The Money Reset Series: How to Escape Financial Overwhelm for Good | Finance | E3 | Presented by Experian

0:00Hala Taha:Financial peace isn't about perfection. It's not about having every single thing figured out or hitting some arbitrary number. It's really about ease. When money feels tight, a lot of people freeze up or try to pretend like nothing needs to change. But real relief comes from knowing your baseline, what you truly need, what you can stop, and what you can turn back to later. Financial peace is all-encompassing peace. It really is. There is something so soothing about your head hitting the pillow at night and knowing that you're covered. When things are really rough, maybe you lost your job or your business is not doing as well, you should know already what things on your budget that you can reduce or get rid of.

0:43Morgan Housel:The more you can use money as a tool to live a better life, rather than just a scorecard of social comparison, the better off you're going to be. What keeps us from doing that, which we know we should do with money? The main thing all of you need to know is that...

1:03Hala Taha:Hey, Young & Profiters. Welcome to Episode 3 of the Money Reset Series, created in partnership with Experian. In this series, we've been exploring how to make money feel more manageable and a lot less overwhelming. In Episode 1, we talked about awareness, seeing your money clearly without shame so you can understand what's actually happening. In episode two, we focused on systems, how to build habits and structures that keep you moving forward without relying on willpower or motivation. And today we're talking about relief. If money feels tight right now, this episode isn't about doing more. It's about doing less on purpose.

1:38Hala Taha:Creating breathing room is what brings immediate relief while also helping you build stability and peace over the longterm. You'll hear insights from trusted voices like Suzy Orman, Morgan Housel, and Jade Warshaw on how to create that sense of stability, regain control during financial stress, and focus on what actually matters most. And sometimes, Yap fam, relief doesn't come from fixing everything all at once. Cancelling unused subscriptions or negotiating recurring bills can create immediate breathing room for you without adding more to your plate. Experian can help you do those steps so you don't have to do it all by yourself.

2:14Hala Taha:All right, Yap fam, let's get started. If there's one thing to remember right now, it's that relief doesn't start with a perfect plan. It starts with knowing where you stand, where money feels tight. A lot of people freeze or try to pretend nothing needs to change. But real relief comes from knowing your baseline, what you truly need, what you can stop, and what you can turn back to later. That's where Tiffany Aliche comes in. She's a financial expert and the co-host of the Brown Ambition podcast. She talks about having a clear fallback plan for tough seasons, something she calls a noodle budget.

2:49So a noodle budget is your baseline budget. You got to drop down and get your noodle on from time to time. That just means when things are really rough, maybe you lost your job or your business is not doing as well, you should know already what things on your budget, on your money list, that you can reduce or get rid of. Like basically if you were a college student and you had to eat ramen noodles. because so many people lose their house and their cable is still on. It's like, they're like, oh, what's an extra 80 bucks a month? I'm like, you're not going to say that when you're like, what are we going to eat next month?

3:22So I know instantly if I were to, like, I don't have a job now since I have my businesses, but if I were to, I know exactly the places where I can be like, turn this off, turn this off, reduce this, reduce this, reduce this. So you don't live at your noodle budget if you don't have to, but you should know what that number is and what things you can activate off when you need to. And that is basically your ramen noodle budget that you temporarily live at until you're back up again.

3:46Hala Taha:What Tiffany just laid out is about immediate stability, knowing your baseline so you never have guessing in a hard moment. But once you've created that space to breathe, the next question is what financial steadiness actually looks like over time. Relief matters, but so does direction. And it helps to have a simple framework you can return to when things feel uncertain or overwhelming. Jade Warshaw, a financial coach and co-host of The Ramsey Show, thinks about financial stability as something you build intentionally, step by step. She uses a simple checklist to help people stay grounded and focused, especially when life feels uncertain.

4:22So financially responsible checklist. Number one, you're a person who is living on some sort of budget, right? Like we talked about. That is just, I know my numbers, essentially. I know what I earn, and I know what my expenses are, and I know what piece of margin is going for this and what piece of margin is going for that. I'm living my life on a budget. Number two, I'm a proponent of a debt-free lifestyle. I'm a person who's out of debt. I avoid debt at all costs. So, so important. Number three, I'm a person who carries the proper insurances, all right? So many people don't, whether it's in the business world or it's in their personal life.

4:59I see it all the time. I talk to normal everyday people about their normal personal finances and people are overinsured or underinsured or not insured. And it's a problem. They don't pick up life insurance because they think it's an inconvenience. And I'm like, it's absolutely not. You need life insurance. So carrying the proper insurance. The fourth one on the list, of course, is a person who values savings. And that comes in a couple of different forms. Of course, you need to be having a cash emergency fund anywhere between, I would say, anywhere between three to six months. Some people do a year.

5:33that's your bag if you want to do that. But this is just cash money you get to. You need to be investing at least 15 % of your income. If that's the point in your life that you're at, if you're at an investing point, at least 15 % of your income at the very minimum. And then of course, yeah, real estate, your primary residence, you need to have a primary residence. Renting for a season is fine, but long-term you need to own something. It's like a forced savings account. Real estate is, if you're buying good real estate, is going up in value all the time. So those are the three ways that I would suggest saving money for anybody.

6:06And then finally, you need to be number five would be you need to be prioritizing generosity. People forget about that one. Generosity is so important. I said it earlier, of the three things you do, give, save, and spend. Giving is at the top of the list. We've all heard the parable, when your hand is open, money comes in and money comes out.

6:25Hala Taha:A big part of feeling financially steady is knowing what needs attention first. Once you've got a framework in place, the next questions tend to come fast. What do I tackle now? Do I focus on debt? Do I save? How do I make progress without feeling stretched in every direction? That tension is especially common when debt is involved. It can feel urgent, heavy, and all-consuming, like you have to eliminate it before you're allowed to do anything else. But the order matters, and so does understanding the trade-offs. Jean Chatzky, host of Her Money podcast, breaks down how to think about paying off debt in a way that's both practical and sustainable.

7:01Morgan Housel:The cheapest, fastest way to pay off debt is to just stack it, highest interest rate to lowest interest rate. Pay off the highest interest rate debts first while making the minimum payments on the rest. Once that high interest rate debt is gone, then you just move on to the next one and so on and so on and so on. The student loan debts are a little bit of a different beast. Long-term debts, student loans, mortgages, car loans, you basically want to try to pay those off on the schedule that you're given. If you're struggling with your student loan debts and their federal debts, then you want to make sure you're enrolled in an income repayment program through the Department of Education.

7:47Morgan Housel:We're getting some changes to those programs that are helpful. As long as you're enrolled, you should get notified of the changes and they should come your way. But don't let paying student loan debt faster get in the way of doing important things like grabbing the match from your 401k. Because if you look at the return on your money, the way that we think about or the way that we should think about return on your money is equivalent to the interest rate. So if you're paying off a student loan debt at 6%, that's like getting a 6 % return on your money. If you're getting 50 cents on the dollar as a match in your 401k, that's a 50 % return on your money.

8:40Morgan Housel:And you can't not get that because you want to pay off the debt at 6%. You just pay off the debt at 6 % a little bit slower.

8:47Hala Taha:What this really underscores is that progress isn't about choosing one perfect move. It's about sequencing, knowing which steps protect you now while still moving forward. And this is where many people get stuck. There's a belief that you have to wipe out every single dollar of debt before you're allowed to save anything. In real life, that mindset often creates more stress, especially when the unexpected hits. Tori Dunlap, a money expert and author of Financial Feminist, challenges that assumption head on. She talks about why building a small emergency cushion isn't just a financial move, but an emotional one.

9:22Hala Taha:And how that sense of stability can change the way you make every other money decision. One of the misconceptions I hear a lot is like, I need to pay off my debt first before I save. I just so strongly disagree with that for a couple of reasons. One, I don't want you going into more debt trying to pay for an emergency because one will come up, right? And the second is that we prioritize mental health at her first 100K. And like we were talking about this before of this feeling of stability or this feeling of choice, there is something so soothing about your head hitting the pillow at night and knowing that you're covered.

9:57You lose your job tomorrow. You get laid off. You're going to be fine. A medical, unexpected medical cost comes up. You're going to be fine. or at least fine for a period of time, right? The emergency fund's there to tide you over. So there's something so freeing about that, but also so comforting about that mentally, just knowing like, okay, I'm good. Your emergency fund should be at least three months of living expenses in a high yield savings account. It's a good starter emergency fund. That is our first step before we pay off any kind of debt and that includes credit cards. So that's priority number one is that emergency fund in a high yield savings account.

10:32Everybody listening, if you do not have a high yield savings account, you are losing amounts of money on interest. Like it's the easiest thing you can do to immediately better your life because it's just like a savings account except a higher yield. It's just going to boost your savings. If your savings is just going to sit there, which is what we want, we may as well have it work harder for you.

10:52Hala Taha:Yeah, fam, that sense of security changes everything. When you know how you can handle a curve ball, you make decisions from a calmer, more grounded place, not from panic. When we come back, We'll talk about how to think beyond the immediate moment and start using money as a tool for long-term stability and peace. Stay with us. Hey, App Fam, I know a lot of you are working hard to hit new financial goals this year, but it can be tough to get ahead when subscription creep is quietly draining your bank account. I can't tell you how many times I thought I canceled something only to realize later they were still charging me, or how many times I tried to cancel, but it was so difficult I couldn't figure it out.

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12:04Hala Taha:And it doesn't stop there. If you want to also try saving on everyday bills, experienced expert negotiators could help you by finding better rates on eligible bills you're already paying. The best part, you get to keep 100 % of your savings. Get started now with the Experian app and let your BFF, big financial friend, do all the work for you. Disclaimer, results will vary. Not all bills or subscriptions are eligible. Savings not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected payment account required. See Experian.com for details. Now that we've talked about creating stability in the short term, it's time to zoom out.

12:39Hala Taha:Because once you have some space, money stops feeling like something you're constantly reacting to and starts becoming something you can use intentionally. Not as something to measure yourself against or stress over, but as a tool you can use to build your future. Suzy Orman is the host of the Women & Money podcast, and she's known for cutting straight to the emotional core of personal finance. In this clip, she explains why fear, not market swings, is often the biggest barrier to long-term security and why investing works best when you stay focused on the long game. What keeps us from doing that, which we know we should do with money?

13:17And again, we could do a three-hour podcast here, but the main thing all of you need to know is that fear, shame, and anger are the three internal obstacles to wealth. You have to know that your emotions rule what you do. And since you and your money are one, you have to be very careful. So there's so many things to all of this, really. So given that you have control over your emotions, given that you do what I'm about to tell you to do when it comes to money or not, then you will seriously prosper. At the age of 30, 40, you're not day traders. You're not buying and selling. And if you are, you're making the biggest mistake out there.

14:11You are investing for your future. You want your money to compound for you. The longer it's invested and the more that your money makes that that money makes, the more money you will have. When these markets were going down and down, all the things you wanted to buy were on sale. Now, I'm not saying that you should buy Microsoft or any of those things. These stocks that may be the future again one day are on serious sale. What do you want to do? Buy Microsoft when it's at$300,$400,$500? dollars. Amazon, when it's right at three, really everybody. So your goal is to invest in a retirement account.

14:59Preferably, if you're not making any money, you want a Roth IRA. You want a Roth 401k, a Roth 403b, which are retirement vehicles where you are investing with after tax money. Can you just forget the tax write-off? If you're not making that much money right now, and even if you are, and if you qualify for a Roth IRA, oh my God, you put money in there, you do it every single month. If you don't know what to buy, just do a good exchange-traded fund like the Vanguard Standard & Poor's 500, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, or the Standard & Poor's 500 Index Fund or whatever it may be. Get yourself diversification.

15:47Do it month in and month out. And years from now, oh my God, the biggest mistake you will make is waiting until you're older to fund your retirement.

16:02Hala Taha:Once you strip away fear and stop treating investing like a referendum on your worth, a different question comes into focus. What is this money actually for? And once you ask that, you realize that even good habits need to evolve as your life does. Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money, explains how saving quietly can turn into an identity and why money works best when it's used to support your life, not kept as a scorecard you're afraid to touch.

16:29Morgan Housel:What I think is interesting, if you talk to a lot of financial advisors, they will tell you one of the biggest problems that they have with their clients is you have a client who has saved diligently for retirement for decades. And they saved up a giant nest egg. They have millions of dollars saved for retirement. And then they're 65 years old and they retire and they cannot bring themselves to spend it. They cannot do it because saving money has become so ingrained in their identity, in their personality, that they can never switch gears. And I think that's really important too. And it's a very big problem because in your 20s, 30s, 40s, you create a very good habit of, I'm a saver.

17:06Morgan Housel:I'm a long-term investor. And you can never break away from that. You can't do it. So the idea that a good financial skill in your 30s can actually be a liability in your 50s or 60s is really important. I think about this in my own life, where in my 20s and let's say early 30s, I was a very big saver. And I'm so proud of that. And that's great. Now I'm in my 40s. I have two kids and we spend more than we used to. And it is not because I broke my previous good financial habits. I don't view it that way at all. It's like I built up money so that I could spend more of it now and have maybe a lower savings rate than I used to because I have a bigger family who are hungry and we go on vacations and whatnot.

17:51Morgan Housel:And I think that's wonderful. The more you can use money as a tool to live a better life rather than just a scorecard of social comparison, the better off you're going to be. And if you always view it through that lens, like how can I use this money as a tool for more happiness, not just how much can I accumulate and have a higher score than the next person? I think that's always the better way to think about it.

18:12Hala Taha:When you start thinking about money as something meant to serve your life and not define it, the end goal becomes clearer. It's not just about saving more or spending less. It's about reaching a place where money stops dominating your thoughts and starts supporting the way that you actually want to live. That's what this is all building toward. Jade Warshaw calls it financial peace. And she describes this as a kind of ease that shows up not just in your bank account, but across your relationships, your choices, and your day-to-day life. Financial peace is all-encompassing peace. It really is. It's like I said before, money touches every area of our life.

18:49And a lot of times we think money is just this thing that's in our wallet and that's it. And it buys us things when we want it. But it's not. It's deeply connected to how we view ourselves. Like I said, our relationships, our spirituality, all of those things. And so when you achieve financial peace, it's just this ability, and you kind of hit on it earlier, to just go about life with ease. It's the, right? The feeling of, you know what? The check was supposed to come Monday and it didn't. Okay, we'll figure it out. Like, there's no stress. There's the ease. there is the ease of if somebody in your family needs something, you can help them and you don't have to set yourself on fire to help somebody else.

19:34You can just help them. And so, yeah, financial peace is an ease of life. It is peace all around. It's the ability to make sure that you're not so focused on money and making things right with that, that you're neglecting these other areas of your life. You're neglecting your own mental health. You're neglecting your relationships you're neglecting. You're not in the career path that you want to be on. And so when you get your money right, everything else begins to fall into place.

20:02Hala Taha:As we wrap up this episode and the entire Money Reset series, I want you to take a breath and really let this land. Financial peace isn't about perfection. It's not about having every single thing figured out or hitting some arbitrary number. It's really about ease. It's about knowing you can handle what comes your way, make choices in a way that aligns with your life, and stop letting money be the loudest voice in the room. And sometimes relief doesn't come from fixing everything at once. Small steps like canceling unused subscriptions or negotiating recurring bills can create real breathing room without adding more work to your plate.

20:38Hala Taha:Experian can help you with those tasks so progress doesn't have to rely on you doing everything yourself. My hope is that this series helped you see your money more clearly, build systems that support you and move a little closer to that sense of calm we've been talking about. Wishing you financial peace and thank you so much for listening to our Money Reset series brought to you by Experian.