More Money Podcast - 096 How an Emergency Fund Can Save Your Life - Kate Dore, Blogger at Cashville Skyline

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Episode 96 of the Mo Money Podcast. I am your host, Jessica Morehouse. Thank you so much for joining me for another episode. I'm very excited to share my interview with you today. It is with the wonderful Kate Doerr from Cashville Skyline. She's a personal finance blogger I've been in touch with for years. We met at FinCon, of course, a couple years back, and then recently this year. And she has also recently made the switch from employee to self-employed. So that is definitely going to be a topic of discussion, but also a lot of other things. She's worked in the arts. She works in Nashville, if you didn't get that pun with Cashville Skyline, Nashville Skyline. And we kind of go through just being an adult, career stuff, figuring it out, and dealing with stuff that is unexpected, like being laid off from your job.

Starting point is 00:00:57 What do you do? How do you make the right choices? And how do you still be an awesome girl boss? So we talk about all of that in this episode. So very excited. But before I get to that interview, I have something very exciting to share. I've been working on a lot of things since I left my own 9 to 5 not too long ago. And I've been working on several projects. One that I've kept secret until now. It is a very cool course called self-worth to net worth it is a 21 day challenge that i'm actually doing in conjunction with two other awesome ladies uh in the personal finance sphere uh first there's

Starting point is 00:01:34 sarah lee kane who was actually recently on my show and she is uh at high-fiving dollars and then there's tara falcone from rise up that's r-e-I-S-U-P. And basically, we kind of put our heads together because we are all in the personal finance sphere, but we have very different expertises, I suppose. So, Sarah is a money storyteller, but she really gets into, you know, kind of the money mindsets, emotional spending, kind of the psychology behind money. Whereas Tara, she used to work on Wall Street. So she is the investment guru for this challenge. And myself, I like to consider myself a master budgeter. I love budgeting, tracking my spending, really getting into some spreadsheets and making some magic happen with some numbers.

Starting point is 00:02:24 That is just like what drives me and I'm super excited. So we put our heads together and we're like, let's do a course together where each of us gets a week and then we really go into our expertise. So if you really want to up your game when it comes to your money and just really master your money in 21 days with three awesome experts, this may be the challenge for you. So all you have to do is go to jessicamorehouse.com slash self-worth to net worth, or I'll make it easier for you. Just go to the show notes, jessicamorehouse.com slash 96. I'll put a nice, beautiful button that you can click to learn more information about this challenge. It is something I'm very excited about because I don't think anything's been out here like this before. So I hope to see you in there. And of course, if you have any questions about

Starting point is 00:03:17 anything, shoot me an email, jessica at jessicamorehouse.com. All right, that is enough self-promotion. I know, I know. I'm terrible. Let's get to that interview. Okay. Let's do it. Okay. Thank you, Kate, for joining me on this show. Thanks so much for having me, Jess. I'm excited to chat because not only do we just have like, you know, we could probably talk for hours, I'm sure. But you were, I feel like, at the first FinCon I went to in 2014, I feel like you were one of the first people that, like, went up to me and said, hello, I know who you are, which I appreciate. Yeah. Well, it was funny because when I first went to FinCon in 2014, I was actually still

Starting point is 00:03:59 anonymous. Oh, yeah. That's why I'm like, I don't know who you are until I looked at your badge. Nobody knew. Nobody knew what my name was. In fact, I had my alias on my badge, Addison Cash. And I picked that because it was like a gender. Yeah, that's right. I was really afraid of like, at the time, I was really afraid of my co workers, like, knowing all this information about my financial situation. It was just a very competitive environment. And I thought it would create like awkwardness with my coworkers. And so, but then I got there and I ran into, you know, like Aaron from Broke Millennial and Shannon from Financially Blonde and Melanie from Dear Debt. And they were like, okay, what's your real name?

Starting point is 00:04:34 And then it was like, and then that was the end of being like in the closet. And then there's some press stuff happened a few months later. And it was like, okay, no more being an anonymous blogger after that. Absolutely. No, that makes sense. So, well, thank you. So I'm super excited to chat because we also got to hang out at the FinCon 2016 that just happened. And now you're on my show and we could chat even more about money and fun things like that. So just in case people are wondering who is you, let's give a little breakdown of who you are and what you're all about. Let's start maybe from the beginning, beginning. Were you always interested in personal finance? Was this something that

Starting point is 00:05:16 came later in life or earlier? What's the deal? So I guess a little bit about me. I'm based in Nashville, Tennessee. Cashville Skyline is my blog. And it started about, it's been around for about two and a half years. And it started actually about a year before that. And what happened was Coursera, we all know the massive online open courses where you can take awesome classes for free at universities from all over the world, I saw a personal finance class. I said, that's pretty cool. I'm interested in money. I actually have a degree in music. I wouldn't really consider myself someone who was thinking about money all the time. However, I did have an interest in it. I saw this course for free and so I took it. It was through the University of California, Irvine. And I, they had some forums and they were about, this is crazy. There were like 80,000 people enrolled in these courses, all amazing. And there were these forums and people said, you know, Hey, what's

Starting point is 00:06:15 your favorite personal finance blog? And I had never even considered that personal finance blogs were a thing or that they existed. And I just started looking at people's recommendations and explaining, you know, why they liked what they liked. And I was basically just clicking through the links and like finding these blogs. And all of a sudden I was like, this light bulb went off and I started like devouring these personal finance blogs. You know, a lot of the people that we both know now, um, I, I did that and I did that for like about a year before I actually started my blog. But I spent about a year like lurking, as they say, and reading other people's blogs and just getting really inspired. Because at the time, I was feeling really trapped

Starting point is 00:06:55 in my career. I was feeling like I was working as a concert promoter, I was traveling actually all over the United States and Canada, producing events. And I was feeling really, really trapped in my career. However, I was spending basically everything I was earning. So I did not feel like I had any leverage or any control over my situation. I felt like I couldn't make a career change easily because I didn't have an emergency fund. And this just really excited me and empowered me to want to make a change in my life. That's awesome. Where did you get the name Cashville Skyline? I'm sure we'll talk about how you started the blog and everything like that.

Starting point is 00:07:34 But where's that name come from? So it started because there is a, so I knew I wanted the name Cashville in there. And actually, my boyfriend was the one that suggested Cashville Skyline, which is a play on the Bob Dylan album, Nashville Skyline, which is one of his popular albums. And again, I was working in the music business and music is still a big part of my life. But and now I'm really focused on creative professionals, too. So it kind of makes sense. But I just liked I like Cashville Skyline. I liked obviously the Dylan part of it. And then I had this idea like, Oh, cool. There could be like a skyline in the logo. And like, I don't

Starting point is 00:08:09 know. I just liked, I liked the idea of it. I liked the Nashville connection since I'm based here. And it just kind of, for people that get it, they kind of like, Oh yeah, Dylan album. And other people are like, that's kind of weird, but they seem like they remember it, which is cool. It's very memorable. That's why I'm like, but I never knew. I never put those things together. That's very cool. Very cool. So after kind of like getting obsessed,

Starting point is 00:08:32 and I totally get, because I totally creeped on personal finance blogs for a year before I started mine. What made you want to start your own after just reading a bunch of them? So in addition to wanting to get control of my own financial situation and holding myself accountable,

Starting point is 00:08:49 I also wanted to become a better digital marketer because I wanted to transition into digital marketing. I was doing a lot of traditional media buying in my previous career. I was buying a lot of TV spots and radio spots and buying print ads, kind of the more archaic version of marketing that we all know. And I really just wanted to get on the digital side of things. And so I saw it as a

Starting point is 00:09:09 way of gaining more experience. And it totally is. I mean, starting a website and having to deal with everything from scratch is one of the best, really like the best ways to learn that I can think of. I think with digital marketing, it's all hands on and projects. It's almost like, you know, being able to test things and make mistakes. That's one of the best ways to learn. And I'm grateful for that, that opportunity that I didn't even realize how much I would learn from it, but I knew that I would get better. So that was also part of the motivation. So get my money under control and also become a better digital marketer. Those two things. Exactly. And that led you to kind of switch careers, didn't it? Yeah. So again, I'm doing the blog and I'm traveling all over the country,

Starting point is 00:09:49 all over the continent, or I shouldn't say all continent, all over North America minus Mexico. And going around, just feeling burnt out and feeling incredibly tired. And basically, my goal was to save about six months of expenses. And then I said, I'm going to just take a break. I'm going to just take a few months off and I'm going to transition into digital marketing. And at the same time, I was also doing some, I was starting to pick up some additional responsibilities at the job. I took on some social media marketing responsibilities for a couple of festivals that we had, a big comedy festival in Nashville and a big country music festival down

Starting point is 00:10:25 in Salem, Virginia. So I was gaining that experience at the same time. And I just figured once I got through these big projects, I'd have that on my resume plus the website and I saved the money. And I thought, you know what, six months, hopefully I'll find a job within six months. And that will, you know, I just felt like if I'm going to start a new career, I don't want to be starting it in the mental and physical state that I was in just because I was just so burnt out. I thought if I gave my brain a rest that I would come into a new career feeling really refreshed. And so in August 2014, which actually was right before FinCon. Yeah, it was. I, yeah, I gave my notice and I quit my job without something else lined up.

Starting point is 00:11:06 So that was what I did. Wow. And how did that work out for you? You know what? It was actually good. What happened was about two weeks or a few weeks later, I had some friends that worked at Eventbrite and they were like, hey, you're not working right now. We're hiring some part-time client services people.

Starting point is 00:11:24 Do you want to do this on the side while you're sort of resting and recharging? And I was like, yeah, that sounds awesome. I mean, I hadn't worked for a software company before and Eventbrite is an awesome brand and I love the software. So I thought it'd be a good experience just working for a software company before going to work for another one. And it also helped keep some of it. It wasn't like a super high paying gig, but it did help keep some of that emergency fund intact a little bit. So it didn't make me, you know, I was only working about 20 hours a week, but it kept some of that intact. And then I ended up getting hired at another software company, Raven Tools. I ended up getting

Starting point is 00:12:02 hired there around Thanksgiving. So it was only about, it was really only a few months that I was, I guess, part-time that I went from quitting the job to being hired. And then I started officially at Raven beginning of the year in 2015 as a social media marketer. That's a pretty quick transition. I think it took me like a full year since I quit my job in advertising sales to landing my first digital marketing job. And that also included moving across the country, going back to school and doing a couple of jobs in between. So props to you. I have to say, though, it wouldn't have been possible without knowing someone at Eventbrite and knowing someone at Raven. I just feel like it's so hard. Um, we've all

Starting point is 00:12:45 applied to jobs where we didn't know someone and it's like your, it's like your resume just goes into like a black hole, you know? And thankfully I had a friend at both of those places. And that, I mean, I think honestly, every job I've had, I feel like has been just someone that I knew that works somewhere. And, um, I mentioned it, that I was interested and they were like, Hey, this would be a good fit for you. And it just kind of went from there. But I can't imagine, um, um, moving across the, I mean, props to you for moving all the way across the country and starting over completely. That's really brave. And I did do it, but I was also not, um, it was right after college. So, you know, like a lot of, you know, it was a little different, a little bit of a different situation. Yeah, no, I look back. I'm like, I was either really brave or it could have

Starting point is 00:13:29 been really bad. It could have been really stupid, but luckily it was a happy ending. And now we're here. We've been here for three years. So yeah, crazy, crazy, crazy. Um, so you, you mentioned you've had your blog for two years. I'm wondering how has it kind of evolved since you started to where you are now? Because a lot of stuff has happened over that period of time and we'll kind of get to where you are now. But I'd love to kind of see what's happened in the past year since you started your blog. Yeah. So, okay. So I started a blog and in the beginning, I was also very afraid of monetizing the site. I was very afraid of turning people away.

Starting point is 00:14:07 I really wanted it to be a source of information. I just didn't want there to be any kind of conflict with products. And honestly, I wasn't even putting in the beginning. I didn't even have ads on there. But then eventually I was like, okay, I'm working really hard. There's nothing wrong with monetizing the blog. And I slowly started adding things that I thought made sense. So advertising, affiliate sales. And then I also, right around the time when I started at Raven, I actually started freelance writing too. And so the blog, people

Starting point is 00:14:35 just, kind of like what you mentioned, people just reached out to me and they were like, hey, we've read your writing on Cashflow Skyline. Would you be interested in potentially writing here or writing there? And suddenly I started building up this side hustle of freelance writing, um, right around that time. So it, the blog kind of turned into like almost like a marketing piece for, um, a freelance personal finance writing side hustle. And in addition, I was doing full-time social media marketing. And so I started doing that on the side as an additional side hustle within the personal finance space. I work with a lot of financial advisors on their marketing, especially with writing blog posts and social media marketing, email marketing, those kinds of things. And so the blog just really turned into, in addition to it, it's not a huge

Starting point is 00:15:20 source of revenue for me, but it is, you know, it's a stream of income. Um, but a lot more of my income is, is service-based work. Um, but that turned into like a pretty solid side hustle, um, you know, beginning of last year. And I just, in my mind, I was laid off from my very first job. I worked in the music business for a long time. I worked at a record label and surprise, surprise, I was laid off. And so in my mind, I've always just thought, you know, um, although I wasn't following this in the, in my twenties when I was, um, you know, spending everything I was earning as a concept promoter. However, um, once I got, once I changed careers, I just started like saving as much money as I could. And in addition to that, I really wanted to have these side hustles built up knowing that if anything ever happened that I would be, you know, at least I'd have that side income and it would help, you know, help cushion the fall. Which is so smart of you to do

Starting point is 00:16:10 because I feel like lots of people, like I feel like I feel more secure if something were to happen, even though I, you know, do save and I have an emergency fund because I also have my side hustle. It's like if something happened, worst comes to worst, and I lose my job, I'm kind of okay. I can float for a little bit. So I think that's really smart. And I think it's something that a lot of millennials are starting to realize the importance of because it's kind of, well, not easy, but it's sort of, yeah, much easier to find another source of income or passive income online these days. Definitely. And I also realized that I really, you know, as I've gone through this journey with Cashflow Skyline, I've realized like what I'm really passionate about is I really want to help people with their money. And so I started taking

Starting point is 00:16:54 earlier this year through Boston University, I started taking a certified financial planner classes. I'm still at the very beginning of that process. I've only, you know, I'm really only on the second course, but I'm basically like, like in my mind, I knew this is the very beginning of that process. I've only, you know, I'm really only on the second course. But I'm basically like in my mind I knew this is the long game. Like I always, I knew and I tried to get the blog to serve more topics related to the types of people that I really want to help, which are just creative professionals. You know, people that work in entertainment or people or artists or creative entrepreneurs, those kinds of people. It's a lot of people that I know in Nashville and just people that I'm friends with in general. And I just see such a need for it. And things are different in Canada.

Starting point is 00:17:33 But, you know, here it's like you're lucky if you have a 401K. You're lucky if a company provides health insurance for you. Um, and these are, these are some of the topics that I've been trying to write about to basically just to, to educate and share knowledge for, for people that maybe don't have the traditional career path. Absolutely. So, so what is your kind of game plan now? So you talked about how you're taking the CFP courses. What is your kind of, I guess, dream once you accomplish that? Yeah. So once I – so right now I'm taking the classes and hopefully sometime next year. So there are seven classes total.

Starting point is 00:18:18 Oh, wow. Yeah. They're pretty intense. That's intense. They're pretty intense. I had never used a financial calculator prior to taking these courses. It's definitely pretty intense. And there's a pretty hard test basically at the end of all of it.

Starting point is 00:18:33 And you have to take a prep course prior to that just because it's impossible. It's like a 50% pass rate. But you take a really good prep class and hopefully you just beat it into your head and then take the, then take the test. And then from there you actually have to get an additional either two years as an apprentice under a financial planner or three years of experience in order to apply to get the CFP marks. And it's, it's, yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty intense. And it's interesting because there are different, you know, different types of financial planning. But, um, part of why I really want to become a certified

Starting point is 00:19:05 financial planner is one, it's very underrepresented by women. It's been about 20, it's abysmal. It's been about 23% for the past 30 years. No way. Yes. It's really, yes, I think it's desperately needed. And there's some amazing female financial planners out there. But I think there needs to be more. And there needs to be more just financial planners in general. Absolutely. Ones like you who are honest and have good intentions and want to help people. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:19:42 Oh, absolutely. And it's interesting because I think in Canada, this is what another planner was telling me at the XY Planning Network Conference that I went to right before FinCon. In the United States, you're not required to be a fiduciary. But I'm pretty sure in Canada, and you can correct me on this if I'm wrong, that you are required, if you're a financial planner, you have to have your client's best interest in mind. Is that right? Yes and no. And I only say that because I recently did a course through the Canadian Securities Institute that lots of financial advisors take courses through. And there was a section on fiduciaries. So I'm not going to say

Starting point is 00:20:18 yes or no right now, but I'm going to look into that and put the answer in the show notes because I don't want to get that wrong because I feel like I was kind of surprised by the answer, but I want to make sure I get that right. But no, I actually, it's funny that you mentioned that because there was, and this sounds super silly, but I was watching, I love John Oliver and he did this video about money and financial advisors in the United States and just how some of these advisors are just total, just completely salespeople, do not have the best interests of their clients at heart, which really just messes up the whole system. Because yeah, most people think as an advisor with that title advisor, I'm putting my money and my trust into you. And at the end of the day, lots of these people are just putting their own personal bottom line first, which is

Starting point is 00:21:10 just heartbreaking. Like these people, you know, clients, lots of customers do not know that that's what's going on. Yes, absolutely. There's definitely a lot of education. I know this, the Certified Financial Planner Board is working on trying to educate the general public about it. But yeah, it's just, yeah, I mean, it really is disheartening. And obviously, there was a big fiduciary ruling in the United States this year that's moving things in the right direction. It's still not quite there where it needs to be. But yeah, it'll be interesting to see how things go. And yeah, my goal is eventually, I'd love to, when I reach a point, I think once I pass the exam, what I would love to do is I would love to take the blog that I already have and start and just either work for someone as a paraplanner or maybe even go out on my own and just start working as

Starting point is 00:22:03 a planner, having my own business and going. I mean, that may be what I do. It just depends. It sort of depends along over the next few months, sort of how I'm feeling about it. But eventually my long goal is I would love to have an RAA, um, my own firm, you know, again, like kind of built off the cashflow skyline brand, probably starting in Nashville, but it'll be a virtual, like a virtual meeting people that way so that I can be anywhere. Um, I want to be able to spend more time back in Boston with my parents and, uh, be able to just, you know, visit friends from around the country or go on trips and have location independence, which is pretty important to me, uh, which is part of why I like being self-employed now, but just, yeah, I mean,

Starting point is 00:22:44 I want, that's, that's my long-term goal and it may take, um, well, it will take some time, but, um, I feel like I'm definitely on, on the path. I'm excited. I'm excited about it though. I'm really, um, encouraged and I feel like I'm, I'm definitely moving in the right direction towards what I really want to be doing. Yeah. I was just going to say, it sounds like you finally found, you know, although you've, you know, just like me, it's like you have lots of different passions in digital marketing and music. And it seems like you've kind of found your thing, which is like a good mixture of, you know, all of those things, but with also the aspect of like giving back, which I think is sometimes we get, and I think that's a big thing,

Starting point is 00:23:24 especially as millennials struggle with, we're always chasing some kind of idea of something or a certain career. And sometimes when we attain it, we're like, oh, now what? And especially now as I'm getting older, I turn 30, I'm more conscious of my why and why I'm doing what I'm doing. I don't want to just have a job to make money. I like to help people, teach people, you know, make things better. And I think you've definitely found that for you. And I'm excited for when you have your own firm, like we'll do a recap when you're at the point where you're like, all right, this is a, remember that first episode we did, and here's where I am now.

Starting point is 00:24:05 Definitely. I know it's great. It's really interesting how like when I first listened, when I've listened to your podcast and like hearing your story, I'm like, oh my gosh, like she, it's really interesting that we've had really similar paths in terms of interest. So similar. So similar. Like with, you know, you studying film in school and like then going to digital market,

Starting point is 00:24:23 like we both did really, it's really, really interesting. We've had very parallel lives. Like it's kind of funny, right? So funny. But the thing that's cool is that I do think like one thing that I've, I think that I was really scared to make that first career change. The one from, you know, being a promoter to working in digital marketing and you probably felt a similar way, but I didn't realize like these things all build off of each other. You know, it's not like you just leave all the experience you got in your previous career behind. I mean, it all, it's like as you get older and you know, things were, you know, I'm sure you're probably feeling a lot more confident, um, at 30 than you were maybe when you were 23. And I know, I know. Oh my gosh. I feel a lot more confident. I still have a lot to learn, but it's, it's amazing how much, um, previous experience

Starting point is 00:25:05 really can be very helpful. And I hope, I hope that, um, my degree in music, I hope that I think all these things will just all come together in this weird, crazy way where, and, and like being an entrepreneur, I think it's like you wear all the hats, you are the marketer, you are the salesperson, you are the, you're dealing with all the contracts. You do everything and all those experiences that you've had from previous jobs, I think really can lend themselves to being an entrepreneur. Totally. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. I want to kind of shift gears and I want to, since we're both personal finance peeps, we're both millennials, I would love to chat about, I would love to know what your kind of perspective is on what are some important things people need to know about money. I think especially since, you know, you're all

Starting point is 00:25:58 about having a business that is all about financial literacy and helping people. What do you find, you know, is a common thing that people struggle with that you are like very passionate about helping them with? Yeah, I think one of the, well, one of the biggest challenges that millennials have, and we certainly have read it in the news many times, and I hear it from my friends and peers and readers. One of the biggest challenges millennials have is holding onto cash and being afraid to invest. And I know you've talked about this before. And you probably talked to readers about it and you get emails about it. Same with all of us. And I think for a lot of people, it's really intimidating. And again, kind of like what you're describing about not having a great source of information to turn to because there's, well,

Starting point is 00:26:39 we had a financial crisis. We had all kinds of really scary things that have happened over the last decade. And people are just afraid to get started. But it doesn't have to be this overwhelming process. For me personally, I'm an index fund investor. That's my strategy. And it's cheap. It's easy. I don't pick stocks. I don't try to time the market. I play for the long game. And I think that a lot of millennials don't realize that it really is just as simple as saving as much as you can and then investing it in index funds. Leave it. Don't look at it. You don't need to go in and be, you know, making changes constantly. It doesn't need to be something that you're looking at every month. But you'll find that over, you know, you'll find that over the course of a year or over the

Starting point is 00:27:37 course of 10 years that they actually do outperform actively managed funds. So, you know, it doesn't, you know, it doesn't have to be a huge expensive thing. And I think that's another thing that John Oliver mentioned in his, now that I'm thinking about it, he mentioned about how actively managed funds are not actually better. Not actually better. They're more expensive. Um, his, they haven't, they haven't outperformed index funds. Um, but you know, of course fund managers make more money off of those. But yeah, I mean, that's like a really easy, I mean, I'm sure I'm oversimplifying it by stating that. I know that it's- No, but it's absolutely true. And I've talked to so many other

Starting point is 00:28:18 kind of millennial personal finance people, and they all say the exact same thing. And it's because, yeah, it is how it is. You just don't make that much money off mutual funds, GICs, whatever, like our parents did. I mean, you're not going to make 8% off a mutual fund. It's just not going to happen. And it just seems like kind of what people are shifting doing, especially our age that want to see more results and not pay such crazy high fees is, yeah, switch to index funds or ETFs. So that's totally what I'm hearing from all sides. And hoarding, I mean, and hoarding cash. I mean, I've got cash in an online savings account for an index, I mean, excuse me, for an emergency fund. But I mean, it's not even, it's barely pacing with inflation. I mean, you know,

Starting point is 00:29:02 so it's like, you know, it's fine for, again, fine for an emergency fund. I mean, you know, so it's like that, you know, it's fine for, again, fine for an emergency fund. And I, you know, there's certainly different options for an emergency fund, but for like long-term savings, no, you know, like, no, you're losing money on your money. So don't do it. Definitely. Definitely. That's, and it's scary. I mean, I didn't know, I'm sure like a few years ago before I got into all this, I, I probably didn't, I I'm sure I just blindly chose the things that actually I never had a 401k. I had a 401k for like six months, the very, very beginning of my career. And then after that, I never had a 401k. So I just chose- And a 401k is your retirement savings?

Starting point is 00:29:39 The employer sponsored retirement vehicle, it's either a 403B, which a lot of hospitals and, um, different organizations like that have, and then 401k are more in like the, the for-profit world. So yes. Okay. Just for my Canadian listeners. I should have clarified that. I'm like, yes, that's right. Um, of course you guys don't have 401k in Canada, but, um, but yeah, a lot of times I think people are just sort of blindly choosing what their HR person or what their, sometimes there's a fund manager who comes in and just says like, check all these boxes off. But people don't actually know. And again, going back to John Oliver, like you don't know not only like what you're choosing but also the fees you're paying because a lot of it's hidden.

Starting point is 00:30:20 Those costs are hidden and you don't see it. But compounding over years, it can get really, really expensive. Absolutely. Yeah. And yeah, I just did a podcast episode recently about this, about how people are paying fees and they don't know they're paying fees on their investments. And it's important to know that you are paying for it. Nothing's free in this life. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Especially when you're not, I mean, if you have underperforming funds, if you're in addition to that chipping away at it with super high fee, you know, over 1% or something, I mean, you, it quickly eats away your earnings over time. So what's one, getting to the wrap up moment, what's another just really

Starting point is 00:31:03 valuable tip that you can offer just from your experience, especially when you were in a position where you're spending everything you're earning and now you seem like you're in a very good, healthy, stable relationship with your money? What would you say helped you get to that point and that other people can try to emulate? So the emergency fund has saved me twice over the last two years. It first saved me when I was so burnt out from my, I think people don't think like, I'm so burnt out from my job or they get into a situation where they're going to need to take some time off. I think people don't necessarily think that's going to happen to them. But it's

Starting point is 00:31:39 pretty common and taking breaks from employment, you know, it happens throughout people's lives. And having the emergency fund, suddenly, once I had it, it was like, I suddenly had control over my life. So that was the first one. And that was back in 2014, when I quit my job. But then, recently, actually, there was a big layoff at my company, the software company that I was working for, which I wasn't expecting, didn't see coming. However, I had been saving in my emergency fund basically since the day I started that job. And my emergency fund and the side hustle saved me a second time. So I would highly, I mean, I would say like a minute, I mean, I think six months expenses, six months minimum. Definitely. I mean, a lot of advisors will say three to six months, six months for me. It's a, it's a personal preference. I mean, if you feel really comfortable with three months and you know, you have disability

Starting point is 00:32:34 insurance, those kinds of things, it can be, it's certainly an individual decision or you have a spouse or partner that can help you. Um, me personally having six months really just gave me a peace of mind when, um, I otherwise probably would have been freaking out a little bit. Um, me personally having six months really just gave me a peace of mind when, um, I otherwise probably would have been freaking out a little bit, um, just because I just didn't see it coming. And, and I, and it can happen to anyone at any time. I've been laid off twice in my, in 10 years in my, uh, and I've quit once. So I've had kind of a, I've had kind of a tumultuous, you know, like career, I guess

Starting point is 00:33:02 career over the, since college. But, um, the emergency fund has been the thing that really, really just helps me sleep at night. And I think it can't be overstated enough. I mean, even if you're throwing like $10 a month into a savings account, anything is better than nothing. Mm-hmm. Well, thank you so much, Kate, for sharing your story, which I think is so relatable. And not just for me, because I have the almost identical story as you, but I know a lot of listeners are going to get a lot out of your story and your two very valuable pieces of wisdom that you just shared with us. Thank you so much for having me. And that was episode 96 of the Mo Money Podcast. Make sure to check out Kate's awesome website, cashfillskyline.com. Learn more about her, her journey, what she's up to now.

Starting point is 00:33:52 I highly recommend it. And of course, come to the show notes. I will put a bunch of awesome stuff in there, including links to some of my favorite blog posts that she's written, things that she's up to, and just things that you'll want to know. I'll also include a fancy button to that course I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, the Self-Worth to Net Worth 21 Day Challenge. Again, you just have to go to jessicamorehouse.com slash 96 to find out all you need to know about Kate Doerr, myself, this new challenge I want you to be a part of. Also, thank you to the wonderful people who answered my call out for listeners to be

Starting point is 00:34:30 interviewed on my listener series. There's a couple Thursdays that just didn't have any episodes because I ran out of guests. So I'm thankful that lots of people have come forward to share their stories with me. So I will have another episode for you tomorrow. But of course, I'm always looking for new guests. And what that means, what does it mean to be a listener series guest? It just means if you listen to this podcast and you want to share your story, your personal finance journey with me,

Starting point is 00:34:57 it doesn't have to be crazy. It can just be a regular old story, but you have something that you want people to know. That's when you email me at jessica at jessicamorehouse.com and we get you booked and we record a show together. I love these episodes because it really gives a great perspective on what other people are going through, what are they're dealing with, and how are they trying to overcome all the life's challenges and financial challenges that most of us have gone through. So please email me. Love to have you on the show. Okay, one last thing before I go, I have a new

Starting point is 00:35:31 iTunes review. So I'm going to do a fancy shout out. Alright, so this review is from rm87262. Very specific. I hope that number isn't your pin for your bank account or anything. Okay. So this review says, this podcast has so much energy. It will get you to move and grow to be a financial rock star. Ooh, well, thank you, RM87262 from Canada. I really appreciate your review. And if you're listening right now and you want to get a shout out from me to you personally, please leave me a review on iTunes. It takes two seconds. It makes me feel so good. It'll make you feel good

Starting point is 00:36:10 and everyone feels good. So send me an iTunes review. You'll get a shout out on a future episode. Okay, that's enough for me. I will see you back here tomorrow for my first of hopefully listener series episodes. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.

More Money Podcast - 096 How an Emergency Fund Can Save Your Life - Kate Dore, Blogger at Cashville Skyline

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