More Money Podcast - 315 The Evolution of The Budget Mom - Kumiko Love, The Budget Mom

Episode Date: February 16, 2022

This week’s episode has a little bit of everything, including talking about budgeting, investing, and defining success on your own terms. Joining me on the show today is The Budget Mom aka Kumiko Love, whose new book My Money My Way: Taking Back Control of Your Financial Life is such a great read that is chock-full of practical finance tips.  In 2015, Kumiko found herself in $77,000 worth of debt while making a yearly salary of only $24,000 as a single mom. She managed to pay off the debt in record time, while also sharing the journey on her blog, The Budget Mom. She now has 2 million highly devoted followers that love her personally designed budget planners. Her new best-selling book, My Money My Way: Taking Back Control of Your Financial Life, shares her story, as well as others to show that you too can take control of your money. Kumiko wants people to ask themselves once they finish the book if their glass is half empty or half full when the correct answer is actually that it’s refillable. I loved having Kumiko on the show because she is such a positive and inspiring woman who wants everyone to succeed by doing money their own way. For full episode show notes visit: https://jessicamoorhouse.com/315 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, Lulu, and welcome back to the More Money Podcast. This is your host, Jessica Morehouse, and this is episode 315 of the show. Welcome to the show. I am recording right now this intro in a co-working space because like I feel like I've mentioned on probably some previous episodes, although I moved into my house in early January, there have been some, I mean, we're still not fully unpacked. I mean, that's probably normal when you're moving. But we're also doing some renos. And this is the week where we have to be out of our house and let the reno guys do their thing. And oh, gosh, I cannot wait to move back in next week. Because it's weird working from like I've

worked for, you know, myself and working from home. I've done that for five years now. And you just get so used to working from your own space. It is so weird working in a different space and also still pandemic times. You know, it is what it is. But that's where I'm coming at you from this weird little there's there's this one space that's like the podcasting type room, which is just kind of a closet, if I'm honest. So that's where I'm coming at you from. But in better news, I'm so freaking excited to share this episode with you. I have a friend of mine, but also someone that I look up to because I like she's just killing it. She just like is one of my favorite, honestly,

favorite personal finance people to follow. And I'm talking about Kumiko Love. So you may already be familiar with her. If not, you may have come across her stuff because she has got a huge Instagram following, a huge YouTube following. And now she has a new book called My Money, My Way that just came out. And honestly, I actually really, really loved it. Kumiko, back in 2015, it's just like she has such an amazing story too. Back in 2015, she was a single mom making $24,000 per year

and facing a mountain of debt. And after trying every single budgeting system she could find, she finally decided to just, you know, create her own, which eventually allowed her to pay off $77,000 in debt in just eight months. Then Kimiko started her blog, thebudgetmom.com to document her debt journey. And since then, she has built a community of over 2 million people crazy and sells a wildly successful line of personality designed budget planners. And now she like I mentioned, she has a book called My Money, My Way that really goes in depth about her, her, you know, story, and also just her kind of strategy, why she couldn't really figure out a way to budget that made sense for her. And clearly, a lot of other people agreed

because that's why her own specific budget planners are so popular. So we're going to talk about all of this really exciting, interesting stuff in this episode. But before I get to that interview with Kumiko, I just want to just share a few words about this podcast episode sponsor. This episode of the More Money Podcast is supported by The Globe and Mail. Now, you may not know this about me, but my interest in personal finance actually started all the way back in high school. You see, whenever I finished school, I'd take a bus to my part-time job at a fast food chain, and I'd always get there about 20 minutes before my shift. So to kill time, I would browse through the latest issue of The Globe and Mail that would always be in the break room. And guess

what turned out to be my favorite section? Unsurprisingly, the report on business section. Who knew that that early introduction into the world of finance would eventually lead me to a career centered on financial literacy? Needless to say, I've been a loyal Globe and Mail reader ever since. And that's because even though I've been creating personal finance content for over a decade now, I am always learning something new. And I especially always want to stay on top of the latest business and investing news, market data and analysis. And honestly, I just love reading anything Globe columnist Rob Carrick writes. Want to invest in yourself and start a new morning ritual of reading the Globe and Mail like I do? Well, lucky for you, the Globe is offering

listeners of the More Money Podcast a special digital subscription rate for unrestricted access to everything on globeandmail.com. Visit tgam.ca slash jessica to get started. Once again, visit tgam.ca slash jessica to take advantage of this limited time offer. Welcome, Kumiko, to the More Money Podcast. I'm so excited to have you on the show. Yes, thank you for having me. You're so welcome. I obviously, you know, personally know you, but I'm so excited to have you on the show, especially since your book is out. And I remember you talking about,

I mean, the early stages of, you know, writing the book and getting that done. So it's so exciting to see it in the flesh and all the success has already seemed like you're you were on GMA or like crazy in Times Square. I know it's like I know it's absolutely nuts. You know, this this has been almost a two year process. And so to finally get to the end, I don't know if this is the end of the journey, but to get to this this far and to actually, you know, I was just I was driving is the end of the journey, but to get to this, this far and

to actually, you know, I was just, I was driving around actually picking up my dog, some dog food yesterday and I was driving by target and I'm like, Hmm, I'm going to stop in there and see if they have my book. And sure enough, there it was. And it's, it's just this surreal feeling to see it on the shelves. And it's just, it's just incredible. Especially since you're like on the shelves and it's just it's just incredible especially since you're like on the actual cover so it's like this is me it's like this is me did anyone walk by like wait a minute is that the girl who's on that book she's holding that's so cool did you ever think that you would I mean probably not but did you ever think that this is where you would end up especially from where you started I mean it's kind of a crazy, you know, trajectory that happened just, you know, you starting out

only in 2015. Wow. A lot has happened since 2015 to where you've ended up. That's crazy. Yeah. It's been a wild journey for sure. A tough journey, but also a very exciting journey. You know, when I look back over my life the last 10 years and I think about, you know, me being this single mom and I mean, I can still see it in my mind, you know, the nights where I was balled up in the corner of my kitchen, just rocking myself back and forth crying because I wanted something so much better for my kid. And it was just this deep desire and almost like, gosh, I felt like God did not put me on this earth to have this life with my child. And so it just felt like this necessity, this need, this fight that I needed to conquer.

And now to be where I am, it's just incredible. I would have never thought in a million years that I would ever write a book or have millions of followers who are making an impact in people's lives every single day. And with that comes just this gratefulness and this true just honor to be able to do what I do. And what's kind of cool about you too, is even though you've started back in 2015 or when did you actually, I guess, officially start rather like that's like the number I have in my mind. But when when is it that you started kind of sharing your journey with the world? Well, I started sharing my journey. It was publicly around the late to 2015, early 2016. I actually didn't make my debt, like the numbers of my real debt known to the world until like 2017. I was so scared.

Yeah, it's scary to put that out there. Yeah, I was so well, not only that, you know, look who what I did. I got a finance and accounting degree from college. I went on to work for a very successful investment firm. Here I was in the finance industry, you know, and I didn't even know how to do my own budget. Here I was, I had all this debt and I felt so ashamed, almost like I don't deserve to have the job that I do. I don't deserve to have the degrees that I do because my financial life is a mess. And so to put that out in the world was so scary. I remember doing the video in my car and I remember when I got done, like I had sweat all over like my armpits.

It was like I was so nervous. But that day and making that decision changed my life completely because for the first time I realized I wasn't alone. I had people from all over the world reaching out to me saying, Miko, I'm in a similar situation. Miko, I'm also a single mom. I have debt. And it was like this, these wonderful souls out in the world shine this bright light on my journey. And it gave me the accountability to, you know, to actually stick to this plan and paying off my debt. So it really, it was scary, but it changed my life in the best ways. And, you know, what's so cool is, yeah, since you started it all those years ago um what's cool you know reading in your book you share lots of stories from um you know people that you've helped people who've discovered

you and some of the people they're like i just discovered you in 2020 that wasn't that long ago and so it's what's cool is as you continue to do the good work that you're doing you know being online sharing all this great information new people are going to discover you at different points in their lives too so it's just going to like continue to kind of amplify and all that stuff. And the other kind of cool thing that I think it was very special to you. I mean, you have a huge following, like over 600,000 people on Instagram alone. And what's cool though, what I actually love about your Instagram, believe me, I like, I don't like a lot of people's Instagrams because a lot of it can just not just be my vibe, but yours is just so positive and it makes you just feel so happy and good.

But there's such a warm, welcoming community of people that follow you and want to help each other and other people. And so it's kind of like this beautiful kind of cycle of like you're kind of sharing helpful information. They're taking it and then they're sharing it with others and they're all kind of uplifting and giving each other accountability. I'm curious, like, you know, obviously, you started just to kind of share your journey, you know, help others, but also help yourselves. And I think that's how lots of us kind of get started, you know, with a blog or our YouTube channel or things like that. But, you know, it's interesting, how did you because I feel like you are one of the few people I can really identify as like, wow, such a huge following and such a unique community. How did you build this type of community? Because I know a lot of people like,

oh, yeah, I got lots of page views and stuff, but they don't have like the people like you do behind you. Yeah, that's a really great question. You know, from day one, it's funny, you know, people call me and say, you know, I read about saying, people saying, oh, she's such a successful entrepreneur. She has such a successful business. But when I started this journey, the budget mom was so unintentional. And what I mean by that, I never started the budget mom to make money. I started the budget mom to find a community.

That's why we have the community that we do. I mean, you know, we never think about how many followers we have. We don't think about our page views. In fact, I never even really look at those metrics. I don't even, I can't even tell you the last time I looked at how many page views my website gets. What I'm looking at is the messages that my community members are sending me. I'm in there communicating with them. We're having helpful, meaningful conversations. And sometimes, like you said, it's not a matter of just giving them tips and helpful information all the time. Sometimes it's just like, hey, girl, like you got this. OK, you had a bad day it's encouragement but I think also it's hope and when I you know when I wrote the dedication for my book it took me a really long time and it really it is to all the

women who have lost hope with their finances because hope is such an amazing thing on this journey and it's something that I found. And it's something that lives so strongly in our community. I think to build a community the way that we have this strong core network of amazing souls who are encouraging and supportive and non-judgmental, which I think is extremely important in the finance space, is we focus on our community. Everything that we do every single day, we wake up with how can we help our community today? And the people that we have attracted for this community ultimately just was happened very organically. And so I think when you're trying to build a community, you have to step away from measuring it in a new memory in a numeric values of such as page views

and followers, right? And we need to get more on the serious page of what type of value do we provide in people's lives on a day-to-day basis? Yeah, no, absolutely. And I feel like the other thing that makes me really happy to see all of the content that you put out there is just, again, like the tone and just the overall messaging. And even though you have had quite a bit of success, you still seem like a real person. Like I see so many people where they start out kind of just like, oh, they still seem like a real person. Like I see so many people where they start, you know, out kind of just like, oh, they're just like me. And then, you know, kind of the content that they

create evolves into something that is kind of less relatable. Lots of it is like, I made a million dollars this year. You're like, okay, well, you were talking about budgeting, you know, a few years ago, I can't really connect the dots. Like I'm not there. But I feel like with you, it's like she's still just, you know, you share, you still share your budgets and your real numbers. And I find that so, I think probably a lot of other people too find it so comforting because it's like, oh, wow, she's just being herself. And it's just like, she's just like us.

And that's just something that I think sometimes when you see people who've been, you know, in the content creator or money expert space for a while, sometimes I feel like there's, there's that kind of point where it's like, they aren't as relatable as they once were. And I feel like you've been really good at keeping that authenticity. Yeah, there is. I definitely understand what you're saying. Sometimes there ends up being a disconnect and don't get me wrong here. I get comments every single day that say I am unrelatable, you know, due to my success. We get a lot of those different messages and that's okay. I'm okay if people have that opinion. All I can do, because think about this for a second. Let's think about social media for a second. We are judging and portraying what someone else's life looks like based on a single snapshot in time.

A still image, a 30 second video, right? So it makes, when people call me unrelatable, I'm like, hey, that makes sense. Like if you're just coming to my Instagram page right now after a 10 year journey, right? I'm on my 10 years. That makes sense. So what I like to do is remind people, one, that they're not alone. But number two, I've been where a lot of people are. I started this journey 10 years ago as a single mom making $24,000 a year with $77,000 in debt, wanting so desperately a different life for me and my child. I've been there. And all I can really do is continue to share my story because it is very important to let people not only see where I am today, but also to see where I was, where I came from, my story. And that's all you can really do. And it's true. I still share my

real numbers online and on Instagram because I started with one mission with the Budget Mom, and that was to share what it looks like in someone's real life with a realistic budget. And that's my mission. That's my mission still today. And so, you know, I think as an entrepreneur or content creator or influencer or whatever you want to title, you know, we will all kind of get at one point in our journey, especially as we're seeing success, we'll get a disconnect with our audience, we'll get called unrelatable. For me, I'm like, I can see it from both sides. I understand why they say that. And at the same time, it's like, you know what, here's my story. This is where I started. These are the action steps, process, processes and methods that I took to be where I am today. I think what's also I really appreciate is the, again, the messaging that you have is just

very consistent, you still do the program that you, you know, share for other people to do, you still do it yourself, because it worked. And you bet you built it because you wanted something, you can find something out there that already existed that really made sense for you and how you want to manage your money. And you're still implementing it, which I find, you know, kind of comforting because you're like, yeah, I actually do the same thing. Like I've pretty much been doing managing my money the same way, you know, evolving, tweaking things over the years as my life changes. But that's kind of the whole point, right? It's not about making a radical change every couple years. It's about finding a thing and tweaking it. So I wanted to kind of talk a

little bit about that, because I know that's a big premise of your book is really sharing you creating a specific way to budget, and then, you know, showing other people how to do it. I'm curious, like, when you were starting out trying to make a budget for yourself, what did you find just wasn't working for you that, you know, the templates that existed or the, the tips or ratios that people were giving? And then why did you decide I'm just going to make something on my own? Well, when I first started my journey, you know, when you Googled online, uh, how do I create a budget? You were given back in the day in 2016, a monthly template. You budget your money monthly and that's just how it goes. I was given, you know, really rigid, strict steps,

rules, processes. I was being told, you know, what values, what goals I should be having in my life right now and what I should be accomplishing. I was, you know, I was given one size fits all solutions for me as an individual, as a unique human being. I didn't fit in a one size fits all box. Right. I and I think one of the biggest aha moments was I had this monthly template and I'm like trying to use it and trying to figure it out. And one day I was sitting down, I received my paycheck and I was paying my bills. I'm like, wait a minute. I pay my bills every single time I'm paid, which is twice a month. Why the heck am I budgeting my money once a month? That doesn't make sense. Right. And then I and I started thinking, well, what happens if I were to create a budget every single time I got paid? Because that's when I was paying my bills.

And it was just like this aha moment, even though at the time there were no paycheck budget templates. Right. And so that's when I was like, OK, I'm going to create something on my own. But really, I think it came down to, you know, when my son got a little bit older, it was like, I have no choice. I have to make this work because my son depends on it. So screw what everyone else says, right? I don't have a choice here. I have to make it work in my life. And that's when I really started branching out and getting really creative with my templates, creating things on my own, which I use word for a long time. And I would create my budget sheets in word. If you work in word, then you know, that's like nearly impossible. I'm like, I don't know how you do that.

So I'm like trying to create boxes in word, but it worked. And I found, you know, the budget by paycheck method, which took me two years to really perfect and get out into the world. And it's just one of those realizations that. As a human being, we're all emotional human beings with all very unique goals, values and dreams. And it's sometimes we're shamed for that I mean I don't know if you've ever tried to do you know a financial plan or method that has really rigid these are the steps you're supposed to take you're supposed to do them in this order and if you don't do it then you're a failure and you're dumb I really got sucked into that I felt a lot of shame. I'm like, crap, I must just be dumb here. OK, I must just not get

it. I'm budgeting and finance. I was not born to do right. I started doubting myself. Man, was it freeing when I started to do things my own way was like I started seeing success in ways that I never thought possible, but not necessarily huge success in the numbers. That's another thing. We have to stop measuring our success with numbers. I mean, yes, they can be used as a measurable, but we focus and dedicate so much of our worth and our value on our numbers. But as soon as we step back and start measuring our success from an emotional, from quality of life, from the decisions we are making, how we feel about our finances, you start to see that success, especially if you define success for yourself,

a lot more quicker and more profound, deeper ways. Absolutely. I always kind of found it weird that we're so used to comparing our numbers to someone else's as a benchmark for success, but we're like, why are we using someone else's numbers as our benchmark? Why aren't we using our own numbers, our own goals, our own values?

Like that makes way more sense because we have no idea why they set those numbers for themselves because we don't know what their goals are, right? Exactly. Yeah. I mean, I get so many times like, Miko, how do you only spend $500 a month on your food budget? Well, I live in the state of Washington. I have no dietary restrictions and it's only for two. And the person that might be asking me might have a family of seven, live in a very expensive state or location, and have dietary restrictions, which

makes it hard for them to stick to a $500 food budget, right? It's funny because my book is all about finding financial fulfillment, and financial fulfillment is made of three things. It's clarity, stability, and confidence. I really am a true believer because I found it in my own life that when those three things work together, all of a sudden it does not matter what everyone else's numbers are. Right. It does not matter what anyone else's goals are because you have your own financial plan. You know, you're like, this is what I'm fighting for. I don't care if it's different.

I don't care if it goes against the grain. I don't care. I know in my heart and gut, this is what's right for me and my family. And you live it with such passion that you can't help but believe in it so much. And it's just like this feeling like, this is what I was meant to do.

This is what's supposed to be going on in my life. This is what I believe in. And you fight for it and you fight for it every day. When you get to that level of financial confidence and clarity, trust me, this trap that we find ourselves in with self-comparison doesn't matter. It won't happen anymore.

I cannot tell you when I announced that I was going to buy my house in cash. Oh, yeah. I got hate. I got hate mail for months. Wow. I got people telling me that I should not be a financial expert. I got called dumb, an idiot, stupid, because the normal concept is, is you can earn money, more money by investing it than you can paying off your mortgage, especially since this was my forever home, such a large amount, right? I didn't care. Yeah. I didn't care because at the end of the day, I'm going to lay my head on my pillow with peace of mind, knowing that in my heart, in my gut, I'm doing what's meant best for me and my son. And that's all that mattered at the end of the day. And I think when people find that it's truly uplifting and very freeing. Well, yeah, like you said, it's like people were just focusing on

the numbers, but it's like, well, you're ignoring my needs and my wants and what makes me feel good. I mean, that's the thing I hear from so many people. They're like, I really want to pay down my mortgage because having such a mortgage debt really makes me anxious and stressed. But I know the numbers say that I should probably invest it instead. I'm like, you know what? Who cares?

It's your money. So why would you allow anyone to dictate how you spend your money? Because they don't actually get to spend your money. You get to. I'll tell you what. You cannot put a price on peace of mind. Yeah. Yeah. You can't. You cannot. And I think that that's, you know, it's when we ask people, what are you searching for when you're getting better

with your money? I think deep down in our guts, we're all kind of searching for peace of mind. This kind of calm with our finances, right? That is invaluable. You cannot put a dollar amount on that. And so when I made the decision to buy my home with cash, it's like make the quote unquote right move, right? And it makes sense with the numbers or be anxious, feel unsuccessful with my money for the rest of my life. I was tired of allowing other people's opinions to dictate my money decisions. Because you have, being and feeling successful with your money. That comes from internally. Not from someone else telling you you're successful. I could do a million things that other people tell me that would make me successful.

But if I don't feel it in my heart, then it doesn't matter. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yeah. It's just like another reason why it's so important. I mean, it goes back to the title of your book, My Money way that's why I titled it that yeah that makes a lot of sense actually that's all clicking because it's I feel like yeah one of the biggest like barriers for most people

getting into personal finance learning this stuff for the first time and I've had so many conversations with people about this is there are so many routes to get to kind of the same outcome but there's so many opinions. And I think not only are we looking for peace of mind, but I think we're also looking for reassurance that we're doing it right. Because for whatever reason, we think that there is a right and a wrong way to do things. And there isn't always like there's a multiple ways that you can do things. And again, it doesn't matter, you know, how you kind of get there. It's about trial and error and doing what's right for you. And so, especially with't matter, you know, how you kind of get there. It's about trial and error and doing what's right for you.

And so especially with your kind of budgeting program, there's so many different ways that you can budget. For me, that used to be a big, I think, anxiety because I'm like, am I doing it right? Because I kind of built my own budget based off some other templates. They saw tweaked it to what made the most sense in my brain that I could actually I knew I would actually look at it and do it. But I'm like, am I doing it right? There's so many other methods out there. But I feel like, you know, it is really about choosing a method.

And you talk about this in your book, you're like, you know, this is how I do it, but there's lots of, you know, you can do it this way. You could do it this way. I'm curious, how did you, you know, I'm assuming you made your method that makes the most sense. You started sharing it and then you probably started getting feedback from your audience being like, Hey, is there a way that I could do it a little bit more cashless? Or is there a way I can integrate this way? How did you kind of create these different options for all these different scenarios and people for the years? That must be a lot of work. Yeah. I mean, look, you're right. I mean, for a long time, we saw finance, personal finances, black and white.

And the way I describe it in this book is I want everyone to get done reading this book and get asked the question, is the glass half empty or half full? And for them to answer, it's neither. It's refillable. Oh, I like that. To understand that it's sometimes not just so black and white. Sometimes it's not just two options, right? It's not empty. It's not full. It's refillable. And so really, I understood, especially since I struggled for two years, understanding that there's such a diversity in personal finance, right? For so long, we've kind of suppressed and shamed and guilted people into this black and white kind of world with personal finance. I'm breaking open that world and saying, look, instead of shaming

because we're different, it's time to celebrate the diversity in personal finance. So I recognized immediately. And when I wrote this book, I knew 100% every single person that reads this book is going to have a different budget, different income, different goals, different values, different dreams, different relationships with money, different all around. And I think that when it came to the budget by paycheck method, it works for a diversity of people because it's not a one size fits all stringent box of rules. I'm laying a foundation, a very strong foundation to help them with that anxiety of am I doing it right? Right. I'm giving that guidance of building a foundation, but ultimately they're doing the building themselves. That's what makes this book and my method so unique and so different. I am giving them the permission

to have the freedom to build a financial plan that's built by them for them. That is gonna be the most successful plan. And so I give them what I call the financial fulfillment foundation, Right. Here's all the major things like the aha moments, the things that, you know, the perspective and the different changes that I made and the things that you need to be aware of. And this is how you build this incredible foundation. Then they start asking themselves these hard questions and they start

building a budget, a financial plan, a retirement strategy, an investing strategy for themselves. And I think that's what makes it really unique. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I also appreciate too in your book, because obviously a big focus on is on budgeting, because I think so many people, especially to even just the term budget, lots of people maybe don't like it because they don't quite understand what it means, or they think about the old school way of it being really restrictive. But like you say, it's really just about setting up foundation, tweaking it and having a plan for yourself. But I think the other element, what I found a lot with people that are most known for like,

you know, having a budgeting strategy is they just that's where it stops. And you're like, well, what's next, though? Because there's more to the financial planning sphere of just budgeting and cash flow. There's also, like you mentioned, investing. So there's a part in your book that you kind of do go into that. And I feel like you've been sharing a lot more information about that as well on your Instagram, which I appreciate, because I feel like especially as women, I feel like budgeting was the the topic that, you know, we really grasp onto because it, you know, it really affected us. But then when it came to things like building wealth and investing, there wasn't a lot of information for a long time. Why did you want to make sure you also included messaging about that for people that were

kind of ready for that next step? Well, here's the thing. And this is the honest truth. Budgeting is the fundamental building block for everything else that we do in our financial lives. You cannot save money, pay off debt or invest, grow wealth, make financial decisions without a budget. It is like the ultimate building block. And if we don't have control and understand our budgets and not only that, be able to implement them successfully in our lives, it's going to be really hard to be successful with the rest of those building blocks. I wanted to mention investing in retirement because it is such a huge part of the financial planning game and picture in our lives. But not only that, my money, my way is not just about

doing budgeting your way, but it's ultimately being able to decide and dictate how you want to live your life. And a big part of that is growing wealth throughout your life and having the right retirement plan for the type of retirement you want. People are under the inception. It's funny because when I looked at investing and I look at retirement, I always come back to these same type of rules, right? You're supposed to retire at the age of 65. You're supposed to work hard now so you can play hard later. All these types of like, like when I read this, I'm like, what? Like what? What? I want to retire by the time I'm 40. I don't want to give up my life right now to work so hard so I can play

later. What? Like, like, I'm like, what the heck is going on? What am I reading? And so I wanted to mention it because I want people out there to know it's okay if retirement and investing looks differently for you. I think sometimes that people need that solidification to stop doubting themselves when what they're thinking, feeling, and wanting to accomplish is different than what we're being told out in the world, right? And especially like with investing, there's so much information out there right now with investing. Get started with investing. Invest in ETFs, open this type of account, just start, just start. You have to start early. Well, there's a difference between being an investor

and being a smart investor. I've had so many people come to me and said, Miko, I opened this type of account, I stuffed my money in there, and then last week I cashed it out because I needed it. That goes to show me that they started investing because someone told them they needed to without being ready. And there is no shame in taking your time to make sure that you are a smart investor. And that's what I go into in my, you know,

that chapter is called investing in yourself. And I talk about an investing foundation. If you cannot answer yes to all the questions in that investing foundation, I don't believe that you should be investing. Does that mean you should not be investing forever? No. It means that I want you to do the due diligence, what you deserve. I want you to be a smart investor. So investing can, you can benefit from investing in the most profound ways, right? In the best way. It just kills me when I hear people who start investing simply because they told they have to without understanding what the heck they're doing. Exactly. That's not investing, you know? Right. Right. You know, it's funny because I've actually had conversations with my fiance. You

know, he's in this whole metaverse. He wants to start investing in the metaverse, you know, and we've had we've had like deep, long conversations about investing. And he'll ask me, like, you know, what's the stock market? And I'll explain that to him. He's like, oh, I want to invest two thousand dollars in the metaverse. I'm like, well, you just asked me what the S&P 500 was. Are you sure investing in something like the metaverse is a good idea? So we start having these conversations, right? And so it's just, we have to be able to give ourselves grace and patience. And most importantly, we have to understand where we're starting, accept that, be willing to grow, and then make the best decisions for ourselves and for our family.

Absolutely. I feel like there's so much pressure out there, especially for young investors to get started. And but you know, the questions I always hear is like, where do I get started? And should I just do whatever this person on TikTok told me to do? It's like, no, no, no, you need to just have you need to take your time. If it means just putting cash in a specific savings account for a vengeful investing, that's fine too. But don't invest your money before you have a specific plan. You know why you're investing for how long, all those things that you cover in your book. Cause yeah, I can't, you know, you probably heard this too. I've so many people I've talked to over the past couple of years, especially because of COVID we're all at home and Robin hood and all that kind of stuff.

People are like, Oh, I opened up this account. And I just bought some stocks. I don't know what I'm doing. It's like, well, that's not investing. And that's your money. You may lose it because you didn't really have a plan of attack. So we need to be mindful because you know, exactly. Well, it's FOMO, right? The fear of missing out of what everyone is telling us with investing, right? And so I, you know, you said, you mentioned earlier, like, you know, Miko, you just started talking about investing more when you were more focusing on budgeting,

paying off debt and saving. I was in the investment world for so long, over nine years. And in that time, I have seen so many different, I wouldn't call them mistakes by people, but transactions and things that lost people, lost a lot of money for people. And so I feel like, you know, my job in the investment industry was to know the rules and regulations of FINRA. That was my job, right? And so I feel like when you talk about investing, you can't just say, go out and start investing in this. But really, you're looking at different account strategies,

tax implications, income restrictions and qualifications and considerations, right? And so there's a, it's not just, oh, go out and invest in this. I want to make sure when I say that I'm giving them all the information that they need to be successful. And so it took me a while to figure out how can I do this and do it in a way where people understand it and can take, you know, action. Yeah. Yeah. And it takes time, like in the, I don't know if this is in the U S but in Canada, there's a thing where it's like, if you're working with an advisor or a financial planner before you start investing, they have to go through a thing called know your client which is answering all these really

particular questions about you and your circumstance your goals your time rise all this kind of stuff and yeah I feel like these are such important things that you have to figure out for yourself or work with someone to figure out before you put your money anywhere and and that's the other kind of thing I caution is like with everything that's going on in social media just be so cautious but who you're getting information from. Cause a lot of people are just making videos or TikToks just for the views. They don't know your circumstance, you know? And so you need to just like take it with a grain of salt, but then you need to ultimately do what's right for you because it's a, this is a wild West out there. I know, I know.

It is a wild West. I mean, social media to me is so scary, but it's also such a blessing. I mean, my business wouldn't exist without social media. Our community would not exist. Right. I feel like it provides so many blessings, but at the same time, it could be really harmful. I mean, I told my son yesterday he will not have social media until he's 18. And if I had it my way, he would not have social media until he's 18 and if I had it my way he would not have social media at all yeah you know when he when he came and told me when you know his mom when I grew up I want to be a YouTube streamer gosh no my face was like oh oh no oh no you know I'm like no no no no but it's because he sees what mom does right he wants to be like mom. But it's true. I mean, with social media, we have to remember we are seeing 30 seconds of someone's life, one single snapshot,

and that sometimes people on social media don't have the best of our intentions at heart. They don't have, you know, the best things for us at heart. So I feel like it could be so dangerous. But at the same time, I also see it the other way. Because I mean, the budget mom is online, you know, so I guess to just to kind of wrap up, I'm curious you what I really loved about your book is you did share a lot of other people's stories. You do that a lot on Instagram on your YouTube channels where you have those like real life budgets, which I love because I think one of the best things about kind of the content you create is you're showing more than just you other people. And I found I found for me when I was starting my journey, I learned so much from seeing other people's, you know, budgets, their income,

just because you don't know no one talks about it. So I think that's so helpful. I'm curious, just because you've, you know, helped so many people over the years, what are some kind of key things to look out for when you are just starting out creating your budget that maybe a lot of people kind of forget about? Yeah, I think there are, well, there are a lot of things, but number, some of the big, big things is not to ignore your emotions on this journey. And I know that's kind of opposite of the advice that we've always been given. It's true. When our emotions control us, that's when we can get into some hot water. But if we can learn to control and understand our emotions and feelings, it can actually become the most powerful tool in our toolbox when it comes to

our financial journeys and transformations. Number two, the biggest thing is a budget is not just about the numbers. It's a self-discovery journey. You can write numbers down on a spreadsheet or piece of paper all day long. But if you don't understand what those numbers are telling you and make changes, I call that in the book, I call it decision making awareness. It's the difference between seeing something and going, oh, I recognize that to, oh, I'm aware of that. This is why it's happening. Here's how I can change it. Right. So we need to create a budget based on what's actually happening in our real lives, not what we want to be spending, not what we want to be happening. I think people, you know, we're I have to climb than live in the unknown.

Because living in the unknown is what produces so much anxiety around finances. It's like a two-edged sword. We're scared to look at it. But if we don't look at it, then we're living in this place of anxiety, stress, and unknown. And so I take, for me, I would rather take the route of knowing. So creating that budget based on what you're really wanting to spend, not what you want to spend. Remember, and you can tell yourself this every day, a budget is not there to restrict you. It's there to honor you. It is your opportunity to take full control over the trade-offs you are making in

your life. You have that control. Your budget's just a roadmap to get you where you want to go. It has your back. It's there to remind you why what you are doing is so dang important. And so I really do see it as a way of honoring yourself. And I think number three, the big one is you have to ask yourself why you're on this journey in the first place. There is a reason why you are here listening to this podcast. There's a reason why there was a spark of inspiration for change in your life. And that's what you have to hold on to. And that's what I wake up. I fight for that every single day. Motivation is sparked by inspiration, but true change is sparked by self-discipline. Motivation and self-discipline cannot live without each other. And so it's really important that you remember

that motivation and the self-discipline will come along the way. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Well, that's quite a way to wrap up this episode. You know, where can people find, you know, if people are just discovering you for the first time, where can people find you and where can they grab a copy of your book, My Money, My Way? Yeah, I would love for them to join me over on Instagram. That's where I'm sharing my real life, real numbers. And that's at The Budget Mom. I would love it if they would get a copy of my new book. You can find that at TheBudgetMom.comcom forward slash my money my way. Easy peasy. Well, thank you so much. Miko for joining me on the show is a pleasure having you on and you're such

an inspiration and I can I'm excited to continue following you and your journey and as well as the journeys of all of your community. Thank you so much for having me. find her on YouTube. I love her YouTube channel, also under The Budget Mom. And of course, grab a copy of her new book, My Money, My Way. And if you're wondering, am I going to be giving away a copy of her book? Yeah, you bet your bottom dollar. Yes, I'm going to give away a copy of her book. And if you don't know, I'm already giving away tons of books already. I do this every podcast season. So if you go to jessicamorehouse.com slash contests, that is where you can find all of the books that I'm currently giving away. You can enter to win all of them. You will only win one of them if you are a lucky winner. So make sure to check that out. I have a bunch of things to share with you, update you on. So stick around. I just want to share a

few words about this podcast episode sponsor first. This episode of the more money podcast is supported by the Globe and Mail. If there's one thing I've learned over the years is that the most important investment you can make is the one you make in yourself. But learning about actual investments is pretty important too. That's why I've been reading The Globe and Mail for close to two decades now. And I've got to say, it's an investment that has always paid me dividends. Not only is it one of my favorite resources for business and investing news, actionable personal finance advice, and helpful tools and calculators, the globe keeps expanding its personal finance coverage to keep

getting better. That's why they've added Erica Alini, who you may remember from episode 311 of the podcast as one of their personal finance reporters launched a new beat called The Future of Work, which looks at how technology and the pandemic are changing how we work in Canada and continue to share helpful explainers on things like mortgages, ETFs, RRSPs, and TSAs so Canadians can become better informed. Want to invest in yourself and start a new habit of reading the Globe and Mail every day like I do? Lucky for you, the Globe is offering listeners of the More Money Podcast a special digital subscription rate for unrestricted access to everything on globeandmail.com. Visit tgam.ca to get started. Once again, that's tgam.ca to take advantage of this limited time offer.

Okay, so let's talk about some updates um i feel like so much has been going on so much that i can't remember what's going on i mean i feel like this whole uh renovation thing and being out of the house and honestly i know this sounds like i'm just complaining but getting up super early for the contractors to come in it's uh it's been a hard adjustment. I have my routine. I'm not an early bird, but I am a night owl. And so typically I work, get up later, but I stay up later. That's just my process. And for me, it's a lot. It just reminds me of my days working downtown in the financial district in Toronto and just getting up really early and then commuting. And I don't like mornings. They're not good with me. Anyways, that has nothing to do with anything. I think I just wanted to complain.

Sorry. Anyways, updates, updates, lots of things have happened. So if you missed it, I recently did a live webinar. It was called 2022. Your thriving year if you missed it, that's okay, because I actually put the replay of that webinar in my free resource library. If you don't know, I have a free resource library with a bunch of freebies in there. And I'm probably going to do some updates. I'm also Oh, yeah, well, that's another thing I'll talk about in a moment. But anyways, you can find the replay for that free webinar in my free resource library, just go to Jessica morehouse.com slash resources. That is where you can find it, sign up, you get access to everything. Also, there's some like past webinars in there. There's some other downloads, like some guides, some worksheets.

You know, a while ago, I think, I can't remember, it was several months ago, maybe I had a guest on the podcast to talk about wedding budgets. And I made a wedding budget that you can download in there. So lots of great stuff in there, JessicaMoorhouse.com slash resources. Also want to remind you to if you ever want to look up one of the guests that I've had on the show, you know, information about that episode, you can always go to jessicamorehouse.com slash podcast or just go jessicamorehouse.com slash the number of that episode. So this episode is 315. So you would just type in jessicamorehouse.com slash 315 and you would go right to the show notes for that episode. Like I mentioned, other things I'm working on, I am doing a big update of my budget spreadsheets. I've actually

hired someone to help me really revamp them because I've had, you know, believe me, these budget spreadsheets that I've had and talking about it. So interesting talking about this. I think part of it was actually inspired by talking with Kumiko, because I love her budgeting, you know, strategy, and you know, but everyone's different, right. And so like, for me, even, you know, still, I downloaded, you know, my first budget spreadsheet, I think, from a bank's website. And then I just like altered it, because it just I wanted it to make more sense in my brain. And then I've just evolved these budget spreadsheets over time. And it's time to do another kind of update just based off feedback I've gotten over the years from people and just want to make it more, you know, user friendly and easy. So you can look forward to that soon. I'm

very excited to reveal when that will be alive. But very well, if you download one of my current spreadsheets or buy one of them, you will get the new version, I will send you an email if you're on my email list, which you get onto my email list once you buy it. So yeah,, you will get the new version. I will send you an email if you're on my email list, which you get onto my email list once you buy it. So yeah, so you will get it if you already own one of my spreadsheets. Don't worry, you're going to get the updated version. Very exciting. Let's see what else am I doing? Of course, like I've mentioned, I'm doing a huge update and I'm hopeful that it will be completely done by the end of this month in February of my wealth building blueprint for Canadians course. It is already I think it's been a year since I first launched, it was just so crazy. So for anyone who's listening, if you're Canadian, and you want to

learn investing, you know, and obviously, when I talk about investing, it's a course specific on passive investing. And that means you know, building your long term, you know, index ETF portfolio to build wealth for the for the long term. Yeah, of course, that really focuses on everything that you could possibly want to know the ins and outs, the practicalities, video tutorials to show you actually how to do everything. You can find all that information in the show notes or just go to JessicaMorehouse.orehouse.com slash WBB. But yeah, I'm always adding new things and making it better, and I'm really excited about it. So I think you're going to like it. And also you can see the testimonials from past students and see what they're saying and what they like. But for me,

the biggest joy is seeing students that complete the course actually activate what they've learned and are building their wealth or actually investing. I've seen some good returns and it's very exciting. So make sure to check that out if that is something that you're interested in. What else do I have going on? I've already mentioned the book contest. So, you know, just a reminder, if you haven't entered my book giveaway, make sure to go to jessicamorehouse.com slash contest to do so. Other things that could be popping up, it probably won't be ready until late March, but I am fully like renewing my website. Obviously, I'm not doing it myself this time because Jessica, you don't need to do your own website anymore. I've hired someone and I'm so excited to reveal

it. I'm getting new headshots. It's going to be a whole refresh because, you know, it just felt like time. It felt like time to do a little update of the website and my photos and all that kind of stuff. So I'm so excited to reveal all that. And yeah, there's probably going to be other exciting things that I can share later on, but not right now. So that's kind of what's going on right now. Oh, I will say, and hopefully by this time that this episode airs, maybe we'll have already, you know,

passed the threshold, but I'm literally like just under 100 followers away from getting 10,000 followers on Instagram. So if you're not already following me on Instagram, please do so. It's been a lifelong dream for me to get to that stupid 10k so I can get that stupid swipe up button. So if you could just go to at Jessica I Morehouse, that is where you can find me on the Instagram. And of course, as a reminder, I also have a YouTube channel. I will be putting out new content very soon. I honestly was just waiting for this home renovation to be over. But I can't wait to make more videos because I got a new camera lens that's a little fancier. So you can find me if you just like go into YouTube and Google you know Jessica Morehouse

or I think that the actual URL is youtube.com slash c slash Jessica Morehouse one that's where you can find me so yeah that's it that's really all I've got I think for the moment but uh lots of great guests honestly I'm gonna say I know I kind of probably say this every season, but I feel like this is one of my best podcast seasons. So many like diverse topic, like I've got guests talking about like alternative investments, like investing in wine, investing in fine art, you know, budgeting for getting a pet because hey, I am thinking about getting a pet. I think it's I think it's time. I don't know. I'm excited about it. I've been talking about getting a dog for the longest time. This might be the year. So anyways, lots of

exciting things coming up for you to look forward to. So thanks so much for listening to this episode. A big shout out to my podcast editor, Matt Rideout. And yeah, I will see you back here next Wednesday with a fresh new episode of the More Money Podcast. Have a good rest of your week. Good weekend. See you back here next Wednesday. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.