But I really wish I would have just like, stuck through that, and then just called it because I think I just saw the high. And I really want I was like, maybe if we wait, you know, make sense. At this point? It really does that make sense? We should have just sold that day that invest it. And so I have a question, well, a part of your partner's compensation, come annually with that. Or it was just this one annual upfront. So it's, it's stock that vest over four years. So something like 1/4 of his stock came annually. And then the rest is gonna vest quarterly from now on. So we got like, you know, three more times, obviously, it's not as much as an entire as you're worse, the vesting. But yeah, that's how it works. And there's no holding periods, as soon as you have it, you can sell it or keep it is you have it, you can sell it, which is like what I wish I would have done at this point, you know, we'll take a $10 loss per share. It's not the end of the world, but we absolutely should have sold. It's so funny, because all I can think about is the all in podcast where they always have the terminology, just wet your beak, just take a little off the top. And it's kind of that that? Yeah, theory, right. Because like you didn't choose to invest in that company. That's just the company that your partner works at. And so when the cash is available, like it's yours to take off the top, of course, when or all of it, it just goes to show that even, you know, educated investors are subjected to behavioral bias. Yes, yeah. It's all psychology, right? Like, I knew what I wanted to do. And then the day came, and I was like, maybe, maybe we'll get $5 more extra per share. I mean, well, we're not talking about a lot anymore, but it's a lesson learned. And now we're going to sell, so we can fund lump sum renovations that we're doing around our house. So that's a great use of those of a bonus or like a that's awesome. That is so interesting, though, that waving brings up the psychology because I find myself sometimes being like, I'm a hustler. I'm a long term holder of every asset I have. And I don't want to get stuck in that thinking because there are times where you should let go of different assets, especially if they have built up in value. And it makes sense for your personal goals. Even if you're losing Right. Like why don't we want to hold on to our loser longer if we can move that money to an investment set that is going to make us more money. So it it goes both ways. For sure applies to real estate too. I mean, it's not just stock market, although although how many houses have you sold? stuff? So a few I know I'm taking this advice. I'm taking this in.
I mean, we've talked about it's kind of it's so hard for me to let go of something because I know I'll just look at the value in 10 years and hit but but I
think that this it does apply to this. I mean, I would I will employ those funds to buy two more houses or whatever it is. So, yeah, 10 years. My problem with selling real estate is I would be looking at Zillow and Redfin, and like putting the ratio spreadsheet every month, ya know, so I'm trying to sell some real estate right now. And I
have to say the markets been a little slow, you haven't many buyers come through. So it's a little bit stressful, but we, and we built it an investment property out in Texas Hill Country, we just finished it, end of last year, pretty much the worst time to finish and put in on the market. But you know, we did, and I think he's been on the market for about 90 days, and we've had some people come through, but honestly, there's not a lot of shoppers. Right now. There's not a lot on the market right now bringing the shoppers to the market. So, you know, we're extending our, our loan to get more time. But um, yeah, I admit it's a little stressful. And do you have any, like, backup plans, Whitney, as you've been? Like, I'm sure, yeah, they're like, Shen's of what to do. We could buy the house. You know, my husband and I talk about we're nomadic right now. Anyway. So we're like, well, we could buy the house and move in really, it actually like might work out perfectly. That's not necessarily my number one choice, but it is a beautiful, brand new home, I definitely wouldn't mind moving in for a little bit. But again, that's that wasn't the plan. So that would be that would be the plan B. Yes. This is this is what happens when, when people don't want to sell or don't have to sell at this point. They're not going to put their house on the market. And in your case, you know, this is just bad timing. But like, usually, most people who saw their houses, they were just like, Oh, my maybe I want to move but they're not doing that right now. So inventories not great. So I'm so sorry. That's the worst, but you'll figure it out. Yeah, I need some anyone has tips or support? Let me know I'm not like totally freaking out. Like this is the calculated risk we took and we're in fine financial shape. But I do feel for people in you know, who who are they need to sell right now, for whatever reason, you know, starting a new job, have to move location, like, need to sell the buy whatever it is, I you know, I feel for you. It's tough. And you're not alone. You're not the only one that feels this right now. Are you doing anything else any other money moves for you these days with? Mostly that is is my number one priority right now, you know, as a lot of people know, I'm on sabbatical. So I don't have the income flowing in, which does kill me a little bit with the stock market the way it is because I would love to be dumping money in the market right now. I just don't have as much at my disposal. But like, think about how people feel about the stock market right now they are fearful. What does that mean? That means that's when you should get greedy, right? Like this. I'm like, salivating and I wish I had had more cash. But you know, really, I'm in this state of just monitoring my accounts and optimizing my accounts. And
One fun fact, I was looking at my high yield savings account, and I discovered I did not have a beneficiary tied to my account. So today is a good day to go check on all your accounts and make sure you have beneficiaries set up because like usually I'm on top of that stuff. So I don't know how that one slipped by me. But that is your your daily reminder to go do some administrative maintenance on your investment and banking accounts. That's a good tip. And I actually just did this because, as I mentioned, we're consolidating all of our we had way too many different brokerage firms. So everything is going into Schwab now for me and my husband. And then after we put our personal accounts in, we then shared with the other persons so that they could have full access, but you still have to set beneficiaries on his to me on mine to his and man, it's a process like I'm telling you, Schwab is gonna be the ugliest brokerage firm out there, but it's the one we chose. It's the one we're sticking to. And then the other thing I'm doing with my finances right now is checking out the coolest net worth tracker that I have yet to find y'all. So it's called Kuvera. It is free for a trial and then you can buy it as an individual or a family plan. It lets you easily see and put all of your investments together so I haven't really found ones that allows you to track angel investments Pam, but this does. Also real estate you can make different sheets it's kind of hard to explain but I will show you guys all screenshots. I think I've already texted one
Whitney and Steph Oh, and the coolest part that I absolutely love is it lets you share a link to your portfolio and you can toggle on and off what you want other people to be able to see. So they have to see the top net worth assets and debts. But then you can allow them to see all sorts of other graphs and insights. And it too, has a beneficiary system that if you don't check your account for 45 days, it will start emailing your beneficiary to make sure that you're still alive in the wild and then it can transition everything over to them you can also have your life insurance policies in there, which we are almost done setting up. Jake and I are both getting a $1.5 million life insurance policy for 30 Year Term life now that we have a daughter it's taken so long we've been literally in process of doing this for seven months that our daughter has been alive so
fingers crossed, it's almost you know crossed the finish line but those are my updates. And I'm excited I'm interested to hear about the life insurance I'm sure we can talk about that and a different episode but I know that that is or using that as an investment vehicle. I'm using it as a safeguard for her she'd be able to pay off debts and be okay
if one or both of us were to pass but it is I am able to convert it at any time so it could turn into more of a wealth building opportunity. Yeah. So with that Elena and have protect those assets, protect those assets. So thank you all for joining our first march round up listeners if you like this, let us know either leave something in a review or you can always find us on Instagram factor Cora underscore wealth and I will see you ladies in our community Slack channel. If you enjoyed this episode, come join us in a well circle. It's our live online 12 week course and community where we teach you how to create a personalized financial plan alongside hundreds of other women building wealth. It will change your life and your money for good. You can apply at factorial wealth.com forward slash wealth circle. That's factorial wealth.com forward slash wealth circle. See you in the next episode.
Love Coffee & Coin?
Subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and help us spread the wealth, literally.