Mindset: Why You Should Become a Millionaire
Episode Summary
The Wealth Circle is officially open for enrollment! Today, Julia is sharing three reasons why you should want to become a millionaire, three big things that are holding women back from building wealth, and how the Wealth Circle will support you in overcoming these challenges and help you build your wealth.
Episode Notes
The Wealth Circle is officially open for enrollment! Today, Julia is sharing three reasons why you should want to become a millionaire, three big things that are holding women back from building wealth, and how the Wealth Circle will support you in overcoming these challenges and help you build your wealth.
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Transcript
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Hey, it's Julia. I am taking over the podcast for a few weeks while Allegra is out on maternity leave. And exciting news. The wealth circle is officially open for enrollment. It only opens twice a year and this is the last time that it's going to be open this year. So if you are ready to feel confident in your investment strategy in any economy, erase your student debt, fill your emergency fund, set your family up for financial success, purchase an investment property, take that year long sabbatical, retire well before you're 65 and afford your dream life. Join the wealth circle, the link is in the show notes is the best thing that I have ever done for myself, and I'm still reaping the rewards. So on to the episode today we're going to talk about why you should become a millionaire.
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 of 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.
Sometimes I feel like Millionaire is a dirty word. There's a lot of baggage that comes with it. There's this belief about millionaires that had to bring someone down or do something illegal or step on other people on the way to getting rich. I also think that there's a belief that I've definitely witnessed in my own family in my own, like peers growing up that rich people are greedy and evil and selfish and materialistic. And that, you know, the point of being rich is just to have nice things and have a big house and drive a nice car. But that brings me to my point, which is what is the point of being rich, we are not growing our net worth just for the sake of growing our net words. And we're not growing our net worth just for the sake of having nice things. Because if you're listening to this podcast, it's likely that yes, you would love to travel private and have an amazing designer wardrobe and be able to hire a private chef. But that's not going to fulfill you or give you purpose or drive you to keep building wealth. So what is it that is going to keep us going on the Path to Wealth? And why should wealth be a goal for us in the first place. Brooke Castillo has a lot of amazing content about why women should get rich and I bring her up because you should definitely check out her podcast, you could search for the key word money or like women and money. I don't think a lot of women talk about wanting money and wanting to be rich openly because like I said, it kind of comes with this negative connotation. One of the concepts that she talks about is that money itself is just neutral. It's just numbers. And we as a society have agreed to make those numbers mean value, the higher the number, the higher the value. I really like thinking about money as neutral because we tend to put so much on money that it did not ask for we make money mean all these different things. Whether it's positive, like security, or happiness, or success or negative, like greed, or corruption or whatever. And when you strip away all the emotions, you can see money for what it really is, which is just neutral. And if you look at money as value, then you can use that as a way to keep yourself motivated on the way to building wealth. So what I mean by that is, if you see wealth as something that you create by creating value, and you want to claim your wealth from that value, why wouldn't we want to create a million dollars worth of value in this world, we all talk about the legacy that we want to leave. And I love thinking about my legacy in terms of value, and not necessarily $1 amount. So keeping value in mind along the way to building wealth, we're going to become the best versions of ourselves along our journey, because we're going to have to focus on providing the highest level of service to the world, because we need to optimize for what the world needs and values. So when we're focused on creating value, and not getting paid or creating money based on time and effort, we are bound to evolve into the best versions of ourselves. I think that there's this idea that and Brooke Castillo talks about this, too, that there's this sort of like, people think there's like a pie of wealth. There's a limited amount of wealth. And when one person gets richer, there's less for other people. I don't believe that that's true. I think, like I said, money is value, and there's an unlimited amount of value that can be created in the world. So that's the first kind of idea behind why do we want to get rich, we want to get rich so that we can create a ton of value in the world and get appropriately compensated for it. And I love reframing, building wealth to think about it that way. The second thing that I think is really exciting when you're thinking about building wealth is the idea that building wealth is one of the most creative things you could possibly do. I identify as a creative person. And that was actually one of the beliefs that was holding me back from really diving into my finances. I was like, Oh, man spreadsheets, and no, thank you. But I slowly realized through Factora, that, like I just said, building wealth is one of the most creative pursuits in the world. Instead of relying on an external source for our wealth, like a salary, we can actually create wealth ourselves by investing, purchasing property starting or buying businesses. And because we're creating value and creating money, by proxy, we will also be creating lives that we've always wanted to live. Lately, I've been thinking about how these days there are so many ways to become a millionaire. I think just a few decades ago, the options were a lot more limited. But now there are people earning seven digit type of money by literally unwrapping toys on YouTube. Even the discipline that I'm in branding, that's like a new, that's a new concept. People didn't pay other people for branding, and to help them understand what brand was really up until relatively recently, to go back to Brooke Castillo for a second. She's a life coach, and she owns a company that teaches and creates life coaches, which is also a relatively new discipline. And she says the purpose of her life is to be an example of what's possible. And one of my favorite things about building wealth is that the patterns and possibilities to it are endless. So thinking about building wealth as a really creative pursuit, definitely ignites a fire in me. And I think people get hung up on the word creative, you know, they make it mean, like painting or poetry. But if you really just look at the word itself, it just means to create a means to build something out of nothing. And I think that's what is really cool about building wealth. So whatever your strengths are, you can build your own wealth, based on those strengths, and based on the value that you're bringing through those strengths. Another reason to build wealth is so that we can help others. And the one thing I do want to say, before we really dive into this is, men don't put this pressure on themselves to give back in the same way that women do. I think it's really amazing. One of the first things that women always ask Factora when they join the wealth circle is like, how can I make sure that my investments are ethical? How can I make sure that I am giving back that I am being an investor that is also considering other people? And I think that's really, really amazing. But it's also not a question that I feel like a lot of men ask themselves, I think women put this pressure on themselves that if we are going to be wealthy, we have to help other people along the way. And I think that's amazing. But I also think that requires us to really help ourselves first so that we can help other people. Sally Krawczyk famously said nothing bad happens when women have more money. Because when women have more money, the economy thrives, nonprofits get funded, the businesses that we care about get created, families are better off. Being a woman with a lot of money literally makes the world a better place for everyone. And there are a ton of examples of this. There are a lot of rich women doing amazing things with their money. Let's take a look at one very interesting example of female philanthropy in action. So MacKenzie Scott and Jeff Bezos, they got divorced in 2019. She got a quarter of Bezos Amazon shares, which were worth $34 billion at the time, and she wasted no time getting busy. Over the next three years she donated $12 billion to over 1000 charitable groups. And a lot of people a lot of philanthropists have praised her for not just how quickly she donated her money. But the thorough research behind her decisions. The fact that her donations came with no strings attached messaging, and the variety of the groups that chose to donate to including historically black colleges and universities, Ukraine aid and Planned Parenthood. Quick side note on this Bezos himself has pledged over $13 billion, but so far has only actually given away 1.5 billion. do with that information what you will. So you might say Well, that's nice, but MacKenzie Scott didn't create Amazon herself. She got that money from somebody else. And to that I say, I think that's kind of beside the point. But let's Take a look at some self made female millionaire billionaires to Oprah is obviously one of the most prominent philanthropists of our time. She's donated multi millions of dollars to causes that protect human rights, provide education, develop leaders create safer communities. Whitney Wolfe herd, who is one of less than 30 women to ever take a company public built functionality into the bumble platform so that users make a donation to a cause that they care about every time they message a new match. And Priscilla Chan launched the Chan Zuckerberg Institute with her husband, Mark Zuckerberg, to leave the world a better place. And they found it and they've pledged to donate 99% of their wealth.
So all of that is to say that, clearly, once you've taken care of yourself and your own personal finance situation, you can then help your immediate family, when they're taken care of you can help your community, your country, and even the world. I think wealth is truly like a ripple effect that has the ability to really have a global impact. And I think what's really cool about being in the fact to our community is I have completely felt that myself, being surrounded by women that are building their wealth, and I'm watching it build right alongside them. I think Steph Douglas of Open House is an amazing example of this. I've seen her grow her net worth so quickly, so rapidly. She's been featured in The New York Times, she has really grown her success. And I think just being alongside of that is really cool, because it shows you that it's possible for you to. And that's just one example, there are a ton of women in the vector art community that are doing really amazing things with their wealth, and not just at, you know, national global multimillion dollar level. We had somebody on a previous podcast episode Pam, who became an angel investor, to invest in women owned and minority owned businesses. And she made a pledge to donate a certain amount of money to those types of startups over a certain amount of time. And that's just one way that she immediately got started building wealth, which I think is just so inspirational. You don't have to have billions of dollars to donate, Pam got started right away by becoming an angel investor. So hopefully by now you're on board, you're stoked you're ready to become a millionaire, you're ready to become a billionaire. But there are three big things holding women back and you probably will resonate with a lot of them. For starters, women are constantly marketed to to spend our hard earned money on consumer things over investment assets. And we're especially victim to it when we don't have that awareness. And we don't even realize that it's happening. I think that society has made us think that we need 10 skincare products custom made shampoo for our hair $75 tank tops, just to look presentable. Most of the men I know are like nah, I got the five in one facewash toe wash, conditioner. Toothpaste. I'm good. Have you ever heard of lifestyle creep? This definitely has happened to me. And it's happened to almost every woman that I know. And basically lifestyle creep is when as your paycheck increases sodas your spending. And that completely makes sense because you worked hard to get that raise. So you worked hard to get that new, higher paying job. And when you get it, you feel like you can live a little more and spend on the things that you want to. But if you don't have a smart financial system, if you don't have good money habits, then this new hard earned cash can slide through your fingertips just as fast as you got it. One of the biggest takeaways for me through Factora was increasing that gap between what you're bringing in per month, and what you're spending per month. The bigger that space is, the more space you have to build wealth, and the faster that you can do it. If you spend the entirety of your paycheck every month, you just can't grow your wealth because you don't have anything left to invest. And a lot of Americans are living that paycheck to paycheck life. According to a recent study. 42% of millennials are earning over $100,000 still live paycheck to paycheck. And this is even more important to be aware of with recent inflation. So if you're spending more than you earn each month, living above your means that can be kind of a slippery, scary slope into debt. I'll never forget this conversation I had with my mom. I was like 23 I was right out of college. I was living in San Francisco. I was I think my salary was like $43,000 a year and my rent was $1,500 and I was living behind a bath curtain that we set up in the living room have a two bedroom I was living with two other women. So as three women in a two bedroom I got the short end of the stick. I was living behind a bath curtain in the living room and I was paying $1,500 a month and And I was kind of sliding into a little bit of credit card debt, I never got crazy. I think when I had this competition with my mom, it was about two, maybe two to $3,000 in credit card debt. But once you get in that cycle, it can be really hard to pay off because you never have extra because you're always living at your means. And I remember I was sitting in my car on the phone with my mom, and she was like, you have to learn how to say no. And I will never forget that conversation. Because yeah, I was going to Napa wineries, with my friends, we were going shopping, we were going out to $100 dinners. And to this day, I still don't know how everybody else was affording it. But I had to learn how to start saying no. And I think this concept applies to not just that situation. But in life. In general, there are things that you have to say no to so that you can live below your means. And when you live below your means you can start saving and investing. And that is so much more fun and so much more sexy, usually than $100. Dinner, once a week. And when you're able to increase your savings, it's a really amazing place to start. And I'll also never forget the first time I set up an automated savings system, thanks to Factora, I would just every paycheck I got, I would just check my little savings account because it was automatic, it was so fun for me to watch that number just build up effortlessly. And that is really the first step. But you're not going to start building wealth by saving, it's really taking the time to convert those savings into strategic investments that line up with your short, mid and long term goals. That's the magic that's going to grow your wealth. And learning all of that is the antidote to lifestyle creep and to unconscious spending.
The second thing holding us back is that women in particular are significantly under invested, meaning we're not buying enough assets. When we do save money when we are living below our means we keep too much of it in cash. Having too much cash on the sidelines means that that money is going to lose its purchasing power. So in the past century, the value of $100 decreased to just $3.48. I was watching a documentary about some man, the only man who has ever escaped from a plane jacking in America. I forget his name. It's like WB something. And his request was $200,000. This was in the 1970s. And I remember they in the documentary, they said yeah, that was $200,000, then that would be worth $1.3 million today, because I remember watching the documentary and being like, why did he only request $200,000. But that is just a dramatic example of what inflation does to your money. So when you keep it in cash, it's just losing his purchasing power, because you're not getting any, you're not earning any interest on that money. So this is especially true right now, because inflation is really high, it's about 9%. So we're losing our purchasing power at an even faster pace than usual. That's why you need to get your money working for you by learning how to invest it, because you can't save your way to millionaire status. Just a quick example that I'm going to walk you through. If you put $10,000 in a savings account versus an investment account, and then contributed an additional $1,000 a month for the next 30 years. The saver in this example, would have less than half a million dollars after making those contributions for 30 years. So the saver put $10,000 in their account, and they saved $1,000 every month for 30 years, after 30 years, they have less than $500,000. The investor on the other hand could be earning an 8% average annual rate of return from the stock market. So even though she contributed the same amount of money, so she invested $10,000 at first and then just invested $1,000 a month for the next 30 years. Compounding returns would have earned over a million dollars more than the saver just from being properly invested over a long time horizon. And if you think about the impact that this has on these two women, the saver versus the investor, they're both still putting aside $1,000 a month. It's just one is smarter and more strategic about it. And that earned her over a million dollars more than the saver over the same amount of time. So the antidote to this is to learn how to invest, get over your fear and do it. And the third thing holding us back is this lack of education and community around wealth building for women. It really doesn't take much to look around and see that almost every financial institution and financial product that exists was created by men with men in mind. Almost every woman that I talked to that joined Factora says that this is just amazing, empowering and baseline information that we all should have been learning in school. Unfortunately, that's not how it works right now. So right now the onus is really on us to to step up and figure out our own personal finance, and it's hard to find the right places to do that, because we all have different learning styles. And I think as women, especially we crave community, we want a safe space where we can ask questions, we can compare notes, we can get inspired by each other. And we can cheer each other on. I think one of the coolest things about community in general, especially, in Factora is you have this accountability. So I remember when I did my wealth circle, in 2018, and I was, I kind of shared this little idea that I wanted to start a vintage shop. And every session after that someone would be like, how's your vintage shop going, and it really forced me to put myself out there, get the vintage shop live. And that accountability was really special and not something that you can just kind of get in an online course. So talking about money leads to taking more competent action with it, which is how we're all going to become millionaires and become what we wish we saw more of in the world. Like I said, Victoria is obviously an amazing example of this community. And I actually don't know of anything else like it where women get to literally build wealth alongside of each other. The wealth circle is open right now, and it only opens twice a year. If you are ready to learn how to break through these obstacles. Learn how to invest, feel really confident. Work your way towards becoming a millionaire, alongside other women doing the same. And learn tangible steps to building your net worth. Join at the link in bio eight will be the best thing you ever do for yourself. Thank you for listening to my TED talk, and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.