Transcript
Speaker: We still have this image of retirement as a time when we sit in our rocking chairs on the porch, drinking lemonade, watching the world go by. That is not the modern day retirement. I'm Tamina and I'm extending a heartfelt invitation to you as we join forces in reclaiming economic power for women in a world that is often structured against us.
Speaker: We'll dive into the minds of accomplished female leaders, investors and entrepreneurs to equip you with the confidence and knowledge to build wealth for yourself and other women. So buckle up, get ready to learn and be inspired to take action.
Speaker: Hello, hello, and welcome back. A brief note about today's episode. Stephanie and I actually had this conversation a while back in 2021 for my first podcast, Femhive, which was all about helping young female professionals transition from school to the workplace. But because everything we talked about in this episode is still highly relevant to this day, I made the decision to resurface our conversation
Speaker: as part of this new podcast. Enjoy. As you all know, I'm very passionate about personal finance and women's financial literacy. And while the vast majority of our listeners are just at the beginning of their career, you can never start thinking about retirement too early. So I'm absolutely thrilled to be welcoming Stephanie McCullough to the show to talk about saving for retirement.
Speaker: Stephanie founded Sophia Financial in 2011 after 14 years as a financial advisor with the goal to empower women to make wise financial decisions and reduce their money stress.
Speaker: She has found that women of a certain age are faced with a particular set of problems around the goal of retirement, especially women who are facing it on their own. And she believes the traditional financial services industry is ill -equipped to handle this problem. She and her team provide non -judgmental holistic financial planning as well as investment management and are devoted to helping their clients build confidence, resilience, and joy in their lives. It's not just about the money. Wow, Stephanie.
Speaker: That's so great. Welcome to the Fan Life Podcast. It's really, really great to have you. Thanks, Simina. I'm thrilled to be here. Awesome. Well, let's just dive in. Stephanie, I just mentioned it in the intro. Multiple listeners are still young, mainly in their 20s, and retirement, at least in a traditional sense, seems to be so far away. Why should our listeners care about retirement now?
Speaker: Yeah, and I think you captured it right there when you said, in the traditional way. I think we still have this image of retirement as a time when we sit in our rocking chairs on the porch, drinking lemonade, watching the world go by. That is not the modern day retirement. When I talk about retirement, and I actually have a podcast too called Take Back Retirement, and part of the title is, let's take back that word. What I would define, quote unquote, retirement as,
Speaker: is the point when you get to a phase of your life where you no longer are obliged to work for money. It's a choice. You can decide what you want to do. So to me, it's about focusing on freedom, focusing on having options, and it might be, you know, I've heard people call
Speaker: their pot of money, the effort fund, which means if they're stuck in a bad job, a bad relationship, a bad apartment, who knows what? They could say, effort, I'm out of here because I've got that money, I've saved up. So it's saving money for the future, for future you is going to stand you in good stead no matter what the future looks like.
Speaker: I love that. And I think I would love to spend a little bit more time talking about that work optional piece that you're mentioning. Because again, I love that picture that you were describing of us sitting on a porch in our rocking chairs ride when we were in our 60s and 70s.
Speaker: That's actually not how retirement has to look like anymore, right? Especially for younger generations, some of them might want to become financially independent early on so they can really pick and choose what projects to work on, how much money they will
Speaker: Ask for so on and so on so that's that's really really interesting and i think something that we definitely need to challenge even in today's society in the 21st century because i feel like that that still hasn't
Speaker: hasn't arrived everywhere so could you maybe share a little bit more about how you work with your female clients specifically on that piece of challenging retirement in a traditional sense?
Speaker: Yeah, you know, I always say I can't help you figure out what to do with your money until I know what jobs that money needs to do for you. Money is a tool. It's not an end in itself. It's not like we're all out to just get as many dollars as we can and die with the biggest pot of gold coins, right? Like, no, the money is a tool. It's, for better or for worse, what we need in this world we live in.
Speaker: to get the stuff, to get the things, the services that we need to live our lives. When we start out with a new client, it's always about what makes you happy? What do you love? What causes you stress? What do you want to create in this life? That's the fundamental beginning part of the vision.
Speaker: we go from there about, okay, how can we figure out what financial resources you have available, either earning power or assets you've saved up or whatever it might be. And then how do we align those with where you're trying to go? So we try not to impose any of our assumptions or value judgments on the client situation.
Speaker: I like that because at the end of the day, you know, personal finance, you know, already has it in the title. It's very personal. So, um, your clients really have to figure out for themselves what their priorities are in life and how they can align their, their spending habits, their saving and investing habits with their own personal values. Because what might be important to me might not be very important to you, Stephanie and vice versa. Right. So, um, there, there, there is no one size.
Speaker: It's all, and I would love to spend some more time talking about that, and I realize I'm jumping ahead a little bit, but since we're already on that topic of asking yourself, okay, what do I want my money to do for me? Obviously, people are so quick to judge people who care a lot about money, and then you oftentimes hear people say about, yeah, but money is not the most important thing in the world. And while I would agree with that,
Speaker: statement. I love the way you've raised money as a tool, right? It is a means to an end where money allows you to have certain freedom in your life, to create a life for yourself and for your loved ones that you dream of, right? So what left for you to maybe share with our listeners when we are thinking about
Speaker: obviously retirement, which is really important, but maybe when it comes to saving and establishing a money mindset in general, what questions should one ask themselves in order to get closer to figuring out a system and approach that work for them? Yeah, this is a big one. I'm so glad you asked that because
Speaker: So often, the things that we think we want or that we're working towards or the life path we found ourselves on, if we really dig into it, maybe we're operating on someone else's values and priorities and not our own, right? Do I really love cars? Do I want that big fancy expensive car even if it isn't convertible? Wait, my dad loves cars or my cousin loves cars, right? I kind of absorb that.
Speaker: I think you do have to question your own goals. One of the things that I have borrowed from Danielle Laporte, who I adore, she talks about your core desired feelings. Often when clients come to me and they have
Speaker: a thing as their goal. Let's say a woman wants to buy a beach house. I'll try to dig into that a little bit instead of assuming, okay, you want a beach house, let's figure that out. What is it about the beach house? Why do you want that? Sometimes behind the scenes, maybe I've looked at the numbers and that would be a big stretch unless it's like a beach shack or something.
Speaker: I really do want to know like, what is it about the beach house that is so appealing to you? Where did that desire come from? And with one client, she said, I want to make amazing memories with my grandkids.
Speaker: It's like awesome. That's wonderful. Let's think of all the different ways you could make amazing memories with your grandkids. You don't have to own a beach house to do that. So I like the core desired feelings idea, you know, to focus on as your goals as opposed to stuff.
Speaker: or measurable, attainable, tangible things. Because I think that can help us dig through some of the layers that we might not even know we've piled on ourselves.
Speaker: Yeah, that's great advice, really connecting it to your core desired feelings. But I have to admit, Stephanie, that beach house doesn't sound too bad in line in the end. I mean, for me, especially jokes aside, this past year, 2020 has really put a lot of things into perspective for myself, especially when it comes to my personal finances and the way I want to set myself up for the future.
Speaker: And I firstly come to realize that whenever I am somewhere where it's warm, where there is the ocean, where I can feel the sand between my toes, where I can see palm trees, then that makes me happy. I'm automatically in a better mood. I'm automatically more relaxed and I could just enjoy life.
Speaker: For me, that's definitely one of my priorities. Not necessarily to live on the beach, but somewhere where the beach is closed and where I can see a lot of palm trees. So now that I know that, because I still see it a certain and positive emotion with palm trees, with the ocean, with the standard waves. And now I know that I can actively work towards that goal for the future. So I definitely couldn't agree more with what you're just sharing there, Stephanie.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I think that self -knowledge is really important. And yeah, I don't put any judgments, right? Absolutely. If it turns out that the beach house is the absolute thing, awesome. But just kind of don't go on the first answer. If someone asks you what you're working towards, dig a little bit deeper. Yeah, I love that. And maybe let's focus a little bit more on women's financial literacy because
Speaker: Both you and I strongly believe, and let me quote from your amazing website, Daphne, thank you and I strongly believe that if more women were financially secure and exercised their economic power, the world would be a better place. Love that. I 100 % agree with that. Daphne, can you maybe paint us a picture? What factors are contributing to many women in our society not being financially secure, unfortunately?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I've definitely looked into this quite a lot. And there's many factors, of course, as with so many things, right? It's multifaceted. One is, of course, sexism, women getting paid less. That is definitely, you know, not having quite the same advancement opportunities as men do, you know, not being part of the boys club, not going and golfing with the guys. That kind of stuff is still a factor. And then also just kind of the realities of our lives that most caregiving
Speaker: unpaid caregiving falls on women. So we take time stepping out of the workforce, whether to raise a family or to take care of grandma or whatever it might be, right? So that impacts our income and our earning potential.
Speaker: Divorce certainly has an impact, you know, even just the fact that if two adults are living in one household and then all of a sudden they're living in two households, two households are more expensive than one, right? Even if they're smaller because there's only one person in each one. So divorce has an impact. And then I think the other piece is there's still this idea that money is a man's realm.
Speaker: and that women aren't good at it, and women tell me, oh my gosh, I could never do what you do. I'm bad at math. Like, oh, I have a calculator and a computer. Like, I don't do the math. I do the people stuff, right? But that's still there. So too many women put their head in the sand and they don't think about it until it's a crisis, right? So that kind of epidemic of not planning and not paying attention has a real impact.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I couldn't agree more. So on one hand, if I heard you correctly, Stephanie, it's, you know, the society that we live in still, unfortunately, that is very sexist and discriminatory towards women, at least when it comes to finances. But then on the other hand, it's also, you know, these internalized beliefs that women have as a result of the society that we live in, as in you're sharing the example,
Speaker: your, your female clients telling you, Oh, I'm bad at math. Therefore I cannot be good at handling my finances. I mean, I myself have to admit that, that I used to think like that I was horrendous in math, like literally all almost failed math in high school. Um, so then I automatically connected math with like money and personal finances. So, so that's why I decided to stay away from that topic for a while until I had the realization like, Hey, wait a minute. Like.
Speaker: I am the only one who's responsible for my own financial future and making sure that I am financially secure. So I have to really proactively educate myself because unfortunately, we also don't learn how to save or invest or budget in school. So that was another big frustration for me. Both you and I, Stephanie, had the amazing opportunity to graduate from Duke University.
Speaker: which is obviously an incredible academic institution and we're both very active alumni as well. However, I have to admit that I felt really, really overwhelmed and anxious and lost when I graduated from Duke and had to learn the hard way that
Speaker: school didn't teach me a lot of the things that are pretty much critical to becoming a functioning adult. And the whole topic of managing your money was certainly a big pain point there. So I'm sure you agree with that as well.
Speaker: Oh my gosh, and so many women beat themselves up. They're like, oh, I should be better at this. I really know I should be paying more attention. I should be better at money. Well, that's baloney because like you said, no one teaches us this stuff, not the schools really in most cases, not our families. And then the other thing that I love and I'm fascinated by is the whole field of behavioral finance.
Speaker: which actually proves that human beings are bad at money. Period. All human beings were wired to make money mistakes. So whenever I speak to women's groups, I love sharing this. I mean, there were two Nobel prizes in economics, one by psychologists, were bringing the insights of psychology to economics and finance. So I'll admit to you.
Speaker: that the only class I fell asleep in an undergrad at Duke was economics. It was not my favorite thing. Now, I work with money all day long. But they have this theory of economic man. I'm not going to try to butcher the Latin, but it's this convention that human beings are perfectly rational. Every time they make a financial decision, they're coolly weighing the pros and cons of every trade -off involved. The psychologists came along like Daniel Kahneman and said,
Speaker: Hold on just a minute. Human beings aren't perfectly rational in any other area of life. Why would they be perfectly rational about money? So now there's, you know, college courses about this, there's books, there's tons of studies proving we're bad at money. So all that to circle back around saying, do not beat yourself up for financial mistakes you have made. It just proves that you're human.
Speaker: Absolutely. And this is a great segue to my next question for you, Stephanie, because in my experience with my female clients and based on many conversations I've had with my great friends, the reoccurring theme when it comes to women's financial literacy is fear, and particularly fear of the unknown, fear of making mistakes.
Speaker: But now we just learned that we as humans are bound to make mistakes, no matter if we're men, women, or non -binary. However, when it comes to investing and especially planning for retirement, the biggest mistake is not...
Speaker: making mistakes, the biggest mistake is not to start at all, right? And the goal is not to be perfect and to know everything there is to know about investing and that kind of ties back to what we were mentioning earlier about society and specifically society's expectations of women to always be perfect in everything that they do.
Speaker: But here, when it comes to managing your money, the goal is simply to get started. So Stephanie would love to know what you tell your female clients in order to take away their fear.
Speaker: Yes, absolutely. Hallelujah. This is a huge deal. It's fascinating because there is research proving that women are actually better investors than men. One of the book titles I love is Warren Buffett Invest Like a Girl and Why You Should Too. So women are objectively better investors than men. However, we are less confident about it, which, as you point out, often leads to us not getting started at all.
Speaker: My big motto is you don't have to know all the answers. You need to know the questions to ask and have the guts to ask them.
Speaker: So if you're facing something like investing, there's so much information out there. And really, to some extent, I think it's almost on purpose to try to make it sound horrible and confusing. But you really, you don't need to pay attention to 99 % of it, right? You can totally get a very simple, low -cost, well -diversified investment portfolio, invest on a regular basis,
Speaker: and you're good to go. But I would like to back up and say one thing though. The most important thing I think before you decide how to invest is to ask yourself, should I be investing this money? Because there's a difference between saving
Speaker: and investing, right? It's really the short -term versus long -term money. So these dollars I'm looking at or these euros or francs or whatever it is I'm looking at, should I be investing them? When am I going to need them again? And if the answer is, well, I need them in six months to buy a car or to buy a home or I need them in five years to do something, then I'm not sure you should be investing them because investing involves some level of risk. And when we say risk, it means
Speaker: values go up, values go down, and we don't know when. So that I think is the first step. Make sure you've got some money in the bank just in case something goes wrong. You don't want all of your funds to be invested in case you have to pull something out and the market happened to go down last week.
Speaker: No, absolutely. And I think, you know, before anyone should start thinking about investing, like having an emergency fund, for example, to cover expenses up to like three to six months. I think that's really, really important because if something does happen, you know, I don't know, emergency medical costs or
Speaker: You lose your job or whatever it is. The last thing you want is to be in debt, right? Especially not credit card debt. That is high interest debt, which will then become even more difficult to pay off because the interest will just keep growing and growing over time. That's definitely something you have to take into consideration before you even think about investing. So that's definitely a very, very good point to be made here, Stephanie.
Speaker: Yeah. Could I go say one more thing? Of course, please go ahead. I think we focus so much on the investment risk. The risk that the value of the money I invested might go down, but that's not the only risk out there in the world. Another risk is inflation risk. If I'm saving for something that I might need in 20 years,
Speaker: Prices are going to go up between now and then. And if I'm just saving in the bank, I'm not earning a very high rate of interest. So I'm actually going to lose ground vis -a -vis inflation over time. So yes, the investing risk means any moment to moment or month to month, the value is going to bounce around. But over 20 years, it has a much better chance of beating inflation and being significantly up than in the bank. So
Speaker: balance your investment risk with your other risks that you've got to look at. Totally. And I know you cannot see me right now, Stephanie, but I've just been nodding my head over and over as you were talking about the inflation risk, because I feel like that's something that a lot of people simply don't even take into consideration if you just leave your money.
Speaker: in your checking account, or even in a savings account in the bank, or worse, you keep it in cash, that money is going to lose its purchasing power over time, especially when you look at a longer period of time.
Speaker: You have a much better chance at growing your wealth when you indeed invest over a long period of time. And especially for young people, the earlier you start, the less risk you will have, right? Because your money will have time to grow over a longer period of time.
Speaker: May that be over 20, 30 or 40 years when you are really ready to retire in the traditional sense where you don't want to work anymore at all. I mean, obviously, everyone's individual choice, but that's why I also tell my clients who tend to be a little bit younger as in my age in their 20s,
Speaker: You are so young, you really have so much time. And when you start now, yes, obviously there's always some risk associated with investing. The market can go up or down, but the earlier start, the less risk associated with your investments over time.
Speaker: because even if the market goes down, it goes up again over time and the chances of you actually growing your net worth over time by investing is significantly higher than keeping everything in the bank. That's why I, even though I'm not the riskiest person, I know I feel very comfortable with investing my money because I'm 99 .9 % sure that
Speaker: At the end of the day, over a long period of time, I will still have a lot more money by investing, even if the market dips here and then, as opposed to having kept everything in the bank or under my mattress.
Speaker: I'm a big fan of, like you're saying, getting clear on the job of each pot of money. I like dividing my money into pot. So this is my emergency fund pot of money. And this is my pot of money for when I get to go on a vacation again after the pandemic. And this is my pot of money for my wedding in whenever that might be, right? The different pots of money. And once you decide the job of that pot, then you decide how to put it to work.
Speaker: And even if you have no idea what quote -unquote retirement might be or when it might be, put some into that long -term pot, right? Just buy on a regular basis, invest it, and you don't mind if you see the value goes down because you know it's the long -term pot.
Speaker: If you need short -term cash, you've got the other pots lined up. I think that helps tamp down the figure a little bit too. If you see your value go down, you log into your app and say, oh my gosh, it went down, but that's okay. I had these other pots over here and they're doing a different job.
Speaker: Exactly. I totally agree with that. And I think when we're talking about these different pots, I think a common misconception that people also have when it comes to specifically saving over a long period of time, there are a lot of people that need to restrict their spending or their fund in their day -to -day life. However,
Speaker: Based on my personal experience, that's so, so wrong. It really is all about aligning your priorities. And as you said, having different pods where each pod has its own individual purpose and different strategy attached to it. For me personally, I
Speaker: I am really, really mindful of saving or investing enough for my medium to long term future. But at the same time, I don't want to be restricted in my day to day and I make sure that I have my top three expense categories lined up where I allow myself to splurge, to still have fun in the day to day. So I don't feel restricted. It's all about, again, priorities and then maybe reducing your spending in
Speaker: some other categories that don't necessarily add a whole lot of value to your life. You mentioned the car example earlier. I, for example, I don't have a car. I don't need it. At some point in the future, I will probably have one again when I actually need it, but it's not a top priority for me right now. I'd rather invest that money and save it up for traveling in a post -pandemic world or creating memories and by going to restaurants again in the future or investing in my own event.
Speaker: personal and professional development. Whatever it is to the listeners out there that you care about most and that adds the most value to your life, that's where you should still allow yourself to splurge. That will then also allow you to have enough money saved up for the more long -term and maybe also medium -term goals that you have.
Speaker: Yeah, I totally agree with that. Spend lavishly on the things that are important to you and cut on the rest of it. Sometimes that might result in some uncomfortable conversations. If everyone's doing one thing and you don't really want to say you can't afford to do it with them, so you might have to build up the muscle of coming up with some answer that might be comfortable. If they're close enough friends, you can share like,
Speaker: You know, that sounds really cool, but I'm saving for this thing over here and share why that's important to you. But kind of prethinking those conversations can help to maybe avoid feeling uncomfortable and maybe feeling that peer pressure to spend on something that you hadn't really prioritized. Yeah, no, absolutely.
Speaker: And I know, Stephanie, that your clients are American women, right? And while the majority of our listeners are based in the US, we still have a pretty international audience overall. So I was wondering if you could share some non -US specific tips on how to get started and what options there are that can be applicable to pretty much anyone who lives in any country.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. So much of this financial system that we live in, a lot of it is different country by country, but a lot of it is very similar. So I would say pay attention to two things. The first one is your cash flow. The dollars, the francs, the euros, the whatever they are, the pounds that are coming in.
Speaker: and the ones that are going out and where they're going. This is not necessarily fun, but you can't change the thing that you're not measuring. If you don't know where the monies are going, then how can you make intentional, mindful decisions about them? Sometimes it's really hard to disengage that self -judgment. You might know that Nordstrom is a fancy department store in the US. I don't actually go there very often,
Speaker: It tends to be higher cost, right? So maybe I can't believe I spent that much of Nordstrom last year, but we got to disengage the judgment because I think that leads us to avoid doing the work. So if we can just
Speaker: to kind of approach it from a space of curiosity, almost being a scientist, right? Like, oh, here's some numbers. What can I learn from this? You know, we're not gonna bash ourselves, we're just gonna learn. So pay attention to where the monies are coming from and where the monies are going. And then the other thing to pay attention to is your own feelings and your behavior patterns that result from that, right? How do you feel if you log on to the bank and see the error count is low?
Speaker: Or if you get kind of an unexpected influx of some cash. Oh my goodness, right? Like, you know, you pull out the winter coat from the closet or maybe now it's the summer short and you reach your hand in the pocket and you find some cash that you hadn't thought of.
Speaker: We tended to treat that very differently than if we had to withdraw it from the bank to spend it. So getting to know your own patterns and feelings around money, again, lets you make more intentional decisions, lets you put space between the incident and the response to it, right? Responding instead of reacting. That can be very helpful in coming up with some smart money decisions.
Speaker: Yeah, I love that. It's really important to take a step back and really reflect on your current money habits both in a good and in a bad way to really assess your current situation so you can then make any necessary
Speaker: adjustments i think you know the nordstrom example was great i think if a lot of people were to track their their spending and when it comes to certain certain expense categories and they would look back how much money they they spend within each of these categories there will be lots of oh my gosh happening
Speaker: Yeah, probably. And you could then redirect money and edit somewhere else where it serves a better purpose and where it adds more value to your life and the future life of you and your family. So I think that's really, really important to point out.
Speaker: And yeah, maybe my last question for you today, Stephanie, it's been such a constant conversation and could probably go on and on and on. Maybe tying it back to what we were talking about earlier, Stephanie, as in the traditional understanding of retirement being that you usually spend between 40 and 50 years in the workforce and then you retire in your 60s.
Speaker: However, we already briefly discussed it earlier, not everyone is buying into that concept anymore, especially younger generations of women. There is a trend called FIRE, which stands for Financial Independence Retire Early, that has emerged in recent years because particularly millennials oftentimes like to follow a bit of a yolo approach.
Speaker: and don't necessarily want to wait to live life to the fullest until they're in their sixties. And for me, I had a real life example with my family, you know, my grandma and my late grandpa, they were working both really, really hard. And their goal was to go traveling together once they were tired in their mid sixties. And what happened, my grandpa passed away from cancer earlier.
Speaker: So then my grandmother became a widow and yes, she was financially secure, but she didn't really have a partner anymore to go traveling with and to spend that hard earned money with. So you never know what's going to happen live. So that's why I'm pulling a two way approach up on one end. Yes, I want to be.
Speaker: instead of for success when it comes to my financial future. But at the same time, I also want to make the most out of my current life and the present. So yeah, I was just wondering, Stephanie, what advice do you have for women who don't want to follow the traditional retirement path and what steps do they have to take now?
Speaker: Yeah, no, I love this. And I think it goes back to what we were saying before, right? Save for retirement, however you wanted to find it, right? I've heard of people taking gap years. I've heard of sabbaticals, serial retirements, right? Where you have a period of time where you're not working and then you go back into being in a career and then you to take more time off, right? I love all of it. And I think we have to plan for it.
Speaker: and be realistic about the world that we live in, right? To just understand what do you leave behind if you take time out of the workforce. And really, you know, having that effort fund is what's going to enable you to do something like this whenever
Speaker: whether it's well -planned and you know exactly the day you're going to step into this early retirement, or it's something amazing that comes up out of the blue, you want to have the wherewithal and the resources to jump on an opportunity like that. So I think putting money aside for the whatever, for the whatever might come down the road is amazing. But the other thing you want to think about is what type of benefits are you getting from your employer
Speaker: that you might, if you take some time out of the workforce, what would you have to replace? Whether it's health insurance in the US or maybe it's some other things that you're getting as part of your compensation package that we don't often think about. We see the paycheck
Speaker: We see the take home pay. We don't always think about the other things. If you have kids, maybe it's life insurance you get from work that you won't have if you take time off of work. So thinking about the things that you need to put into place. And then again, being realistic about the world, right? I'm in my, uh, I'm just turned 54. A lot of my friends are in, you know, kind of that early mid fifties range. Ageism is a real thing. So just because you want to come back into the workforce doesn't always mean that you can
Speaker: Just jump back in and work doing what you want and making what you want. So I think keeping your skills up, keeping your network fresh.
Speaker: Again, because we can't predict the future, those are the things that I would be thinking about in laying out a flexible career path. No, absolutely. Some really valuable advice there, Stephanie. Thank you. Definitely can echo the employee benefits part because I myself have had a lot of positive experience with that. In fact, about 38 %
Speaker: of my current net worth is attributed simply to me taking full advantage of my employee benefits. It's a lot. I'm maxing out my 401k equivalent that we have in Ireland and I'm so lucky that my employer is doubling that. So I contribute 4 % of my gross salary and they add another 8%. So that's like
Speaker: It's 12 % of tax deferred savings, essentially, that can just grow over time as well. And then we have an employee stack purchase program where I get a 10 % discount on the stacks and they've also grown by over 50 % in only two years.
Speaker: It's incredible. I also do have life insurance. So in case something happens to me, like luckily I don't have children yet, but at least my family would benefit in that case. So it's definitely something that you have to consider because to be honest, my big dream is to become my own boss and follow that entrepreneurial journey myself at some point and leave corporate.
Speaker: I'll definitely have to, you know, do the math and figure out, okay, how much do I have to have saved up before I can take that leap of faith in order to make sure that I can actually financially afford it without having to make too many sacrifices. So that's definitely something that's important to consider there.
Speaker: Well, anyone who is considering retiring before, you know, quote, unquote, normal retirement age, you want to look at what assets you own, because at least in the US, if I wanted to take money out of my retirement accounts before age 59 and a half, I'm going to pay an extra penalty on that.
Speaker: Which doesn't mean you can't retire before then. You just ideally want other investments and assets you've built up outside of the retirement plans to do that. I've talked to people who plan to retire in a different country where they're not able to take advantage of some of the benefits. Whatever you're thinking of doing, you want to plan as early as you can. Future you is not going to be mad at you for saving more money. I'll just say that.
Speaker: Absolutely. And then when you look at the power of compound interest, you haven't looked at your assets for a while, for whatever reason, all of a sudden there's a very nice surprise. Every now and then I hear of people forgetting about some of their pension funds that they've had either in a different country or with a different employer. And then taking a look at it for like 10, 20 years and all of a sudden there's like a nice
Speaker: Six, uh, six bigger, uh, some that has accumulated in grain over time. So, um, that's, that's certainly a nice price then. Right. Absolutely. Well, Stephanie, um, we're coming up on time. So is there anything else that I didn't ask you today or anything that you would like to share with, with our audience before we wrap it up? Oh, you know,
Speaker: I would just say, again, kind of go easy on yourself, baby steps, dive into this area of personal finance, start paying attention. You're going to be better for it. But if you start feeling very emotional about it, just know that that is normal. Money touches all the most important parts of our lives, our relationships, our feelings of security, our career, our freedom and flexibility. So of course it's going to be emotional. So again, this kind of idea that
Speaker: that it's all just numbers and all the questions and answers are cut and dried. That's just crap if you excuse my French. So let yourself off the hook if it feels emotional, that is okay. Feel the feelings, try to learn what they're telling you, and just bring some more self -knowledge as you move forward.
Speaker: I looked at essentially part of not being too hard on yourself because no matter how young or old you are, how experienced you are with managing your personal finance, it's still always going to be a learning experience, right? You're going to be on a very long journey and you're going to learn more over time, but you have to start somewhere, right? And I think
Speaker: especially for women, taking that first initial step is really the biggest challenge because in my personal experience and the experience of so many of my great friends who ended up taking that first step, each step afterwards is so much easier than an initial first step. And it becomes so much easier to really like take control of your financial future once you've made the conscious decision to do so and you open up your accounts and so on. So yeah.
Speaker: And I've seen too many women who don't deal with it until they are forced to either, you know, by a tragedy or a divorce or, you know, being laid off from their job and now they really have to pay attention. And then you've got the added layer of trauma and, you know, that emotional burden on top of trying to learn it. So do yourself a favor and
Speaker: take baby steps now, learn a bit as you can, listen more to just the Mina. She knows what she's talking about. Yeah, find other friends who are on the journey with you that you can both learn together with, but also be accountability partners for each other. Absolutely. I couldn't have imagined better where it's too close with today. Thank you so, so much for joining me, Stephanie. This was such a fun and just very insightful conversation. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker: Hey there, not so fast. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a 5 -star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you've listened in from today. Reviews are a podcaster's most important currency. It helps me create visibility for the incredible women who join me on this show. And if you've made it this far, I'd like to believe that supporting women is one of your favorite pastimes.
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