The Financial Advice You Wish You'd Taken Sooner with Intuit Credit Karma

17:36This is a time to make a really important step. Even if interest rates are lower than they might have been X number of months or years ago, that is still passive income or interest that you're earning on your money. And you're still building that savings, which we just talked about is so important, especially for women. You're still building that in a place where you can easily access it and it's insured. And that is the best place to be keeping that emergency fund or that F off fund, or whatever you want to call it for yourself. And so regardless of the interest rate. Open one if you don't have one.

18:06And then also remember that interest rates, if you look over history, they go up and down, right? So you're going to see those fluctuations. It's better to be building that savings habit now, regardless of what your interest rate is.

18:16Tori Dunlap:For somebody who might not know, what is the difference between a high yield savings account and like your normal savings account? A high yield savings account has much higher interest than your normal savings account. Sometimes to a shocking degree, you know, 10x, 20x, depending on the day. And a lot, you can often find them offered through online banks that don't have a physical presence that enables them to give you that higher interest rate by using lower costs. But a lot of people find that that's fine. You might not need to actually go into a bank branch. But generally, they're easy to open.

18:45You can open with maybe not one click, but a couple of clicks. I'm sure you have some recommendations. We do on our website. Yeah. And so you're welcome. Little pitch. But it's so easy. And it's one of the most simple, I think, personal finance recommendations you can give is everyone could use one.

19:00Tori Dunlap:And it's a quick win. And I always joke, it's the one personal finance thing that isn't too good to be true. Totally. Like you're all, you're like, what's the catch? And I'm like, there really is no catch. And you work really hard for your money. Your money should work just as hard. And I think that's the perfect side. Yeah. Okay. So we talked about, you talked about doom spending. There's so much pressure always to, whether it's, you know, keeping up with the Joneses, but also like social media now, it's just like, how do we consume and how do we TikTok shop? And how do we, like, there's temptation to spend at all hours of the day from our phone that's in our pocket.

19:34Tori Dunlap:So how do we determine, you were mentioning, how do we find the things that actually are going to feel good that aren't just like quick dopamine hits? Yes, I am a self-professed clicker on Instagram ads that I've like really been trying to work. What's the craziest thing you bought? Oh, probably like way too many dog bandanas. I only have one dog. She could only wear so many at once. Your dog's covered in bandanas. I know. It's not even a dog. It's just a bandana now. We're just going to have like a bandana wall for the dog. Mine was wrinkle reducing stickers. Oh, you got those. I resisted. 2020?

20:14Did they work?

20:15Tori Dunlap:I don't know. I don't know. Do they work? I don't know. I, yeah, I could not control anything in COVID. and that was like, I can control my wrinkles. I can control my 11s right here. And while I'm home, I'm just gonna, thank you. Wasn't fishing. I was fishing a little bit. No, but that was, that was the stupidest thing I ever bought. I think I was telling some of this earlier. One of the funniest things for me that I get targeted with is, you know, they try to prey on your insecurities, right? Like, do you want to be more fashionable? Do you want to be like more successful at work? And like, that's what you see.

20:44And, and they have a lot of data, like billions of us. And somehow the algorithm thinks that I want to be an it girl. This is, this is, I want to be clear. This is nothing I have ever expressed interest in being, but I'd be like, you need the it girl phone case and the it girl watch and the it girl necklace. We get off my internet. And so I think you've just said it girl into your phone. Hopefully everyone's on airplane mode. So I think like for me, a couple of it's so easy and like they're getting smarter and smarter. And it's fun to like go on Tik TOK. It's fun to go on Instagram to a point, but the couple of techniques that I use and I recommend like one, just like add a little friction to the process.

21:20It is crazy. I think one time I woke up like, oh, I ordered that. It was like one click, like Apple Pay. It's like got sent to me. Don't do that. So like remove those save addresses, remove the save credit card information, things like that can make a big difference. And then my other personal favorite thing that I do is I have like a big user of like Apple Notes on like my phone and my laptop. And I have a list of like things I want, but probably don't need. And so if I'm like seeing something out in the wild, I'll write it down, like it girl phone case, dog bandana. and then I tell myself to wait like X amount of time, right?

21:53Like I love the month, even just try a week because I've even noticed and I like work in personal finance, right? I'm thinking this all the time and I still have done so many things where I bought that thing and a week later, I'm like, why did I buy the thing? Or the box gets delivered and you're like,

22:06Tori Dunlap:I could not tell you what's in that box. Yeah, exactly. There's like five different copies of The Life of a Showgirl waiting for me at home in San Francisco. So I'll probably give those out to my safety friends. But I'm all often surprised is that even in a day or like two days, like, oh, I really don't actually need or want that thing. And so try it. It's very rare that like you see some ad and it's like gone forever, never be found again, like a week later. That's something that's been really helpful for me. I recommend. I do the same. And I think that's such a helpful tip because just giving yourself time, like even 48 hours.

22:37Tori Dunlap:Yeah. Like think it over. You probably will not remember it in 48 hours. And if you do, that means you really want it. So great. My other favorite one, it's like a little woo woo, but it's so helpful. It's just like ask yourself, like what is this serving? Like if I'm buying this thing, why am I buying this thing? And if the answer truly is to make myself feel better right now, maybe that will make you feel better. But maybe there's an alternative choice. Like maybe you do need to just go on a walk. Maybe you need to cry in the bathtub. Like there is other options. It ends up being a vice in that way.

23:10Tori Dunlap:Just like you might reach for alcohol or something. It's like, ask yourself like, why do I want this thing? And how is it going to make me feel? Not just right now, but when potentially the guilt creeps in. Totally. And I love spending money. I am not the financial expert. I'm like, I'm not a regular mom. I'm a cool mom. Like, I am going to tell you that you can spend money, but I don't want you spending your hard-earned money on things you don't give a shit about because that's not helpful. One of the things I was just thinking about with that was I might once in a while, you know, choose something from that list and get, but the thing I asked myself is, if I was moving next week, would I bring this thing with me?

23:41Oh, that's good. That sounds very silly, but I've been living in my current condo in San Francisco for several years. You just can like accumulate stuff, right?

23:49Tori Dunlap:As someone who just moved. Yes. And so when you moved, I would love to know how that process was for you, but I realized there's so many things. Would I cart this item to another place? Do I need like 35 different coffee mugs from like coffee shop? Yeah, I got rid of a bunch. Exactly. So that is also something where like, if in that moment, even a part of me is like, I'm not sure I would move this item I have not yet bought, I probably don't need to buy that thing. Does anybody have like a mom who was like, you might need it later? like I have a mom who's so well intentioned, but she's like, you know, it's the John Melania, like it can be a sleep shirt.

24:23It's like, it's way too big.

24:25Tori Dunlap:It doesn't fit, but she's like, oh, you're going to need it. And I think it was Marie Kondo who was like, if it's under like$20, you can buy it again. Yeah. Like if you truly need it. And so I get rid of stuff all the time now. I'm like, again, if I bought, if I need it in three years, I'll buy it again. I have a, not spicy, but whatever the right adjective follow up to that. I love the Marie Kondo method of sparking joy. I also heard about something called the poop test. Has anyone heard about this? Oh, that if it had poop on it, would you rub it off? Would you clean it or you throw it away? And I swear that is more useful than any, like a lot of things spark joy when you're like, eh, you know, or nothing.

25:00And you're like, I would throw most of these things away. Can you use that one too?

25:04Tori Dunlap:I don't know if this story is into it, Credit Karma approved, but I did once drop my phone into a port-a-potty. No. and I dug it out. It was on top. Yeah. And then I disinfected everything 17 times. I'm sorry. I was broke. I needed the phone. And you lived to tell the tale. I lived to tell the tale. Oh. Everybody's like, oh, I shook her hand before. Fuck. I was at a music festival this weekend and anytime there was a bathroom break, people were like, you hold everything. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I will never do it again. No. I will never put it in a pocket. Everything's secured. Yep. when we're talking about like this is a hard pivot I'm like how do I pivot out of this very horrible confession it's a relatable story when we think about the outside pressure beyond social media like when your friend's like hey yeah come to my bachelorette party and spend$5 ,000 or come out to dinner for the fourth time this week how do you set boundaries while still getting to see your friends yeah FOMO spending is so real I think the first thing I'd say is it's okay to be conflicted about these things.

26:07Like to your point earlier, and I'm always saying I always want to spend my money. My best use of spending my money is on experiences with people I love. But there are a lot of opportunities to spend money on experiences with people you love. And we should all be so lucky, but it's also like you have to be mindful. And so I think the couple of things that I say in this situation and have said to myself is understand like, how much do you actually have to spend? And that's why like going back to that, the budget, the B word, or just knowing where you stand is so important. So, you know, like hey yeah I can probably swing that$100 concert or actually like every single cent needs to go towards debt pay down it's like knowing where it stands really important and I think the other thing that's really important is just doing what we're doing right now and talking about it yeah because it can be so hard if your friend's like let's do this thing together and you you're in your own head like yep what's this gonna do am I gonna go in a credit card debt am I gonna be able to do this is she gonna hate me forever blah blah have the conversation like most people have had money challenges at some point or at least know somebody who does and you might find that maybe there's another great plan that could be cheaper where you guys could still catch up and enjoy that.

27:09And so I think knowing what you can spend and having that idea and then also having the conversation can really help you at least navigate those emotional decisions a little bit more easily. Yeah.

27:18Tori Dunlap:And I think as we gear up for the holidays too, it is one of those things like holidays feel very high pressure of like, I need to spend on activities and I need to buy people a perfect gift. And like, if you're going into credit card debt to prove to somebody how much you love them, I'm like, that's just really hard. Okay, so we have so many questions, both from you all and from our Instagram at HerFirst100K. Okay, so a dilemma around weddings, and I kind of led into this. It is never ending, especially if you're a woman. It's the engagement party. It's the shower. It's the bachelorette. It's the wedding.

27:48Tori Dunlap:It's the like wedding weekend now. Like weddings are like a week-long affair. So how do we say yes to something? Like how do we determine what we can afford? Yeah. The wedding topic, we could go all day on this. Yeah. It is so, it's the perfect combination of things where it's something fun, there's FOMO, there's a relationship at stake with a friend, and there's money at stake, and it's a one-time thing. So it's not like the gift. Well, actually, that's true. Hopefully it's a one-time thing. I'm getting to the second weddings, they're much smaller. Yeah. But it is so hard. So I think the first thing is like recognizing this is really hard.

28:23I, in my mid-20s, I remember, so crystal clear that one of my friends wasn't even an expensive situation, but there was a shower, there was a bachelorette party, there was something else, there was actual wedding. And I spent like a couple of thousand dollars. I did not have a couple of thousand dollars to spend, but at the time I went into credit card debt. And I never even thought about like, Hey, maybe we could talk about this. So I love that people are talking about it. Uh, I think for me, the recommendation I give and have used myself is one, this is all coming back to like knowing where you stand, right?

28:51Like how much money you have to spend on it. And then to reflect on like which of these events, if you need to pick is going to be the most meaningful. And that's going to be different for everybody. I love that. Sometimes your friend like really wants you at the wedding, even if it's 200 people and you're just going to be like, hey, Tori in the corner, like they want you there. And maybe in another situation, it's like, I would actually really rather you be at my bachelorette party because you're one of my best friends. We can spend quality time together. But being open about, I might need to make a choice.

29:16And then, you know, as much as you feel comfortable with like involving your friends in that decision, or just simply saying, I wish I could celebrate with you, but I can't. I'd love to see you next time you're in the city. people who are truly your friends will get it. They will be disappointed because they love you. And of course you want the people you love at your events. But it is, I think, not the relationship ender that people make it out on. If you spend too much time on like wedding shaming on Reddit, you'll probably see that it can in fact be that. Am I the asshole? Exactly. Plenty of internet drama, but your real friends will know and understand and like want you to make good decisions.

29:49And so involve them in that conversation.

29:50Tori Dunlap:Yeah, you gave the exact advice I would give. I think all of that is so important. And also just like level setting expectations. Like we're so nervous as a culture to talk about money because it feels really scary. And especially when it is such like, this is your big day and there's so much pressure already. And it's just like, hi, I want to support you. I can't afford to in this way. So let's figure out how I can show up for you in a way that makes sense for both of us. Because I think that's the conversation you have to have because I don't want you feeling resentful. I don't want there being, again, we want to have a joyous occasion where no one's mad at anybody.

30:25Tori Dunlap:Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What is the best way to budget and plan for big financial goals when your income isn't consistent month to month? This one is so hard. I have so much empathy. I've been there. Like there's so many people out there who have irregular income and it makes it so difficult. So I think, and I know I'm probably a broker, but like just knowing what's coming in, right? You can look at, one thing I like to suggest, not a golden rule for everybody as it is personal. look at like the last however many months you've got, right? Maybe it's six, 12, 18, figure out what you're kind of seeing.

30:57Look at that average, maybe haircut it a little bit just to be safe, right? There's gonna be months that are, you know, higher or lower and then build a budget around that and then have anything that comes in after that be money that you can put towards savings. And then those savings could be potentially something that you could draw from if you do have like an emergency month, like a really, really low month. But I think it's always really important to budget for, I don't say the worst case situation because the worst case situation for income is probably$0 or more debt. But make sure you are being conservative in how you are planning around your monthly required expenses, things like your rent, your groceries, your gas, and then be very, very, very cognizant of anything beyond that.

31:37So that's the first starting point I recommend for folks. I think that's great.

31:41Tori Dunlap:Yeah, I talk about, everybody should know their ramen noodle number. Like that's the bare amount of money you need to make in order to get by. So like, what is your rent? What are your groceries? What's your insurance? What's daycare costs? Second mortgage for most people. But like that's the number you need to have in mind so that if you're a freelancer, if you're a tipped worker, if your income is very volatile, you know, okay, this is the bare amount of money I need to be making. And if you're a business owner, right, that is after taxes. So you've taken 30 % to Uncle Sam at least, and then you figured out, okay, what does this actually look like for me?

32:13And that whole living below your means at any income level is what's going to build wealth. And so I think there's an opportunity here to if you're focusing on that ramen noodle number and have anything beyond that going generally into savings account, you might look up a few months from now and be like, wow, I didn't realize I would be able to actually be saving this money. And so it's a great way to start building those habits of figuring out what you really need and then being intentional, like we were talking about, about those splurges beyond that.

32:38Tori Dunlap:Yeah. We cannot talk about student loans. How do we pay it off? Like, how do we manage some student loan balances that are more mild, maybe a couple thousand dollars. But I have followers, it's$100 ,000 of student loans. How do we work to manage that? What's the first step? I know there's a lot of student loan anxiety right now, always. The cost of education has been high. But especially with some of the changes over recent years, the first thing you need to do, understand what your options are. Calling your loan servicer is a great option. Again, I know a lot of us don't like picking up the phone.

33:14We'd rather, you know, do anything else. Walking in the ocean.

33:17Tori Dunlap:Yeah. Walking to the river. Exactly. But you really understand, like, get in touch with your own servicer. This is the first, like, bringing the ostrich head out of the sand. And I don't know if there's payment, you know, repayment or different payment plans available to you. There probably are. There often are based on if, you know, your income is lower than you might feel like you need to have to be able to pay. Like, you know, I've heard from folks with multiple thousand dollar a month payments. Start there. That's a great way to figure out what your options are. And then once you know what those are, then you can come back and go back to that budget and that ramen noodle number to be like, how am I going to make sure each month that I'm putting aside money at the beginning of the month to make those payments?

33:55Because you do not want to ignore them. Back to our earlier conversation about credit scores. We do see on our platform at Credit Karma that there are many folks even who start out with great credit scores who went delinquent on their student loans for many life reasons that might be happening and saw a really big impact on their score. So knowing what your options are is really important.

34:16Tori Dunlap:Yeah. And I think with debt of all kinds, not all debt is the same. So I think a lot of people think about, okay, credit card debt and student loan debt and a mortgage, all of it is debt. And I'm like, debt is very different depending on the interest rate or depending on how the interest accrues. Like credit cards, the interest rate is really high. The interest compounds and the interest compounds daily. that is very unique for debt. And so you have to kind of prioritize and think of all of your debt slightly different as opposed to like lumping it all together, especially when you're trying to piecemeal it to get a plan together to pay it off.

34:53Right. And with the credit card debt, I love that you call that out because it is just wild how quickly it can balloon. And we talk a lot about, you know, make sure you pay off that high interest credit card debt first. The other thing I just want people to remember is I think it can also be easy to just be focusing on the credit card debt and maybe forget debt about a student loan payment or something else. And you still want to make sure you're making the minimum required payments on any other debt or a mortgage if you happen to have one, something like that, to make sure you're maintaining that positive credit history.

35:18Yeah. But doing anything you can to reduce credit card debt is going to be really helpful for your financial life.

35:22Tori Dunlap:I can't believe I've gone this long without talking about investing. Oh, great. Credit cards and investing are my two favorite personal finance topics. Perfect. Me too. I think we know the stats, especially around women. We make less because of the pay gap, But we also wait to invest compared to men or don't invest at all because we think it's too risky or we think there's like, there's just, it's so jargon heavy that you're worried about making the wrong choice. So how do you think about saving for retirement while also prioritizing paying off debt? this is the question. You know, I think that we could probably debate this, uh, you know, for hours and how do I make, what's the right hierarchy of my financial needs?

35:58And I think with retirement is really interesting because it might feel so far away, but compound interest is just one of the most incredible concepts to learn in personal finance. Uh, you know, I wish I had put my$5 a month allowance when I, when I was 10 into like the S &P 500. I know, I can't afford a

36:17Tori Dunlap:memes that it's like, oh, if I started, I was born in 94. If I started in 95, right? It's like, yeah. But then my cheesy thing will be like, that would be the best time. The second best time is today. Yeah. Because you're going to, you know, hopefully we're all going to get older and like, you're going to be there. And so if you have that time, like any money that you can be investing, has that opportunity to grow. And so my number one encouragement is figure out how to start, even if it's just with a little bit of money. I know it feels impossible if you're 25 to think about retiring, especially just with that time horizon, it's very intimidating.

36:47But building that habit now, even if you don't have like a high salary, that's a habit that you can build upon. I love the idea of paying yourself first, even if it's$20 a month, have that go into your 401k, have that go into like a robo advisor and just set it and forget it. And being able to start seeing those funds grow is one of the most exciting things, honestly, that I think you can experience when it comes to investing. And so, and the last thing I would say there is, I know 401k matches are not always available, unfortunately, but if you do have one available, even if you're juggling other financial priorities, that's really one of the closest things to free money that you're going to get in today's day and age.

37:23And so making sure you take advantage of that and allowing it to continue to compound is so important.

37:27Tori Dunlap:Yeah. My last question for you, and this is so helpful, so thank you. When you think about having knowledge around money, what does that mean for someone who is struggling with their personal finances? Like how can they invest in their own education around money? It is so empowering to know what to do with your money. And it's like, I, it can feel so intimidating and scary to even start, but like just being able to come together, listening to these conversations, like picking up a book and saying like, what are just the main things that I can be doing are, is so important and will really help set you up for the rest of your life.

38:07And I think the number one thing I tell people is like everyone's starting somewhere and progress is so personal. And so treat yourself with grace, understand where you are, know that no matter what, there's hundreds, thousands, millions of people have been exactly where you are and take this newfound information, bring it to your friends, bring it to people, like create, like be having those conversations in your spaces. And that way we can all be lifting each other up a little every single day and, uh, you know, hopefully working towards a brighter financial future.

38:32Tori Dunlap:Yeah. Please plug away. Tell us where people can find out more about Credit Karma, all of the tools and resources. And I've been using, this is not just like, because I'm here. I've been using Credit Karma for 10 years. Like it's so helpful and it's so beneficial to see those numbers and see what's going on. So plug away, my friend. Thank you. You can download the Credit Karma mobile app or check us out at creditkarma.com. I love it. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for listening. And we'll Thank you so much to Courtney Alev for joining us and to Credit Karma for sponsoring this episode and the live podcast event.

39:09Tori Dunlap:It was truly so nice. I got to meet a bunch of the people in the audience. It was just gorgeous. It was like in one of my favorite spots in the city with a sweeping view of the rivers and the bridges. And it was just, it was a great event. So thank you to Credit Karma for sponsoring this episode and for supporting financial feminists in our company. It means the world to us. And again, you can head on over to herfirst100k.com slash FFpod to get personalized, judgment-free insights on how to pay off debt and make your money work harder for you from Credit Karma. Thank you, as always, for being here, Financial Feminists.

39:40Tori Dunlap:I'll see you soon. Bye. Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist, a Her First 100K podcast. For more information about Financial Feminist, Her First 100K, our guests, and episode show notes, visit financialfeministpodcast.com. If you're confused about your personal finances and you're wondering where to start, go to herfirst100k.com slash quiz for a free personalized money plan. Financial Feminist is hosted by me, Tori Dunlap. Produced by Kristen Fields and Tamisha Grant. Research by Sarah Shortino. Audio and video engineering by Alyssa Midcalf. Marketing and operations by Karina Patel and Amanda LeFue.

40:17Tori Dunlap:Special thanks to our team at Her First 100k. Kaitlin Sprinkle, Masha Bak-Mikyeva, Sasha Bonar, Ray Wong, Elizabeth McCumber, Daryl Ann Ingman, Shelby Duclos Megan Walker and Jess Hawks promotional graphics by Mary Stratton photography by Sarah Wolfe and theme music by Jonah Cohen Sound a huge thanks to the entire Her First 100K community for supporting our show