Investing Strategies: How Erique Leveraged Automation to Turbo Charge Her Net Worth
Episode Summary
Erique is a Charlotte-based STEM program coordinator who runs an amazing food photography account in her free time. She joined the Wealth Circle last year and has already increased her net worth by tens of thousands of dollars. In this archived conversation, she talks about the power of financial automation, how she's planning to house-hack her home expenses, and more.
Episode Notes
Erique is a Charlotte-based STEM program coordinator who runs an amazing food photography account in her free time. She joined the Wealth Circle last year and has already increased her net worth by tens of thousands of dollars. In this archived conversation, she talks about the power of financial automation, how she's planning to house-hack her home expenses, and more.
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Transcript
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Hey y'all, it's Taylor effect Torres Content Manager. Today we're launching a special summer series where we look back at some of the most incredible well circled transformations we've had the pleasure of recording so far. Each of the next six episodes will showcase a woman of color, who has made incredible moves towards creating a more lucrative, meaningful and independent lifestyle from small business owners to bonafide investies these women have done and are doing it all when it comes to wealth building. We hope you find these stories as inspiring as we do. And now let's get into it. This is Allegra Moet Brantley and you're listening to the coffee and coin podcast where women talk wealth. I'm the founder and CEO of Factora, a company on a mission to lead 1 million women to 1 million in net worth. Because when women have more money, we'll have more power to be the change we want to see in the world. If you're ready to hear real women share their real numbers and investment journeys and have a sneaky feeling you should be doing a little more with your money, you are in the right place. Just sit back, relax and turn me up.
All opinions expressed by Team Factora and podcast guests are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Factora Incorporated. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be used as the basis for investment decisions, Team Factora and podcast guests that may maintain positions in the securities or investments discussed in this podcast.
I am so excited to bring Eric on the show. Rick is a STEM program coordinator in Charlotte and in her spare time runs an amazing food photography account on Instagram called eating with Eric which we will definitely be including in the show notes. So she joined a while circle this past spring and has already increased her net worth by 22,000 which we will dig into today. If you are interested as a listener and growing your own net worth we would love to have you register for our wealth circle informational webinar, how to grow your net worth by $30,000 link to that will also be in the show notes. So welcome, Eric. Hi, Allegra. I'm so excited to have this conversation with you today. Before we get into all your numbers and all your mindset and feelings around money. Could you give us a little introduction to you and where you're podcasting with us from and what you're all about? Absolutely.
So I am podcasting from Charlotte North Carolina and many people don't know it's the biggest city in North Carolina and it's a banking city so like a fun fact it is like the financial hub of the South. So New York is like east coast but Charlotte is actually the financial health of the South. I am from a smaller town like an hour away called Winston Salem, North Carolina. I grew up there and then now I work in I support students that are majoring in STEM at a local community college here in Charlotte. And in the spare time I like to cook bake and eat all that like mix together.
Yeah, but you're really downplaying the food part because your Instagram is really impressive. So how did you get into that and and that's that's like a full side hustle at this point. Right? Yeah, so
it definitely I have kind of moved from like you know, the kind of like the influencer world where you do like pay partnerships is kind of creating content for businesses. So it's like it's their content. I'm kind of like the ghost content creator. And so that has been pretty nice and creating extra income to pay off debt. So yeah, I started like our first started like baking cakes and I was doing like baking cakes for us so but then I slowly realized like I have to work all weekend and I don't have weekends. Because baking people want cakes for events on the weekends. So I moved away from baking and then started getting more into like the food photography. The food blog because I was able to control and have the flexibility of when I created content when I put content out versus baking cakes or desserts.
Yeah, that's actually a really good point. I was like wait, why don't you have your weekend? Oh yeah, they need the cake before the weekend starts I'm like a cake lover What is your favorite type?
My favorite type is like a strawberry cake with like a strawberry icing my any type of strawberry cake I just go crazy for
oh my gosh, I love that I'm a big red ball yes
Red Velvet. It's like ultimate favorite.
Good to be true that's why it's actually when I found out red velvet was fake. I don't know why should be surprised because like what is rebelled it but it was kind of a bummer because I was like I knew it was too good to get it right. All right, let's dig into it. We always like to kick these podcasts off with taking it way back. What was your first money memory,
I would say like my first money memory, I share this, like it was the tooth fairy. So I remember I would lose teeth, and my parents would put, like 10 bucks. And they used to do pretty well. So it was like 10 bucks, 20 bucks. And so I always look forward to losing t so I could get this money.
That's such a good one. I think so many kids have that experience. And it's interesting, I asked this question to so many people, that's rarely the memory. And that's such a positive one, right? Like getting money. I asked it once to Whitney, our head of product and like, my parents gave me money to buy candy from a gas station. And I was so careful, because I only had $5 that I went and picked out $5 worth of stuff. And then I put it on the counter. And she rang it up and said it's five, you know, 35? And she was like, wait, what? And she goes. So that was like her first introduction lately. Okay, so then talk to me a little bit about what was your mindset around finances both kind of growing up in the home? And then also when you took over financial responsibility for your life?
Yeah, absolutely. So like kind of growing up, we always had like, just enough and sometimes not enough to be like, truly transparent. And so like, I got a job like very early. So I got like my first job. Like, I always I actually had my first job like out of fifth grade tutoring kindergarten students one summer. And so from that, I went to babysitting. And then when I got into high school, I went to kind of these nicer things. So I got a job at Dairy Queen. And I worked at Dairy Queen. So pretty much worked all through high school and college just to help out around the house, or basically just take care of my like needs outside of the shelter and food and things and some of those kinds of things that make you cool as a teenager. So for the most part, like I was super responsible through high school, I always took care of like things I needed to take care of, I paid for my college applications. I paid for my SATs, I remember my mom was like, let me help. And I was like, No, I got it, you know, and, you know, you got all these other things to take care of, you know, take care of that I work, I can pay for these things. So I literally pay for all that. And then I wait, the one thing my mom forced me to let her pay for was my housing deposit for college. So she was just like, I'm gonna pay this and I was like, okay, so she did pay that amount. But that was kind of always my thing. Like, I did have the financial mindset, that income that I got in needed to take care of my needs, because that made me feel better. And so that's where I was kinda as a young person.
So you've always been pretty self responsible and focused on making money. What about when it came to either saving or investing? Yes. So
investing, I would say, Okay, so there's like two parts. This it was. So I always like, worked and paid my bills, like, that was my thing. But I will say like, very early age, I didn't track my money. And so even though I had enough, it was like, going this way, in that way. And I would say definitely got in trouble with like credit card debt early, because I was like, Oh, I got it. And then you look at this balloon credit card bill. And it's like $2,000 without really knowing, like, oh, I spent all this money. So I think, yes, I always made sure like housing was taken care of like transportation, you know, things to eat. But some of those purchases that I necessarily didn't need, I put it towards credit, which kind of put me in a bind, or I signed myself up for something without really crunching the numbers, and then realizing that like that was a very bad deal for me. I shouldn't I shouldn't have done that. And then I would say from investing part I kind of always knew that you were supposed to participate in your 401k and so I always did sign up for those programs. When I when I graduated from college, I went straight into teaching and so I signed up with instead on North Carolina, it's more it's far okay. But it's more in a pinch in Tucson and you and you don't even get a choice with the state of North Carolina, you automatically have to contribute 6% So, so at least my first job I just didn't have a choice but like, you know, jobs after that. I definitely participated in the 401 K program or retirement program.
And any investing outside of retirement it came down
that it's like I was I've always been in this space. Like I knew I needed to be a part of that. But stocks were just so foreign to me. I didn't know much about stock like growing up outside. I think my mom participated in a couple like employer sponsored programs. But other than not, I had, you know, really no idea. And when it comes to money and me at that time, it was like, if I have no idea about it, I'm not putting my money there.
Yeah. And I think that that's so many women, right? That was me, it was like, I love how you're like, I know I should be participating in this. That's how I felt all the time about saving and investing. It's like, I know, I should be doing that. I just don't feel like I have enough to or know how to. So like those times when I actually did have enough, I almost felt even worse, because I didn't know what to do. So it's always so easy to find something else to spend your money on. It's crazy how easy they may give you to spend money, much harder to make and keep. But okay, so then talk to me a little bit about what your finances looked like before you found
Oh, absolutely. So the cool thing, how this kind of aligns like perfectly so at the beginning of let's see, the years go off because of this pandemic. So I would say, at the beginning of 21, I definitely like one of my like, New Year's or reset was like, I gotta get these finances together. And it wasn't in a bad space, it was just like, I just want to do better. I just want to know where my money is, you know, I'm thinking about retirement, I want a second home like, but I just felt like I knew nothing about my money. Besides, I felt like I didn't have enough. And so I remember saying this to someone, and then you won't believe this. But the way I found about Factora I was in a Slack group for like people that wanted to transition into technology. And somebody said, Hey, there's this scholarship for Factora with finances. And so I clicked on it, and I looked in the due date was that same day. So the due date was that same day, luckily, I was still working from home at the time. So I literally like I saw I wrote my letter, I did everything did as much proofreading as I could do before the deadline. And I submitted it that day, because I was like, this is perfect. This is what you know, I had a goal of doing and I just kind of didn't know where to start. I did talk to like a financial person before that. But I did feel a little bit overwhelmed. And so I was like, Oh, this is the perfect because I want to learn about this before I kind of turn it over to somebody else.
Ooh, I want to dig into that later, too. Because it's so interesting. I felt so similar. I always thought my goal was just make enough, do well enough. And then you can hire someone to be really smart with your money. But now I'm like, why would I hire someone to do something with my money when they're never going to know my goals? Or my options as well as I do? They obviously know the financial options, but they can't fully pair it the way I could. So okay, so you were in that slack group? Someone mentioned that Factora I had a scholarship, you clicked through saw the rising tide Scholarship, which you are part of the first cohort, which was literally cool. Tell me from there. Tell me a little bit about like the scholarship?
Oh, yes, absolutely. So I got my email. And what I did love about the scholarship was this accountability piece of doing the savings class first, when I went through the savings, and I don't know why I had such a hard time of writing down numbers and tracking like, I'm like a math based person, but it's like, I kind of just the only tracking it every day with my bills is like, put what my check was and then subtracted everything that I didn't do anything beyond that every month, which was crazy. Now that I think about it, but going through the savings course. And I felt like before the same of course I'm gonna say this, I always felt like I didn't have enough money. Like I was just I just don't make enough money to pay my bills. I did the savings cars and realize that not only did I have enough money to cover my bills, I actually had money I could be putting in savings. And so once that kind of was like an eye opener like Eric, you actually do make enough money to one pay your bills, food, gas, and put some it kind of was like, Oh, you got to do better.
Yeah, I think that your path is so similar to mine. And everyone else is like we just don't get a class and I got not want the only financial class I ever got was in high school. And it was they gave you a fake checkbook and they told you how to balance it. But then I never got a checkbook because like we moved on to technology, and everything was listed in you know, an online register. I always felt the same thing. Like I don't have enough. I don't have enough, but I wasn't really checking to see what I had and where it could go and how I could prioritize the things I cared about. Okay, so you applied for rising tide. And then for the women who pass the first portion of the application, we actually give them free access to our six figure savings course because obviously the wealth circle is all about investing. But you have to have some savings, or you know, a little bit of flexibility in your budget before you can even really think about the investing part of things. So you went through that, and then it got to the wall circle. So talk to you a little bit about what it was like with
my first session, I'm not gonna lie, I want it to quit, because it was so uncomfortable, because I never really discussed like, my actual number. So even when I went through the process, another process of having to tell people like, what my numbers were, how much I made, what my net worth is. And now I'm sitting in the room with three other women that I've never met in my life from a totally different background. And I have to say, like my numbers out loud, so I remember being in the group, and at that time, my net worth was only about 26,000. And I remember somebody in my group, their net worth was like, 500k. And she was like, you know, I do have a husband. But like, that was like defeating a little bit because I was like, Oh, my God, you know, I was like, I don't know, if I'm in the right space for this. Like, I don't know if this is for me, having to tell like, you know, my numbers like this and just feel like you're so far away from other people. But I was like, this is a growing thing. It's supposed to be uncomfortable. You didn't come here to like, compare yourself against other people's numbers, you came here to get this information to make better choices about your finances. So I sucked it up and came back.
I really love hearing that story. Because I think, you know, even how you said she, she had a high net worth and said, 500,000. But I have a husband, that's probably because she felt a little embarrassed to like it is uncomfortable, no matter if you're at the top, or the bottom, or just sandwiched in between. And the reason that we do that is because I feel like there's nothing that you do in your adult life, that gets you really vulnerable really quickly. So that suddenly that doesn't feel so important. And the bigger reason you're there feels very important. And we all have this mission, right? We all want to grow our net worth, we don't care where it's starting, or where it's going to ultimately end that we just know, we want excessive growth, accountability, support, motivation and inspiration. And that's what the community piece allows. But you're not alone. That feeling is so scary. Everyone always tells me like, oh my god, Allegra, my, my palms are sweating, I just couldn't believe that I self selected into sharing my personal numbers with complete strangers that you also might never see again, like the well circles really big. That's actually kind of a good thing, like you have you're in a group and a breakout group with one set of women and then you might not see them again.
But you got to meet so many amazing women. So that's what I appreciated about going through the web circle.
And I also love that you said that it was a growing experience. Because we talk a lot about growth mindset. And the course like it's not going to be that easy for you if you actually aren't there to grow if you don't believe that you can change. Because a lot of people do have limiting beliefs around money. And it's not like a light switch that you can just flip off and say like, I want to have abundance mindset, it takes time. Like there's a marination process, there's understanding you want to do it, and then doing it and there's a big gap in between. Okay, so then talk to me a little bit about what were some of your biggest learnings that you took away from the wall circle? Were there any aha moments for you? I have them
it was like the interest rates with your checking and savings account. I thought I was doing like amazing with my credit union. I was like, oh, it's higher than non existent. You know, some of the main things like Bank of America, and bb&t. And then I was like, and I learned about high yield savings account. And I was like, Oh man, I was like only like point oh, five credit union? No, this is a whole different ballgame. So kind of learning one two about how your savings account moving the money from me to put those barriers and also the automation process. So I think through the automation process, like pretty much now all my bills are on auto pay. My savings is also automatically drafted into my high yield because I can't really it's not easy to move it with my job to separate it out. So I have to do an automatic transfer from my main bank account. And then also like the automation of a certain amount of money going into my robot account. So automation high yield savings accounts comparing interest rates, really my big is like slowing down with my finances and stop making like hasty decisions so quickly.
i Okay, I love this. I want to dig into the automation piece because it almost feels like you're being more responsible if you don't automate your bills because I think our brain is like okay, I'm gonna get my money and I'm gonna make sure that I pay this bill that bill, that bill, but I don't even know how to explain this. It's like, automation is everything, right? Because once you actually are like, no, no, I understand what's going to hit the lump sum, and then what I'm automatically going to put towards saving first, right? Like, we have to pay ourselves first. So what's gonna go to saving what's gonna go possibly to future me with investing, and then paying the bills, and instead of having to pay attention to every bill, like, if you pay attention once and you set it up, you know, like, the car is gonna get paid, insurance is gonna get paid, the cell phones gonna get paid. And it's such a mental load off to know that you're never gonna miss a credit card payment, you're never gonna get a fee, you're never gonna have like, a surprise issue.
Exactly. Because I think sometimes, like, life happens, and you just have your brain gets taken somewhere else. So now, you've missed this deadline. And now you have a $25 fee when you all I was paying for myself, like I had the money, it was just because life happened. And I forgot. And it was like, oh, man, now owe $25 more or what the payment was.
Yeah. And then you beat yourself up, because you're like, Why did I do that thing that was so stupid. And then automation makes it so that it's not even possible. Like, it just happens, no matter no matter if you're on vacation, no matter if you're having a bad day, no matter what your bills are getting paid. Okay? I love that. Because I think that not enough people come on the podcast and talk about the power of automation, because it almost seems too, like miniscule, but it's not huge. Because you now know that you can continue to crank up your automation. So maybe you're saving a certain portion into savings, and then you fill up a goal. And then you can redirect that money into investments. Like you can constantly shift how much you have going, where as your income increases, or as your lifestyle changes. And that is what I want all women to have the power to do to be able to look at it and set up their system, so that the system is flawless. Absolutely. All right. So then talk to me about what your net worth is,
well, my net worth now is a little over 70k. So so from the beginning effect, or like in February to now you know, it's about a 34k increase in net worth. So I'm excited.
Wow, I got that wrong. In the beginning of the podcast episode. It's even better than I said, so Okay, so then maybe can you break down your net worth and talk about some of the changes you made to have that increase? Because that's really significant. That's like,
Absolutely, so majority of it is the increase equity in my home. And so most of that, but it's also contributed to paying down debt. And then the continuous of adding to my savings every month. And and then I personally participate in my 401k Every month too. So just those automation things that I'm not really even thinking about. And I honestly don't think about my net worth, I've just put in these different habits I learned from Factora. And I go in once a quarter, and put in the numbers and look and like judge of what I need to do next, to increase my net worth. So it's not even about me thinking about it every day, it's just putting the habits that I learned through Factora.
I love that you check your network quarterly. I do too. I know some of the women who graduate the wall circle, start checking daily, which you don't really see much change, or even monthly, there's something about the quarterly that it feels so significant from the last time I checked, because I had you know, $600 going here, $1,000 going here, and then that all stacks up. And now it's to the positive of my net worth that I just love. So we actually have quarterly wealth assessments. I don't know if you've taken one yet, but it's something we're doing now that after women graduate the wall circle, we remind them
I think that three months span gives it time to change or snap back if you know something did happen, or you had an expense, like you needed a new battery out of somewhere, you know, so, you know, it gives you time to kind of you know, get things back to where they were.
Yes. And as we know life always happens and there's always an unexpected expense around the corner no matter how prepared you think you are. Okay, so then so talk to me a little bit about your house because you had already purchased a home before you took the while circle. Talk to me a little bit about how your value in your house has gone up and what your plans are with real estate because I know you got some real estate. Yeah, absolutely.
So I actually got my first townhouse and I had a roommate she decided she was moving back to our hometown in Charlotte. People think it's like cheap because it's in south but it's really not. It's kind of like Austin feel so if you know what like Austin has gone and with the housing market and so I just knew I didn't want to pay that amount of money anymore and rent it And so I talked to a friend, we looked at a townhouse, actually the townhouse I got was brand new. But it was a foreclosure owned by the bank. So the didn't the person that re qualify. And so it was a brand new foreclosed only to one and a half bedroom townhouse. And I remember my realtor was like, You should, this is big enough, I was like, it is perfectly fine. It is just me because I was more worried about like, I bought it at 75k. So in my mind, 75k was a lot of money. And so I was just like, I don't want to get the 150k when like, I don't know how I'm gonna afford that, because I really didn't understand the numbers and what that meant for payment. So I got it at 75k lived in it, FHA loan, so I didn't put anything back down, the builder put in some closing costs and the lender, so I actually got some money back in closing, so I kind of took advantage of all programs that I can take advantage of. And I would say like, over the years, it has been a saving grace of having a really small mortgage, so that I can have flexibility in my job, because you know, you do have things that happen. And sometimes a job is not best for you. But because I knew my mortgage was super low. It always kind of gave me the flexibility to kind of like move on from something. So keeping that mortgage low, and keeping my expenses low within the house has been great.
First of all, I bet all the listeners are like I want to a townhouse for 75. Grand, so good on you for finding a foreclosed property. Yeah, knew that. I mean, that feels like a rare occasion. So wait, this is why it's so good to be prepared for opportunity, right? Like you were prepared for that house. And then you were prepared for the wall circle, or maybe not even prepared, you were open, you were open to that house, because you still wanted to live somewhere. And like in that area, and then you are also open to applying for something same day as the application closed. And like I always think about like Opportunity Knocks for those that are ready to walk through the door. And you very much sound like that type of
Absolutely. Like I knew it was a steal. Like I didn't want to wait two months. And because my realtor she said if you don't get this, I'm buying this as an investment property. And she was a really good friend. So I was like, Oh, if she's buying this for investment property, I'm buying it. So I bought it.
Yeah, okay, that's good. I actually have a realtor like that, too. Sometimes she'll like, look at stuff for other people. And if they don't buy it, she's like, What do you think? I'm like, Yeah, you should definitely get. Okay, so then. So you so you have the house? How long have you been living there? What was the mortgage at? And what's your plan for future? Yeah, so
I've been there six years. So my mortgage right now on it is 591. So I actually got it down to a 3% interest. So when I first went into it, I was at a 4.25. Now I'm at three, and now it's worth about 178k. And so my goal for is to turn it into a short term rental. It's a great market and Charlotte, it's five minutes from a university. And so I want to turn it into a short term rental. And that's my goal for that is a short term rental by January 2020. And I hope to have a new position and I'm gonna move closer to that position and rent but with the idea of this short term rental covering the mortgage at the house because the townhouses is so low and covering my rent elsewhere.
Love that. Okay, so you will turn this into a rental and then have it cover its own costs, as well as your living costs at your neck. Yeah. And then do you want to buy again, have you enjoyed?
Oh, I've enjoyed it. I think I was listening to this audio book about like mitigating or minimizing your risk. And so a lot of people talk about homeownership and things you have to pay. But if you are saving towards an emergency fund, if you're putting money away, I had my H back unit go out and it was one summer like 100 degrees in North Carolina, but I did have money in savings and it was about $900 and I had to give it up but it wasn't it didn't cause anything else to fall through the cracks because I had the money in savings. So you can do different things like that you can also do different things to keep up your home. And so things don't break in you know, break because you just didn't take care of it you know things still happen. But it's it's been great. Like, especially with the life we've lived of living through the Great Recession. Now a pandemic is helped me keep me stable.
I love it. And then talk to me a little bit because I know that you said one of your goals is to pay off all credit cards. Yes. And are you on track to do that? Like what is your goal? You know, when are you trying to hit it? And how much
so I went in I was saying this summer about 65k or credit card debt. And I My goal is to have it all paid off by the end of Have q3, so by the end of September, so this week, I will pay off my second credit card, and then I'll have about $2,000 will pay off one and put the rest towards the third last final credit card and also have about 2000 left. But the way I've paid my credit cards off, I've been teaching some STEM classes all summer like, and I've used that money strictly just to pay off the credit cards.
Okay, this is amazing. You're gonna be out of 65,000 of credit card debt by q3 of this year.
Yeah, and I 65 I'm sorry, 6500. My bad. Oh, sorry, 6000. Okay, five, instead, I shouldn't say
no, no, that's still a big deal to get that paid off in a year and to have to take on extra income to be able to do it faster. I think that's another thing that we hope to impart to women at Factora are like, Look, if you have a skill set that you can earn extra income for, then you can apply that income towards whatever goal you have. So when you're done paying off debt, you can put it towards the next goal, which you know, might be the downpayment for the future house, or whatever it is, you can kind of keep up with that pace. Or you can enjoy your time back like it's, it's your choice, how you want to absolutely,
and my advice to anybody is think of the skill that comes easiest to you. And do that, like you know, I'm growing in food photography, and it's kind of a creative habit, and a creative outlet. So I didn't want that to be ruined by like deadlines, and I had to do and people critiquing. But teaching is something I've done for many, many years, it comes natural, I could do it in my sleep. And so that's what I chose to do extra. So I don't feel drained by doing something a second job.
I think that's another really beautiful point. I think a lot of people just assume that anything that they're good at, they have to try and make money from and life is not about squeezing money out of everything is about using money as a tool so that you have safety, security and autonomy to make choices. Like I loved when you said whenever there were times I needed to move on from a job, I didn't really have to worry because my cost of living was so low, but people who might go and live in a $1,500 rent, they don't have as much flexibility. So it's all about choices and using money as a tool. But okay, this has been such a great episode, I guess the last thing I want to ask you is, what would you tell someone who's just getting started on their personal finance
journey, I would say the first advice would definitely be, do figure out your value. So like, my number one value is health. And that includes my physical health and my mental health. So when I look at where I spend money, I run it through that. So what's gonna keep me mentally healthy, and what's gonna keep me physically healthy. And a lot of times, I think sometimes you read financial books, they're like, cut everything off. And if you can't do it yourself, then you know, don't pay for anything you can't do yourself. And that's not the truth, like my hair has to be done, and I don't spend a lot now I make sure like, I get a style that's reasonable, but that's part of what I need in my budget. So I make room, I make room for that. Or if you have a certain eating plan, you have to eat because of your health, put that in there, like put those things in there to give yourself grace and make the journey enjoyable. Because if you try to cut out all this like stuff, just because somebody said so, you know, it's gonna be like, you're gonna have to drag yourself along, you're gonna have to drag your family along with this. But if you run it through your values, it keeps you happy when you do have to cut somewhere else.
And that's exactly why I love using values instead of budget to me budget, his budget sounds like diet, like it sounds so restrictive. I already don't want to do it before I've started. But if you can just figure out your values, then to your point, you run it like a filter. Should I buy this? Should I not? Well, if my top value is health, is this going to prioritize my mental or physical health? No. Okay, move on to the next value. If you get to the bottom and it's not hitting any of those rungs? It's probably a no, but so many of us just go day to day on a whim thinking oh, I'd like that. I'd like that. And we don't think back to am I actually going to like that after I purchase it. Or am I going to like it after I do review my numbers at some point and maybe I overspent or I feel guilty. You know, like there's just so much that comes into money and spending and our emotions. So it's really nice to have a value set that you can use as a guide
only and just like tap into the day like I was thinking this morning because I love to cook like I know I can slash my budget at the grocery store and not Going out to eat like that's, you know my deal or I don't like designer clothes. So I know I can keep those low. But when it comes to like health, I do maybe have to buy supplements that make me feel better or something like that and not like, you know, hanging on myself because I need like a $20 probiotic. And that's like the cheapest $25 a month, you know, and that's the cheapest, like for Goodwin. And so I don't like like worrying myself or put myself down because that, you know, is putting my health as a priority.
I love that. Yeah. And that goes back to don't trust financial gurus out there that are telling you not to spend on anything until like, roll up your sweater and use it as a pillow. That is not a life, you know, like, That's crazy, that's not going to last, you're not gonna be able to do that for long. We we don't want women to not spend on things that they care about. We want the opposite. We want them to have more ability to spend on the things they care about. Because the things they don't care about that much like I heard you say for you designer clothes is not a priority. That means that you can not do that. And reprioritize that budget important. Absolutely.
It was just funny. Like I like seeing this, like financial gurus talking about toilet paper and get rid of toilet paper and using rags. And I was like, No way. Oh
my gosh, can you imagine? Yeah, actually listeners don't. Well, anything else that you would want to share with someone, or maybe even that isn't starting on their personal finance journey, because let's be honest, all of these listeners have been paying for their lives and dealing with financial stresses like the rest of us. But just any, you know, any parting words of wisdom that you've learned that might be useful for
them? Absolutely. I think it's to your point earlier about growth mindset, you gotta believe that things can change and they can change. And no, your journey is your journey. You know, like, Yes, I was sitting in a room with somebody that had 500k. But my 20k has a story behind it, of why it was there and why it looks like that. And even at the 70 kg, it has a story of why it's there. And so just own your story. And know that you can always improve your finances, it's gonna take work and it's uncomfortable and it's hard but anything's worth doing. It's always hard like because you value it and you won't go back so like once I get to wear out my next goal of like 100k You know, I'm gonna work as much as I can to make sure that does not go any doesn't go down, but it continues to increase.
Oh my gosh, I couldn't have said it better. Well, this has been so fun talking to you, I think talking to you too. I'll see you on our Slack community. Bye bye. 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 factorawealth.com forward slash wealth circle. That's factorawealth.com forward slash wealth circle. See you in the next episode.