More Money Podcast - 220 The Life-Changing Reason You Need Emergency Savings - Sharon Epperson, Author & CNBC Senior Personal Finance Correspondent

Episode Date: December 11, 2019

When I heard Sharon Epperson, CNBC Senior Personal Finance Correspondent, speak at this year’s FinCon, I knew I needed to have her on the show. Her keynote about surviving a brain aneurysm and the i...mportance of having the right insurance and emergency savings made the entire ballroom at the conference so quiet a pin could drop and you’d hear it. Not only that, my mentee who I was connected with as a speaker at the conference, stood up at her speech to share her own health emergency story that I had no idea about. Sharon’s story of why it’s so crucial we all slow down and take care of ourselves moved me, so I hope you feel the same way after listening to this episode. Below are links to some of the resources we mentioned in this episode, but if there’s one big takeaway I want you to leave with after listening it’s this: nothing is more important in this world than your well-being and health. And personal finance isn’t just about money. It’s about taking care of yourself first. So make sure that you take a look at how you’re covered and start making strides with fully funding your own emergency fund. Moreover, make sure to make a will and assign a Power of Attorney. Because no one can predict when they will experience their own health scare, like Sharon did. The only thing we can do right now is to make a plan for “if” and “when” something happens. For full episode show notes, visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/220 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 220 of the Momany Podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Morehouse. Welcome back to the show or welcome to the show if it's your first time. Welcome. I'm so excited to have you here with me. This is a really great episode. I say that every time, but I mean, let's be honest, I only have great guests. No, this episode is probably going to pull at your heartstrings a little bit and make you seriously think about what you're currently doing to prevent some kind of financial struggles or to prevent some hardship when it comes to having an emergency. So I'm talking with Sharon Epperson. She's a CNBC senior personal finance correspondent. She's on all the big shows in the States like NBC's Today,
Starting point is 00:00:46 NBC Nightly News. And she is also an author. And she recently did a keynote speech at FinCon 2019, and it gave me chills. It gave me chills. She shared her story, which you will in this podcast, about something that happened to her, a medical emergency that changed her life and changed her mindset about being prepared, emergency funds, having the right insurance, because no one thinks that anything is going to happen. And then when it happens, you'll be so glad that you've got your ducks in a row. And I know so many of us are like, ah, I'll be fine. Will you though? Will you? There's some really important questions you need to ask yourself, I think, after listening to this episode, and I think you're going to just love it. So I'm going to cut to that interview right now. But first, I want to share a few words about this episode's
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Starting point is 00:03:16 Thank you, Sharon, so much for joining me on the Mo Money Podcast. I'm very excited to chat with you. It's great to be here. Thanks so much for having me. No problem. As I mentioned before, hit the record button. I saw you speak. You had a keynote at the last day of FinCon this year, and it was very moving.
Starting point is 00:03:34 You can tell when you got on stage and started sharing your story, everyone was very moved. And you may remember this. Also, after you finished your keynote and there was one woman who stepped up who wanted to, she was inspired by you sharing your story. And she shared her story about a similar kind of medical emergency that kind of rocked her world. And it's funny because not only was that like very cool to see, but for me, I was a speaker at the event. And as a speaker, you're kind of matched up with a mentee, so to speak. And so you can talk about whatever you want. And so
Starting point is 00:04:11 me and that woman who stood up, actually, I'd never met her in person. We had just Skyped before that. And she just had a bunch of questions about FinCon and some other things or whatever. And so it was actually a great opportunity for me to actually find her, the big sea of people that were at that event, and then to actually get to know her personal story, which I had no idea about. It was an amazing moment. I've never experienced anything like FinCon before. And to speak before an audience of that size and really feel that I was connecting with every person in the room. It was really a kind of miraculous moment. But what really topped it off was, you know, having someone at the end, having Jennifer
Starting point is 00:04:55 Matthews get up and say, you know, that what I said actually was truth to her, that she'd experienced much of the same with her own medical emergency and issues that she'd experienced. And she found, you know, financial coaching as a way to kind of do a career change, pursue her passion. And it was just terrific to connect with one person out of 2000 people to have that person really have the, be able to stand up and say, you know, I believe in this. I didn't plan that, never imagined it. And now I feel like we're soulmates. Yeah. Like I feel like, yeah, it definitely wasn't planned, but yeah, to inspire someone and move someone so much that
Starting point is 00:05:45 they were brave enough to kind of step up and share their story in front of so many people. Yeah, it was something just very special, something I'll never forget. But I'm sure some people listening are like, what are you guys talking about? We're going to get to your story in a moment. Before we kind of dive in, because your story is just so amazing, can you tell people listening a little bit about your background? So I've been a journalist for over 20 years. And for the majority of my career, I've covered personal finance. I am in business news. I've been at CNBC as a
Starting point is 00:06:19 commodities reporter for many years. I was on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange when they had a live trading floor and trading commodities. And I reported from there several times a day, every day. I've covered mutual funds. I've covered mergers and acquisitions. But all along the way, I'm always thinking, why is this important to my mom? Why is this important to my husband and I? Why is this important to the average person? And so personal finance has always been a passion of mine. And when I first started as a journalist, I was working for Time Magazine. And I remember some of the other reporters saying, you know, if you sign up for the 401k, and they were watching CNBC and watching
Starting point is 00:07:03 how the stock was doing, the company stock was doing on the ticker on the bottom of the screen. I frankly didn't know what they were talking about, but I learned and I learned how important it was to get started and doing that early. And from there, I decided, you know, when I met some folks from NBC who said that CNBC was a great place to work and they were looking for business journalists, I quickly became a business journalist. I decided that I'd written one or two stories for time for the business section. And so when they asked me, do I love business?
Starting point is 00:07:32 I was like, sure I do. Yes, I love it. And I've learned a lot about business and a lot about personal finance through my reporting here at CNBC and the sources that I've developed and the financial advisors that I've talked to over the years. So it sounds like you kind of had a natural inclination for that kind of work and just like topics of personal finance. Were you kind of always naturally like pretty good with your money? I don't know if I was pretty good, but I had a great teacher. I mean, my mom handled the finances in our family, which at the time was, I think, rather unique for the woman to be doing that.
Starting point is 00:08:07 And she didn't always look like she was having fun while she was trying to make sure that all the bills got paid. And but she she definitely was on top of it. And so watching that and I think, you know, being able to ask her questions about money and finance helped. Yeah. Just having that open conversation. Cause I know even I'm talking to people in my generation, they don't have that open conversation with their parents. It's still, money is still considered taboo or just inappropriate or, you know, you know, you can't, I remember for the longest time I would use to try to talk to my own parents about finances or like, how much do you earn? And they were just like, no, we're not talking about that until I think I got more
Starting point is 00:08:48 into personal finance. And then they're like, we're going to have to talk about this because this is all she wants to talk about. But yeah, I think that is such a, like the best thing that you can do with your kids to help educate them about money is actually talk about it and make it not seem like it's a bad thing to talk about because how else do you learn? Yeah. I mean, my kids now are 14 and 17 and I talk about money with them all the time and I always have, and they probably are tired of it, but I make sure they understand how much things cost, whether they're big things in the house, like a refrigerator or, you know, having to get a new bathroom because it started leaking into the kitchen or, or whether, or whether it's a new pair of sneakers or a dress that they want. Um, so it's, it just varies in terms of the conversations that we have, but we always
Starting point is 00:09:34 have them. And so now that I have teenagers and they know, you know, that Santa is going to be, you know, really kind of looking for the best deals, they present their list, they present their list with links to, you know, the sale price of the item or, you know, making sure that I know that there's a coupon for this on RetailMeNot or something, you know, so that they know that I'm not spending too much on the items that they want. So they've kind of, I think, now it's become part of what they do too when they're looking for something and looking for, not always, but when they're trying to get an item, even if a phone, anything, they know that they got to wait for the sale. I don't buy anything full price. It's such a great habit to start early because if you can already have that habit as you enter adulthood, you're going to be ahead of the pack.
Starting point is 00:10:24 You're going to be just fine. And that's the hard thing when you're an adult. You know, a lot of people I talk to as a financial counselor is they're in their thirties already and they're trying to start those habits. And that's hard, but if you can start it, you know, young, then you could just build upon that and it'll be natural. It won't feel like such a task. You know, I agree with you, Jessica, when you have a house and then you start to have a family or you have a partner, there are different things that kind of seep into the management of your money. And you want to be able to start the discipline of living below your means, of not living paycheck to paycheck, of saving as much as you can as early as you can before you have
Starting point is 00:11:02 all these other things, because there are going to be times when cash flow is completely different and you're not going to be able to necessarily save like you had in the past. But that discipline of savings makes you remember that you have to at least pay a little bit to yourself. If you can't pay 20% of paycheck, or if you can't pay, you know, 10% of paycheck, at least you're putting, you know, a little bit away each time. And that's really the key, I think, to financial success. I mean, working for CNBC for so many years, although we are the channel about money, all money, everything money, many people still think it's just about stocks. And so the questions that I get are, so what should I be buying? And my first response to people is, you know, do you have credit card debt? So we can't talk about what you should be investing in if you have a ton of credit card debt, because most of the things that you think are going to make you a lot of money will still never surpass away for, that you can have access to quickly, that's liquid money. And there are great, you know,
Starting point is 00:12:11 there are great investments out there. And I definitely think people should be investing as well. But I think the discipline of saving, the discipline of not being in debt is something that is going to help you be able to have the money then to invest. Absolutely. Absolutely. I get those questions all the time. Like, we can't talk about investing until you do this first. And it's not as fun.
Starting point is 00:12:34 I get it. It's not as cool and fun. But it's important. Exactly. So you mentioned emergency funds. And this is how I want to transition into your amazing story. Because obviously, now you're kind of a big advocate. And just, you know, it's such a great reminder of how important emergency funds is and also having the proper kind of protections through insurance.
Starting point is 00:12:57 Do you want to kind of share your personal story of how you had a health emergency and how it kind of changed your life. Well, in September, 2016, I was going to the gym before work and I was exercising and I was stretching and I was in a downward facing dog pose. And all of a sudden I had the worst sensation in my head. It was the worst headache. It wasn't, I don't get migraines. It wasn't like, you know, I didn't sleep enough headache. It was, it was really, really a strange feeling. And I was like, I got to get out of here. And I got to, I just have to get out of here. But then I didn't know where to go because I couldn't turn my head. I couldn't drive. I called my husband. I asked him to come pick me up. And thankfully he was able to get to me quickly and eventually got me to a local primary care physician who said that he just kept thinking of the worst case scenario of what could happen and said, you don't need to be here.
Starting point is 00:13:47 You need to be in an emergency department. So my husband took me to the emergency room where they did a CT scan that showed bleeding on my brain. And this particular hospital was not equipped to do the surgery that was needed. And they wanted me to have more testing. So I went to another hospital, a major academic medical center where I had brain surgery, open brain surgery. What happened was one of the main arteries in my brain had formed a little balloon, an aneurysm, and it burst. And so that ruptured aneurysm, when that happens in many cases, almost half of the cases, people die immediately.
Starting point is 00:14:32 Of those who survive, two-thirds usually have significant neurological deficits. And so in my case, I made it. And I'm a very unexpected, very grateful survivor of something that is so devastating to so many people. And in fact, I later learned was devastating to three other generations of my family. I'm the fourth generation to have suffered a brain hemorrhage in my family and the only one to have survived. So when that happened, my life came to a stop and I was in hospitals for a month and I didn't go back to work for a year. And to your earlier question about how did that impact my finances, that situation could completely ruin your financial life. You're not able to work. It's a very strange thing not to have a paycheck coming in from your employer on a regular basis when that's what you're used to having.
Starting point is 00:15:26 It's also very strange for my friends who've gone through this, um, now that I've met in many support groups who are entrepreneurs who are independent contractors. What do you do? You can't fulfill those contracts. You can't do that work. And so that's where emergency savings comes in. People always say, you know, it's for a rainy day. No, what I experienced was a hurricane 10 times over. And so I definitely, definitely needed to have that money saved. But I also had
Starting point is 00:15:52 other protections that I've done for my income. You know, we think about so many things that we protect our home, we have home insurance, we protect our car, we have car insurance. Some of us, if we're taking a big trip, we're going to protect that with travel insurance. But many people forget that your greatest financial asset in most cases is your income, your ability to earn. And so having disability insurance to cover my income was really so very important. I'd done a lot of freelance writing in the past. So for that, I'd purchased a private disability insurance policy. I also had disability insurance through my employer. And all of that was essential in terms of making sure that we never missed a mortgage payment, no bill ever went unpaid, everything was able to be covered,
Starting point is 00:16:39 even though I wasn't able to work for a year. And I feel like that's something that everyone sort of knows. You're supposed to get insurance, you're work for a year. And I feel like that's something that everyone sort of knows. You're supposed to get insurance. You're supposed to protect yourself. But I feel like if you have never experienced or you don't know anyone who's experienced something like that, you don't feel like that will ever happen to you. And that's probably like you.
Starting point is 00:16:57 You're like, I didn't think that happened to me. And it did. Like, you can't see these things in the future. They just happen. What would you say to you? I know there's a stat that I read an article that you were featured in that says almost 30% of households in the US
Starting point is 00:17:10 have less than $1,000 saved, which is why we really do need to kind of press upon people needing to have emergency savings and also insurance. You kind of mentioned that you have some friends that are entrepreneurs and freelancers. I'm self-employed as well. That is a big concern.
Starting point is 00:17:24 And also, I think a lot of people think it's a very big expense. What can they expect if they're working for themselves or a freelancer? What can they expect to pay or what should they look out for when they're looking for this type of insurance? Well, from the policy that I bought on my own, I would say I paid maybe $125 a month over 15 years or more every month for why am I paying this? And I will tell you that what I was able to get in terms of disability payments when I needed them, when I put my claim in, that more than paid for itself 10 times over. And also just the peace of mind of knowing that I had this, that I was covered when I needed it. We always think of these what-if situations as something we don't need to think about. But when what now happens, when what now happens, and you're totally panicked, you can't even think straight to figure out who am I going to ask?
Starting point is 00:18:29 Should I ask my parents for the money? Should I ask my friends? How am I going to get there? In this case, I didn't have to do that. My husband and I did not have to do that. And that was very, very fortunate for us. So I know it may seem like a great expense. And I think about that now I have long-term care insurance and I've had it since I was in my, probably in my late thirties. And many people say, you don't get that, don't get that until your fifties or, and whenever you get it, you probably should have some, some way that you're going to think about how you're going to care for yourself later in life, whether you have the assets or you get insurance. But I did it just because I wanted peace of mind. And so now I know that if something happens and I'm not able to care for myself, I have to be in assisted living or I have to go to a nursing home. I do have some money that's going to be able to come in through that insurance policy to pay for it. But it is not pleasant necessarily to see that money just go away every month or every year, but I do it. Yeah. And I guess when you really think of the grand scheme of your budget and spending money wisely, that seems like a good way to spend your money compared to some other stuff that I know
Starting point is 00:19:37 we tend to spend our money on, like eating out. I'm like, you know what? You can cut one meal out a month to have this kind of, yeah, like you said, just peace of mind, which I think is so critical. And also to kind of talk a little bit more about emergency funds versus insurance. It's important to have an emergency fund, but sometimes you yourself may not be able to save up enough cash for those potential expenses. I'm assuming that all the surgery and the hospital and not being able to work for a year, you may not have been able to save up that cash yourself. That's why insurance. No way. Right?
Starting point is 00:20:11 No way. Definitely not. And I think the thing that I don't know what you advise when you're counseling people, but many advisors that I talk to say you should have at least three to six months worth of living expenses for emergency savings. Many people don't even know what their living expenses are for a month. Like if you ask them, they can't even count. So the idea of saving that much, because they basically haven't even figured out how to pay for everything that they have to, it's just so overwhelming. So I always say, you know, that is a great goal, but the reality is just figure out how much you spend in a month and start to save that amount. Just start with the month. If you can, once you get to that one month mark, you'll realize that you've come up now
Starting point is 00:20:54 with a discipline program of saving. There's basically no way to get there unless you have some discipline and you've set up some type of savings program. And once you've done that, then getting to the three month mark or the six month mark, it's easier to do. And what, and unfortunately what I found that can motivate some people is seeing friends or family members or loved ones out of work and seeing how long it takes them to get a job. Or I'm hoping in people hearing my story, understanding that, you know, becoming ill, whether it's chronically ill, you have a traumatic injury, it's not like you're better overnight.
Starting point is 00:21:32 And I certainly, certainly, you know, can attest to that. So you need to have a significant amount, but you shouldn't be overwhelmed by the idea that this keeps saying three to six months. There's no way I can get there. Don't think about it that way. Just get one month. Exactly. I say that to everyone ever. Whenever you have a big financial goal, it seems impossible to attain. But if you just break it into little chunks, little steps, like just do this and then next this, then you'll realize it was actually possible. It's like the same thing as if you want to run a marathon, you don't just start running for a long time. It's like you start slowly and kind of adding onto it. But yeah, the key thing is you need to have some sort of overall organization of your finances using some sort of budget and have a plan for it so you can set up a savings program
Starting point is 00:22:25 and then make it automatic, which is what I tell everybody. It's honestly the only way I've seen success from other people and myself is just setting up some sort of automatic savings program. Well, let me tell you how I did it. Jessica, when I first started working, actually for CNBC is when I started it, I realized that in setting up my payroll and my direct deposit, that there was more than one account I could have my check direct deposit to. And I was like, really? Because I thought you could only have checks direct deposit into your checking account. And they're like, no, if you have a brokerage account or a savings account. So I created through direct deposit, directly from my paycheck, a house fund. That's how I pay for the down payment on my home,
Starting point is 00:23:12 an emergency savings fund, and a checking account so that I was able to have the money in three separate pots before I saw a penny of it in my own account. And I think people don't realize that you can do that. And the easiest way for me and for many is that when you don't see it, you don't spend it. And so for me, it had to come directly from that paycheck. I wanted to make sure that I, you know, and I still do that now because, you know, there are other things that I want to make sure that I'm putting money into my kid's college fund and on those things. So I have different pots for things like that as well.
Starting point is 00:23:48 So if you're able to, if you have a job that allows you to do that, that's one thing that I would definitely suggest. And then also I believe in automating everything also. And so you do automate automatic bill pay. If you want to make sure that the check is coming from your account, rather than it's being debited from, by the company, um, from your, from your bank account, have the online check sent so that you can see, see where it's going that way. If that makes you feel safer, um, but, um, or if it's easier for you to stay organized, but automating everything
Starting point is 00:24:18 was another thing that saved our financial lives. Cause I do all the bill paying in my home. So even though my husband was there and he was, you know, so extremely helpful and supportive during my recovery and today and every day, how are those bills going to get paid? There was no question that the mortgage was going to get paid because it was automatically taken out of account or, you know, Wi-Fi for the house for the kids so they'd still be happy even though mom wasn't there, they can watch their shows. All of that stuff was taken care of. So I highly recommend auto bill pay for as many things as possible. And you bring up a good point. It's so important to have these conversations with your partner or whoever is involved in your family. If something does
Starting point is 00:24:59 happen, they need to know, how do I pay your bills? Or how do I make sure I know where all your accounts are? Because if you don't tell them, how would they know? And then things may get missed. And there's nothing that you can do because you're focusing on recovering. So what would you suggest for people to kind of start that money conversation? If they're like, I'm usually the money manager of the household and I kind of like that. Why it's so important to let some other people know how things run in your financial household that. Why it's so important to let some other people know how things run in your financial household? Well, it's super important because you're not able to do it. Someone else has to be able to take care of it. And so that's why estate planning
Starting point is 00:25:35 is so important. When people think of estate planning, they think of billionaires, millionaires, people with a great amount of assets that have an estate. I always think of a mansion and then a lot of land around it. That's not what it's about. It's about your financial legacy. And your financial legacy should always be, I think your goal should be always to have a financial legacy of strength, of financial strength.
Starting point is 00:25:59 And in that, that might just mean that I don't have credit card debt or that I know that I'm going to make sure that all of my debts are going to be paid because I have a system of how I'm paying them and this person knows. And so the beauty of estate planning is that you cannot do it alone. You have to have other people involved in your financial life and you have to have conversations with them about this is what could happen. If something happens, this is what I'd like you to do because I think you're the best person to be able to handle this. And so that is with finances, with medical decisions, and getting the paperwork actually done. Some people say, oh, wait, this is too expensive. You can do some of these documents online. I prefer that you go to a estate planning attorney and have someone who's walked through it because I like to talk to people about stuff, you know,
Starting point is 00:26:48 about the nuances of things. But it's one of the most important conversations to have. So in our case, my husband is my power of attorney and so can make all the financial decisions. He's also my healthcare proxy, so he can make all the medical decisions. But in that, I wanted to make sure if anything happened to him, that there was a successor agent, there was someone else who could do that. And that's my sister, I have a younger sister. And so the reality of my situation was that those two people were the two people making all of the decisions when I was in ICU, before my surgery, deciding what type of surgery, what treatments I would have in ICU, what things would happen. And even when I was out of surgery, able to talk, but, but still not, did not have the
Starting point is 00:27:30 cognitive senses to be able to do my own bill paying and all of those things. Someone had to take control of that. And, and I had people in place that already knew what to do. You know, in terms of how to, you know, telling them where accounts are and all of those kinds of things, there are ways to, and there are programs where you can put that in and have it password protected and all of that so that people know where things are. But I think what you do and why I love financial advisors is that having a person also that has knowledge of where most of that stuff is, who's an expert about how it should be managed and all of that is also very valuable.
Starting point is 00:28:08 You know, when you're in an emotional crisis, you're not necessarily going to be making the best financial decisions. It's just not, it's very difficult to do that. So having a third party that's already been involved in your financial life that can make suggestions at that time can also be helpful. So they can, you know, while there's
Starting point is 00:28:25 another person, a loved one who is the person who's your power of attorney, you have a financial advisor who's actually making those steps and making it a little easier for that person, for that loved one. Absolutely. And I've had some conversations about estate planning with people. And I feel like, especially with younger people, they don't think, they think it's an age thing. Oh, I'm too young to have a will. It's like, well, that has nothing to do with anything. That has nothing to do with it. Yeah. So it's like, I think at the very least, if you don't have any dependents and you don't feel like you need to make a big estate plan or have a will, at least have that power of attorney, like you mentioned. We all need that.
Starting point is 00:29:02 I mean, you have this great job. You've moved away from your hometown. You're 27 years old and all of a sudden you're in a bike accident and your parents can't get to you in time. Your best friend is, you know, you have a really close friend now in your new town, but you know, they're not a family member. They're not, they can't make any decisions for you. You have to wait for your parents to get there. You know, the benefit of having a healthcare proxy or a power of attorney or someone who can be with you, who's in your city, who's able to make those decisions right away, it's very beneficial. And by sharing my story, these are the stories I'm hearing from people who have had traumatic brain injuries, who have had other types of illnesses that, you know, at a very, very young age, and you know, you may think, well, my parents
Starting point is 00:29:51 can, you know, will be here to do it. Well, maybe you never came up with these documents, and your parents are now not able to travel for whatever reason, or they can't get there, or it's really, really important. And then for those who have children, I'm always astounded how many of my friends have no will. And I'm saying, okay, well, you have no will because you say you have no assets to pass on to anybody yet, but you're working toward it. That's good. But you also now have children who, who's going to take care of them?
Starting point is 00:30:16 Exactly. Who is going to be the person to take care of them? And do you agree with one, if this family member who may step in, is that the person that you want? Or is there a friend that you think would be the better person to be the caregiver for your children? Make sure you have that documented. Absolutely. Don't let the state have to make a decision for you. Don't let the government have to make a decision for you. Yeah. You want your wishes to be fulfilled. And I think a lot of people just think, oh no, you know, so-and-so. No,
Starting point is 00:30:44 you need to have it in writing. You need to have that in writing. That's for sure. Another thing that I read about you is one lesson that you kind of learned from your experience is how you need to take care of yourself. What do you mean by that? And what can people, because I know we've talked a lot about here are some really smart financial things everyone needs to totally agree. But I think at the end of the day, one thing that I've found in every generation in this society right now is we're not taking good care of ourselves right now. We're really busy. We use that as an excuse to keep on being busy because everyone else is busy, but we're
Starting point is 00:31:18 not taking care of ourselves. Yeah. So when I say take care of yourself, I mean body, mind, spirit, the whole package. And I think that in my case, in September of 2016, I was embarking on the busiest time of my career, the busiest fall of my career. I was filling in for a number of my colleagues who were going on maternity leave, anchoring different shows, piloting digital shows, going to do big interviews. And I was actually scheduled to interview the treasury secretary two days after my aneurysm. I was just, I felt like I was on fire. I felt like this was great. My career was on fire and I was going to make sure though, that I was healthy. I had my finished smoothie the morning before my aneurysm. I was literally exercising in the middle of having the explosion in my brain. So I thought I was doing the right thing. I never took time to just be, to be present, to be mindful, to be grateful.
Starting point is 00:32:14 I never took that time. And I think that taking those moments to just understand where you are, not just how your body feels and not just that you need to eat more, as my doctors just told me, more plant-based meals, staying away from, you know, being healthier in terms of nutrition, making sure I get my cardio in, which I love yoga now more than cardio, so I'm trying to do a balance. Those things are very important, but also being centered and being mindful and not just, what are you rushing for? What are you climbing for? What are you striving for? Yes, you want to be financially secure. You want your family to be financially secure. But you also have to be secure just in yourself, you know,
Starting point is 00:33:01 before you can do any of those things. And I don't think I really focused on that enough or took enough time to make that a priority. I just felt like if I was doing everything that the book said and that the advisor said, and that the doctor said to do, I was doing the right thing. But what, but I wasn't thinking about me, you know, and what, what was best for, you know, best for my growth as a, as an all around individual. Um, and, and, um, and that, that mind, body, and spirit is a very important way to look at your health. I think not just, not just the exercise and not just the diet, but you have to think about that, the mental growth and losing. I think the reason why that's now so very important to me is losing cognitive function
Starting point is 00:33:53 and not having that and not being able to get that back for a time and having to really, really work hard to be able to talk to you today, have a conversation where I kind of remember what we just talked about. And I'm kind of planning what I'm going to say next. And I think I hope viewers, listeners are thinking I'm making some kind of sense. I wasn't making sense like this in 2017 or in, you know, early 2017. So I now realize I need to just pause and just think about, you know, as I did today, think about, you know, how grateful I am that you wanted to have this conversation with me. You know, how grateful I am to be here to be able to share the conversation from the perspective that I now have of something I've been talking about for 20 years. But now it really resonates with me and I hope resonates with other people when they hear it.
Starting point is 00:34:43 This is really important stuff. I hope this episode, and I think it will be a kind of a wake up call for listeners because I have a lot of guests on and we talk a lot about things that you should do, but I feel like sometimes you need a reminder of why you should do it. Why? This is why. Exactly. This is why. This is why. Thank you so much, Sharon, for sharing your amazing story and your amazing
Starting point is 00:35:06 tips. Thank you very much. Where could people find more information about you? And I know you also have a book out as well called The Big Payoff that people can grab a copy of as well. Yeah. So The Big Payoff, Eight Steps that Couples Can Take to Make the Most of Their Money and Live Richly Ever After is my book. And it kind of walks through some of the things that we've talked about and many of the things that you talk about on your show in terms of the steps people need to have a sound financial life and the ways to have that as a couple and have those conversations. My first meeting with the financial advisor that we have now had for over 15 years, our first meeting, my husband fell asleep. He was just like, what's he talking about? I just really am not.
Starting point is 00:35:48 And I was like, he doesn't care about our finances. How can we have a great life together? But the reality is he doesn't want to know the minutia. He just wants to get there. And if we have somebody who's going to guide us and have a plan, and then I'm going to be with that person because I am into the whole minutia of all of it,
Starting point is 00:36:03 then we're going to be on a good track. So, so that is my book. The one way that people can find me right now is to go to cnbc.com slash invest in you and sign up for our invest in you money 101 newsletter and course. And it's, it's also an eight step,-week challenge to folks to get a budget together, make sure that they reviewed their healthcare options, make sure that they are saving enough for retirement, focus on who you want and the people that you want in your life for estate planning. So Investing You Money 101 is a weekly newsletter that will come to you for free that will just kind of prompt you over the next eight
Starting point is 00:36:45 weeks to figure out how I can get my life together, how I can get my financial life together. So you can definitely find me through many articles on that website as well. And then you can follow me on social media. So I'm on LinkedIn and also Twitter and Instagram, Facebook, Sharon Epperson, and you'll find me. You'll find me there. So I hope that people will follow me on social media and that they will go to CNBC.com slash invest in you and understand that this is what it's all about. We really are. I have always been very focused on this. And now I'm really excited that CNBC on multiple platforms is very focused on making
Starting point is 00:37:25 sure people understand everything they can about money, not just the financial markets, but also how this all impacts you. Because in the end, that's what you're investing for. So invest in yourself, invest in you. Yeah. Well, thank you so much again, Sharon. It was a pleasure chatting with you. Thank you. It was my pleasure as well. And that was episode 212 with the amazing Sharon Epperson. I hope you really enjoyed that episode because I really enjoyed talking to her and hearing her speak at FinCon and just her story is just so, I mean, it's so inspiring and she's just an amazing person. So make sure to follow her on social media. Again, you can grab
Starting point is 00:38:05 a copy of her book, The Big Payoff, Eight Steps Couples Can Take to Make the Most of Their Money and Live Richly Ever After on Amazon and wherever books are sold. And also go to cnbc.com slash invest in yourself to find a lot more information and resources about pretty much everything personal finance and investing. And of course, check out the show notes for this episode at jessicamorehouse.com slash 220. And again, you can find the show notes for every single episode of the podcast on my website by just going to jessicamorehouse.com slash the number of that episode. I have a few important things to share and like really important because I only have,
Starting point is 00:38:51 well, next week is the last week of the podcast until I say sayonara for a few weeks, month, maybe. So stick around. Just have a few words I want to share about this episode's sponsor. This episode of the Mo Money Podcast is supported by Manulife Vitality. What's your vitality age? I just checked mine at vitalityage.ca and discovered I've got a vitality age of 32. Not bad considering I'm 33. You see, your vitality age is an indication of your overall health. And depending on your daily lifestyle choices, it could be higher or lower than your actual age. To get more people thinking about their overall health, Manulife is expanding its Manulife Vitality Wellness Program to help you understand how to improve your health and give you that extra bit of accountability and motivation you've been
Starting point is 00:39:34 looking for. Available on all Cover Me health and dental plans, the program works so that the more engaged you are and the healthier choices you make, the more points you can earn towards earning Amazon gift cards, discounts at hotels.com, and savings on insurance premiums. Plus, you can get an Apple Watch for as little as zero dollars. To learn more, visit coverme.com or manulife.ca slash vitality. Once again, that's coverme.com or Manulife.ca slash vitality. All right. So like I teased, we're wrapping up season nine fairly quickly. I have one more episode for you next week, and then I will be taking a little bit of a hiatus for about a month until the new year.
Starting point is 00:40:19 Very excited just to take some time off. I mean, not really off. I always work, but taking time off from the podcast, it's a lot of work to put this thing together. Love it though. Love it. And also love hearing from people like you with iTunes reviews and DMs on Instagram and just messages on social media or email saying that you like the podcast. So if you do like the podcast, let me know because it really makes me happy. But also, more importantly, let me know what kind of topics you want me to focus on or guests that I should get on the show for next season. They give me crazy big guests. I'm always terrified of emailing those people. But you know what? In my track record, surprisingly,
Starting point is 00:41:03 I haven't really gotten any no's. So that should just show I need to keep pushing myself and get some awesome guests. So let me know who you want on the show. Let me know what kind of things you want me to talk about for next year. So yeah, very exciting. I'm so freaking excited for the new year. I don't know. I mean, I'm excited now. I'm not sure about you, but every like, not boxing day, like New Year's day, quite honestly, every New Year's day, I get into a bit like just for that one day into like a pretty hardcore depression. Like I basically can only, I just need to be on the couch in my blanket, watch movies all day. I don't know why. I think it's just like the, the overwhelming, like there's just too much pressure on like,
Starting point is 00:41:45 all right, go get it. Go get to work. It's the new year. Got to make things happen. It's just too much. I can't handle it mentally. So I have to take a day to just not. Luckily on New Year's Day, I'm going to be on a flight back to Toronto. So I guess I could just chill and watch movies on the plane and still sort of be productive because I'm on a flight, I guess. But yeah, so that's, I don't know why I just said that. I just share that with you because, you know, overshare, why not? Other things to share with you. Let me see. Let me see. Oh yeah. So I'm going to tease something right now that does not currently exist, but I want to challenge myself to get it together before it actually exists. Does that make sense? I've had this really exciting idea to basically do
Starting point is 00:42:25 kind of like a, not really, maybe a masterclass. I'm not a hundred percent sure if I know what a masterclass is, but I've, as you know, I do one-on-one financial counseling. I have for over a year now, and it's been great working with clients one-on-one, but I feel like it would be really cool to do some sort of form of like group coaching. So I'm in the developments of basically creating some sort of group coaching program that will be several weeks long. And that's all I'm going to say because it doesn't exist right now. I'm going to be working on it right now because I think it would be really cool to launch this basically right in the new year, January for everyone who is like, I want this year or 2020 to be the year I get my stuff in order and actually not just like set some
Starting point is 00:43:14 goal. And like, you know, a couple of weeks later, you don't, it's just like, it's gone. You've already, yeah, it's over now. We're going to kick off next year with a bang. So just look out for that. So since I will be on hiatus for the podcast, the best ways to connect with me is my email list, jessicamorehouse.com slash subscribe, or my Twitter account, which is just at J-E-S-S-I underscore Morehouse, Facebook and Instagram. I've been doing more Instagrams, but yeah. So just uh, just the email, this is always the best way to get in the know and in touch. And of course, make sure to also join my Facebook group, Jessica Morehouse.com slash Facebook group. I don't know if that's
Starting point is 00:43:56 the link. I'm going to make it the link right now. Cause I said it out loud. You can find it on Facebook by just going Facebook.com slash groups slash money life balance. A great way to ask your questions to a community of over 2000 people and ask me questions because I'm also in there. And just like share what your thoughts are, share interesting articles that you'd like to start a conversation about all these great things. So hopefully I will see you in there. Okay, that is it for me. Thanks so much for listening. I will see you back here next Wednesday with a fresh new episode and the final episode of the Mo Money Podcast season nine. I can't believe season 10 is going to kick off in 2020. Like that's crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy. All right. That's it for me. Thanks. I will see you next week.
Starting point is 00:44:44 This podcast is distributed by the women in media podcast network find out more at women in media.network

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