Discovering Financial Literacy with the Happy Hour Ladies
Discovering Financial Literacy with the Happy Hour Ladies
Today is the last Friday of the month and my regular listeners know that on the last Friday of the month, I host the happy hour on the podcast where I gather great friends with me to drink cheap drinks and talk about money topics.
This is not only the last Friday of the month, but it’s the last Friday of one of my favorite months: Financial Literacy Month. My friends joined me today to share their journeys to finding and discovering financial literacy and they share some of the best resources for how we can all continue to refine and improve our own financial literacy. Of all of our happy hours, I feel like this one is a must-listen, especially for any of your friends and family who are new to the concept of Financial Literacy.
What are we drinking?
Melanie from Dear Debt, Lola Retreat, and MentalHealthandWealth.com — Aperol Spritz Mocktail
Tonya from Tonya-Stumphauzer.com — Trader Joe’s Simpler Wines
Kassandra from kassandradasent.com — Ginger Tea with Lemon
Shannon — Boxed Malbec
Podcast Notes
Shannon was on the Today Show again last week. Click here to watch the clip.
Melanie didn’t realize April was Financial Literacy Month and how important it was, until she became a personal finance blogger. She was approximately 30 years old.
Kassandra also realized it when she entered the financial blogging space in 2013 or 2014, when she was 38. While this is important, Kassandra is more focused on the other 11 months and helping people stay on track so they are successful long term.
Tonya doesn’t recall a specific time when she learned about Financial Literacy Month, but it wasn’t before she started writing her blog 2012.
Shannon didn’t realize it either until she started blogging eight years ago. Financial literacy is a language, but many people don’t hear it at home, in school, or on the job. When we start earning and spending money, we are forced to speak it even though we have no training.
The Gym is creating a BFF recommendation page that will include affiliate links, because clients are always asking which financial products their trainers recommend. The page will be structured with educational information about what each product is.
Many clients choose products or refinance student loans without knowing all of the facts. Most companies do not educate consumers about their products.
There are so many layers to this. Kassandra experienced shame firsthand when she was in debt several years ago. She was working as a credit analyst at the time and she felt like she should have known better.
Money is emotionally fraught if you don’t know how to develop your sense of self irrespective of money. All of us are introduced to money at an early age, because we get gifts or because we want to buy something.
Kassandra had a little red purse stuffed with change when she was a child. One day, when she was 10 years old, she and her mom took the bus somewhere and Kassandra left her red purse on the bus. When the bus pulled away she realized it and she panicked. She was already attached to money in an unhealthy way.
It is a struggle to come to terms with your money and wield it in a way that is healthy.
What has helped you on your financial journey?
Shannon: Podcasts and YouTube. Rosetta Stone is so successful, because you listen to it and the same can be said for financial literacy. The Financial Diet is strong on their YouTube content. She recommends financialgym.com, because there are a lot of resources on the site. For investing, Shannon likes the Be Wealthy and Smart podcast and Dumpster Dog, because they are two women who are in the industry. For books, Ash Cash speaks in a different language that people want to read. Find something that speaks to you and makes you excited to learn.
Tonya: The book, Your Money or Your Life, by Vicki Robin, made the biggest impact on Tonya’s life. She likes to Google questions and read blogs, because she tends to read versus listen or watch. Be careful if you are consuming content on blogs or YouTube, because there is a lot of unrelatable content that may turn you away. If you don’t find something that resonates to you on a personal level, keep searching.
Melanie: Sometimes you need to go to sources that are not entertaining or fun. For actual, certified data, go to:
investor.gov: learn the basics of investing and the stock market
myfico.com: easily breaks down the five parts of your credit score
consumerfinance.gov: FAQs regarding student loans; if you want to use this information, there is no copy write infringement. They want people to use this information, because there is so much wrong information out there. This site was founded after the 2008/2009 financial crisis, because of the lack of information around mortgages and the housing market.
Kassandra: United Way has a very strong financial curriculum. Those in lower income or marginalized communities can get access to quality financial programs. AARP.org has an amazing financial foundation, especially for older listeners or listeners’ parents. Secrets of Six Figure Women is a book that altered Kassandra’s financial trajectory. It served as a stepping stone for her to get out of earning low five figures and it vaulted her into earning six figures.
The Financial Gym team is adamant that clients not get their financial advice on TikTok. Kassandra steers people away from Clubhouse, which is essentially a glorified conference space, and you can jump in on different conversations by phone. There is something for everyone, but it is not on TikTok or Clubhouse.
When you get to a point where money is not always on your mind, that is success. You don’t need to be perfectly financially literate to feel good about your choices. The more you practice it, the more you will learn.
When you start making inroads, you need to give yourself grace and celebrate the small wins, because this is a long journey. There is a new type of societal pressure where the sense of financial competition wasn’t as evident as before. We need to take a step back and not put this on ourselves.
Don’t let other peoples’ advice be your bible. You are allowed to modify, to change or alter it in a way that helps you, and you can switch gears if you want. You owe nobody an explanation as long as you are working on your goals.
When you are paying down debt for a long period of time, you can get debt fatigue. It took Kassandra three and a half years to pay down $55,000. If she had to do it again, she would have been kinder to herself and maybe would have taken a couple more trips, even though it would have pushed out her debt free date a couple more months.
You don’t need to be a financial advisor to have the right content, but you do need to question where the content is coming from. It is harder work to go to a site that sources their information than it is to go to a blog.
The level of responsibility of people in the financial space is huge. They are guiding people who are making decisions with their money. It needs to come from a place of integrity and education with facts and evidence. Make sure you double and triple check the information you find.
When something becomes entertainment and people are talking about it, like GameStop, walk away, because it is probably to late. Beware when you are hearing things from everyone, because when it is at that point, it is a bubble and a bubble can only expand so far before it pops.
You can do all of the academic stuff and learn by the book, but when you go into the world and try to have a conversation it is going to be weird and you are going to mess up. The more you have these conversations and practice, you will get better and fluent in your money.
Always check terms and conditions around fees and think twice about refinancing federal loans. Make sure you feel really good about any financial decision you make. If you don’t feel highly confident in a financial decision you are making, don’t make it, because it can have ramifications that you will deal with for years down the road.
If you make a poor choice, you can fix it, but more fixing is required.
TAKEAWAY: My biggest takeaway is that Financial Literacy is a language like anything other, which means it has to be learned and spoken. Since it’s a language that impacts every single person, it’s the most important language that we should prioritize. Hopefully, the resources we shared today will help you and those you care about embrace the language even more.
This pandemic has impacted all of us in a number of ways, and if your finances were something that stressed you out in 2020, I hope you’ll break the cycle in 2021 and start fresh with The Financial Gym. We’ve literally seen it all and we’ve literally fixed it all, so I hope you will leave your financial stresses in the past, like 2020, and head over to, or send friends to, financialgym.com.
If you have any topics you would like for us to talk about during happy hour, please feel free to email me at shannon@fingyms.com or tweet to me at blonde_finance or join the private martinis and your money Facebook group and let us know. Until next time, take care!!