786: The Best 5 Pieces of Financial Advice We've EVER Heard

0:00It is universal that the society has brainwashed us, programmed us to feel guilty about loving money and what money really is energy. Hey, my name is Jenna Kutcher and I am obsessed with all things business, marketing numbers, and helping you to navigate both the messy and the magical seasons of this thing called life. I'm a small town mama who took a$300 camera, grew a successful photo biz, and now I work from home and run a seven figure online business. I teach you the tried and true secrets to building a career you adore. Shy away from the real talk? No way. Money, hardship, growth, loss, and marketing are all topics we discuss here.

0:43Think of this as your one-stop shop for happy hour with a gal pal mixed with business school. Pull up a seat, make sure you're cozy and get ready to be challenged and encouraged while you learn. This is the Gold Digger podcast. I don't know about you, but when it comes to money conversations and financial advice, I simply cannot get enough. I mean, in the right hands, money has the ability to change the world. And that's why today we're doing something a little different. We've compiled five clips from five Gold Digger podcast guests from over the last year who have given us the best pieces of financial advice we've ever heard.

1:17So in case you missed it the first time or you needed a reminder, or you're just curious what I'm still thinking about months later, these are the clips that I can't get out of my head. And for good reason, they are brilliant. So first up, we have Patrice Washington of Redefining Wealth. Patrice is a conscious thought leader, an award-winning podcaster, an author, a sought after media personality, a renowned transformational speaker, and a hope restoring and tough love coach on the PBS TV series Opportunity Knox. Patrice has built a thriving international community of purpose-driven individuals committed to creating a powerful life, weaving together the aspects of their careers, their home life, their health, and their personal finances.

2:01Through her teachings and intuitive guidance, Patrice empowers her international community to look at life through a lens of abundance and opportunity instead of lack and scarcity. And that's exactly what you're about to hear her speak about. Let's listen in. It's all a little overwhelming, isn't it? Help desk software, payment processing, email marketing tools, blogging platforms, SEO tools, deal management tracking. Gold digger, take a deep breath because you don't need more tools to get more out of your business. You just need HubSpot. Their all-in-one customer platform is a dream come true for you and for every member of your team.

2:40With best-in-class campaigns and workflows to generate more leads for marketing, category leading pipeline management to help sales close more deals, powerful AI chatbots, and a knowledge base to help service teams scale, HubSpot is built to deliver results and revenue faster to help your business grow. So dump the disconnected tools and the chaos that comes with them. Discover what HubSpot's all on one platform can do to streamline your business. Visit HubSpot.com to grow better today. HubSpot.com. This journey is about seeking wisdom. It's not about necessarily collecting all the knowledge and information.

3:20And I never knew those were two different things until that day. I looked it up. Knowledge is information and education. And going back to your original question, the reason that a lot of traditional personal finance education doesn't necessarily work is because it thinks that if you stuff information down people's throats, they're just supposed to all of a sudden know what to do with it. Wisdom is knowing how to apply it, when to apply it, where to apply it, with whom to apply it. They are not the same. And that scripture and that moment changed everything for me because I'm like, all this time I've been gathering information.

3:59No one truly taught me that there was a bigger picture for how you implement and that my whole life needed to be supporting what I said I wanted. Right. I'm just over here chasing money. This is why the mantra of redefining wealth is chase purpose, not money. Right. That doesn't mean that we don't make money. Like I make money, but I'm not run by money. And I don't make every decision around what I do in my life from the lens of, well, how much is it going to cost or how much am I going to make? I make integrity, faith based choices. Right. And so I've been passionate about this now since 2009, March 9th, 2009 is when I had that bathroom floor moment.

4:46And ever since, I've just been committed to helping other people understand that there's a much more holistic approach to this. And it's really how I rebuilt my life and then rebuilt another seven figure business. When you are unfulfilled in the work that you do day in and day out, you are going to mismanage your finances because you're constantly trying to fill a void. Yeah. The void is typically filled when we are of service, when we're of service and we know how we're using our gifts, that void starts to shrink. But it opens up deeper and deeper when we're only doing things for the money. Yeah.

5:24And it's just unfulfilling. Right. So that's the fifth pillar, work pillar. And the last one is money. It's about attracting the prosperity you desire. And I just have a really big emphasis on honoring where you are, right? Even small denominations, honor where you are, learn how to respect money, learn how to have a healthy appreciation for what money is. And we have tons of exercises and things around this. But when you start to do those things, as the denomination grows, you already have built the muscle on what to do. It's not that when I hit six figures now, all of a sudden I'll be wise with money.

6:01That's not how it works. It's not like, oh, now I made more. So now I'm now I'm going to save. It's like, no, even if you have to start with I'm saving a dollar a week, what you're doing is just building the muscle and declaring for yourself, I am a saver. You're embodying that as like who you are. So then as the money increases, it's not foreign to you to do the right things with it. And so, again, back to your original thing, you know, a lot of historical personal finance education has guilt tripped and shamed people into making very rash, stringent and I mean, really deep financial skill set things when they were not prepared relationally, mentally, physically, environmentally, emotionally to actually sustain that and keep that going.

6:54And so that's why you see people on these waves. But when you do all of the other work in the pillars, you're ready to do what you need to do with the money because you're not looking for external validation. You're not still dealing with the same level of childhood trauma, or at least now you know how to manage it. Right. You're making choices that feel good for you and are authentic to you. And that's what the six pillars of wealth framework does. And I know it's a lot. We have a cheat sheet. I'll give Jenna the link. I love it and appreciate it because I think that so many people, when they even hear the word wealth, they have some visceral reaction to it, right?

7:32Like they either want it, they hate it, they're afraid of it, they desire it. Like there's some, it's, it's such a charged thing that we often try to approach. We live in a time where people are jumping around from program to program and coach to coach. And they're always looking for the magic bullet. And really, it's probably something rooted in an experience you had many years ago that is just it just keeps manifesting in doubt and self-criticism and not going for the thing. Sometimes you don't need another marketing course. You need to deal with why you keep trying to hide even when you're brilliant.

8:10Right. So that's the fit pillar. That's like the foundation of it. The people pillar is about creating relationships that matter personally and professionally. I always say, I don't want to be a public success and a private failure. And I had an experience once where I was on tour. I was going from college to college. All these young girls were coming up to me. Oh my gosh, Miss Patrice, I love you. And then I get home and my daughter's calling me the nanny's name. Cause she's used to telling the nanny everything. This is several years ago. Right. And I was like, oh, wait a minute, this is not, that doesn't actually feel good to me.

8:47And when I focused on being more present in her presence and our relationship really solidified, then I could go out and actually have more confidence and be present in my work because I knew my home life was taken care of. You know what I mean? But when we're kind of half-assing it in every place, it's really hard. And I learned over the years that there's always someone watching you who has power to bless you, but who are they watching you be? Like, how do we show up with our team members, with our clients, with, you know, with the people we're already engaged with? I really believe, and I know you have a lot of entrepreneurs listening, especially new entrepreneurs.

9:24Can we stop saying that we want more followers when we don't even engage the ones we have now? Next up, we're going to learn from Melissa Jean Baptiste of Millennial in Debt. Now, Melissa is a financial educator and author of So This Is Why I'm Broke, Money Lessons on financial literacy, passive income, and generational wealth. She paid off$102 ,000 in student loan debt on a teacher's salary, all while writing and producing the award-winning Millennial in Debt web series. She has since pivoted into personal finance and career coaching to help millennials and Gen Z build generational wealth and gain financial freedom in a shame-free digital environment.

10:00Melissa is passionate about ensuring entrepreneurs are buying back our time, what it truly means to build generational wealth, and so much more. Let's listen to what she has to say. When I was on my debt payoff journey, I was operating from a scarcity mindset almost the entire time. So I was like, I'm not getting my nails done. I'm not buying at the Starbucks. I'm not doing this. I'm not doing that. Because honestly, it felt like I didn't deserve it. It felt like, oh, well, you got yourself in this mess. You're in this debt. You are educated. You should have known better. So deal with it. And, you know, after I pay this off, I'm just like, you still want to live your life.

10:35And so when I started going on much more thought out and mindful money dates with myself, I'm like, I'm going to put myself in my budget. And that's what I always suggest to everyone. It doesn't matter what type of budget you're using, whether it's the zero base budget, 50, 30, 20, whatever you choose to use, you need to be a part of your budget because you are the one working for this money. And so yes, debt payoff is exciting. Investing is exciting. Saving is pretty cool too. But sometimes I really just want to go to Sephora. Like sometimes I just want to go to Target. And I don't want to feel ashamed.

11:05I don't want to feel embarrassed. I don't want to feel guilty. And I also don't want to, you know, sidetrack my money goals and things that I have in mind for my present and for my future with my money. And so by setting aside this self-care money on a monthly basis, I'm giving myself the opportunity to live that soft life, luxury life within reason. And I think always doing that within your means. It doesn't have to be a thousand dollars. I think people get caught up on like, well, how much should I set aside for myself? whatever works for your budget, right? So whatever that glorious gap, which I love is the amount of money you have left over after you've saved, you've invested, you've paid all your bills.

11:40What do you do with that money left over, right? How do you use that for yourself? How do you use that for your future self? And so personally for me, I set aside$400 a month and that could be to get my nails done, my hair done, skincare products, whatever it is. And when that 400 hits zero, then I'm like, okay, I've treated myself quite enough for this round. And if I don't use all the money, just rolls into the next month. And so I always have some sort of money for me. And I think that's really the great balance of paying off debt in saving, investing, trying to buy a home and still being able to take your little fun, random trips to Target.

12:13There's something wrong with that. You know, I love a good target run. I love a good target run without my children in the cart because that feels like a luxury. Let's be real. As business owners, we know a reliable connection isn't optional. I've had my fair share of slow and lagging internet and let me tell you, nothing kills your groove faster. It is the ultimate productivity killer. You can't process payments, you can't talk to clients, and your team feels stuck waiting on you. Back when I started my business, I learned pretty quickly that things only run as smoothly as your connection does.

12:49And that's why I love what Spectrum Business is doing. They get it. They know that reliable systems keep your business running, your clients happy, and your stress levels low. Spectrum Business offers internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, and mobile services built for your budget. And here's the best part. You can get free business internet forever when you add four mobile lines. No contracts, no added fees, just dependable service that keeps your business moving forward. Visit spectrum.com forward slash free for life to learn how you can get business internet free forever. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas.

13:30Okay, it is officially that time of year. And if you run a business, you know the holiday rush is no joke. I've done more Black Fridays than I can count at this point. And let me tell you, orders at 2am, inventory updates, refreshing my site, hoping it can keep up. It never stops being intense. That is exactly why I use Shopify. It keeps everything running smoothly when things get their craziest. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10 % of all e-commerce in the U.S., from household names to entrepreneurs who will be participating in their first Black Friday Cyber Monday this year.

14:07They've got ready-to-use templates, AI tools, and support available 24-7 so that selling stays simple even during the peak madness and shop base quick checkout well it's a game changer it means way fewer abandoned carts and way more happy customers this black friday joined the thousands of new entrepreneurs hearing for the first time with shopify sign up for your free trial today at shopify.com slash gold digger that's shopify.com slash gold digger go to shopify.com slash gold digger and make this black Friday, One to Remember. So I talk about all the time how black women have the highest amount of student loan debt and they're the most awarded with the degrees and bachelor's degrees and master's degrees, but they're also having the hardest time landing the six figure jobs, even with the same degrees as their counterparts.

14:58And so it's such an interesting conversation when I talk about generational wealth, when I talk about the investing and budgeting and saving, and I say, you know, it's going to look different for everyone because different people have different access to things. And so we're starting off at different starting points, right? So if I'm starting back here and I'm trying to get to the end goal, my end goal might not be as achievable or it might not be the same. And that's, that's why we need to continue to have these conversations. Because if I'm doing the same job that, you know, my friend Bobby over here is doing, we should be getting paid the same.

15:29Or if I'm doing more, I should be getting paid more. And so there was a study recently and I'm like, this is so fascinating because my mother used to make these little jokes when I was younger, there was this study about how people who have names that sounds more ethnic or more, you know, culturally diverse are getting less callbacks to higher paying jobs. And I'm just like, and then we release these stats where they say, well, you know, African Americans make the least amount of money. And I'm like, well, these conversations need to be had in tandem, right? We need to say, well, this could possibly be why instead of the broad narrative of, well, you know, pull yourself up by the bootstraps.

16:05Everyone's got the same 24 hours. money is out there. It's like, yes, money's out there, but it's different, different ways to get to it. So I think it's super important that when we talk about generational wealth and building, you know, financial freedom and how to gain access to these things that we talk about the different accessibility points for people of color and how they have to go a little further, or even sometimes even way further in order to reach those same levels that are just easier for other people to access. Absolutely. I think that's a really powerful point to be made. And I also just love the lens of like, this isn't going to be a one size fits all experience.

16:42I think that acknowledgement is super powerful. And it also enables people to take a good hard look at their own circumstance and access and how that can impact their own success. I listened to a podcast, how I build this. And at the end of every episode, he asks, Like how much of it was luck and how much of it was skill? And even just asking that question really opens people up to analyze, well, what was the ratio there? And I think that even in situations and the discussion around privilege and access, I think that's a really powerful thing to be introspective about, especially when you're teaching about a topic that impacts every single human being.

17:20Yes, that's why I'm always saying financial literacy is a great game changer and it balances a lot of things, but it's not the only step in order to build generational wealth and gain financial freedom. It's one piece that plays, you know, the puzzle is much bigger and different for everyone, but that's just one piece. So I love financial literacy. I love talking about budgeting and saving, but I'm always mindful to know like, okay, this budget might not work for someone who has a family. This budget might not work for someone who comes from this socioeconomic background. So I have to offer alternatives or I have to at least address that, right?

17:53And I address my own privilege whenever I talk about paying off student loans and how I was able to side hustle and do things like that. I am very, very adamant about the fact that I also was able to live at home. Right. That is a privilege that not everyone is going to have. And so I did not have that byline in my budget. And so to say, yeah, you could just side hustle and do all of that. It's like, girl, you didn't have to pay rent. Right. So these are the things why it's so important to not only acknowledge your own privileges in certain financial circumstances, but to point out how it changes the trajectory for the outcome.

18:25And that is something I'm very passionate about and about sharing in all financial journeys. How would we know what, say, an hourly rate is or how could we at least legitimize the expense on some of those things that will buy us back our most precious non-renewable resource, our time? time yes i know and it's so interesting because and i talk about this when i talk about the financial literacy that's often pushed towards women on how to like make a five dollar meal or how to penny pinch or how to do this and it's never ever ever focused on how to buy back your time yeah and when i talk about this i was speaking with one of my friends who is also in the entrepreneur space and she was saying how she felt bad that she hired someone to clean her home and they cleaned her home in three hours.

19:12And then I'm like, okay, well, what did you do with those three hours? And she talks about how she was able to update her media kit and how she was able to pitch to brands and how she's able to sign contracts. And I'm like, that three hours, you probably have set yourself up to make up way more money than if you had spent those three hours cleaning. And the amount that you paid your cleaner, you're going to get way more than that. So you bought yourself not only your time, but way more money. And so I think about that whenever I'm like, Like, oh, this is only going to take 30 minutes. And I'm just like, yes, but can I quickly outsource this in a way that I will get double, triple the revenue?

19:48And so I always think about my time like that when it comes to business, not with like family, like spend time. I think about these things where I'm just like, I feel guilty if I order Instacart or I feel guilty if I do this, I feel guilty. but is that because I truly feel guilty or that is the financial literacy that's been pushed at me and other women that I have to make time to clean the house or I have to make time to cook dinner and there's nothing wrong with making time for that but I have to also figure out well how much money am I losing or how much time am I losing that would lead me into that revenue that I'm looking to make this month and so it's it's such an interesting conversation because I don't think if you're not an entrepreneur it might be a little harder to understand and grasp.

20:31But all my people who are not entrepreneurs listening, trust me, sometimes it's worth it to just get the time back to do something else, even if it's not to make money, even if it's like, well, if I, you know, hire this person to do this, I can take a yoga class or I can go to Pilates. I can do self-care for myself for an hour. That is also worth the exchange. Our next powerhouse is my friend, Tori Dunlap of Her First 100K. She's author of the instant New York Times bestselling book, Financial Feminist, a top rated podcast host, a Forbes 30 under 30 honoree, the co-creator of Treasury, which is an investing education platform that has over$40 million invested.

21:11She's done a million things. She founded her first 100K to fight financial inequality by giving women actionable resources to better their money. And since then, she has helped over 3 million women negotiate salary, pay off debt, build savings and invest. I absolutely love her insights on traditional gender shaming financial advice and how to ensure you have something to show for your hard earned money. Let's listen in to what Tori has to say. If we can get more money into more women's hands, the entire world starts to change because women aren't playing small. Right. And you were talking about that Instagram caption of like frivolous spending.

21:50I mentioned in my book of like the only spending that is frivolous that gets labeled, quote unquote, frivolous is inherently feminine spending. It's the manicures, the lattes, the purses. Right. But it's not NFL season tickets or golf clubs. Right. It's shaming. And so I did so much research around this. The interesting thing is that money advice in 2023 still now is gendered for men. it is expand. It's make more money. It's invest in the stock market and invest in real estate, right? Play bigger. For women, the advice is shrink yourself. It's stop spending money. It's five meals you can make for under$5, right?

22:29Even in 2023, we're still getting these narratives fed to us, right? That like in order for you to be financially confident for men, it's make more money, right? Your earning potential, it seemingly is limitless. But for women, it is shrink yourself, stop spending money, coupon clip, cut the very latte that gives you life in the morning, and instead live this scarcity-driven mindset. And that's the way to get rich. When in fact, there's only so much you can cut. So I've realized through my book and my work that everything has, unfortunately, this very gendered shaming lens on it. And the more we can start talking about that, I think, again, the entire world starts to change when women not only have money, but unabashedly pursue it.

23:11Wow. Money is a neutral thing. It's a stack of government issued paper. It has no moral value. What you do with it has moral value, right? There's plenty of people with lots of money who do terrible things. There's plenty of people with lots of money who do really life-changing, incredible, world-changing things, right? And you have been actively taught to not pursue money in order to keep you playing small, right? The pursuit of wealth is not a bad thing because of the pursuit of wealth means options, right? The pursuit of wealth means all of those options opened up to you. And I want a world where women, people of color, queer folks, like anybody who's a member of a marginalized group, money is never the reason they can or cannot do something.

23:55Money is never the thing that's either holding them back from doing something or is the thing that is contributing to their stress, right? And there's something so powerful about saying, no, I want to be rich. I want to be rich, not only to take care of myself, but to then say, I'm going to bring everybody into the fold. So if you are that person who is, you know, privileged and lucky enough and works really hard and is making good money, I need you to have something to show for it, right? Put that money in something like a Roth IRA. A Roth IRA is a individual retirement account that you can set up.

24:33If you make too much money for a Roth IRA, there's 401ks, there's other options, but like, I need you to take it a step further. Don't have all that money sitting in a bank account. Don't spend all of it. Don't just ignore it because you're too scared. Like I need you to have something to show for all of that hard work and dedication. I became a millionaire by age 27 because I was able to take the money that we were earning and leverage it, put it into investments, allow it to grow for me and allow it to grow for her first hundred K. So just don't let the ostrich effect, don't let the fact that nobody taught you about money, which is again, totally understandable.

25:11Don't let that keep you from progressing financially. Next, we have Tiffany Alicia of the Budgetnista. Tiffany is the powerhouse dedicated to making life-changing financial education accessible to women worldwide. She's a financial educator, a New York Times bestselling author, and star of Netflix's Get Smart With Money. Through her platform, Tiffany impacts countless lives and her hands-on workbook, Made Whole, takes a practical approach to transforming financial dreams into reality. In our interview in December of 2023, she dropped some really practical money-saving tips that you can start implementing today.