Chatting Money

This pandemic has been decidedly unpleasant in many ways (simply devastating in many others). Great news though – there are some bright spots. One is doing new regular zooms with people I enjoy who live somewhere else. Normally, I would just not see them for a few years, mayyyyyybe we’d sporadically chat on the phone. But that college bestie in North Carolina, favorite fun buddy in Atlanta, friend in Kansas City, group of the “girls trip girls” (you know them) – this pandemic has made it not hard to regularly “see” each other on screen and chat.

There is a point to my mentioning all this! One of my favorite new zooms is with a friend who is quite saavy about money and investing. She literally said to me in an email “hey, wanna zoom and just talk about your investing and money strategy”? That kind of talk gets me all zesty! I haven’t had a zoom request like that….um….ever. So I was RATHER excited to hop on the ol’ screen and share our approaches.

This newly zoom-connected Yoda of financial topics said something truly simple that I keep replaying in my mind. It’s the holy grail of money, and how you make sure you get more as you get old. She basically said ‘you know what I’ve always said about wealth – it’s just 3 little things’. Um no, I didn’t know there are just 3 – I gazed into the screen in complete suspense – and of course I’m sharing them here with you.

1. Make money. You gotta earn some money in life, work at a job, start a business, work to gain more expertise, get a raise, get promoted, you pick your path, but make money. It’s not always easy, but whatever you do, keep earning.
2. Don’t spend it. Of course you have to spend to live, but don’t OVER spend, don’t become that person who collects $700 shoes or buys a new iPhone every 6 months. Be frugal – or thoughtful – about spending, don’t easily part with your hard-earned cash!! I always liked the idea that once you earn enough to live well enough, then each time you get a raise, DON’T spend it, instead, any new income goes into #3.
3. Invest it. Start investing any money you can spare AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, the younger you start, the more it will grow itself – compounding interest is soooo powerful, it’s the key to all this.

This sounds pretty simple. Ask anyone who has built wealth in life, and I’d bet they have a perspective on all 3 of these – how they earned, when they started investing…what they invested, how they think about spending.

Made me think of my experiences – so sharing….Don’t spend it: I’ve always hated that women’s haircuts cost more than men, why is that?? Are our heads more complicated?? It’s the pink tax….that irksd me, so I went to supercuts until I was in my 30s. I had evenly cut shoulder length hair, how much could they miss? (I now have a fabulous hairstylist – but she’s independent, so still relatively affordable.) Savings every couple months!

Want another? Invest it: When I was 25, I wanted to buy a condo, but my budget was $100K – I was probably earning $35K – and I couldn’t afford a place in the city where I was renting. So I bought in another city, where I’d grown up and had family, and rented it out – which was intimidating at first (how do I find renters!!??), but wow, many decades later, that was a good choice. Started me down the path of buying property, and renting it for passive income. One choice for investing. Sure, the trade off the year I bought it was probably not taking a nicer vacation that year (but still took one), or buying way fewer fancy clothes (but don’t ever remember leaving the house naked).

Share any of your thoughts or examples of the “3 little things”, would love to hear!