Wealth Circle Transformations: How Lexi Increased Her Net Worth by 59%
Episode Summary
Julia is chatting with Wealth Circle Alum, Lexi, about how her life has changed since joining The Wealth Circle in Spring of 2021. She shares her investment strategy, how her feelings about money have changed, and her real estate goals. Lexi is truly using money to build the life she wants and you can, too! The Wealth Circle doors will be closing TOMORROW and won’t open again until 2023. Now’s the time to start building your wealth!
Episode Notes
Julia is chatting with Wealth Circle Alum, Lexi, about how her life has changed since joining The Wealth Circle in Spring of 2021. She shares her investment strategy, how her feelings about money have changed, and her real estate goals. Lexi is truly using money to build the life she wants and you can, too!
The Wealth Circle doors will be closing TOMORROW and won’t open again until 2023. Now’s the time to start building your wealth!
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Transcript
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Hi, it's Julia. I'm taking over the podcast while Allegra is out on maternity leave. Today's conversation is amazing. It's with Lexi G, who joined the wealth circle in spring of 2021. She shares about how her whole life has changed since beginning her personal finance journey with Factora shucks about her investment strategy, how her money story has changed how her real estate goals have evolved, how she feels about her money, and how she's using money to build the life that she has always wanted to live. If you're on the fence about joining the wealth circle, I highly recommend listening to this episode. Because the wall struggle closes for enrollment on Friday at midnight Central Time. It doesn't open again until 2023. And it's as you'll hear an amazing way to completely transform your money and your life. So 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 will 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. Hi, Lexi, thank you so much for coming on the coffee and Queen podcast. How do we know each other?
Oh, Julie, I so good to get to chat with you. In this forum. We know each other through your sister Mariela, but also from growing up in the same hometown. That's true.
Oh my gosh, we both grew up in Virginia. And Yep. Did you go to Madison? Yeah. Oh, yes. Yes. Oh, my gosh. Okay, yes, I forgot about that. So you kind of ended up getting into Factora I just think because I knew you and I already loved you. And I think you probably saw like me posting about, in fact, or like on my Instagram or whatever.
Yeah, yeah. So first, I started following you guys on social and we're just like loving the content that was already so user friendly on Instagram and felt like, I just wanted to know more. So then I talked to you, and kind of did my own research on the wealth circle and decided it was a good time.
I love it. And I think you are someone that I feel you've always been an overachiever. You've always been very buttoned up. And you've always had an amazing career, you've always been done really well, in school, you've always been really involved. And so it wasn't surprising. And it was totally fitting for me that you decided to like, join something that was going to teach you how to like manage your money.
Yeah, thanks for all that. I definitely felt that it was an area that I was not confident in, and an area that I was reliant on so many other people's opinion. And it was in conversation topic that I was uncomfortable participating in, and I didn't like that feeling. And so I wanted to have both, like gain the knowledge but also kind of the confidence and comfortability to, you know, to not be afraid to ask the stupid questions. Yeah, because there there are none. And especially just with like, the language and terminology around personal finance and all that that entails. I wanted to have a space to practice.
Yeah, I love that. Who were the people that you were relying on? Before Factora my parents have definitely been a very, like, they've been along the journey with me to this point. My dad especially kind of helped me to set up my first brokerage account and was kind of something we did together and kind of talking about, like when to start investing in what's invest in and specifically starting with ETs fun, because I was I am and was at the time. I'm pretty risk averse. Yes, but But yeah, so my dad was a huge kind of my confidant there and I still value incredibly his perspective and you know, knowledge and and experience over the years, kind of managing my day. MIT finances, but I wanted to like, be able to engage and not just nod my head and say, okay, and move on and kind of do do what he said, but to be able to, like, understand for myself or do research on my own, and kind of come back to him with like, what do you think? And so I felt that the wealth circle and helped me to do that I
think that's really special. I think a lot of people, especially women feel more comfortable deferring these decisions to their partners, or to other people in their lives. And actually, in the, in the episode before this one, I talked about how the majority of women defer their financial decisions to their male partners, based on one study of like a small sample of women, but it's so empowering to learn the skills yourself. So I'm actually I'm curious if you feel this way, when I first was dipping my toes into finance, I thought that it was very confusing and overwhelming with all this terminology and everything. And then, once I was able to learn the fundamentals, I could also learn learn how to prioritize and know what I needed to know and know what I just didn't need to know. And I actually felt like it was very manageable. I mean, Factora does an amazing job of distilling down what you actually need to know. But it seems a lot scarier from the outside is basically what I think.
Yeah, yeah, I completely agree that I think my experience in North circle is you get kind of like bite sized chunks, or like you get the information a little bit more digestible format. But there's much more information to explore on your own or to research for your own situation, or even, for example, taking like, the class may cover what a robo advisor is, but looking up all the different kinds of robo advisors and what may be best for you is going to be up to you, the class is not going to may not go into all those details. Totally. And so I like that those bite sized chunks, or bite sized pieces of information, made it as you said, kind of less daunting to go and do some of that research on my own. So yeah, I completely agree. And to your comment about kind of women relying on their male partners or male confidants over that maybe I remember sharing with my mom that I was taking this class, and she had said, like, wow, I really wish this was something that was available when I was in your. And so I, I was very thankful for that, and thankful that will like back towards kind of pushing the envelope, I'm having these conversations in circles that that may not already be having them. And I think, in taking this class, and both sharing, you know, the podcast with friends of mine, it's helped to create those conversations in my own personal circles, which has been really valuable for me in like continuing my learning and education beyond the law circle. And also, I think having the opportunity to like create that safe space for some of my friends and family members.
Totally, I think that's so important. And it's such a fun, new category of conversation to add to like the repertoire of things that we can talk about. It's not just pop culture, or our friends or travel or books that we're reading. Now there's like another fun category, which is personal finance. And because I've met so many women now that are interested in personal finance, it's something that I feel very comfortable bringing up with a lot of different people, especially my female friends now, which is so fun and empowering. And it makes it way more likely that we are going to share advice and actually make moves and take action when we are having these conversations.
Absolutely, yeah. And I've tried to I think we've talked about this in the class how men more easily talk about these topics among talking about, like football floors and their fantasy football teams and like whatever is just a more common topic of conversation. I've loved talking to my girlfriend about it, saying like, what are you? What are
you all talking? Yeah,
to make sure I'm not missing out on anything.
I love that. Okay, so I want to take us back to what was the year that you joined that you started your personal finance journey?
I would say really kind of one year after college was when I kind of started my independent journey with personal finance. So that would have been like 29 and starting to like, set up some of my own personal accounts, as I said that my dad and I worked together to set up my first brokerage, but I took the Factora class or the wealth circle and bring up 2020 Okay, Springer Saunders really got it. So let's talk about Lexie in spring of 2021. How old is she? Where is she? What is she thinking? What is she feeling? What's her money situation? What's her net worth? Salary all that.
So in 2021 When I was 24 years old, it was still in the heat of COVID. And so I was definitely contemplating a lot about like, right, like, am I fulfilled in my current job? Am I liking where I'm living? When kind of everything was taken away that I think sometimes disguises or masks how we really feel about our current situation. I was doing a lot of reflecting on like, Okay, what, what's next? And what have I been doing? So at the time, I was living in Arlington, Virginia, right outside of DC. And I was I was really loving my life in DC, I was able to keep connected with lots of friends. And I was working for Accenture, and going into the office pre COVID. And it was really like, formative years kind of post grad. That said, I was starting to think about, like, what other places out there may I be interested in living. And so I kind of joined the class, starting to think about what other areas of the US might I want to live in and see, maybe eventually pursue real estate and buying in those places. And so that was my goal for the class was to both learn more about the stock market and how I could be maximizing my investments in the paper asset class. And then also just to explore real estate and how feasible it is for me as a 24 year old, and looking to maybe buy in the next three to five years. And and what does that really entail? Like? What are what are the parts of the process that would be needed to kind of make that goal come to fruition? So that's kind of where my head was at. In terms of money. My net worth before Factora was $177,397.
I'm amazing as a 24 year old, are you joking? How did you get it to that point?
Well, I I was a very avid saver throughout all of my life. I worked a lot of jobs, you know, odd jobs as a kid like babysitting and dog sitting. I worked, you know, several summer jobs between college and and when job during college is the time's right in the back that are. So I just I just saved a lot. Wow. And a lot of that wasn't at the point in time that I started.
Interesting. So that is, that's really cool to me. Because, I mean, it's never too late to start. And you can you can learn about personal finance at any age, but being young, and having a lot of cash to play with is the perfect combination.
Yeah, I totally agree. And I think that I got so much out of the class, because that was my financial situation, not saying that that's required to take the class. And I still think it's really beneficial to take the wealth circle at any stage of your financial journey. But I do think that some of the more advanced concepts in the class, you can apply a little bit more easily if you have a little bit of chunk change to to play with. It said,
yeah, totally. And I mean, to be fair, when I, when I started, I didn't really have any cash. But the principles that I learned helped me save cash very quickly. And then I was able to really go out and start having some fun with my money. Okay, so your net worth was $177,000. Last year. Amazing. And what is it three years ago?
Oh, bring 2021 So 18 months?
Okay, got 18 months? And now what is your net worth?
So it has increased by 59. So I'm right around 280,000.
Oh, my gosh, that is so exciting. And how do you track your net worth? Are you using the Factora net worth spreadsheet?
I am. Yeah. And I know there are a lot of tools out there that help you to do that also, but I kind of like I'm a spreadsheet. And I really like kind of seeing the numbers myself. And you know, every couple of months. Recalculating it, so,
yes, that is Yeah, spreadsheets are fun. And also I love that Factora spreadsheets are they're pretty. I just spreadsheet I feel like that's very rare. Yeah, so you, what was your salary at this time?
So my salary was 97,995.
And were you investing at all at that time before? Like in 2001. Were you saving at all?
So I was actively investing in my 401 K, I was putting, I don't know 10 to 15% of my salary there. And that was really most of the all of the investing that I was doing at that time. I I, my individual brokerage while I had an account set up, I had a lot of money, and we're just sitting in that money account. Yeah, that was not not invested. So, but a lot of it because of just Accenture has a really awesome, kind of whirling que management tool. It's really easy to pick which ones you want and how much so I had a lot of it going through a traditional 401k Even at that time.
Okay, interesting. And then what changes to your investment, percentage and strategy do you make after the wealth circle.
So through the wealth circle, I learned a lot about Ross or the advantage of like taking taxes now in case my tax bracket goes up in the future. And so I created a 401 K Roth account through Accenture. And so now I'm putting 10% there and 5% in the traditional 401k, I've just decided to kind of split the difference. And kind of put a little bit, you know, pay taxes on half of it now and pay taxes on some of it later, they kind of have the benefit of both, depending on what happens in the future. And then I also open a personal Roth IRA, with Schwab. And I have been maxing that out since 2020.
Amazing, amazing. Okay. So that's kind of, well, I guess I have one last one last kind of like comparison question before we sort of get into the best things that you learned in the wealth circle. But what about the way that you were like thinking about money at that time?
I think during COVID, I think a lot of our expenses drastically decreased. So it was kind of a, an opportunity to say, Okay, what do I want to do with this money that is not going to my normal daily activities or events, because I'm been able to save so much, because we're not traveling, and we're not going to concerts and those kinds of things. So I was definitely starting to change my mindset a little bit about like, okay, what are my new values? Now, if I can't spend my money, well earned money on these things that I love. So I was definitely starting to think more about kind of what are those values and what does spending within my values look like, which is one of the first things you talk about in the class. And I think one of the most valuable homework assignments. But secondly, as I stated, before, I, I was a saver and am a saver. And I think, although I had a lot in the bank, I was still feeling guilty about spending some of that money, especially on myself, interesting. And I had all of it that was in cash in one account, which was the equivalent of an emergency fund, but it was too much money to be in, there are too much money for an emergency fund. And so I would feel guilty kind of taking that money out to spend it on other things, or to put it towards other goals. Because mentally that was like, if an emergency happens, this is where I will take this money from. And so I think some of the ways that my mindset has changed since that time with the help of Dr. Laura. And also, no, just starting to have these conversations more with friends and family is kind of actually writing down what your financial goals are, and setting up your account to reflect that. So for the first time, I learned that you could have multiple savings accounts, and you could name them. That doesn't seems like a really basic thing. But it was life changing to me when I now have three savings accounts with different goals. And I want to maintain them with different amounts. And I know, it's so much easier now to say like I'm working towards something. And also like, you know, feel less guilty about the money that I put in my son fund because that's what it's for. Yes. So anyway, I would say that's some of the ways that my mindset has changed since then.
I love it. So okay, so you have been such a saver. Sounds like very naturally. I think we all have these money stories that we tell ourselves everyone's is different based on just based on your upbringing or society, whatever messages you got from outside, what do you think your money story was in your head that made you such a diligent saver? Well, what was that mindset?
I think it was a little bit based in fear, which is like that. I would be afraid that I wouldn't have enough to cover an emergency or that I wouldn't be able to access my son when I needed them. So although a healthy action, saving I don't know that it was rooted in like a healthy reason But I will say now that I think I still have a good chunk of change in check in cash for a different purpose and goal, which will, I'm sure talk about. But I think I feel much more security now in knowing that because I've learned, you know, how to get money out of the market, if I ever should I ever need to. And also, that, you know, I have a lot of other securities in place, either thankfully, like family members who could be a safety net, net, and then emergency, but also like, knowing that knowing my emergency fund number and and even going beyond that number, if I'm really risk averse, that that should protect me in the event of an emergency, and that I don't need to save everything.
Yes. I think that's really cool. Because I think everything that we do, money especially begins with mindset, and it sounds like one of the most powerful things for you is that you shifted your story from one of fear and like, you're not going to have enough to cover something or to really live your life to the fullest. To one of more empowerment and creativity, it sounds like you have now you have a lot of goals. So yeah, let's dig into your goals. So what in spring of 2021? What were you thinking about? What were you working towards? If anything? And it's okay, if the answer is nothing,
I think before taking so, I think before taking the class, and then we can talk about what my goals were as an outcome, and how I've done against. So I think before taking the class, I don't know that I really had a goal, I think I was operating. Like, you know, I'm once two years out of college, I'm like just trying to get settled in my job, I want to put money away towards my retirement and put as much money away as I can based on my current expenses. But aside from that, I didn't really have any, like anything else that I was necessarily working towards. During the course of the class, I developed some goals that I wanted to work toward over the neck, kind of short term, middle term, and like long, long term, which those are most likely to change. But they're only focused on kind of some of the short term goals which were out of kind of immediately coming out of the class. What I wanted to focus on most is, as I said, I was kind of interested in exploring real estate options, and really proving to myself that I could do it if I wanted to. And so my first goal was dead complete, which is like selling my down payments that amazing. Yeah, yeah, hi 50k mean air. And some of the past that I still have in reserves, I just kind of put in a fun name to my downpayment funds. So now has the perfect
thought, though, that's so smart, and so empowering to know that this big pile that you had before now, each little dollar has its own little purpose.
Yeah, exactly. And I can still watch it grow, because it's in a high yield day thing. And it makes me feel good that even though I don't know necessarily, when I will buy, I'm hopeful that it will be in the next three to five years. And so I have access to that money, kind of when when the time is right. Some of my other goals were I think one of my biggest hang up was investing is kind of being an active participant in the process. So because I chose to go the route of exchange traded funds and doing it myself initially, your Schwab, I had to remember to log in every two weeks or something to kind of pick which funds and what amount did I want to invest in based on you know, whatever amount of money was already in my money market account, and I would get hung up on just pressing the buy button. So I think I opened a robo advisor account just to try it. And I've been kind of taking advantage of that as just an alternative to taking the the choice out of it, and the active needing to be an active participant. But I've also still continuing my own DIY investments, and have have now kind of a selection of mutual funds, which you're able to automate. So as soon as the money hits the account, they they put those in those funds for you, and then also still kind of progressing my exchange traded funds.
I think that's really smart. stock market investing does not have to be this thing that you see on Instagram or in the movies where you're like day trading, buying individual stocks. Some people love to do that and use apps like Robin Hood to to follow a stock and buy it and sell it. But I know what Factora teaches, which is very much my personal philosophy is you buy and hold, and you can be as involved as you want. And it sounds like what I think is really smart, is you allocated a percentage to something that's a little bit more manual and a percentage to the robos. side. So you can kind of still do one, but also still get the benefits of something that's way more automated.
Right? And also, it's kind of a comparison of how I'm doing. Yeah, how my, my DIY investments and choices are doing, again, you know, an algorithm, which is helpful compare
how So how has that shaken out, I would
say, relatively speaking, my Schwab investments have been there longer. So I have a little bit more data. And the, you know, point where I bought in is different than now. So I would say they're about the same, my robo average is a little lower than my DIY investments. But I think I've just chosen kind of my risk profiles a little bit differently. And also kind of how, you know, what percentages are international versus, you know, large cap and US states are like different in both of those accounts. So that it's not the exact same, and that I'm not in the exact same font.
Totally. I really love that. So you. So your goal was basically can you explain that back? What was the goal for that? For that? Or maybe that was maybe that was just a bonus? A bonus?
Yeah, really, to just like, automate more of my individual brokerage investment. So and I did that through mutual funds and a robo, but still kind of having my own ability to not like in a non automated fashion, when I thought you got it perfect. Yeah.
And were there any other goals that ended up that you ended up creating, or any other sort of big changes that you made as a result of the wall circle.
So I was really ambitious and said, I would buy a house before I turned 20. And I'm 26 and do not own. That did not happen. But something I did do, which I think was really helpful. And really, a stepping stone to my real estate journey, I think, is, throughout the class, we talk a lot about House hacking, or other ways that we can make real estate achievable earlier in our careers. And my goal at the time was I wanted to buy house, I wanted to live with roommates, and have my roommates cover my mortgage. Instead of that. I actually was house hacking for somebody else. So when I first moved here, to Denver, Colorado, I moved into a house of someone about my age who bought a house here. And I was her house hacker. And so we're like it was kind of an opportunity, like I know
what you're doing. I know.
Exactly. And it was a kind of an opportunity to get an insight to what homeownership looks like, without me being on the line yet. So I got to see kind of what were some of the unknown expenses that came up over the time that I looked there. And, you know, how did she manage leases? And like, how did she figure out my utilities and rent and all that sort of stuff, so I got to see it without being the landlord myself. And while it was an awesome opportunity, I just decided for myself, I'm ready to no longer live with it. Yeah, which, you know, is a worthwhile realization. Yeah. And I think just means that my journey to buy a house may take me a little longer if I don't necessarily want to live with other people in shared space. So I've reframed that goal, now that I'm playing, and I'm hoping to buy in the next three to five years. And I would love for there to be possibly like an in law suite or something like that, or a basement or something that is like a totally detached, separate door base, that I may be able to kind of rent out as its own unit. That would be the ideal. But if that doesn't happen, then I think I would just be taking on the mortgage hold myself
totally. And I think there's so many creative, there's so many ways to get creative with real estate. We bought a house and converted the garage into a side unit. So we live alone, but we run a side unit and we cashflow on just that from our mortgage, which is awesome. I know that you've learned all those examples through Factora. So I'm so confident you could find a way that you could live alone and find a way to cover cash flow you're on your mortgage but still have that privacy.
Yeah, I think love that you guys did that because you didn't necessarily like not buy the house because that they didn't already. Yeah, like you, you created it and made this individual unit out of a space. That wasn't already. So I definitely would, if I choose to go down that route probably have some some money in reserves for renovate totally, totally, as I'm sure you guys did, but yeah, so definitely, definitely an inspiration.
Yeah, well, that's, that's the cool thing about having a community of women is that was not an original idea. Actually, there are a few people that converted garages. And I was like, We could totally do this with our single car garage. And we also there's a whole network of contractors through open house, which is a real estate company that's based in Austin, but they're also nationwide. So there's like, there's so many connections that you can make to like, help make that renovation journey smoother. But all Yeah, that aside. So money is a tool to create the life that you always want to live. That's, I think, the most empowering thing that I learned through Factora. It's not We're not just building our networks for the sake of building our net words, how has your personal life changed over the course of kind of learning that money can be used to build that into something more fulfilling?
So I am now living in Denver, Colorado, and that was only because after completing the Factora, wealth circle I decided to go on a journey of like trying out a bunch of different cities. And so I spent a lot of time and also money toward, toward like, monthly Airbnb, in a couple of different studies that I thought were candidates for both, you know, a personal life change, because I was just kind of seeking, you know, I've grown, I had grown up in Virginia, my whole life and gone to school in Virginia, and I was just like, Okay, this might be a good time to try something else. And also, I was kind of picking cities based on some promising kind of real estate growth over the last couple of years. So I really used my money as a tool to test out a bunch of these cities and live there, like really, truly work remotely lived there for a month before having to move my entire life there. And so that really was one way, kind of an immediate way that I kind of took that mindset and apply that to my life. And through those experiences, decided, I really love Denver, and I moved here like six months later,
that is so cool that you did that. A theme that I'm realizing through this conversation is how strategic you are at such a young age, you know that you want to test things before you actually do them, like you tested the house hacking, you tested, you know, all of these cities. And you can make a smarter decision because of that, which I think is really cool. Do you have a next test a next thing that you might be sort of venturing out into? But just to see?
Yeah, it's a great question. And I think a lot of those choices are rooted in the way I make decision, I like to have all of the information. And it scares me to kind of jump two feet in without that. And I really admire people who, people in my life who do that, and just, they don't necessarily know, but know what's ahead of them, but they just go for it. I unfortunately, don't operate that way. But these, like mini tasks, as you kind of call them helped me to do it in a little bit of a lower stakes, fashion, and have have more of that information to make a decision. I think the living on my own is the current test that I'm in. I am renting a one bedroom apartment, and I absolutely love it. I think I'm definitely a people person and work remotely. So I was a little bit nervous about, you know, never leaving my house. But, but I think it's been a successful test so far. And just definitely remembering to prioritize and make plans with people outside of my apartment because otherwise I may not see see people during the day. Yeah, totally, totally. And I feel like a lot of people can relate to
that. Oh, yes. I mean, when I was in college, I'm sure when you were in college you like I lived with five friends and it was so looking back. It was so fun and it was so fun in the moment. But because you don't have it privacy and you know personal space is always something that is valued or because you don't really get a lot of it. But now that I'm going to say goodbye Life Where I'm not going into an office, I live with my partner. I want roommates. Again, this is a strategy that I'm thinking about is actually finding another couple or finding roommates to live with us because I miss it so much. And actually, my partner and I, when we live in San Francisco, we lived, the two of us lived with just another friend, a woman. It was so fun, and it was never intrusive. But it's just funny how things can flip flop like you are in the space of I want my own. I want my own place. And I'm in the space of I'm tired of having my own space. And I want more people around.
Right? Oh, my gosh, that's so exciting. How are you going to choose through those people? Well,
this is just a pipe dream for now. Just a pipe dream. But I think we'd have to have like a, like a legit application process and like interviews, it would have to it would be like hiring like hiring friends, essentially. Which is crazy. Yeah. But to go back to your many tests. So the wealth circle is a significant financial investment for most people. And you can't test that out. So how were you ready? How did you know that you were ready to jump in with two feet, like you were saying, without being able to fully test drive it.
I highly, highly recommend following Factora on social because I feel like you get a glimpse of some of the like, methodology behind the class and and what kinds of things you'll learn. I also joined a lot of the free webinars that were offered ahead of the class that we're going to talk about, like, what are you actually going to get out of the class? Or what is the format of the class. And in my information gathering mode, I like to know all of those details before I committed to it. And then I I really valued like, I think I called you up. And I said like Julia, tell me about your experience? And like, why should I do this? And why should I not or whatever. And I think talking to someone who's taken the class, also, just it's really helpful and was really helpful for me and assessing that I was ready. I think I also felt like I had time, I wanted to, like be 110% involved, I wanted to be on all of the live sessions, I wanted to be able to feel like all of the homework assignments, you know, really, like really do them and apply them to my life and go get into the nitty gritty details. And so at that time, COVID was still kind of going on and our social schedules were a little bit lighter than normal. I also felt like I had the time and space to think about a lot of these topics and also to like, participate fully in the class. And I think if I hadn't felt like that, I don't know that I would have signed up because I, I would have waited until I felt like I was at a point in time that I did have the ability to
totally help. And the thing about that is that yes, sometimes there are outside circumstances that will make you either more available or less available. But I personally believe it really comes down to a mindset, a mindset of I am going to carve out time for this, I am going to prioritize this no matter what's going on. Like I guess I'm going to skip a happy hour on Wednesday or whatever to be able to show up for the live class because I do think that you get out of it exactly what you put into it. And I knew how much you put into it, and how much you got out of it. And that's why I was so excited to have you on the podcasts because I know that you really you committed and then you were so successful afterwards.
Yeah, I'm I'm still learning so much to learn. And like, you know, test out and I expect my goal will change, even, you know, looking ahead now, but I do feel like I have the tool set to better navigate that world than I did before. And I guess the only other thing I didn't talk about related to the class is one of my favorite parts was the accountability partners that we were matched with, and that you get to kind of debrief what you learned and kind of like how you're applying it to your own life with in between the live sessions and have a little bit more of a deeper dive conversation that is more specific to your own personal like financial journey. And both those during in between the homework assignments, but also like during the live sessions when we were in kind of smaller group discussions. And one thing I'm really grateful for is out of the class I'd asked someone I met through the class to kind of continue to be my accountability partner afterward and I really look forward to those conversations and helps me to kind of stay connected and stay focused on my goals because I'm Do you else was asking me about them. And I really valued that part of social circle, which is a little bit intangible, but is the like connection to other women who are also asking a lot of these same questions, and pursuing a lot of these same goals. And they may be at different stages than you. And that's kind of the benefit, because you'll be able to find someone who is like, already figured out what you're trying to do, or has, you know, lessons learned that they want to share with you.
I really love that I do I have one last question for you, which is about the community like you're talking about the community, like you perfectly described is an intangible amazing benefit. I think that maybe some people listening to this podcast hearing that your net worth was $177,000, at age 24, might feel really intimidating or feel, make someone feel behind if they're older with less of a net worth, which we always say, the time to start is now if you haven't already don't feel behind you are exactly where you supposed to be no matter where you are. How did you feel about the diversity of people of women out there of different life stages during the wall circle,
I loved that about it. Because I was the first time I had really shared that number with anyone. And everyone had, like, so much of their own stories, to, to share with each and every one of us and, and whether they were proud of their network number or not, it was such a like opportunity for growth for all of us. And I think there was no shame, I at least my experience is among my group that shared kind of our initial numbers with each other. There, there was not any shame and whatever your number was, and, you know, there was a woman in my group who I'll never forget that her number was negative. And she was so proud of that number because it was previously more negative. And we were so proud and like excited to hear about her journey to that point. So I think, I don't know, while the number is, is something that I'm proud of, I don't think that it matters. And I don't think that anyone in the class is any less or any more like prepared to take the class because we're all learning, we could have all of that money in the wrong places. And, and, you know, it really is millions left in many years, because you don't do anything about it. So I think just kind of having the perspective of and being able to talk with other women and share kind of your journey up to this point. And where you're headed was definitely like the most exciting part of the conference. Totally,
I think you put that so beautifully. And you have brought so much to the Factora community. I know that Factora is so lucky to have you as as a member. And it's so cool to me that you're still meeting with your accountability partner, and that you're making so many positive changes. I'm so excited to have you back on the podcast in another 18 months, and see what you're doing next. Thank you so much like
me. You're so sweet Julia. Yeah. And thank you for your encouragement. I think this is a team sport.
Yay. Oh, my gosh, that is so good. We need to print out on a t shirt. Finances it personal finance is a team sport.
Yeah. And we're we're all learning together. I think I felt before starting the class like just at such a disadvantage compared to my peers that seemed to knows know much more about money than I did. And I also thought that there was really only one way to build wealth. And I quickly learned that there are many ways and it's really about your, your life situation, your risk tolerance and kind of what trade offs you're willing to give up to achieve those goals. So I, I just there's no one way and there's no right answer. There's just like, so many differences of opinions and ways to get there. And I think we just get to learn about them all together and share what we wish we didn't do.
Which is just as important. I totally agree. Well, thank you so much again, Lexi. And I'll see you in 18 months hopefully sooner. Enjoy. 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.