Mindset: Itzel G Explains Why You Should Start Investing BEFORE You're 'Ready'
Episode Summary
In this throwback episode from 2020, Allegra talks to Itzel G. about why she took the Six Figure Savings course before she felt "ready."
Episode Notes
In this throwback episode from 2020, Allegra talks to Itzel G. about why she took the Six Figure Savings course before she felt "ready."
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Transcript
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Hi guys, it's Caro Factora’s podcast editor. I'm just popping in to give you a quick reminder that this is episode three of a six part series where we celebrate women of color in the Wealth Circle. Today, we're taking it back all the way to 2020 with an incredible conversation between Allegra and its Itzel G, who's an alum of both a six figure savings course and the wealth circle. It's an awesome conversation. I just listened to it, you're gonna learn a lot. Without further ado, I'll let them take it away.
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 may maintain positions in the securities or investments discussed in this podcast.
I have itself G on the podcast with me today. Welcome. Hi,
thank you so much for having me.
I'm so happy to have you here because we just relaunched our six figure savings course which you took before joining the wealth circle. So I want to make sure that you can share all about why you did that and where you are with your money today. But first, if you could give our audience some context on who you are, where you're from, where you're calling in from,
of course, and I'm so excited to share all of this. So I am originally from Mexico. I moved to the US when I was 12. So that's been about 17 years. And I've been calling home Austin home for the last 11 years.
Love it and what do you do for a living?
I am a program manager at a local nonprofit organization. And we empower girls in science, technology, engineering and math.
I love anything that empowers girls, especially in STEM. So yeah, I think that's awesome. So okay, let's take it back to the very beginning. What is your first money memory? And how was money treated? And your family or just really early life? What did you grow up thinking about finances?
Yeah. Um, so this was a fun activity for me to think about, because I feel like I have a very bad memory. So I was like, trying to figure out what my first memory is. And I think the earliest I can think of is so growing up, I think this must have been Elementary School in Mexico. And so during the summer, we would go to my grandma's house and spend the summers with her. I come from a very large family. So this was a, like, the time of year where all the cousins got together. And it was like our summer camp. And so we would go to grandma's house, and our parents would leave their I don't know, for a month or so. And they would give us money to spend while were there. Right? So obviously, you know, we would eat at home with grandma, but we had money to spend on like snacks and candy, whatever. And I remember, you know, you just had money and like you would go and spend it on whatever you want it but I remember one of my cousin's was very particular about her money and she would keep track like of what she was spending and how much you have left now is just like, what is that? You know? You just know that you have money for more like candy and snacks or not. So that I think that's my my first money memory.
Okay, first of all, I love that your grandmother was her Her house was basically like a sleepaway camp for cousins of what fun? Well, I thought where you were gonna go with that story is that maybe your cousin's got left different amounts of money. And that, you know, that's kind of where a realization happened that some parents left someone with more snack money than not. But I think it's interesting that you notice the cousin who was being really thoughtful about her spending and paying attention to it. So I just love digging into people's money memories, because they're so different. And it's weird to think that for the first, you know, at least five years of your life, you have no idea how you have all the things that you do, like your parents are just taking care of it and then slowly it starts to come into the picture that oh, it costs money to put food for me and have lights and have a home.
100% Yeah, and I think we probably all got similar amounts of money. I don't think I remember being like, Oh, my cousin got more money than I do. You know, I don't know if our parents talked about it. And like decided, like, we're only going to give you I don't know, 200 pestles, which is like $10, or something like that. But I don't remember that. I remember that keeping track of the money.
Okay, so fast forward to adulthood. And how did you hear about Factora? And why did you decide to take six figure savings? Because you are one of the first people to get it when we launched it this summer? And so I'd love to know what led you. Yeah.
This is so exciting. So I've actually been following Victoria for a really long time, like, I went to an event that you hosted with ladies get paid, I think And so back then Factora had a different name. It was an L factor or something like that. Yeah. So I had been following you for a long time. And I was interested in finances. But I was like, you know, I'm not there yet. You know, I'll get there when I get there. So I started going to your events before COVID Life of at the Capital One cafe, some of those things, right. But again, I was very much like, oh, I don't feel like I'm ready to be there. I knew, though about the wealth circle. And I just felt like I wasn't ready for that. And so I just kept like, observing and like being excited about like, I'm going to do this in the future whenever I get there. And so then COVID started, right. And multiple things happen at the same time that I think was like the perfect storm. So in March, we started quarantining, a lot of people, like a lot of my friends started being laid off, a lot of people were losing their jobs, I started questioning, like, is my job safe? Then I own my home. So I had to get very expensive repairs, like the pipes, which I did not have money saved for. And I was like, Oh, my God, what am I going to do? Like, I have to fix my pipes, like it cannot live in this house if the pipes are not fixed, right. And then the same time my phone stopped working. So like, I had to get a new phone. And I didn't, I couldn't even like, I didn't even have the cash for a new phone. And that's when I was like, Okay, I feel very not safe, not secure. And I am terrified. If I lose my job, I literally don't know what I'm going to do right now. So that was like a very scary moment. And that's when I was like, okay, I can either be sad and scared and terrified, or I can, like, make this work and fix it. And right about that time, that's when you launch six figure savings. I was like, Oh my gosh, this is perfect for me. Like I didn't feel ready for the wealth circle. But I was like, I need a plan for my money. And so when I read everything about the six figure savings, and like what it was about, I was like, This is what I need right now. So that's how I got into it.
I love that. I also just appreciate you sharing so vulnerably about how scared you were because I think people even listening to this podcast probably feel very nervous with their money or when something happens. There is so much stress around figuring out how to pay for the unexpected thing. And so there's so much value in being able to de stress and having a plan for your money. My fiance makes fun of me. I'm always like, let's plan let's plan. And then he'll be like a Lego. Are you feeling out of control right now on every insert topic, it's probably like, we didn't eat healthy all week. And I'm like, let's make a plan. And he's like, okay, let's make a plan for the next week. So you're not being a little stressful. Okay, so you take six figures savings and talk to me about what changes you were able to make what you learned how it was helpful to you.
Yeah, so before 60 years savings. You know, I already talked a little bit about this, but my mindset was very, like 100%, scarcity mindset. I was like, I work in a nonprofit, I don't make enough money. I don't have enough to make these things happen. Yeah, but it's great that people have these savings, and they're doing all these things. But like, I'm not there yet. You know, I, whenever I have a new job, and like I'm making more, and I do this and that that's when I'll be able to do it. So that was very much my mindset. And then during obviously, you get to ask like really hard questions about your values and like, what do you care about in this world? And look at your finances, like, what are you spending your money on? Is it aligned with your values and things like that? And so I think that's what shifted for me. I was like, oh, okay, these are my values. Why am I spending money on all of these things like that I don't care about also, I'm definitely making enough to have like, whatever things I want to have, and to make plans
I'm gonna cut in right there because I think so important. I was that person too. I always said, the next job, the next raise the next situation that I have coming up, then I'll change, I always thought the thing in the future was going to cause my change, instead of me being the cause of my change. So I love that you even came to that moment where you were like, I can sit here and be sad and frustrated and scared, or I can do something about it. Hence, getting the education I need to make a plan. But then I also just like what you're saying, in general about realizing the story, you were telling yourself, because I work at a nonprofit and I don't make as much then, you know, that's just what it is for me, you change that story.
Yes. 100%. And also, I think this is from I think my, my therapist told me this, and she was like, when I was trying to figure out like grad school situation. She was like, it's okay to pay money for people to help you learn things, right? To pay for their expertise. Like, you don't have to figure out all of this on your own. Yes, you can read all the books and Google everything. But if someone like already knows that, you can, it's okay to pay for those things. Which for me, I was like, what is that? You know, and so I think I, whenever I got to this point, I was like, Hey, it's okay to invest in myself and spend that money because they're gonna help me with what I need right now, instead of me spending endless hours trying to figure out books and Googling things, you know,
a word that changed my life that you're reminding me of with that story? And I think that's great advice from your therapist, because how can we know it all? I mean, we can't like we just don't have time in the day to be an expert in every subject matter. But the word that changed my life is leverage. And when I say leverage, I mean, leverage other people leverage other products, services that you need to make your life a little easier, because life's hard enough. You know, like, if someone else has already figured out something, and it's working for a bunch of people, like you're seeing the testimonials, then leverage that for you as well. So you don't have to figure it all out on your own 100%. Yeah. Okay, I interrupted you, you were talking about changes you made from taking six figure savings. And and I guess I'll just point out the values exercise, we should talk about that for a second, because the first module in six figure savings of financial course, I think my you know, not shocked people, but I think people probably expect, well, I'm gonna dig into my money first. And we actually ask that people dig into their values first, which might seem a little fluffy. But what people don't realize is that every time we make $1, we have a choice if we're going to spend or save that dollar. And of course, there's so many things we want to buy, it's really easy to spend it. So if we can identify our values, we now have a filter that we can run those decisions through, and it's a game changer.
100%. Yeah. And I think I really like that exercise, like starting with that, because it does feel like hard questions like, What are peak moments of your life? What gets you really mad, you know, things like that, that, you know, as you're thinking through all of these instances, you're having all of these emotions. And so it's great to help you figure out those values, after values, figuring out values, figuring out like, what you're spending on line by line, like for the last six months, and then you're like, Oh, my God, I spent like $400 on Uber one month, like, What the hell is that? You know, and so I think those moments were, like, upsetting, but also like, that's definitely not aligned with what I want for myself and my values. And like, where it's not going to get me where I want to be. And
before you did the Lifestyle Analysis, which is what she's referencing, where we basically have you pull three to six months of statements and figure out everything you're spending on and put it all down. Have you ever gone back and looked at what you spend in a month were Are you the type that was like watching closely or?
No, so I started doing that a little just a little bit before getting into six figure savings, like in March when I was like started getting really scared. I kind of started that month and so I think I digged in a little bit more once I joined the six figure savings. So no, I have never you know, and I think I don't know if this was from from six figures savings like the word spending plan, which I like a lot better than budget because I was never like budget. I don't know. I just never felt that it resonated with me.
Yeah, totally. Because budget is restrictive, right? Yeah. It's like no one wants to be on a diet. No one wants to be on a budget and It almost feels like before you've even spent money, you've been told you can't. And that's not the point of Factora. Or life, you know what I mean? It's fact your His job is to help people spend in line with their values. Because once you do that, the other things are going to fall into place a lot more easily. But if you haven't identified your values, and if you aren't watching the numbers, you can't really align the two.
Yeah. And I love that you say that. It's kind of like a diet. And it's true. Like it just kind of, I feel like it reinforces this scarcity mindset. Women are always like being marketed to like, eat less, you know, spend less, everything lasts. And like, I think spending plan, it's more of like, where can you add things where that aligned with yourself? So adding more instead of always, like subtracting from your life? It's important. Yeah. And
that reminds me of the latte factor. You know, you constantly hear people saying online, well, just don't buy the $7 latte, and you'll be fine. Like, whoa, wait, you cannot conflate me getting a matcha latte that actually might bring me a ton of joy and allow me to have three hours spent in a cafe reading on a Saturday hanging out with like my dog, to me not having a good future. So I agree, I really hate that line of thinking that spending lasts is the only thing that's going to allow you to have more, no, you don't have to spend less, you have to spend intentionally so that you know where things are going and make sure you prioritize your savings and your investing.
You know, yeah. 100%. So I think one of the biggest things for me, after the values in the spending was like, figuring out my savings plan, like what, what do I want to do with my money, right. And so for me, because of like, my scare at the beginning of the year for me was like, my number one priority is my emergency fund. So figuring out how much I needed in my emergency fund to feel safe, secure, you know, empowered, strong. And then I automated from my direct deposit into my high yield savings account to my emergency fund and my travel fund, which was my number two that I wanted to do.
Love. What was your emergency fund number that you ended up coming up with?
15,000?
Did you enjoy the emergency fund calculator? Yes, yeah. So I think that's worth telling people that, you know, emergency funds are important. And obviously, a lot of times they're not prioritized, because you know that you should have savings, but it's really hard to suddenly have savings, it's better to understand why and how much you need. And so how much you need is definitely based off of you and your personal life and how much you spend in a month. Because if you're scared of losing your job, do you think it's going to take three months to get the next job or six months to take the next job? And how much is your mortgage in the meantime? So we kind of help people piece those numbers together. And then ultimately, at the end of the day, it's still your decision, the calculator spits out a number, but if you feel like it's too high, okay, no problem. And if you feel like it's too low, okay, boost it up. But I'm glad to hear that you liked that. And I love to hear that you auto directive deposit to your high yield savings account for the emergency fund. That is like such a expert move. I can't even tell you enough. Like how savvy that is. And so many people don't take advantage of it. And it's free. You're just taking your your money that would come to your checking, and you're just automatically putting it somewhere else so that you can't spend it first. It's like
foolproof. Yes. 100%. And I feel like you guys say it affect Torah all the time. And I was like, Yeah, I know. Yeah, I know. But I haven't automate it, you know, like the money would go into my check ins and then that from the check ins, there was like a setup thing that to go into my savings. But in reality, like that was a two step that was unnecessary. And I would just be like stressing, like, you know, when is it going to leave my account? When is it going to leave and I would see it there. And so it didn't connect that actually you can go and like split up how you get paid. And like only you know what you need in your checking account goes into your check ins, but the rest goes into your savings direct.
Love it. And then so how far have you been able to get your emergency funds so far?
Yeah, I'm a little bit over a third of the way there. So yeah, it's pretty exciting. Well, another thing you figure out is your liabilities your net worth everything though, where is your money at right now? And where is it going? So, you know, I felt so terrified of like all the things that happen at the beginning of the year, but because I own my home I think that was like a really kind of like, breath of fresh air that I was like, Oh, I'm not in like such a hole as I thought I would be because of the value of my home. So that was a really nice surprise to be had you had
you calculated your net worth before. No. Okay. Oh, I Love that a first time net worth, this is so cool because I know so many women who like you there are they're not really watching the numbers. I mean, I didn't for years. And now I'm like obsessed with net worth tracking. But that's because it's my day job. But I also think there's a lot of trepidation around putting the numbers together because you think you're going to be worse off than you are. And a lot of times you aren't, especially if you've got that appreciation from home equity. So that's really exciting. When did you buy your house?
I bought it about six years ago.
Thank God amazing. Yeah. I can't imagine how much better the awesome prices were six years ago.
Yeah, yeah, I bought my house for 170 bucks.
Oh, my God. It's pretty cool.
So yeah, that was, I think those were my top things like you know, your values, value spending, saving, saving savings, and like, just clarity around where your money is and where it's going.
And do you have do you know, your values off the top of your mind? Would you be open to sharing them? Yeah,
I mean, I have my net worth written right here. And not to, I'll share. Okay, so my net worth right now is 120 8889.
Well love it here. Do you know your values? Yes,
my values are love, enthusiasm, growth, vitality, and creativity.
I urge anyone listening to try and think through what are their top five values right now, or as soon as this episode ends, because it's how you were able to say those off so easily. So clearly. And what's interesting is, people listening might be like, well, love, that's obvious. But we talk about defining values, so that the word means something for you, you know what I mean? Like, she knows exactly what love means in terms of her value set. And she can apply that filter when she's making financial decisions. And so it's not transferable from person to person, which I think is even cooler about values and the fact that one word can mean so many different things to different people. Yeah. 100%. Okay, so then you ended up taking the wealth circle, which you are in currently. So what made you decide to take the wealth circle? And what learnings are you taking away from from that experience?
Yeah, I'm so excited to share this. Because first I was mentioning, like how I felt like I wasn't ready, I wasn't ready. I'll get there when I get there. Right. And I think my work through six figure savings helped me realize like, hey, now you have a plan, you have clarity around all of these things, you can move on to the next step, which is like learning how to invest your money and like how you want to grow it right. And so, yeah, I realized, like, Hey, I don't have to have my emergency fund at 15k. Before I join a Roth circle, like I already know, the plan that I'm taking to get there. But I also want to keep learning about my next steps. So I think that's why I decided to go into the wealth circle, I was like, feeling a lot more empowered, secure, excited about money, instead of like being terrified.
I am over here, just smiling so much that My cheeks hurt. Okay, listeners, six figure savings is absolutely supposed to help you get the foundation. But she's absolutely right. Just because you know, these foundational numbers doesn't mean you have to stop there until it's all built, you just have to be on the path to building it. There's no reason that any woman listening or who's making a solid income shouldn't be considering how to invest so that they can make passive income from not just going to work every day, but having their money work for them while they are at work. And so I love that you jumped into the wall circle, and that six figure savings made you feel ready for it. That's exactly why we designed that course, we were like, We know that there are some people who just aren't ready to jump into the wall circle. So we want to make sure that they feel like they've got all the basics down. But I love that you didn't wait until everything was quote unquote, done. Because that's the other secret about personal finance that you learn when you join Factora, right? It's never done. Yeah, I mean, we can always optimize our finances, we can always learn more, especially if you hadn't learned anything, which most of us hadn't. How is education going to stop after one course you know, you have to keep digging in and getting more acumen about the subject because the subject matter. I mean, there's so much of it. Investing is one small word, but it means so much.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And it's going to take a long time. So it's not going to be like Okay, two years and I'm done like so might as well start right now into like the process of like the next 30 years. Or even longer than that.
Absolutely. I mean, I tell people it's a marathon, not a sprint. Yeah. One thing that I don't do, Ron is going to have a lot of time because you need time and you need compound interest to work in your favor. So what you definitely need is that education to make sure that you're taking advantage of those opportunities. So what are you learning from the wall circle? What are you taking away from that? So far? Any changes made since joining?
Oh, my gosh, yes, I am loving it, just the community, the conversations that happen there, you know, you get really energized by all of the amazing woman in there. And I love that it's a vulnerable space, you ask hard questions, and people are ready to jump in and respond. And, you know, I think these vulnerable conversations are necessary for growth. And you know, everyone's there, it's because of that, like they want to grow, they want to learn, and that's important. And so my biggest takeaways is I was terrified, I think so the last two weeks, we've done paper assets. And I always thought, you know, that's like for the investment bros kind of situation, like, that's not for me. But now I'm like, I have a way better understanding about it. And so actually, one of my, like, homework that I gave myself this weekend, is I'm going to open an account, and I'm just like, a robot account, and I'm just gonna, you know, put a little bit of money in there just to like, play around with it, and like, know how it feels to kind of get that, you know, off of the table, like, not be scared to do it.
But that's such a big one. Like, that's so huge. I don't want anyone to not recognize like, how big of a deal that is, do you know what robo advisor, you're going to choose? Are you still No, I
have a list, from what I've seen on like the Slack channel and the chat around it. So I'm gonna sit down and go through it and be like, Okay, this is the one I want to open. One of the things again, you know, I was like, oh, until I have, like, I don't know, $5,000 to put in it or whatever. One of the things that we learned is, it's better for you to put in a little bit over time, what is that called? Dollar cost averaging? Exactly. So I was like, oh, maybe I'm gonna put like $200 over the next, I don't know, three months or whatever, you know, something small to just kind of get my foot into it, and like, figure it out. And then you can make a plan. Yeah,
we tell people all the time, you know, open up a robo advisor, they're so safe and proven at this point, you know, you don't have to call a stockbroker and make the selections yourself. Like, this is why technology is awesome, and in our favor, and it's a great time to live. I mean, there's plenty of reasons why technology is not awesome. But we won't get into that today for web investing. It has really consolidated an industry that was even more complicated into making it much more easy for users to get in. And you can start with like $5, I mean, you can literally be investing 25 bucks a month, or whatever feels comfortable. And we always tell women, you know, try and account and if you end up not liking it, the user experience anything you can trade. I mean, there's nothing other than education that can come from it. Because as we all know, it's important to know what you do like, but it's also important to know what you don't like, but I started investing with such a little amount of money. And I remember having such fear that all of that money was just going to disappear. And it's really interesting, the behavioral finance aspect of loss, people want to they have such an aversion to loss that they would rather almost not gain. Like I can show graphs of compound interest and how in your favor it is to be investing for the long term. And yet people will wait years to get started because gain is not as exciting as loss is scary. So that's the hump we want women to get over. In fact, who are and obviously, if you're opening up a robo advisor account this weekend, we are doing good.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm really excited. And then we're looking into real estate, which that's another thing that I'm really, really excited about. Because I own my home and like I have other plans that I want to accomplish. So yeah, it's going great. So you know, I highly recommend anyone that wasn't a place like the maybe you don't feel like you're making enough to even get your finances straight or scared or like, you know, are going through a roller coaster of financial situations, join the 16 year savings, it's gonna help you really, really help you get your finances straight and clarity and feel strong to keep going.
I love that. Well, I think that clearly you have a growth mindset. I think that it's so interesting that in the beginning of the year, you felt like you had a scarcity mindset, even if you did, it's changed. It's morphed because you're so open to making all these changes and continuing on. I think that when people ask me what makes you ready for a Factora or a wall circle, that's the only thing I can boil it down to Like, I don't care how much she earns, what industry, if she's a corporate employee or a solo entrepreneur, it's any woman who has a growth mindset. I don't even. And that's why I don't even have to say vulnerable all women are vulnerable. That's what makes back to her cool anyways, because women are they going to share openly and transparently when they're in this safe space. But it's that growth mindset. And you clearly have that. So I'm so happy to hear about all of your successes, and I'm so grateful for you sharing your numbers and your story on the coffee and coin podcast.
Thank you so much for having me.
Absolutely. I will see you in our Slack channel. Bye. If you enjoyed this episode, come join us in a wealth 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.