More Money Podcast - 371 Get Your Financial Life Together - Erin Lowry, Author of the Broke Millennial series

Episode Date: June 7, 2023

Can you believe we're a week away from the finale of this season of the More Money Podcast? Helping me draw this season to a close is returning guest Erin Lowry, author of the widely popular Broke Millenial series. With her latest instalment in the series just hitting bookshelves, she's joining me on the show today to talk about her new workbook, Broke Millennial Workbook: Take Control and Get Your Financial Life Together and you better believe I'm giving away some copies to some lucky listeners! Previous to this workbook, Erin has authored Broke Millennial, Broke Millennial Takes On Investing, and Broke Millennial Talks Money. She's been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and on CBS Sunday Morning, CNBC, and The Rachael Ray Show. She has also written for The New York Times and USA Today, and currently contributes to Bloomberg Opinion. In this episode, Erin shares how this workbook challenges you to take action with your finances by crunching your numbers, looking at the big picture, and figuring out what your real money goals are for your future. Erin also shares how she's updated the previous advice given in her other books to better reflect how to navigate a post-pandemic world. Finally, she shares what chapters in her book she thinks are the key to sorting your personal finances. For full episode show notes visit: https://jessicamoorhouse.com/371 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, and welcome back to the More Money Podcast. This is episode 371. My goodness, 371. That's a high number. We're getting close to 400. We'll not make that number probably until next season, though. That crushes me a little bit. But anyways, hi, my name is Jessica Morehouse. Welcome back to the More Money Podcast. We just have two more weeks of season 16 of the show. And you know, I want to end it with a bang as always. I always save some of my most favorite guests till the end. And I've got a repeat guest for you today. This is going to be her fourth time on the show. Of course, I'm talking about Erin Lowry. You may know her as Broke Millennial. She's back on the show because she has a fourth book out. Now, even though she first came out background. So she's the author of the three-part Broke Millennial series, which includes her first book, Broke Millennial, her second book,

Broke Millennial Takes on Investing, and her third book, Broke Millennial Talks Money, Scripts, Stories, and Advice to Navigate Awkward Financial Conversations. So that was the last time she was on the show, which was, gosh, that was back in spring of 2019. That was the last time I did a really big scale event. She actually came to Toronto and we did a really cool event that was, you know, panel discussion, but also, you know, featured her book and was meet and greet and it was so much fun. And it's just so wild to think of how the world changed, you know, a year later, it was it was crazy down. So I'm so excited to have her back on the show because she has yet another book, but it's one that is a culmination of all three of her books. It is called Broke Millennial Workbook. And as you can expect, it is a workbook, but is not like I honestly expected when I ordered my copy that it would just be, yeah, I don't know, like a pamphlet size or,

you know, just like, yeah, maybe some text, but not, you know, really just space for me to write, I don't know, like a diary or something. No, no, no. There's a lot in there. And it took her a long time to put together. So we're going to dive into what's going on with her workbook, what she's been up to over the past couple of years, what's on the horizon for her, and just some of her best financial advice for listeners like you. Also, I just want to say this right off the bat, I not only am I giving away a copy of her workbook, but she was nice enough to send me literally a box from her publisher with several copies. So if you listen to the end of this episode, I'm going to share details on how you can enter to win her workbook. Or again, this is kind of the second to last week

of the podcast. And so I'm giving away a ton of books from all the authors that have been featured on this season. You can still enter to win any of them. And so listen to the end. I will share more details about how you can enter to win. All right. Without further ado, let's get to that interview with Erin. Welcome back, Erin, to the More Money Podcast. I actually should have looked this up before I hit record, but you've been on the show multiple times. Well, if you have, if this is book number four, this may be your fourth time. This may be your fourth time on the show, which sounds like a lot. And maybe my fourth. I mean, the thing that I miss most is we did get to record one in person. So that was so fun. That was the last really big event I did because that was back in 2019,

right? That was the last really big event. Um, that was like over a hundred people before the world changed forever. It was so fun though. It was a great event. It was so good. Um, but yeah, and, uh, but since then you've, you've been obviously busy working on, uh, your, your new book, which is more of a workbook, which makes sense to me. You have three books that really go through pretty much, I'd say, everything you could possibly think of in terms of personal finance, which I think is great because you start with your first book that goes through kind of all the foundations. Then you've got the book on investing. And then the last book is really about conversations and just the other really important element that I think there's not many books that really kind of dive

into. And so why did you want to make this workbook just as a way to like piece everything together in one place and help people take action? I mean, that's really the big part, right? Is the take action because you can read all the theory you want about how something works and why you should do something this way and the different strategies to handle certain things in your life. But it's also really easy to be like, okay, I read it. Now I know. And with a workbook, I mean, listen, you can read a workbook and not fill it out. That's totally your call. But it does really encourage you. I wouldn't say force because again, you're a prerogative, but it really does encourage you to pause, go get a pen or a pencil and fill it out.

And my workbook, especially, it doesn't just have journal prompts of which there are numerous, but it really does a lot of, okay, now you need to go log into your bank. You need to fill out this information. Now you need to go log in and figure out all of your debt. Now you need to go figure out this information. Here's how we crunch these numbers. Here is how we set up this system. And having an actual action plan at the end of it, which of course you could do on your own from the first book or the second book or the third, depending on what you need to be doing. This is a way that really hopefully gets people to take a beat in the middle of the process and actually get going. And you don't have to do

it all at once. I mean, I think that's the other big thing is folks set good intentions of, hey, especially the new year, right? Oh, it's the new year. I'm going to get my financial life together. And then six weeks in, if they even make it that far, they're demoralized and exhausted. Where with this, just tackle a chapter once a month. That's fine. You don't have to do it all. How many chapters are there? Like if someone wanted to do this, how long would it potentially take them to get through it all how many chapters are there like if someone wanted to do this how long would it potentially take them to get through it all do it by month there's 14 chapters but I would say well actually there's 15 the first one though is more of me just being like hey guys this isn't the worst it's called an introduction money isn't the worst, seriously. So it's me more making a plea. But the rest of it,

I would encourage to do chapters two and three pretty close together, because those are the only two that I ask that you go in order. It's really a lot of creating your own foundation, understanding, creating a common language. The thing that I really love about this too, especially chapter three, is one thing I do that's a little bit different is I encourage you to build your own benchmarks. I get really frustrated in our community about how much in personal finance we talk about benchmarks. And listen, we've all clicked on the articles. It's like, this is how much you should have in your retirement account by 35. This is how much you should be doing by Y. This

is how much debt that you should have or not have at a certain phase. You know, it's exhausting. And I think demoralizing for most people. I know that I've had moments where I've clicked on those things and felt like, well, I guess I'm behind. I know. You're had moments where I've clicked on those things and felt like, well, guess I'm behind. I know. You're like, even you with all these books and all this knowledge, you're like, how am I behind according to these statistics? But yeah, the thing that always drives me crazy is I'm like, where does this data come from? And what it doesn't take into account is where you live and all these other kind of important aspects. Because if you live in New York City, it's going to be a different number compared to living in like Kansas.

You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. And one of the things that I really try to push in my own conversation around benchmarks is benchmark against yourself. How far have you come? Please keep track of that data. I know for me, when my husband and I were paying off his student loans, instead of updating the grid once a month with the new numbers and deleting the old information, I always kept the old information. I just kept adding next to it. Oh, it felt so good because of course, in a debt payoff situation, there are times, even if you're being aggressive about it, that you're

like, oh, this is never going to end. This is so frustrating. And to be able to look back and see, wow, we've made that much progress in three months and six months, what in a year, whatever it is, that feels really good. Yeah. I mean, that's, yeah, no, I completely agree. And I feel like most people don't do it, but it could be the biggest game changer, but we'll just kind of like, I, you know, I always, you know, bring in fitness, um, because that is a lifelong struggle of mine. But, uh, when you keep track of these things and you'd be like, Oh, I just don't feel like I'm losing weight or I don't, I'm not building muscle or blah, blah, blah. But then if you could look back where you started, you'd be like, Oh, actually look at the data, look at the, the,

the measurements or whatever kind of data points you're using to kind of progress. But, yeah, me and my husband have been tracking our combined, you know, all of our assets and liabilities in a spreadsheet since 2017. And now that we're in 2023, I'm so glad because sometimes we'll have conversations, be like, oh, are we doing enough? And, you know, oh, gosh, we have this big mortgage and da da da. And then I'm like, let's look back to 2017. When I was, I was 30, he was 31. I'm like, let's see where we were at and compare it to now. And then you can be like, holy crap, look at how far we've come. In really just a few short years, it's been less than, what is that six years or something like that. So it So it's so important to be able to keep that information, to look back, to give yourself a pat on the back, to be like, no, you are doing well.

Sometimes it's just not that splashy headline like, oh, you paid off this debt in record time or built a six-figure net worth in a crazy amount of time that will make you feel like crap. I mean, those headlines always get me like, oh, what's going on with this story? Then I'm always like, I feel like a piece of crap now. know the biggest one for me the absolute biggest trigger are the travel hackers on Instagram oh yeah yeah I just it doesn't matter how far I've come the fact that I cannot fully figure out yet the best strategy to always be able to book a business or first class flight somewhere I'm just like I just feel like a mor Like, I do not understand why I don't get it together in the same way that all these folks can. And this is like literally part of my industry. And part of it's because I

like try to have loyalty to an airline in order to build status, which is the wrong strategy. I know. Okay. I don't know. I believe I've tried actually in the past since the summer, I realized, you know, I should really be using because I always just had the same credit cards. I'm like, I don't know. I don't really care. That was just like never my focus. But I'm like, well, you know, I've got most of my other stuff organized. Let's look into, yeah, credit cards and points and stuff like that. And again, in Canada, it's not the same as the US. I feel like it's worse. You just like some of the stories I hear from the US are just like radical, like sign up for this card, you get million points you're like okay well we don't have that but even still i'm like you still have to spend money to get these points and i feel like they don't really talk

about you have to spend money to to get those points to then so i'm like is it worth it it's hard sometimes you have to do those calculations you're like yeah and the annual fees and there's a lot of math that goes into it that isn't necessarily discussed. But it doesn't make me feel any better when I see the reels of, this is my luxurious flight to some far-flung destination. I'm like, yeah, I too would love to take a 16-hour flight, not an economy. But currently, that's not my lot in life. No, no, I don't know if I'll ever figure

that out. I would that is like a bucket list to like, maybe not even experience first class, just like business class. That would be that's a realistic goal. Business class one day. Yeah. I'm curious. So so going back to your workbook. What was kind of I guess the inspiration? I'm assuming it's because you've had these books for so many years now. And honestly, it's so wild there and that you when didennial, your first book, come out? What year was that? 2017. So speaking of six years. Was it? Four and six. Oh my Lord. For the other authors listening, not recommended to do that many that fast. It's a lot. It's a lot. I would just say it is a lot. Anyone who's been through the process once is always like,

hey, how did you do? It used to be, how did you do three? Like that was, that's a lot. And notably too, I pretty much did three and three. If you just look at the pub dates, because my books came out 2017, 2019, 2020, but you got to start from, I got the first deal in 2016. So really this has been a seven year process. And I only just say, you know, it depends on the kind of writing that you do. If you're a fiction writer and it just sort of pours out of you, that's great. But when you have to do a ton of research and a ton of interviews and you have to have another job on top of all of it because it doesn't pay the bills necessarily. Pay the bills.

Yep. Yeah. Listen, it's a lot for sure. It's a lot. But the workbook itself, kind of a combination of it felt like a great way to tie together the three that were out there. It is largely built upon the framework of the very first book. You'll see a lot of the chapter titles and everything are the same. You do not need the book in order to do the workbook and you don't need the workbook to read the book. They operate

completely independently of each other. There's a lot of new information in the workbook, things that I wish I could go up and update from book number one, but it's a book that's living in the world. You can't, it's not like a blog post or an Instagram caption. So that was obviously another great opportunity for me to be like, here's, you know, how the world has changed since 2017. And then the other part was being able to weave in more from the work I did in Broke Millennial Takes on Investing and Broke Millennial Talks Money to kind of tie all of this in together into one nice actionable package. Yeah. I'm curious then what from, say, maybe the first book, because it has been out for a while, but yeah, I was just going to say it's wild whenever I'm on Amazon and just like doing

some research. I'm like, what are some books that I should, you know, buy and just do some research? Like yours is always up there. Like that's wild and so exciting. But you know, what were some things that maybe came out in the first book that you need to like, okay, the world is so different now. We need a new plan. We need to think about things differently

that you want to integrate in this workbook. The biggest one that I would bring up is my emergency savings advice from book one. And even before the pandemic, I have the receipts on this. If you go to my Instagram, even pre-pandemic, I had already changed my mind. And I was writing about it in articles and on Instagram and stuff. And so the workbook really gave me an opportunity that in book one, in Broke Millennial, there is a section where I'm talking about emergency savings.

Even if you have debt, it's a good idea to have, in the prevailing wisdom of the time, at least $1,000 set aside in emergency savings. Okay, sure. It's not bad advice in the sense that you should still have some savings. Where I think it is bad advice, what does $1,000 do for you at this point? And I say that simply because, and like, let's take the pandemic out of the conversation, even if you take that aside. If something went 100% wrong in my life and I lost my job, I didn't have savings, I'm trying to pay off debt and I have no means of an income. A thousand

dollars doesn't even cover my rent. So that means all of a sudden I'm going to face potential loss of my home on top of everything else. So my advice that I shifted to quite a while ago was you should have at least one month of bare essential living expenses. And that's an exercise I walk people through in the workbook of how do you figure out your bare essential living expenses. This is just the bare minimum that you need to live life for at least a month. And part of it's risk tolerance, right? You might be hearing this and be paying off debt and feel like one month of bare essential living

expenses, even that doesn't feel like enough. It's probably going to take me more than a month to figure out next steps. Go for two, go for three, whatever makes you feel most comfortable, but it really needs to be more than a thousand dollars unless that's truly a bare essential living expenses, which great. That's awesome. But for most of us, that is not the case. Yeah, no, I agree. I feel like a lot of advice I've seen over the years has been dollar based. And again, kind of going back to what we talked about, it's like, how can you, you know, tell everyone this is the dollar amount that you need? You're like, but you have no idea what my cost of living is or my circumstances are. So $1,000 may go far for somebody where, oh, great, my rent's $500 and

the rest of my living expenses is another $500. But for living in Toronto, I think the average rent is like $2,700 for a one bedroom. So that's not going to cover. So then you're just going to get into debt. So that $1,000 isn't really going to help. So I think, yeah, that's a really important message. Again, reiterating how important it is to use yourself as your own benchmark, not just a random dollar amount that you saw somewhere. I mean, $1,000 is, like you said, it's not bad. It's good to have $1,000 in the bank. It may not be enough though. And it's also a good first step, right? If that is your very first goal. My first goal that I have is to save $1,000 in emergency savings. That is wonderful. Celebrate it when you get there.

But then keep going. Yeah, don't stop. Don't stop there. Was there anything to, I guess, especially on the investing side of things, because your book did come out before the pandemic and then things just got a little crazy in the investing world since the pandemic. Any thoughts on, oh, I wish I integrated this more into the conversation in the book that maybe you want to highlight in your new workbook? I think what I would have maybe had an entire chapter dedicated to in Broke Millennial Takes on Investing that I do hint at a little bit in the workbook, but I don't go too hard on it just because the workbook really focuses mostly on investing for retirement, because that should be your first step, is kind of this concept of people feeling,

and again, this predates the pandemic, but people feeling like the world is burning. Why should I care to invest? And I was getting asked those questions around the time that the investing book came out. So there was always some version. At the time that the investing book came out. So there was always some version. At the time, it really would kind of center on the climate change. And I feel, not me personally, like the asker would be saying, I feel that by the time that I'm in retirement, we could be living in a system where climate change has gotten so bad, like that's our top priority.

And my answer is usually, okay, if we are in a Mad Max scenario, where we're like all fighting over resources and, you know, it is the fastest possible doomsday apocalypse version where we're still alive has occurred. You're right, we're not going to be thinking about our retirement accounts and they're not going to have helped you. We're also going to have slightly bigger problems at hand at that point. But if that doesn't play out and you were so paranoid that it would, that you didn't focus on preparing your financial future, you have guaranteed yourself a personal financial apocalypse. So how about we hope and assume that that version is not going to come to fruition in our lifetime and we invest and save as if we're going to be able to retire in some version of what we perceive as normal. And then if that doesn't happen again, we're just going to have bigger fish to fry at that point in time.

And that is what it is. And if you want to stock up on some extra medicine and gold bars, I'm not going to say that's a bad idea. Definitely stock up on some water in your bunker. But let's make an assumption that things, as they historically traditionally have, will still sort of net out for you to have some version of a normal retirement situation. Yeah. Why make your kind of go-to scenario be

the apocalypse? Why is that? Like that's most likely to happen. Like, is it though? I mean, and it's good just to have a plan B, which could be also safe for retirement. It is. And listen, this is not to dismiss climate anxiety because that's that is real. Listen, I hear that. But I also think we have to have balance right now. The bigger question could be perhaps the way that you choose to invest because you want to invest more in alignment with your personal ethics is slightly different than if it's just like dump all your money in this particular index fund, which by the way, if just somebody who doesn't know you and doesn't

know your strategy, doesn't know your time horizon, the time you need the money, if somebody's giving you investing advice on like TikTok, Instagram, in a book that's like really prescriptive and they know nothing about you, that is not good advice. And I mean, it's not good advice because they don't they don't know if it's right for your personal situation. So please be really mindful of that. There are also ways to invest and build wealth in alignment with your personal ethics. And that is perfectly fine if you want to just be a lot more hands on about that strategy because you feel strongly about not financially supporting certain, whether it's companies or industries, that perpetuate part of what you personally feel

strongly against, whether that's religiously, climate, labor laws, all of that. So you don't have to completely opt out of the system in order to stand by your ethics is also part of what I'm trying to say on that front as well. Yeah, no. And yeah, another thing on that, because, you know, you've been around just as long as I have. And we've definitely seen that. That was the other thing that I saw during like the pandemic is just like the surgence of social media on a scale that I've never seen before, especially TikTok and Instagram. And although it's great to see some, there's a lot of great voices that have come out of that, that I've been able to have on the podcast. And that's been amazing.

Just as many terrible ones. So yeah, just coming to add on to what you were talking about, when you see someone on Instagram or TikTok talking about, oh, all you have to do is invest in VTI and you're good to go. Some people are like, oh, well, they're talking about index funds. And I've heard people talk about index funds and those are good. So I should do that. And for me, I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. VTI is a U.S. index fund. If you're Canadian, well, even if you're American, it's like, why are you just investing in America? Why aren't you? That's not diversified. So people are just investing in U.S. stocks. What about international stocks, emerging markets, Canada, all those kinds of. So there's more to the story. And that's kind of the point that why I like having the podcast,

we can go a little bit deeper. But even so, it's like getting a book or, you know, reading something that's a little bit longer format with research to back it up is the next step. Like take that TikTok as inspiration, but then don't stop there. Don't stop there. Yes, please keep going. You're not going to get all the information you need in 60, 90 seconds. No, you're not. But it is entertaining. So we'll give them that. We'll give them that. I'm also curious to, you know, I'm sure over the years, you've had a lot of conversations with readers who probably are part of the reason that you wanted to make this workbook is to kind of, you know, they're like, what do I do now? What's my next step? What were some things that you want to

make sure you put in the book, because people just, they'll read as much as they can, and they just can't figure it out on their own. They can't take action, they need someone like you. And when you're talking about what's in the book, I'm like, my gosh, this is kind of like your do it yourself financial planner, because even if you do work with a financial planner, and I advocate for working with one who's advice only, sometimes they won't go into detail about like, open up your account and let's see what's going on. They don't have time for that. Or they're going to charge you a lot of money. So do you want to kind of share a little bit more about what were some key things you wanted to put in the book that people were really demanding for? One to me that's really important,

and you just mentioned, you'll open your account, first examining fees, what you pay for certain things that you use. And then the bigger one, I believe it's chapter five. I'm just going to gut check myself real quick. Yes, chapter five, picking the right financial products. That has been one of my soapboxes, honestly, since the first book. The amount of times that people will spend so many extra minutes or hours of their lives doing research on how to find the cheapest X. So it could be cheapest ticket for a flight, cheapest hotel to stay in on vacation, cheapest discount on an item of clothing they want to buy, searching for discount codes, whatever it is. By the way, endorsing all of these behaviors, great to find a deal,

but never think to investigate the financial products that they're using. They either inherited it from their parents or it's, and by that I mean your parents use that bank, therefore you use that bank, not like your parents gave you the bank. Or, oh, it's just the bank that's on the corner near their house, so great, easy. Oh boy. There are so many financial institutions that charge asinine fees for basic products and do not give you decent return on your savings compared to competitors. But even now, we are well over a decade into the online bank account revolution and online banks being a big thing. And people still are not trusting of these institutions. This is specifically America. You can speak to the Canadian version

of this. We have something called FDIC, which means that it is insured and backed by the federal government. So Silicon Valley Bank being a great example, when that collapsed, people, because it was an FDIC insured bank, FDIC took it over. People who had up to $250,000 in it, you got reimbursed up to $250,000. Now, you got reimbursed up to $250,000. Now, if you are in the privileged position to have more than that in your bank account, diversify money in different banks to make sure that it's protected or have conversations with your bank or, I don't know, reach out to the FDIC, just be like, okay, let's say I have $500,000 in this bank and it goes under, am I going to lose $250,000 of that? Now, that to me is the first thing. Make sure everything you use is FDIC

insured, speaking specifically to Americans. But the other part of this, how do they treat you? How do they treat other customers? Just because you personally may never incur an overdraft fee, if they have a policy that's particularly heinous, such as we charge $35 for every overdraft fee up to four times a day. And by the way, maybe we also tweak the way in which your transactions came in so that we get to maximize profits for us. Don't bank with them. Even if you don't personally have to deal with that, who do you think that's hurting? It's not their wealthy clients. It's their most vulnerable clients for whom $35, $140 could be the difference of lights getting kept on, food on the table, et cetera, et cetera. The other part of this, if they're only giving you 0.01%, 0.05% on interest on your savings account, move your money. We are closing in on 4% returns

on savings accounts right now in the United States. Put your money in one of those banks, get your money. It's not going to make you rich, but depending on how much you have, this could be hundreds of dollars a year back into your savings account, which is wonderful. That could be your Christmas budget. Yeah. Yeah. Why not do some research? So just to speak to the kind of the Canadian side. So we, a lot of similarities, we don't have FDIC, we have CDIC, the Kenda Insurance Deposit Corporation, cdic.ca is where you can find more info. And I think I have a few episodes with reps from CDIC, same situation, a little bit different. Usually they cover you for

a hundred thousand dollars, but it depends on what category that money falls into. So there's lots of different categories. Honestly, there's a little really great tool on their website where you can plug in all your different accounts to different financial institutions, and it'll tell you what is and is not covered depending on what category and stuff like that but same deal basically if you hit that kind of maximum uh then you need to go to a different uh bank you know and so when yeah that news came out with the uh silicon valley bank and there's like people who had like million dollars in the bank i'm like did they not know about fdic like you're so rich you don't know this i think what were you thinking i think people. I think people think their bank's not going to fail. Like, it's not that common of a thing to have

happen. No, no, no. Yeah. And yeah, I think a lot of us just kind of assume that we're going to be fine and that our bank is going to be fine. And I also, to clarify, because a great thing that you said is it depends on the type of account. To be clear, FDIC insurance only applies to checking and savings. It does not apply to a brokerage account. So be clear, FDIC insurance only applies to checking and savings. It does not apply to a brokerage account. So even if all of your money is, I'm just going to name a bank for the sake of clarity, this is not an endorsement. Let's say everything you have is a JP Morgan Chase, both your brokerage account and your checking and savings. It doesn't apply to the brokerage account part. It only applies to checking and savings. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And same with Canada,

lots of similarities. But yeah, find more info on the FDIC website or the CDIC website. But I think that's such an important thing. But yeah, like you said, what I hear often from talking to so many people all the time about, you know, what are they doing with their money? Often people bank with the same bank as their parents. They just kind of got, you know, grandfathered in there and never thought about it or it's with whatever bank is physically close. But there still was so weird to me because online banks have been around for a long time now. People are still kind of resistant or they just aren't in the know of like, oh, but is it safe? I'm like, yeah, they're all you can find the logo CJC insured. And most of the time they're owned by a big bank or a credit union or something like

that but if they offer lower fees or no fees and can offer higher interest i think people are just like yeah but what's the catch i'm like there's no catch actually i've been banking with these places for a number of years there's no catch maybe a little less convenient because they're online and so if you're going to buy a home and then you need to put your deposit because you bought a home and you're going to have to go to a physical bank. Like that's like the one reason I have like a physical bank account is for that one time I bought a house. Because the online banks are like, sorry, it'll take you a week to get your money. Like I need it tomorrow.

Yeah. So if you need a cashier's check or something like that, that could be the reason to have still a physical bank. But again, it could just be like a modest amount of money in a small account and have most of your stuff elsewhere. Same as you, I have been online only banking for a decade at this point. I've not had an issue. And also, quote unquote, catch, most of them are able to put that much money

back into the system because they are not paying the overhead on having physical bank locations. So that's a big part of it as well. Yeah. But yeah, take the time to do some research and don't just get complacent with, oh, I've always been with it. Or I mean, I hear you probably hear this too for people, you know, when it comes to investing, like, oh, you know, what are you doing with your investments? You're like, oh, I'm with my parents advisor. They're, you know, so lucky to get them because they usually take people with a high net worth. I'm like, you're not lucky. They're making

money off you. And they're banking that you're going to stay with them for decades. And when you're in a higher net worth or a higher tax bracket, they're going to make a lot more money off you. So don't feel like you're doing them a favor or you're getting a favor. When the wealth transfer happens and your parents die, then they want to retain you as a client. There's a lot of advisors that don't do that, but it's a very shrewd move in terms of if they're a younger advisor and want the longevity, court the next generation and try to keep their money with them, the advisor. Or another thing I heard from somebody recently recently it's like oh we've got some investments and they're through a family friend and we do want to do something different but we

don't you know it's awkward now i'm like listen you've got to take care of yourself it doesn't matter like if they're a good person and they're a professional you won't hurt their feelings uh but if they do get their feelings hurt i mean mean, I mean, that's probably a red flag, right? You know, they should feel good. They should, if they're a good friend, they should want the best for you, whether that means moving to another institution. Yep. And just the question always comes down to how does someone get paid, right? Like that is the number one thing to take into consideration. Anytime someone is trying to advise you with big air quotes around it on a financial product

where if they get a commission. And also keep in mind in the U.S. the term financial advisor is a largely unregulated term. A lot of people can use that. So you can be an insurance broker where actually all you're doing is selling insurance policies, like a whole life insurance policy that might not be the right fit for somebody, but you get a fat commission on the back end and you're going to call yourself a financial advisor,

even though what you really are is an insurance salesman. So just be really mindful of never fear asking somebody, how do you get paid? And make sure that you understand how they get paid. If they're like, oh, it's just a flat fee. You pay me, let's say you pay me $300. I deliver to you a financial plan and advice. Great. That's a clean, easy transaction. If it's, well, you pay a flat fee. It could be a fat fee as well. If you pay a flat fee and I also can get commission on certain products that I advise. Then the follow up should be which products? How do I know that the ones that you are advising are not the ones

for which you get the highest commission? And they're actually the best for me. Next question. Oh, we just do a flat rate fee. It's called assets under management. We get 1% of everything. Are they earning that 1%? Does it make sense to pay that 1%? And then finally, some are like purely commission based, which should be the biggest red flag of all, because truly, how are they making their money if not shoving things down your throat that aren't necessarily the best for you? Yeah, questions to ask your if you're working with someone, especially as a wealth management firm a bank some institution where they can sell you products or manage your investments uh how do you get paid what are your credentials what are those certificates what is you know because very well

they could be like oh yeah here are my certificates and you realize oh they're only licensed to sell insurance products so they're only like legally allowed to sell you insurance products like segregated funds or life insurance which may not be likely is not a good idea. Quite honestly, I could do a whole episode on that. These are questions that you need to ask. But I think people are resistant to asking because it's uncomfortable. And they don't, you know, especially I think, I think Americans do, but also as Canadians, we're just like, well, I don't want to be rude, or I don't want to. I'm like, you've got to ask those tough questions because this could literally save you thousands and thousands of dollars. And no one, like I've said many times in the podcast, it's a very popular saying, no one cares more about

your money than you do or the other or they care about your money, but just how it can benefit them. Well, too, I think a lot of times we get put into positions, especially with finances, where it's like, well, I don't know what this term means. And now I feel embarrassed to ask because I either didn't ask the first time it was mentioned or maybe everyone knows what this means. And I'm going to sound like an idiot for asking. Just ask because the jargon that they use, and this is true of like every industry, but the jargon that gets used, it's so commonplace for them.

It's a second language to them. They don't necessarily think to pause and explain. They throw out the term AUM. That means assets under management. But if they just say AUM, you might be like, okay, sure. Like in your head, you're like, I have no idea what this is. But they said it with such confidence that I shouldn't dare ask, what does that mean? Never feel bad about yourself for not knowing a finance term. This is my profession, and there are still so many terms that I hear that I'm

like, huh? That's a new one. Or can I really explain to you what investing on margin is? Like kind of, I can kind of explain it, but not in a way that I feel like comfortable to do it myself or to advise someone about how to do it. So, you know, just certainly be aware that it is not only okay, but something you should do to advocate for yourself is to ask what terms mean. And again, every industry has their version. Let me tell you, the publishing industry has plenty of terms that I was like, what? Even fourth time around, I feel like stuff still comes out of the woodwork. I'm like, what does this mean? What are we doing? What does this thing on my royalty statement mean? And let me tell you, I send detailed emails.

What is this? What is this? I don't understand what this means. Please explain this. This looks new. Because again, I care about my money so much. Yeah, because no one else is going to take care of it. One thing, because I feel like some people may in the moment just feel like so, you know, embarrassed or just like, oh, gosh, I just I can't even ask. Take out your phone,

open up the notes app and write down anything that you don't because often I'm like, oh, I'm going to look that up later. But if you don't write down, you're going to forget because that would be a great way. Like, don't make any decisions with that advisor or whatever. Write down everything that you don't understand. Take notes of what the meeting, what he was saying or she's saying, they saying. and then go home and look up some of these things. Because then your next meeting, you're going to be like, hey, last time we talked about this. And then you could be like, I want to kind of dive a little bit deeper into what you meant by etc, etc. That's one way to kind of make yourself feel a little bit better. Because even

for me, I'm like, sometimes I I'm just like, i'm just like you know like so you know you get kind of paralyzed with fear of like oh my gosh i want to look like an idiot and then you don't ask anything and you're just like shoot i wish i wrote that down then i go look it up later yeah that's one thing to do absolutely and especially on anything related to an insurance claim ask the follow-up questions make sure you understand what those mean any type of insurance too whether it's health or homeowners or auto or whatever, because you want to make sure that you actually understand what your policy is doing for you and what you're entitled to and all of that. Yeah. And I say even to write down

notes of what that advisor is saying or claiming like, oh no, you need this full, you know, permanent life insurance because X, Y, Z, Write that down and then honestly bring that home. Google it to be like pros and cons of the whole life insurance or something. And then from credible sources, you'll be able to actually discern, oh, it seems like he was just – or they were just saying the pros, not some of these cons, likely because why would they want to bring those up? You know, there are great sales pitches for a lot of really suboptimal products, is what I will say, especially in finance. There are some products you're like, yikes on the back end, but on the front end, they have crafted great sales pitches. And that is how

they continue to be pervasive in the industry. Yeah, it's remember you're being sold. I was just talking to a friend the other day about she had some questions about, Oh, I went to my, my bank and then I was just like shocked that they, they wanted to offer me this line of credit and this credit card. And they say they don't normally offer it, especially at this rate. And wow. I mean, she wasn't salesy at all. She's sounded like she was really helping me out. I'm like, it sounds like she was really good at sales. If you felt like you weren't being sold to, but she failed to tell you why you would maybe need this product, which she didn't. She's really, really good at sales. Like she was trying to tell my friend, oh, you need this to boost up your credit score.

She already had a really great credit score. I'm like, you don't need a line of credit. What are you going to use it for? She's like, I don't know. I'm like, that's not a a line of credit. What are you going to use it for? She's like, I don't know. I'm like, then it's, that's not, that's not a good, you know, advisor. They're selling to you. They should be telling you what you need, not what, you know, selling you stuff that you don't need. So just, you know, always have that in the back of your head. Pretty much everyone in the industry is selling you something and it's not necessarily a bad thing,

but you just got to be aware. Do I need this? Yeah, just think about it like the targeted ads of Instagram. But in your financial life, that is what this is. Except it doesn't say sponsored at the top. I know. I wish they could say hashtag sponsored. I wish they could say that. Hashtag paid on commission. Yep.

Now, before I let you go, any other kind of exciting nuggets that people could expect if they want to grab your notebook? I know I also, I ordered one myself so I could check it out, but also I'm going to be giving away one to listeners. Anything people can expect that they, you know, would get a good kick out of. This might sound really cheesy, but I love to color things in on my way to a target, right? So we actually integrated into it by we, I mean, I have zero artistic ability. Wasn't you drawing it? So there are things that I did not create,

but was like, this is what I envisioned this looking like, where you can even rip it. I was like, please keep the backside blank so you can rip it out of the workbook and hang it somewhere so that even if you're not actively using the workbook anymore, you still have your incentive to keep working towards your goal. I do very strongly believe in the power of writing things down and being able to look back on them in the future. So there are different touch points throughout the workbook where you're encouraged, like, what did you say? How are you feeling now? And all of that. But mostly, and this might sound

really scary, you are going to have to face your numbers. The entire point of this workbook is that you're going to have to take a beat, log into all of your accounts, write down all the information, and crunch the numbers. But because of that, at the end of doing this workbook, different from many traditional personal finance books, you will actually have a plan. You will have the numbers. You will have the information, you will be able to actually get started towards whatever your goal. Some of it is, you know, increasing and better prioritizing your savings goals. It's not all about paying off debt. A lot of it is also about how to build wealth, how to focus on your future. And I just really hope you enjoy it if you go pick it up. Yeah, I'm excited to grab my copy and to see other people enjoy it. Because I think, yeah, the one overwhelming thing I hear is this, you know, there's so much great information online, and I still haven't done anything. And I think it's because there's that missing element of, please tell me what to do. And even if you do hire a financial planner, sometimes they still aren't clear. So having a guide like this, I think is well needed. So thank you so much for coming back on the show after so many times being on the show.

It's always a pleasure. Where can people find your workbook and find you online as well? So Broke Millennial Workbook is the name of the book. Broke Millennial is book one. Broke Millennial Workbook is the workbook, just so you know. I feel like there's been a little confusion about that. And you can find me on Instagram at Broke Millennial blog on Twitter at Broke Millennial, the website's Broke Millennial dot com.

And feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. Amazing. Well, thanks so much for coming back on the show. And, you know, when your fifth book comes out, I don't know, do you have any plans for any more books or is this kind of it? I'm taking a break at the moment. Take a break. Which famously I've said after all of them, but we'll see what happens. But yeah,

currently going to take a little bit of a break. Sounds good. Yeah. Take a break and we'll see what happens. Awesome. Well, thanks again, Erin, for joining me. Thanks for having me. And that was episode 371 with Erin Lowry. Make sure to check her out. Her website is BrokeMillennial.com. You can find her on Twitter at Broke Millennial and on Instagram at Broke Millennial Blog. I will link to everything, including links to all of her different books and the episodes that she's been on on this show in previous years in the show notes for this episode. So make sure to go to JessicaMorehouse.com slash 371. And if you ever want to look up one of my episodes, find more information,

some links about the guest or what we talked about, all you have to do is either go to Jessica Morehouse dot com slash podcast or Jessica Morehouse dot com slash whatever the number of that particular episode is. And just to give you an idea, maybe you're on an app listening and you're like, oh, I want to check out some of her other episodes, learn more about her other books and things like that. She is on episode 109, 198, and 263. But again, I'm going to have some clickable links for those in the show notes for this episode, jessicamorehouse.com slash 371. Now, in case you want to win a copy of her new workbook, and like I mentioned, I have a box full of them. I haven't actually opened the box, so I don't know how many copies, but there are several, several copies out there up for grab.

So all you have to do is go to JessicaMorhaz.com slash contest, and you will find all of the books. I'm even including next week's guest. So you'll find out who next week's guest is, her book on there. So you can enter to win all of the books. You will, of course, only win one if you are a lucky winner. But your chances are honestly pretty good. This isn't like I only publicize this contest on the podcast. So only podcast listeners know. And that's partly and maybe sometimes I mentioned it in my email newsletter, but I only send that out like once a month right now. So, you know, your odds are good. And part of the reason I do it that way is because I want to, you know, say thank you for listening and supporting the podcast. And so JessicaMorehouse.com slash contest is where you can find all of the info on how to enter to win. So next week is the final week, the season finale.

And what I typically like to do is do not just one episode, but two episodes. So you've got a two episode week next week, one episode on the Wednesday, one on the Thursday. I will tease both episodes. So on the Wednesday, I've got Melissa Jean-Baptiste on the show. You may follow her on Instagram like the other 100,000 people that follow her on Instagram under the moniker Millennial in Debt. She has a book that also came out and man, I love it. It is such a great, yeah, it's good. It's good. It's different. I love how she, I mean, it makes sense her background being a teacher, quite honestly, that she would write a really good good book but also I'm also in love with the book cover I told her this I can't remember if it was recording the episode or after I'm like I loved the cover and she actually did she organized it

orchestrated it all herself and it's incredible so you're gonna love that episode her book is called so this is why I'm broke which is also an amazing book title. And so we're going to dive into her journey to get out of debt, especially on a teacher's salary and what she does now as a full-time content creator. And for the final episode of season 16 of the More Money Podcast, I have Bridget Carroll on the show. She's the policy lead of North America at Wise, which is an app that I feel like more and more people should be using. This is something that my husband now used. And it's because of me, he was asking me, is there a way that I can transfer money or accept money more freely internationally and not have to

use a PayPal or what have you that is charging me crazy fees and then giving me a terrible, you know, foreign exchange rate. And then I discovered wise and it literally, he uses it for his business all the time is saving a ton of money. And so we have a great conversation about what it means to kind of open the borders in terms of banking and just transferring and receiving money and just, you know, more transparency in the financial space. It's going to be a great episode, really, I think some important topics that we discussed. So do not miss it. And then as always, I will be on a summer hiatus until likely sometime in September. We'll see how things go. But I literally am just going to be working away on this book because I'm telling you, this year is flying by and it's freaking me out. I'm glad I have a little schedule, a little spreadsheet to make sure I'm on my word

count and I'm going to get it done by the deadline. But oh my gosh, it is freaking me out how fast time is flying. Oh gosh. Tell me I can do it. I need some reassurance this is it's a lot it's been a it's been a lot let me tell you okay that's that's it anyways anyways we don't have to go into that we don't have to go into that uh today I'm sure I will do a solo episode as one of my first episodes um when I launch season 17 uh sometime in September give you a good little update about how things are going at that point. I should be three quarters of the way done my book. I'm getting close to half done. So, you know, we'll see. We'll see how things go. But anyways, that is it for me. Thank you so

much for listening. I'm going to see you back here next Wednesday for a fresh new episode. Big shout out to my podcast editor, Matt Rideout. And I'll see you back here next week. Have a good rest of your week. Enjoy that sunshine. Get out. Go for a nice walk. Enjoy nature. All right.

See you next week. This podcast is distributed by the women in media podcast network find out more at women in media.network