Transcript
Speaker: Hi, my name is Chris Mitchell. Welcome to another episode of Balancing the Future. And I am here today with Alexandra Rocha. And we're going to talk about investing money, which I love. Everybody loves to make money, but we don't know how to make it work.
Speaker: So you are an expert. You have a podcast. Women Talk Money. Yes, it's it's it's so much more than a podcast. I would say it's a community within Fidelity Investments. Women talk money.
Speaker: And we do. We make it a judgment-free zone for women and everybody to come along and learn about what they need to do to have a strong financial plan.
Speaker: We give you easy, actionable steps um that make it right actionable so you can actually put a plan together. Awesome. Awesome. Tell the audience something else about yourself. They don't know you. They know me. They've seen me enough times, but they need to get to know you. Give us some of your background. Absolutely. ah So my name is Alexandra Rocha, but I do go by Alex. Please, Alex.
Speaker: I have been a financial advisor and in the finance industry for about 15 years. I am a certified financial planner, and I'm very proud of that. um I've loved that part of my career thus far. Now I do something a little different, right? i wear different hats within the company that I work for. i am the host of Women Talk Money, which I'm very proud of. And I am also in client management.
Speaker: So I help our, um think of it as our workplace clients, manage their portfolios um a little bit better. And so that's that's what I do. But for the majority of my career, I've been customer facing boots on the ground, helping people put financial plans together.
Speaker: You know, it's so exciting to be here with you and with your background. OK. Obviously, you know, you're woman. But you are experienced in this business that is so complicated. How did you get started? What motivated you to take this path and be so successful? Because I know you're successful. You don't work for Fidelity unless you're successful. There's some good people there.
Speaker: So explain that to you. We do have some great people. um Thank you for that question. By chance, i went to school for creative communications. I wanted to be a and creative art director for an ad agency.
Speaker: I lived in Puerto Rico and about 15 years ago, right, we all know what was happening around that time. a lot of financial turmoil and my family and I actually had to relocate. I moved to Cocoa Beach, Florida. I don't know if you're familiar. Oh, yeah. ah There were not a lot of ad agency jobs in the area at that time. And so one thing led to another. we went to our bank and to open, establish our American accounts.
Speaker: And my banker was like, hey, why don't you get a job here? i didn't know what else to do. i I didn't have quite of a plan. So i started working for the bank and fell in love with it almost immediately. fold Almost immediately. i All I could think was...
Speaker: If somebody had taught my parents what I've learned in such a short amount of time, maybe we wouldn't have gone through what we went through. Right.
Speaker: And that was motivation enough to say, what else don't I know? What else do I need to learn? That led to more certifications, more licenses. And now 15 years later, absolutely a career that I love.
Speaker: So explain why, because sometimes we get on the path and I think the younger generation and they hear about certifications and they hear about all of the sweat equity that goes into being a successful individual.
Speaker: They just can't connect the dots. It doesn't happen overnight. So help them understand the graduation of that and why, you know, you have to remain focused and be intentional about it. I love that question, Chris, because you're so right. And I also get that question from the audience all the time.
Speaker: um So I'll start by saying that yeah i think even eight years into my finance career, I was still thinking, is this what I want? Is this what I want my life to be? Is this what I really want to be doing?
Speaker: But the opportunity presented itself and I went and I got my certified financial planner and. Which is not easy. No, no, no, it's not. No, it's not. But totally worth it.
Speaker: It meant the world. And I'll say this in a very, very vulnerable way. um I felt like it legitimized me in an industry when I hadn't studied it.
Speaker: So and I think this happens to a lot of people because i'll I'll speak to other advisors and they studied engineering or architecture or something completely different and then ended up in this career.
Speaker: So if the same thing happened to you, maybe you studied something else and then ended up as an advisor. to me, the certified financial planner certification legitimized my place in the industry.
Speaker: It gave me an education and it filled holes that i didn't know that I didn't know, that I didn't know that I had. um So having the certified financial planner really gave me a big notch in confidence in continuing to go after this career. And I'll say that after I got it,
Speaker: It motivated me even more into what my next step was going to be and my next promotion and my next promotion. And now I can't imagine doing anything else.
Speaker: Right. um So I would say the certification helped me legitimize even to myself what I was doing. i want to I want to continue that line of thought, though, because when I talk to students, I get the question a lot.
Speaker: Should I do my master's? Should I focus on my CFP or should I focus on my CFA? And it's impossible to impart experience on these younger minds when you're having these conversations because you want to be like, you can't fast forward it.
Speaker: You can't fast forward. You're going to have to go step by step in life. to figure out what you want your life to be, right? So I remember having that question, should I get my master's or should I get my CFP? And I remember one of my directors saying, I don't have either, right? What do you want to do?
Speaker: If you want to be a big leader, maybe the master helps you. But if you want to be client facing, the CFP helps you. I get this question all the time. Should I get my CFP or my CFA?
Speaker: What do you want your life to look like? Do you want to be customer facing? Do you want to be thinking about the plan that you're going to put together for somebody so that they can have financial freedom, so that they can have financial peace?
Speaker: Or are you a numbers guy and you want to be working with the mutual funds and you want to be working with the investment side? You don't have to have all the certifications, but you want to think about what you want your day to day to look like, because that should dictate what next certification you get.
Speaker: I hope that was helpful. Oh, absolutely. Okay, good. You know, when I think about the exercise of growing up in corporate America, you need help. You want me to need help. Explain to the to the younger, and maybe it's not younger audience, that how it works. You need help.
Speaker: It doesn't just happen because you show up and you're proficient. you You need help. Explain what that means. My brain splinters into a million things that I want to comment to that. But I'll say this.
Speaker: One of the best... Corrections that I ever got was I talked about sponsorship and the importance of sponsorship. And somebody said, uh-uh, what you need is advocacy, right?
Speaker: So at some point we used to say things like, oh, it's who you know, and it's who knows you. That's evolved, right? Too many people know that one. You need people who are going to advocate for you when you're not in the room.
Speaker: People who are going to say, hey, you know what? I think Chris would be great for that opportunity when Chris isn't in the room. That's what you need to look for. And that only happens in authentic networking, right?
Speaker: You have to look for people that are doing what you want to be doing, similar to what I talked about with certification and education. Think about what you want to be doing. who's in that space naturally bring up things that are interesting to you naturally bring up ways that you could potentially help them in the industry and space that you're trying to get into have that authentic connection with that person because then that person then is naturally going to think about you when you're not in the room right as opposed to and this happens to me all the time where people will put themselves on my calendar and they'll just be like hi
Speaker: It's like, and I love meeting people, right? Like I i i want a new friend every day. You have to think about it in a networking way. You're not just making friends, you're networking. So what's in it for me?
Speaker: It should be a two-way street. It should be a great networking conversation for both of you, even if they're an executive, even if you're just starting out. What can you bring to the table that can actually be And added value to that person as well.
Speaker: So I'll say, I know I'm verbose, but I'll say this, that authentic networking is going to get you so much further in your career than just having a list of people that you've connected with.
Speaker: Right. It's also probably going to open more doors that you're interested in as opposed to just opening any door. You know, i I think there's some confusion there when it comes to an advocate.
Speaker: and OK. And confusion lies between the coach okay and the sponsor. So when I say coach and I say sponsor, based on my upbringing within corporate, I need I had a coach.
Speaker: I mean, one was assigned to me, but I also had a sponsor that I could go to and they would help me be successful in whatever the equation. who When I say that, what does it mean to you? Have you ever had a sponsor, someone come alongside and was there for you? You say advocate, but it I think one in the same. I think it's one in the same. Yes, because when I think of a coach, I think of a mentor.
Speaker: Right. So I have a lot of mentors, especially as my career has grown. um and I say this because I want this to this message not to just be for people that are starting out in their careers. Right. And as I've continued growing in my career, i have found myself in spaces where I didn't know everything.
Speaker: Right. So reaching out to people that I knew knew more than me and saying, I need to learn from you, being vulnerable in that space and saying, hey, I I have a missing gap here that I need you to help me fill.
Speaker: I think of those people as my mentors. I'm not expecting them to go behind closed doors and advocate for me. I'm learning to grow from them. I'm I'm looking to learn as much as I can from them. Those are my mentors. Those are my coaches.
Speaker: My advocates are typically people that are going to be positioned higher than me. Right. And maybe I meet with them quarterly. Maybe I see an article that I know is aligned to something that they're working on, and I'm just going to send it over to them, right?
Speaker: The idea is there is enough of a connection with that advocate that they know what I'm working on, they know the value that I bring, and they know the spaces I want to move into.
Speaker: So I'll share something very quickly. um When I started doing videos for Fidelity, my senior leadership would say things like, Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? And I'd say, I think I want to do these videos for Fidelity. I think I think i want that to be my job.
Speaker: And they'd be like, well, that's not a thing. i said, that's okay. Because one day you're going to be in a meeting that I'm not a part of. And someone is going to say that they need someone to do this thing that I'm telling you I want to do.
Speaker: And I just need you to remember my name. So what happened? Time and time again, my name is remembered. It's advocated for in rooms, right? And then all of a sudden this work comes up that didn't exist before, right?
Speaker: That's advocacy. That is what you want to work on. And that only comes again from authentic networking. You know, something that comes to mind to me is community and what that looks like and what that feels like.
Speaker: For me, I'm a male, okay? In corporate, I want to see people who look like me, okay? Similar backgrounds, okay? we We're certified, certified internal auditors, certified public accountants.
Speaker: How important is community? In general to me or within my own company? To you. I think it's super important. um I think in a myriad of reasons, I think when we talk about community, when we talk about finances, it's so much easier to talk to somebody that looks like you, sounds like you, right? um Even myself, I've moved into spaces within Fidelity that really focus on women. You mentioned it earlier.
Speaker: I'm the host of Women Talk Money, which is a community within in Fidelity that I'm so proud to be a part of that team because it really provides a space a judgment-free space for women to come and learn about finances in a jargon-free way.
Speaker: And I need to make this very clear, right? it's We don't dumb anything down. We don't make it simpler. we just make it actionable, right? We make it easy for women to understand and then to put into action so that they can put their own plans together. And I think I'm so fortunate to get to work with a company and work for a company that allows this space to exist, that promotes and sponsors and advocates for us to have this space um because it does make a difference. We have over 750,000 community members and we are constantly growing growing
Speaker: It's just it's so important. It's so important because it's it's the conversation we have with our daughters, with our sisters, with our mothers. Those are the conversations that sometimes have the most impact. And being able to create a space for all mothers and all sisters and all of us to come together is. um Man, it's something I can hang my hat on.
Speaker: know, my last question in this particular area as it relates to your background, what what do you want a young person coming into corporate to know about you and why and how you got to your level?
Speaker: You're a senior professional professional. leader within fidelity, give them something that they can take away and and and and use and and to help them plan to be successful like you are.
Speaker: i I would say to them the same thing I say to my youngest sister. ah People like to work with people they like. ah okay Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, whether you are, right, a little quieter or the loudest person in the room, just always be someone other people want to be around. I think that's something that's really important and maybe something that's lost. You mentioned this earlier where just because you're good doesn't mean you're going to get the promotion, right? Or just because you have really good work doesn't mean you're going to be elevated.
Speaker: um This is one of those things that really sets you apart and people don't think about it. um There is a dividend that is paid when you are kind.
Speaker: When you are positive, when you are someone who is trying to find the solution instead of pointing at the problem, having that mentality and bringing that to any group is going to make you an asset because anybody can point the problem out.
Speaker: Anybody can complain. Anybody can, you know, talk about what could be done better. But it takes a lot to be the one that's talking about the solution, who's bringing that silver lining to the conversation.
Speaker: and again, in the long run, I think that'll pay more dividends than any other certification or degree ever will. Awesome, awesome. A certified financial planner.
Speaker: You know what comes to mind? Is why should we be saving? Why is it so important? Because we figure this out later in life, that how important it is to put aside monies for retirement.
Speaker: Why is it so important? Oh, my goodness. I mean, that alone could take the entire time that we have scheduled today. Why is it so important to save? So we can make our dreams goals and that then we can accomplish them.
Speaker: Right. Whether you want to save for an emergency, whether you want to eventually retire or you want to buy a home. What? Those are dreams. But when we have a financial plan that's tied to it, now it's a goal.
Speaker: And now there are steps that I can take to actually retire, to buy that house, to have that emergency savings account. And that's going to give you the peace of mind that you need to be able to do anything and everything else that you want to do with your life.
Speaker: You know, I was talking with my son not too long ago, and we were talking about saving. Okay. I'm just curious who your clients are. Because he, I recommended that he speak with someone who's smarter than I am, because he thinks I'm okay when it comes to being able to have money at my age. But who are your clients? Who are you serving?
Speaker: Well, so for me in particular, it's a little different, right? So I have evolved in my career. And so while at a point in my career, I was customer facing and working in one-on-one scenarios, I now support a client team. um So people that have, or let me say companies that have their 401ks at Fidelity, I am part of the service team that helps support their needs.
Speaker: In particular, I am, think of it as the population strategist, for lack of a better word, right? i um i learn everything that is relevant and important to the population of that client, of that company.
Speaker: And then I bring Fidelity's absolute power and resources to be able to support those needs from that population. So a little different than what I used to do, ah but still within the same vein. Okay.
Speaker: So I'm going ask this question because I know the audience is probably thinking the same thing because we think about financial planners. how Where are you getting your information? Meaning you've got key indicators out there. You've got reports. What are you monitoring to be so proficient at helping others?
Speaker: I would say just like probably any profession out there, there is going to be different things, different avenues, resources that you can tie into. The beauty of my industry is that we are very regulated, right? So we have continued education that we're going to have to take on a yearly basis, bi-yearly basis. There's just all kinds of trainings.
Speaker: um But then there's also just your regular run-of-the-mill things that are available to everybody. reading the major news outlets, seeing and keeping up with what's happening in the world so that you can talk to your clients and to your customers in an intelligent way.
Speaker: um i would say, right, I don't I'm yeah i'm not going to name specific names, ah but making sure that you're reading the major news outlets. And I'll say this and I'll say it to everybody. Make sure that you read a varied amount Okay.
Speaker: a lot of different perspectives when it comes to a financial decision not just one person's perspective um yeah i myself included You know, when I think about investing and the things that come to mind, when inflation's not right.
Speaker: OK. When interest rates on the rise. What does that mean to you when I say that? I know we didn't I didn't put that question to you before, but what does that mean? Because I know things happen and we need to be concerned about it when things are rising and falling and shifting. It affects what we should be doing.
Speaker: Absolutely. But I would say, Chris, that the answer to that question, i don't know that you're going to love. I don't know that anybody ever loves this answer, but it really depends. Right. That's why it's so important to have a plan in place.
Speaker: I'll take you to a very different place. um The question I get a lot is on alternative investments. Should I put crypto? Should I have real estate? Should I have this? Should I have that? Well, guess what?
Speaker: Everything can have a place within your portfolio. Everything can have a place within your plan, but you have to first come up with what that plan looks like. So if you are having a conversation with a financial advisor, you're putting a financial plan together, there's going to be a space within that portfolio that should be invested in stock.
Speaker: And there is a portion of that that should be invested potentially in bonds. But that is going to be 100% dictated. on what your risk profile and what your risk tolerance is.
Speaker: However, I know what you're asking me, so I am going to answer your other question, right? You never know what's going to happen in the market. And sometimes when the markets have been really, really strong, we tend to get this false confidence.
Speaker: And maybe we take a little more risk than we're actually truly comfortable with. Right. And so when the markets take a turn, right, whether it's momentary or a little bit longer, you may not actually be ready to take the hit that your portfolio is going to take.
Speaker: So having that diversity within your portfolio, making sure you're invested in bonds, making sure that your money is in a high yield savings account. These are things that are going to strengthen your overall portfolio, regardless of what's happening in the market. You know, a thing that comes to mind is diversification.
Speaker: There's some magic around that, that everyone needs to know about stocks, bonds, stocks. Where should my money be? And I want you to share on that.
Speaker: But I've got something else to ask you as well, because I'm thinking about as you explain this, because we think we can all get it done with a 401k as a solution.
Speaker: So think about that as you're delivering that response as well. Okay. That's a loaded question. There's multilayer multi-layer question in there. okay I love it. I love it. Okay. We'll talk about diversity of accounts, but I want to start with diversity of assets, which is, I think, where we were starting. um When we talk about having our money invested.
Speaker: Unfortunately, oftentimes what happens is people go to the extreme, right? If I'm invested, I'm 100% stocks. I'm 100% risk. And that's not true. You can have a portfolio that doesn't have a ton of risk, that doesn't have a ton of stock.
Speaker: And the way that you do it is by diversifying that portfolio. Right. Having some stocks, which are the ones that stereotypically are ah ah attached or aligned to ah greater returns.
Speaker: You have bonds, which have still some risk, but not as much as the stocks. Right. And then you have liquid investments or cash investments like money markets or commonly CDs. hmm.
Speaker: right Having a well-diversified portfolio means you have a good mix of all three of these assets, stocks, bonds, and cash.
Speaker: Now, the amount that goes into each is going to be 100% reflected on your preference. Are you somebody that wants that risk? Are you somebody that's going to be able to stomach that risk?
Speaker: Or are you somebody that's going to want something a little more conservative that lets you sleep through the night? Right. But having a well diversified portfolio is going to help you Take advantage of all of the wins of the market, all of the earnings of the market, but it's also going to protect you from any of the swings in the market, right? If we have all our money in the stock market and the stock market takes a hit, oh, we're going to see that reflected in our portfolios.
Speaker: Whereas if we have a good balance between stocks, bonds, and cash, maybe we won't see as big of a swing as if we were over-concentrated in just one thing. I know you asked me about diversity of accounts, but I'm going to take it one step further, if I may.
Speaker: When we talk about diversity, we're also talking about what we do within that bucket. Right. So we talked about stocks, bonds and cash. Well, within the stock bucket, we want to make sure that we're investing in the U.S. stock market, that we're investing in the international stock market, yeah in big companies and medium companies and small companies.
Speaker: Why? Because not everybody's going to be the winner every year. so you're going to want to make sure that you have money in different accounts. This is what we see a lot.
Speaker: It's an over-concentrated position. Somebody will say, oh, I have 60% in stock. And then you look at their account, and 60% of that portfolio is one company.
Speaker: Now, we don't want this to happen, but we've seen it historically where the companies that were too big to fail... Did in fact fail. yes What happens if you hit 60% of your portfolio in just that one company?
Speaker: You felt it in your stomach, right? and Like in the back of your knees, you were like, oh, not me. That's why you want to diversify, not just in the types of assets, but in the investments within those assets as well.
Speaker: That's my first answer. I told you was it was a loaded question, Chris. Okay. The second part is diversity of accounts themselves. We talk about all the time, all the different accounts that you can establish.
Speaker: In reality, it's going to be based on your goals. If I'm trying to save for my kid's education, I'm focusing on a 529. That is ah an account that allows me to set money aside for that specific goal.
Speaker: If I'm saving for retirement, I have a 401k or a 403b if I work for a tax-exempt market, right? I can also potentially have a pension plan, or I could save in a personal retirement account an IRA.
Speaker: It literally stands for Individual Retirement Account, right? There are a lot of different types of accounts. So what I would say is, first and foremost, you don't need them all to be successful.
Speaker: That's a lie. That's a common mistake people think is I'm not successful if I don't have one of each of the accounts. Nope. It's dependent on your on your goals, right? And the second thing is you can do things slowly.
Speaker: Start with your emergency savings account. If you have an employer that has a 401k or a 403b, try to get to the company match, right? If you're trying to save for something else, maybe a brokerage account is more appropriate.
Speaker: The point in this, Chris, is not to make you an expert of the types of accounts that are available, is to recognize that there are a lot of accounts that are available and they're aligned to your goal.
Speaker: So that first thing we're going to need, I told you, you weren't going to love the answer. It goes back to your plan. What's your plan? What are your goals? Now we can do something about it.
Speaker: Is that helpful? Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, I'm going to toss this out there because I know as CPAs, we get a lot of pressure when it comes to numbers. And we try and for whatever the reason, the world believes that we're proficient investors when it comes to monies. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Could you share with this audience? Because as CPAs, there's a lot of pressure on them. But because you're a CPA doesn't mean you know exactly how to invest money. One is not like the other. Oh, my goodness. Could you share on that? Yes. I actually love this question because it happens to me as a certified financial planner.
Speaker: where people will come and ask me very stock specific recommendations. And it's like, oh, that's not really what I focus on. Right. And so I think we we share that similarity in that because we're in this industry, people just assume that we're going to be able to check all of the boxes in the conversation. And that's just not true.
Speaker: Even as a certified financial planner that works with a brokerage house, I will still say, hey, there's somebody else that's going to do that, right? There's somebody else who's going to be able to have that conversation with you because my role is to look at the whole plan.
Speaker: Are we saving for your kid's college? Are we saving for that house of your dreams? Are we saving for retirement? I'm helping you put that plan together. And for the record and the audience, I'm also making sure that you talk to your tax professional.
Speaker: Hey, there's only so much I can do. And just like with investments, I'm not going to get into which specific stock you should buy. I'm also not going to tell you what you should do with your taxes.
Speaker: Right. At least for us, I know that there are a lot of financial consultants that will work with our customers, CPAs. Hey, I bring a certain amount of expertise.
Speaker: You bring another set of expertise. And together, we're going to set up that client for the best success in their financial plan and in their financial future. You know, another question that comes to mind, and I think when we talk about investments, I don't hear a lot about insurance.
Speaker: Please explain how important it is that you balance your portfolio and have insurance be a part of the mix. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Especially... When we talk about a complete financial plan, right? We've talked about the three-legged stool of a financial plan.
Speaker: It's your income, your investments, and your insurance, right? Protecting everything that you have worked so hard to build. um it Insurance is really going to be a a life stage thing.
Speaker: um and I'll explain myself. If I am in my 30s and I have a couple of young ones at home, And maybe a a sizable mortgage that I'm responsible for.
Speaker: I'm going to want to make sure that if I'm no longer around, those kids can go to school and that house can get paid for, right? We talk about insurance and we talk about it in numbers, but we have to talk about it in real, actual, real life.
Speaker: That's what insurance gets you, is knowing that if you're no longer around, you never know when that happens, that the ones you love are still going to be cared for. Again, those little ones are going to school.
Speaker: That house is paid for. That's insurance during that life stage. But there are other people who think about insurance as a way to gain generational wealth.
Speaker: Right? Correct. Let's talk about it. know about that. Let's talk about it, right? So what if i only was able to save x amount? Because I was a single mom with kids at home.
Speaker: I went through a horrible divorce. Whatever. We all have a sad story and we can all understand. fill in the blank there, right? Maybe it took me a little bit longer to start saving. And so what I save is what I'm going to need.
Speaker: But when I'm no longer around, want to give my kids maybe a little more leverage than I had, right? A little bit more of ah of a leg up or help than I had. Well, I can get life insurance that is tax-free, right? So when I pass,
Speaker: My children will inherit the death benefit, right, the payment of that ah life insurance, and they will then be able to use that. I was able to use my savings.
Speaker: I was able to take care of myself in retirement without thinking that I had to leave anything behind because I had this other instrument that I was using for generational wealth building.
Speaker: Right. So insurance can have multiple purposes. Again, it comes back to your plan, what your goals are and ultimately what you want to prioritize. Right. So you may hear in this conversation like, oh, I want some of that and I want a little bit of that. And I think I need a little bit of that.
Speaker: And I think everybody feels that way when they start digging into their finances. Right. Ultimately, though, we have to remember that we can do things in steps. There are things that we're going to prioritize and these are the things I'm going to focus on first.
Speaker: And then maybe I add this and maybe then I add that. But it's all about what's most important to me. But insurance is definitely something we need to talk about. You know, another question mark out there and it's related to insurance is the term versus the whole.
Speaker: Could you explain that? Yeah, absolutely. and And I kind of did in the example that I just provided. I know you did, but I want the audience to hear it. Yeah, absolutely. So term insurance is going to be exactly what it sounds like.
Speaker: I am being insured, protected for a certain term. It could be 10 years. It could be 20 years. It could be 30 years. The longer the term, the more expensive it is, right?
Speaker: Whole life policy is going to be something that insures you, as it suggests, for life, right? I am going to pay into this insurance. And when I die, which is the only thing I'm guaranteed in life, then that death benefit is going to pay.
Speaker: so in the prior and the prior example that I provided, I said, if I'm younger and I have a young family, maybe that term insurance makes a little more sense because that term insurance is going to get me over the next 20, 25 years.
Speaker: That's what I'm going to be able to use to pay the mortgage. Of course, my spouse would be the one paying the mortgage by that point or my children's education. But after that 25, 30 years, maybe I don't need term insurance anymore. There's nothing that I'm trying to protect.
Speaker: Now I have to look at what is my bigger picture? What is that next priority? Okay. Awesome. Awesome. is that Is that fair or did you want me to go in more detail? no No more detail is necessary. And the way I see the whole life, it's a generational deal. People don't understand how generational wealth is passed.
Speaker: And you look at the, how can I put it, very successful and wealthy people. They have more whole life insurance than you can ever imagine. So I'm just putting that out there. yeah So we talk about transfer of wealth, generational wealth.
Speaker: Absolutely a way to do that. Another thing on my mind is how young is too young to think about investing? and It's not a thing. It's not a thing. Exactly. OK. OK. Please explain it because the audience needs to hear this. Yeah. Because I know we've got folks that are graduating from school trying to figure out investments. You've got folks that may be in high school and some younger than that that are setting aside monies.
Speaker: How young is too young? That that is. So there is no such thing as too young. Right. I'll start with that. And then I'll say this. One of my favorite questions to ask people as they're reaching retirement is how did you learn about money?
Speaker: Particularly when you see one of these plans and they just have money all over the place and you just know this person's never going have to worry about money. How did you learn about money? Right. Who set you up for this trajectory?
Speaker: And most of the time, the most successful, the most wealthy clients I've had their parents taught them. Right. Somebody in their family taught them.
Speaker: And so on the other side of that conversation is the thousands and thousands upon thousands of conversations where people said, i wish I'd started sooner.
Speaker: Right. I started my job. I took it out. I life happened, you know, fill in the blank again. But I didn't save the way that I wanted to save. Right. Well, imagine if all those people had a parent that had said, hey, keep it in there.
Speaker: Keep saving. Keep putting more money in there. Make sure that you're putting in the company match. There'd be a lot more people reaching that retirement converse that retirement age with the type of conversation that they want to be having, right? So to answer your question, it is never too soon to start talking to your children about money.
Speaker: Nobody is going to teach them in school or in college unless they actually go for this in life. So think about the benefit and the trajectory that you're going to put them through or that you're going to put them on if you're the one talking to your kids about money.
Speaker: And it can start simple. Right here at Alpha, one of the board members said to me, um You know, I went to my nieces and I talked to them about stocks.
Speaker: And now they all have a little stock account and they all own Disney. Right. And these girls are in elementary school. And when they were going to Disney, they said to all their friends, I own Disney.
Speaker: I own Disney. That's my company. Right. And then all those other little girls that had no idea what she was talking about. Now they want a brokerage account and they want to own Disney.
Speaker: Right. So starting that at a young age so that it's not, hey, I'm graduating college and I've never had this conversation before or I'm 35 and this is the first time I'm leaning into this conversation. Right.
Speaker: Let's be a part of the narrative that changes that and starts it as young as possible. And I'll say this, there are so many different types of accounts for kids nowadays, whether you're trying to save for their education, which is a 529 education plan, or if you're trying to get them set up for retirement, Roth for kids, brokerage accounts for kids, you can start them very, very early and set that discipline at a young age.
Speaker: So the question that's on my mind now is, and I hate to use get it wrong. What is taking advantage of the opportunity to invest look like? And I don't want to say get it wrong, but what is getting it right look like?
Speaker: o What does it give some give the audience some steps so they will have a just something they can take away from this conversation and move forward?
Speaker: So I'll say this because that's a very general ask. I have a conversation with a financial professional, right? And it could be at Fidelity, right? We don't charge for that. Look for somebody that you're comfortable speaking to and have a conversation because financial planning is an ocean.
Speaker: And we don't want you to get lost in that ocean. Anybody who's in this profession, for the most part, is trying to steer you in the right direction. So start with that conversation to get you started in thinking about what's even important to you, right?
Speaker: That is actually the number one thing that you have to do because you may sit down with a financial advisor and realize that you shouldn't even be thinking about investing because you need to be saving for emergencies.
Speaker: Right. And you need to be saving for other things that are more important. Right. That's the first thing. But the reason we invest instead of just save is because if we had to save money,
Speaker: only we'd have to save every dollar we were ever going to need. Can you imagine having to save $400,000 for a house? That's a lot of saving. But if I invest it, I give my money the opportunity to also make money, right? You may have heard of this before, compound interest. compounding. It's your best, best friend.
Speaker: It's your money making money. And then that extra money is also making money for you. And all of that extra money keeps making money for you. So you want to make sure that that money is working for you. And remember, it doesn't just have to be aggressive. It can be in a stock portfolio. It can be in a bond portfolio. It can be in a money market.
Speaker: Just make sure that those dollars are working for you. So I know we're about almost out of time. So what is your takeaway? What is the thing you want to leave with the audience? What is the one, two, three? Sometimes I say one, two, three, and people give me five, which is fine. Yeah. But what what's the takeaway? What do you want to leave behind with this audience? Oh, my goodness. So can I ask specifically the audience is CPA professionals, correct? Yes. Internal auditors, too. Internal auditors. Because i'm an internal auditor. So we have to add that to the mix. so To the mix. I love it. I love it. Okay. So I'll say this.
Speaker: It is never too late. Okay. It is better to start yesterday, but today is just as good. You are never too late to start. So if you're listening to this and you're in your 20s, start.
Speaker: If you're in your 60s and you haven't started, start. Because it is never too late. I will never get tired of saying that. Right? It's better to start today. Awesome. Right? Second thing is protect what you've worked so hard to build.
Speaker: Add your beneficiaries to your accounts. Right? Right. We talked about insurance and we talked about that type of protection. there' is an There is another type of protection. It's super easy and it goes unnoticed way too often.
Speaker: Go online and make sure all of your accounts have beneficiaries set up on them. It doesn't cost you anything. It's probably going to take you a few minutes and you'll have the peace of mind of knowing that if anything does happen to you, the people you want are going to get the money.
Speaker: And third, but definitely most important, I would say remember that our jobs not even our jobs, our roles in this industry is to help people who didn't get to learn everything we learned, right? We forget that learning curve. We forget that it was like drinking out of a fire hose and most people can't learn that much.
Speaker: It is our job to steer them in the right direction, ask the right questions, stay curious and help them as if you were helping your favorite person in the world. And I think we make the world a better place when we do that.
Speaker: It's been an absolute pleasure talking to you today. I've learned so much. I've learned about your background. I've learned about how to invest money, which I should know. i'm I'm a little older than most, but it's been a pleasure. And I know you're busy. So thank you for being a part of this.
Speaker: Thank you for having this conversation, for inviting me, and I'd be happy to have another conversation in the future. Awesome. Awesome. You know, I'm going look into the camera and I'm to say this. Investing money is absolutely necessary so you can provide that security for your family. Don't be afraid.
Speaker: Okay, it doesn't matter your background, just get started, get started as soon as possible, because I want to make sure that we're all very successful and we're comfortable and we're providing for the ones that we love.
Speaker: So thank you for tuning in to balance in the future. And I look forward to our next conversation.
