More Money Podcast - 396 How to Earn Smarter, Not Harder - Financial Content Creator, Nathan Kennedy

Episode Date: April 10, 2024

With finfluencers everywhere talking about 6-figure incomes and starting a side hustle, is it even possible to build wealth, reach your financial goals and retire one day working a 9-to-5? It sure is, and that's one of the reasons I invited Nathan Kennedy, who you may know from TikTok or Instagram as NewMoneyNate, to talk all about it. In this podcast episode, Nathan not only shares his tips for employees to earn smarter, not harder while living the life they want, but we also discuss financial certifications and the lack thereof with many financial content creators (and whether it really matters), Nathan's journey from 9-to-5er to full-time financial literacy educator, common money mistakes he hears from his audience, and career and negotiation advice that actually works. Follow me: Instagram @jessicaimoorhouse Threads @jessicaimoorhouse TikTok @jessicaimoorhouse Facebook @jessicaimoorhouse YouTube @jessicamoorhouse LinkedIn - Jessica Moorhouse For full episode show notes and transcript visit jessicamoorhouse.com/396 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, and welcome back to the More Money Podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Morehouse, and this is episode 396 of the show. And I have a friend of mine on the show. I've gotten to know him over the past year, and you may already follow him on Instagram or TikTok. He really blew up over the past couple years. I am talking about Nathan Kennedy. So you can, you know, again, find him on YouTube or TikTok or Instagram. He has, oh my gosh, an audience of over a million. Maybe I can get some of those followers, hey? Anyways, but he has been passionate about personal finance and financial literacy for a very long time. How we actually first met, and I can't remember if we talked about this in the show, but maybe, is he started a

podcast before the pandemic, I want to say 2019. And he invited me on. And so we had a chat. And that was that feels like ages ago. And he definitely found his niche and has just been, you know, rocking it ever since. So I wanted to have him on the show to discuss a little bit about his journey, but also a lot of content that he focuses on is how can you level up your money? How can you build wealth? If you don't want to be an influencer or a content creator or go viral online, if you just want to live your life and work a nine to five or do whatever you want to do, how can you build wealth? Because I often find that when I'm scrolling on social media,

especially the younger influencers, you know, they are transparent with how much they earn and how much they have in their investment accounts. But sometimes they don't really, I mean, I think they forget that that's not a normal salary. You know, when I worked a nine to five in my last corporate job, I was earning $56,000, which at the time was the most money I'd ever earned. And I thought I was rich. So and then it was, you know, me trying to figure out, OK, how do I navigate, you know, having a mortgage with that salary and all these other obligations? And it is a different kind of set of rules.

And so that is what we're really going to talk about. A bunch of other things as well. But you're going to absolutely love this episode with Nathan. So with that, let's get to it. Welcome, Nathan, to the More Money Podcast. Excited to have you on, especially since we've talked about this. I mean, I was years ago on your podcast. Yes. And it's about time that you're on my show. So welcome. No, it's a pleasure to be here. I'm super, super excited. Awesome. So, you know, I think was it pre pandemic that I was that we first connected and we were on your podcast? Or was it during the pandemic? I think it was like the very start, because I started the podcast in 2019. And then

just was looking for a different inspiration. And you came up. And actually, when you said yes, I was a little bit like, whoa, this is kind of a big deal. It was probably the biggest person I had at the time. I appreciate you saying that. So that was really cool. And to this day, thank you for that. You're welcome.

It was maybe like February, March 2020, something like that. Wow. Gosh. Yeah, that's a wild, wild time. I don't want to go back to that time. But it seems like during that time you did the podcast and then and you're working at the you're still working your full time job. At what point did you because I know you really wanted to, you know, kind of go more into personal finance, content creation, trying to figure out what was the best avenue for you? What got you into I know, TikTok, Instagram are your big platforms, you have a YouTube channel as well. But what really made you want to kind of dive into that? You know, was it just like, hey, these are people my age, and it's kind of short form that is more my vibe. You know, I think it was like, hey, these are people my age and it's kind of short form. That is more my vibe.

You know, I think it was obviously low lift, right? Like you said, it's quite quicker to do that. The reason I had social media to begin with was just to promote the podcast. I had no intention other than just wanting to do the podcast. And obviously, as you're well aware, you don't get much discoverability with a podcast. And so I started on Instagram and then Reels. was going well and then reels came out yeah and then i started to use tiktok just to like make reels and then tiktok actually started to do well and so i felt like there was a huge opportunity there especially because there wasn't too many people

talking about finance but like there was the people that were were getting insane insane impressions and so i felt okay like maybe I could give that a shot and I did that and obviously I was doing that alongside my full-time job and and that was great and and but yeah I did that for a few years or maybe like a year and a half two years before I realized like hey like maybe I could go all in on this and so that was about two and a half years ago I quit my job and went all in on content creation. That's what can you Yeah, explain what it means. You know, I've had a few other content creators on the podcast, but I think people are always interested, especially if you're on social media a lot, you see these, you know, influencers, content creators, you're like,

how the hell do they make a living? What does that look like? Because it can be a lot of different avenues. What did that look like for you? How did you feel comfortable enough to leave your, you know, maybe safe and secure job to do what you're doing now? Yeah. You know, I felt that like, if I didn't know how to financially plan or financially set up myself, I'd be quite a big fraud of a personal finance content creator. And so I had a lot of, I don't want to say a lot. I had, I had a good amount of money saved up for a, uh, a potential rental property that I was looking at. You know, things were going well at work and I started to make more money with, uh, the content creation. And eventually I started to make more than my job. And so I figured,

well, what I could do instead of maybe purchasing a property, I could use that as an opportunity fund, sort of like a fallback thing. And I can give this thing a full time shot for a year. And we'll see where it goes. And if I stop making money, I could always go back to corporate. You know, there's a dime a dozen, a lot of the jobs. And, you know, I feel like I could. It's going to be there for me in one way or shape or one way or another.

But this might not be. And, you know,, the news right now, obviously, TikTok, potentially getting banned and all this kind of stuff. Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that. I mean, I know we're based in Canada, but do you think they'll still have a big impact? Because if this does get past US, you know, viewers of your content won't be able to access at least your TikTok, they'll still be able to access your Instagram. Yeah, I think whatever happens in the US is sort of like the fate of the whole company.

Because I think it's something like 10% of the users are in the United States, but I'd reckon maybe 35% to 40% of the revenue are either from America or American-based companies that probably wouldn't be comfortable advertising. Um, if they, you know, this whole thing happened now, I think in general,

you know, am I anxious about it? Like, first of all, it's going to take a very long time. Second of all, there's a lot of like legal challenges with that to actually happen. First amendment,

all that kind of jazz. Um, and then third, like this is the nature of the career that we're in, um, in terms of content creation, like it is fickle. of the career that we're in, um, in terms of content creation, like it is fickle. And so I am trying to like build up my email list.

Like that's my number one focus. And it was before all this stuff sort of happened and, um, you know, try to produce my own stuff on the side and kind of own my audience a little bit more. Um, and, and so for me, I, I look at things like that and things are going to happen as they will, but I, I'm also not too worried. The only thing that comes to mind is that things might slow down advertising wise on that specific channel because advertisers can get scared pretty easily. And this is kind of scary. So I guess we'll see how that shakes out. But for the most part, honestly, it's just, it really went fast. And I think that's why it's such a big story. And obviously, them influence, like TikTok actually making it a big issue on their platform has made it so much bigger than it's been in the past, where it's just kind of been like in the news, but people don't really like follow. Like TikTok's like sending push notifications to all of America about it.

So obviously, it's going to be quite a big deal. like tiktok's like sending push notifications to the to all of america about it so obviously it's going to be quite a quite a big deal but i i genuinely think i don't think it's going to happen um in my opinion maybe i'm delusional but i just i really don't think it'll happen yeah i guess we'll see i guess we'll see but you brought up a good point and this has been something i've been now doing this i feel like i'm'm like, did I get, yeah, I'm like, did I do the math right? I've been doing this for sure professionally, like full-time for seven years now. And even still, I remember when I first started, my husband's like, cause I, you know, the first couple of years are rough, you know, you're just like, what am I doing? And there is that scarcity that's always about, you're like,

what if I stop making money or things dry up? You know, when am I going to feel like everything's gonna be okay? This is real thing. I can get rest easy. And I will say it never really, it gets a little bit easier. But I told my husband, I'm like, maybe once I hit the 10 year mark, then I'll be able to be like, oh, yeah, like, this is a legitimate career. I've been doing this for a decade. But now that I'm like, you know, in year eight, I'm like, I still have those worries of like, what if this dries up? What if I, I mean, now as I'm getting older and approaching 40, I'm like kind of worried. I'm like, what if I'm aging out or something like that? Even though, if anything, I'm getting better at what I do because I'm more knowledgeable, more experienced. But it's just like one of those things you're like, what if I, you know, get wrinkles? I don't know. And people don't want to, you know, look at someone my age for that kind of content. I don't know. Just little insecurities that I have.

And what I will say, though, is the best thing that you can do for yourself, and this is for anyone listening who wants to, you know, explore this if they want to do it, is that, you know, diversification is key. Never just, and I've seen this happen with some content creators. They only focus on one platform. Instead, like I know for a long time, people who were like really big on TikTok had like no followers on Instagram. Why are they not cross posting or putting that same energy? Because again, you know, TikTok, the, oh, it's going to go away. It's been in talks for years.

And I remember there was a lot of content creators be like, please follow me on Instagram. You guys, apparently they're going to shut it down. So it's like you just never know what's going to happen to a platform that you do not own. And it could go away. There's been lots of social platforms. Do you remember Periscope? And what was that one that was just talking? MySpace.

What was that? No. I do remember MySpace were you even old enough to have I had I had a MySpace I had a MySpace it was on the tail end yeah it was like 2000 oh my god six or seven or whatever there was something else I can't remember and it was it was basically like it was kind of like a podcast, but not. And it was really big for a while. I feel like even in early days, 2020. And now no one talks about it. And I can't remember the name of it, but it was you can listen to people chat. Oh, I can't. Do you know what I'm talking about? Jeez, this is going to bother me. I know. OK, it's OK. We'll move on.

I'll blurt it out in the middle. Yeah, just blurt it out if you think about it. It's going to drive me crazy. So those went away. And now even like Twitter slash X or whatever you want to call it, I used to really like that platform. And now it's trash, in my opinion. I never go there, and I don't post on there anymore just because I don't like what's going on. And so it's one of those things. You've got to be very agile and just evolve and just and also yeah, own stuff like have your email list and create your own products, do things that no one can take away from you is kind of what I've learned. Because yeah,

I mean, things have happened. I mean, at the beginning of 2020, or like, yeah, the March, kind of April of 2020, all of my work dried up, because a lot of it at that point was speaking in brand partnerships. And there was no events and no brand wanted to do advertising, because they didn't know what was going on. And that was scary. But then I can kind of lean into some other things I did, like my online courses and my financial counseling, which actually brings me to another question last time, or one of the last times I saw you, it was at this conference for accredited financial counselors in Canada. And I saw you there. How's that going? I know you were studying. Yeah, I have both tests booked for April 4th.

You're doing them back to back? Yeah, I'm doing or no, I think it might be, I mean, I might have gave myself a week, but I'm studying like I was literally studying for hours before this. Yeah. Oh, sorry. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I was done. I was fully, fully done. But that's something that I'm really excited about best option that content creators have to gain a little bit of legitimacy, not just being some random person, but it's also not a CFP

where you have to spend years and years and years for something that ultimately, like I don't want to manage people's money. I don't want to actually, I just maybe want to- I'm telling you right now though, once you finish the AFCC like I did and I took like a year break, I'm like, I'm good. I don't need you finish the AFCC like I did and I took like a year break I'm like I'm good I don't need to get any more credentials you're gonna crave a

little bit you're gonna you're gonna miss school a little bit so I know you're gonna take more courses don't you worry you're gonna do like me where I'm almost ready to take my QAFP exam and but like you said I started the journey to become a CFP, which I will eventually, eventually get in 2020. And it's now 2024. And it's just because it's like trying to find time in your schedule to just dedicate to studying when you're working full time running a business. Very difficult. Yeah, absolutely. But you're right. Like that sort of like, I don't know, now that I'm like this close, I'm like, I don't know, I feel pretty confident that I'm going to pass and get it and everything's going to be great. But like, now I'm like, damn, I was literally looking at like MBA programs, I was looking at all these different things and I

was like, man, like that could be really cool. You know, because yeah, you want, we have to, in this career, sort of add legitimacy to what we're doing if we want to make it more professional, if we want to be all this kind of, have those sort of opportunities, everything like that. And, and so yeah, it's just an ambition for me. And I'll say like, I want to learn, I want to have more credibility, I want to like, create better content, things like that. And so that's the thing, have you found like studying, you're like, hey, even though what I recognize is like, oh, I know, I do know quite a bit. So that makes me feel good confirms that you're like, okay, yeah, I know what I'm talking about. But it also, you know, gives you new ideas and can make your content better. And like, for me, even though I'm still always like looking to you, my gosh, look at you with all your followers on those social

media apps, I really need to up my game. But what's interesting is when I do see some other people's content, I'm just like, oh, that's so basic. basic and it's like there's nothing wrong with that but it's like sometimes like there's it's it's good and bad to have like more education but sometimes yeah it's like i want to go deeper and though but uh so i'm excited to kind of see what kind of content you create as you can kind of continue your trainings and stuff like that because you'll be able to explore deeper things than you know finding stuff just you know just kind of regular stuff anyway that's what i found i found it it was actually really exciting to learn more it got you more excited to create more interesting content 100 i think really the level of intrigue or the

level of the content uh is is the storytelling ability of the content creator rather than the actual content like a good storyteller could make something like spend less than you earn. Interesting. Like I think I've made, I've made videos around very basic concepts. Like literally like, I mean, I mean like a two minute skip,

this whole thing around literally it was like once I could describe it in one sentence, like invest the money that you uh get from your employer match right like that's that's it don't let it sit there invest it period that's literally the premise of the video but i made this whole like spiel about it and it did well because it was compelling and so i think that's why like um that's that's that's the that's the sauce to content creation especially in our space is like a lot of this stuff is really, really basic. Spend less than you earn, invest a difference.

Everything else falls in line after that. But if you can tell that story that lands with the audience, I think that's great. And for me, again, it's like the FCC, CFP credentials, things like that. Again, it just better equips me to add that nuance and like you said, like separate, you know, from, from people who are just kind of doing, saying whatever, doing whatever, you know? It's true. And I feel like if we are going to be in this space for a long time, we do kind of have a responsibility to, you know, ownership a little bit more, so to speak. And, and just like, you know, just, yeah, make sure, like when you look

at, um, you know, I always kind of give the comparison of you're following someone in fitness. And lately I've been like, so I get older, I'm like, my knees hurt, my back hurts. And then, you know, I look at something on Instagram and then everything after that is like, hey, here's what you need to do to strengthen your hip flexors and stuff like that. For me, I like to follow people who have their certifications in, you know, professional, you know, fitness training, not just someone who doesn't because I'm going to trust the person who actually did some, you know, actual classes. So I don't do something improperly, you know what I mean?

And so I think it's only, it not only benefits you, you're going to be better at what you do, but then you're going to make sure that you are helping people and not leading them astray or saying, you know, I see content creators all the time use the wrong terms or explain something in the wrong way. And it's like, I know it sounds like a little thing, but then someone will remember that. And then they'll have that misinformation and,

you know, it all kind of adds up. So it's like, we got this responsibility to do our best. And I know I recognize that in you. That's why, you know, think you're doing great.

No, I appreciate all the kind words. I think though, like if you just want to talk like very from a very cynical point of view and an opportunistic point of view not to be machiavellian or whatever but like the wave of non-credentialed non like people who are saying whatever is like really fading out and like you're seeing like andrew huberman and like peter peter uh tia and you're seeing like um health specialists doctors things like people with real life like they're doing this for real and those are the people i love like i follow dentists and doctors and dermatologists and stuff

who work in the field and i am more you know i'm gonna listen to what they say because they did the work you know what i mean so so listen to what they say because they did the work, you know what I mean? So so that's I think that's definitely a good thing that and I think also audience members or people that watch this content, you know, me being one of them, we are more picky now because there's there's there was too much for a long time. And we were on social media like for wait, like hours and hours when we're in lockdown and stuff like that now since we are kind of back into a normal society we're being more picky on who we're gonna watch and so i think yeah the proof is kind of in the building who's gonna you know survive after and long term have

these kind of long-term careers it's gonna be the people that yeah do the work and really make sure that they're they're at that level no 100 so i'm i'm excited to see how everything takes out but but it keeps growing. Even with any of this, the attention will shift, whether it's to Instagram or YouTube or wherever. And it's an emerging career if you can stick up with it. Yeah. Well, that brings me to what are your plans? Because I know you've only really, I mean, you've been doing this for a few years, but only a few years. So where do you, like, is it hard to plan long term when things have changed so much in such a short amount of time? And what does kind of that look like for you? Where do you see

yourself depending on like where things with social media go? So I mean, just at a high level, obviously, it's a very financial podcast. Like I think for me, you know, I look at the career that I'm in right now. And it's a high income career if you can, you know, do well with it. And, you know, I think after maybe this is just because recently I was doing some a window here. And it is tough to plan 10 years. I don't know what 10 years looks like. I do want to be involved with entrepreneurship and things like that. But ultimately, I'm trying to just pretty much sock and invest everything away. And reach a really pretty much financial independent position over the next few years. Are you kind of a fire person like

do you have this idea i want to retire by or like not retire but you know have enough money that you don't have to make new money i have it i have a number for sure like i have a number that like i want to hit you know where you know i could live comfortably if everything went down and and everything like that and and so that's sort of like one of my biggest driving goals is to how can i set that up with this sort of career and everything like that obviously and so that's sort of like one of my biggest driving goals is to how can i set that up with this sort of career and everything like that obviously i want to continue to help and be a steward of financial literacy for the rest of my life and whether that's within what i do or within a company that's fine i'm not very like i know some entrepreneurs are like i'll never work for

a corporation like yeah like i'd love to work for a corporation if they want to buy a company i started like that's great like i do a little thing whatever right so i think generally i'm trying to figure out um how i can establish myself as a as a as a professional in this space and have that legitimacy and then grow businesses alongside with that and help people in the process and so that's sort of like the next phase and what what I'm working on right now is a new newsletter that I started where it's geared at helping working professionals become more financially literate, but with the twist of it being with a corporate sort of point of view. So people around how do do you operate how do you negotiate more effectively how do you manage your paycheck more effectively how do you manage shifting your retirement accounts to

a new job and like what's a lyra and stuff like that so like having that sort of perspective to it because i do i do think there's a lot of personal finance stuff out there there's a lot of career advice that stuff but like the actual bridge uh i found wasn't and so that's what i'm trying to solve for and i feel like maybe i could build a brand around that and then maybe that could be the next thing and so that's kind of what i'm working on but dollars and cents wise like i'd love to get to a nice little number these next few years here and and then kind of just have some fun and then i could just yeah yeah you know i used to think the same thing at your age, though. I feel like I kind of maybe didn't get didn't get started later, but I definitely it took me a while. I certainly wasn't earning very good money throughout my whole 20s. It wasn't until I hit my 30s that I kind of saw that. But what I found is sometimes you'll have a number. You're like, once I hit that, I'll feel really good, I'll feel secure, maybe I'll ease things. And then you tend to kind of push the goalpost a little bit. You're like, what about the next bit? And that's not a bad thing. But just recognize that

because sometimes it can it can be dangerous. You're like, Oh, what am I satisfied? Satisfied with things? No, but I love the idea of the newsletter, because what just popped into my head is often when I'm on social media, and I do see personal finance, you know, content creators or even like, you know, the people that are like finance slash business slash marketing or whatever, a lot of the advice that's like, oh, you want to level up your money and build wealth. It's about getting a side hustle. It's about like working more. It's about getting a side hustle, starting a business. And you're like, well, yeah, I get that. It's important to earn more money. I always had a side hustle, starting a business. And you're like, well, yeah, I get that. It's important to earn more money.

I always had a side hustle before I went full-time self-employed. Was not out of like, it was literally out of necessity because I needed to earn more. But there should be more information for people. They're like, yeah, but I don't want to be an entrepreneur. I like my job. I like what I do, my career. What can I do? Because the solution should be like to start entrepreneur. I like my job. I like what I do, my career. What can I do? Because this solution should be like to start a business and quit your job. What if you really like, I know

so many people that are like, I work corporate, I work for this organization or this university. I love my job. So what can I do with the money that I'm pulling in? A hundred percent. And I want to say this, I think the whole side hustle thing, 99% of it, nonsense. Absolute nonsense. You don't like the passive income stuff? I really don't because the premise of passive income is great, making money while you sleep and all this kind of stuff.

But it's been so distorted and misrepresented as to what it really is. And I think I want people to pursue entrepreneurship and things like that. But there is a part of it where like if you really want to go and do it like you will go and do it you're that type of person and a lot of people the majority of people like want to work a job and like their job isn't their vocation they don't have these crazy goals or whatever and that's totally fine so for me it's like how do you how do i help them operate and meet them where they are and how do i help you be more efficient at your job? Because like, you could take those 10 hours, I don't know, walking dogs or maybe doing some like side hustles on YouTube, which is great. You'll make some money. Or you can take the 10 hours and invest in yourself and become way better at your job that gets you the next job that makes you like 30 or 40 grand more a year you know what i mean and like that's to me is much more time well spent um and will develop you a lot further than maybe making some extra bucks on the weekend which you could do both things but i just think that like i want to focus on the bigger rocks the bigger levers there um with that kind of stuff so

from the director of the greatest Showman comes the most original musical ever. I want to prove I can make it. Prove to who? Everyone. So the story starts. Better Man, now playing in select theaters. So that actually reminds me, I've been seeing a lot of content and news articles.

I mean, they really haven't gone away for the past several years about job hopping. You know, first it was like millennials are job hoppers, they're terrible people. And now it's Gen Z, you know, job hoppers, terrible. What are your thoughts? Because personally, I was told, don't be a job hopper, looks bad on your resume, you won't get hired, all these negative things. Loyalty is key. And then I've seen like, you know, later on, well, there's actually some downsides. Like my dad was loyal to his company for like 30 years, got laid off because of corporate BS and had to restart his career in his 50s. And, you know, there's just,

there's, there's pros and cons. And for me, I've always made more money when I went to a new job instead of waiting around for years to get a promotion or a raise. So what is your kind of take on that, especially for younger people as they kind of try to figure out a plan for their career? It's difficult, but I do feel like there's never been a better time to be an employee. I know that sounds weird because a lot of people are like, oh, no, it's crap. It's like it was so much worse because now there's more transparency, there's more opportunities, and there's more opportunities for you to train in a different category, different industry, a lot more flexible than it used to be. I think for sure. And I'm a big proponent of job flexibility, job, job hopping, things like that. I think the reason and I agree with you, it's never been better to be an employee because not only not only are employees earning more than ever in a lot of different companies, but job hopping is way less stigmatized than it used to be. I mean, you'll still have those buddy-duddy sort of recruiters and HR folks who are like, what did you do here for two years and three? Most of the time,

most people know that people are hopping around and that's how you got to get up to get up kind of thing. And I think that that's fantastic because now you're seeing people significantly increase their income because they don't have to operate within the confines of... Obviously, employees will always have to operate within the confines of pay equity, but like, not so much internally, right? Like, well, we can't give you a 20% raise because that's not fair to everybody else in the company. Well, okay, I'll go get a new job and I'll get that raise for myself. And that's a realistic outcome for a lot of people now, which is awesome. And so every couple of years, not every single year, every few months, you should be leaving. Of course, you still want to develop and grow within a company. But I think the income potential these days is amazing. It really is. And I know people and I've seen people, it's very common to be doing quite well, making six figures because you made the right moves and you're strategic about it. And so I love speaking to that because that's a great realistic outcome for so many people.

And not enough people realize that they could achieve that without starting some crazy multi seven figure business. And I think the important thing to remember, too, is obviously this depends on where you work. And it's really about identifying those company red flags or you will be able to know, can I actually grow in this company or not within the first year? Within the first year, because you'll be able to see, are there lots of moves?

Are people being promoted internally? Is there growth? And for me, every single job that I did not get a promotion or raise at, I knew that within six months to a year. I'm like, this is going to be really difficult. There was like almost no growth for anyone who was like on my team. Or yeah, no.

Yeah, every department I ever worked in, no one got a promotion. And I was there for two, three years. So that's your signal. If no one else is getting promoted raises, then maybe that's not going to happen for me because it's not happening for anyone else. So read those, like be aware, talk to people, see the signs. Don't wait around five years and be like, well, maybe I just have to stay one more year. It's like, it's probably not going to happen if it hasn't happened now. So you need a, you could be leaving money on the table if you're waiting around for them to, you know, recognize your value. Someone else will recognize your value and pay for it. And it's a scary thing, you know, to leave and change is scary. And,

but it's, you know, a lot of the time it can be, it can be quite fruitful. Now, obviously, you know, sometimes grass is green on the other side too. So it's, too. So it's not like the greatest thing since sliced bread. You should be quitting all the time. But I do think that like part of a lot of my content is encouraging people to say like, hey, like, you know, you should leave. You just haven't yet. Like, maybe you should consider that and like maybe sharing why and things along those lines. So I know, you know, I'm an older millennial.

Maybe you're a younger millennial or an old Gen Z. I don't know what the ages are. It doesn't really matter. But you are still in your 20s. And I know you have a big following of people who are younger, which I think is like that is a really important demographic to reach with your information about how to improve your financial life. Because if you can get that in your 20s, you will be set in your 30s, 40s and onwards. I'm curious, what are some things in your opinion that young people today should absolutely know about money and some mistakes that maybe you've made that you want to make sure that they don't make? One of the most common ones that still boggles my mind is credit and just daily management of credit card is the most common thing that i see are among like people in their early to mid-20s late 20s like really

starting to like make a little bit of money like i don't know why but it seems as though like they just think that like you should carry a balance and it's fine to have a couple thousand dollars on your credit card it's like i'll get around to it like i was in cancun and i was whatever i had to shop life gets the way of christmas whatever it's like fine it's not that much money i could pay it off whenever and they just do not comprehend how much money it's costing them like it's costing them like hundreds of dollars a month just to have that balance i don't demonize that i think you know i have a whole you know youtube channel that's made several videos on like optimizing credit cards dynamics points era plan all that jazz and uh and if anybody wants to go check that out you can check it out quick plug but um i think generally you know like that that

seems to be the most common one so pay off your credit card in full on time every single month keep that utilization nice and low ideally under 30 percent um and and use it responsibly if you're going to use it because there are perks around purchase security and and warranty and and insurance and things like that which are which are great on top of the whole cashback or points accumulation but i think that's like the most common one it's maybe not the most important of the whole scheme i think that spend less than you earn, invest the difference. It's pretty important. Yeah.

But I think, you know, generally, generally that's the most common that I see. And I think if you could just put a little bit money away early on, I know people, young people hear that all the time. But it's just so astounding, the compound math. And so one thing that I've been really focused on is not only sharing the compound math, the compound interest of just investments, but also your career earnings and how they can compound over time and negotiating and how that can really have an insane effect on your career earnings and how that can then lead to greater investments and using compounding in the best ways possible across your entire financial life,

not just with your investments and things like that. And not having it work against you with things like debt and things along those lines. No, I think those are incredibly important. And yeah, I think that's such an interesting way to put it is it's not just that we hear we hear about compound interest in investments all the time. But I think, you know, kind of going back to what we were talking about earlier, we don't think about the compounding of our incomes or salaries. And so if you're not paying acute attention to that, like at least do a little audit of it once per year to be like, what's my cost of living and lots of our cost of livings have increased over the past couple years with inflation inflation. And then if my salary has stayed the same, that means I'm really earning less because things are costing more. So you need to reassess, why am I staying with this company who refuses to give me a cost of living raise?

A lot of companies are like, oh, we'll get to that. Or, well, we just don't have the money and the budget for it. Well, your life is more expensive and you're earning the same amount. But if you were to like, yeah, every couple years, you know, either, you know, get that raise and really put yourself forward for, you know, a promotion or even switch departments in the company, if there's, you know, a better department where you can make more money or get a new job and you can earn an extra 10K, an extra 20K or something like that. That really does have a huge impact i know that's been life-changing for me instead of you know sitting on kind of my some of my lower salaries in my 20s making more money

has obviously like it's obvious it helps um it really does so always keeping your eye on that and then figuring out what you need to do to get there. I mean, I was always trying to better my skills. And I think because I never stayed at a job more than two to three years, I was always like thinking of my resume. What can I put on my resume for the next place? Because I don't want it to be like, oh, you were there for, you know, three years. And what else you got? You know, everyone else who's applied has the exact same experience than you.

You want to stand out and always educating yourself, getting those trainings, being more valuable as a person or not a person, but as an employee is really, really critical. No, it's so important. And I think there's so many ways that you can stand out. And I think that's also something that played into my decision to go full time. Because like now I have this quite unique experience I could bring to a company. And I think I would, you know, be a little bit more different than another candidate or something along those lines. But that's, I mean, that's just kind of like a perk. It's just not really something I think about too much. No, I think about that often when I have to deal with certain companies, marketing departments, or even agencies. And I'm like, how did you get hired? Like, you have no experience in this field. Oh, my gosh, if I was in your job few people who had a blog and then a podcast. I was doing all this stuff on the outside.

And eventually, I just took that with me and started my own thing. But I was the one being like, why are we still doing it that way? We should be doing it this way. Things have changed over here. You need to be on the ball. And so it benefits everybody. No, I've had that same thing happen all the time like quite often um i'll kind of be like well why are you guys opting to do uh something along those lines and um

uh sorry i just get in the wave um so i um you know it's astounding to me because i'll ask some questions like well what are you guys looking to get out of this? And they're like, ah, you know, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. And I'm like, okay. Like they are more so just focused on making the client happy. And I'm like, well, what about like the views and the impressions and like the effectiveness of the campaign? It's like, yeah, but like the client, you know, and things like that. So.

Yeah. And you're like, okay, but like, aren't we trying to, are you trying to sell some like, don't you want me to promote something instead of like making it so general? You're like, people don't even know what I'm talking about. Like, yeah, it's, it's, it's wild out there. That's a whole other conversation of all that. But yeah, just to say, if you learn this stuff, you know, it'll, it'll, you'll be obviously a you'll be obviously the best employee and will have a better chance of getting either to grow into that company or to move forward and be at that next level in another company. Okay, the last thing I kind of want to chat about is because you also have a really great view of what other content creators similar to you are doing. What are some really bad takes you've seen that you're like, everybody do not listen

to this piece of advice. This is not for you. This is not good. You know, I think I walk that line between job stuff and money stuff now. But I would say I see a lot of bad job stuff. I talk to a lot of HR professionals, a lot of recruiters to kind of like get their perspective to like add more nuance and more things to my videos because I want to make them realistic and I want to not be doing that. But like some of the advice that I see people get like things around like, for example, you're talking to a recruiter and like I see see all the time, like never go first or never say your number first. Like they have to say the number first.

And it's like, yeah, like if they, if you get an idea of the budget before then, like, that's great. But like, don't play cat and mouse with them and like play this like standoff match because that's just not a good look. Like know your numbers, know the general range that you want to be in and you know look to work within that and have them work with you because you're wasting your time if you're just refusing to say anything or saying like hey like and and if they don't care then it's fine you can move forward but i do think that could hurt you more they can help you i think with the money stuff obviously you know the water kind of fell out on crypto and i think generally for crypto it's kind of like bitcoin and ethereum and then everything else is really just gambling i mean even even even even bitcoin and ethereum you should not be putting your life savings into that

either um but i i did i did see early on a lot of um that sort of rhetoric um individual stocks things like that there's so much that I've seen that I'm almost numb to it to where I can't even give you a great example. But I think the one thing that's really positive is the biggest creators and the best creators that I've seen across multiple niches, not just ours, are the ones saying the good stuff. It seems as though the cream rises and it sort of speaks to what we were saying earlier, like the professionals are starting to win bigly now, which is great because that means there's less misinformation and people are actually getting the information they need to make a

decision. So that's at least a good thing. Yeah. No, there's definitely some more. I feel like, there's been a lot more people you know recognizing that's actually really you know bad information and then putting those in the comments and then more people I've seen I've seen yeah influencers that used to be something and aren't as much anymore just because maybe maybe they started out good and then I don't know they just started going a certain way usually because of money because they were offered money to talk about something. And, you know, I've mentioned so many times when talking to creators on this podcast, the one thing that you can't afford is your dignity and your credibility. And so you got to be real careful what you say. And people are listening.

I mean, even for me, I know you mentioned, oh, you know, I've listened to some of your, you know, solo episodes, and I of your, you know, solo episodes. And I really don't do too many of those. But that just goes to show how long you've been listening. You've heard some old, you know, seasons back in the day. And it's wild because, like, yeah, I've been doing this podcast for, in June, it'll be nine years somehow. And that's kind of crazy. I kind of, like, I know people are listening, but also I don't you know,

sometimes I don't think about all the people who are listening and really taking in what I'm saying. And so when people remind me of that, I'm like, remember, remember, you know, your words have, you know, weight and power. And so you again, have that responsibility to make sure you're doing what you need to do and doing it well and just, you know, taking care. Because, you know, people are giving me their time and their attention. And I need to make sure that, you know, I'm saying, you know, thank you for that. And I will serve you, you know, some good stuff in reciprocation. But I know we could probably, you know, talk for a lot longer,

but I know you need to go. So thank you so much, Nathan, for coming on the podcast. I'm sure I'll have you on again, maybe at my home studio next time. Please, I would love that. And I'm sorry, apologies, I couldn't be this time.

No, no, no, no. It's fine. Where can people find more information about you, your newsletter? Where can people find you? Yeah, so, you know, I think the first place is Instagram. Super easy. I'm NateNewMoney on Instagram and then NewMoneyNate on everything else. NewMoneyNate was taken on Instagram,

unfortunately. That's so annoying. Are they doing anything with it? No, that's the worst part. That's the worst part. But anyway. It's too late now too, right? Yeah. Don't get me going. It's already done. So, um, but yeah, the, the newsletter is called the career earner. Uh, you can check it out. It's across all of my socials. Um, or you could just search up the career earner. Um, it should come up on Google. Um, yeah, subscribe. I send it out twice a week, uh, just on different insights, uh, around, insights around making more money from your job and then managing it effectively and things like that. But I really appreciate the time and I really would love to come back and do it in person. Yeah, yeah, we'll figure it out.

I mean, I also need to figure it out on my end. pieces of equipment to help me make this an easier transition with my nice camera that, you know, sitting right there, you know, spent some money on it and it really doesn't get as much use as it really should. So, but yeah, I appreciate you taking the time and yeah, I'm excited to, you know, maybe give you a few more followers who want to see what you're up to. And, you know, one of those being, I'm not a new follower, but I'm excited to see what you're going to continue to put out there. Awesome. Thank you so much, Jessica. I appreciate it. And that was episode 396 with Nathan Kennedy. Make sure to follow him on all his social platforms, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok at Nate New Money. So his handle is at Nate New Money. And I will link to everything in the show

notes for this episode to make it very easy for you. So just go to jessicamorehouse.com slash 396. And if you want to find any episode that has ever, you know, information about any episode, you can just go to jessicamorehouse.com slash podcast, or jessicamorehouse.com slash the number of that particular episode. So that is what you can do. So a little life update, kind of give you a sense of what I've been up to lately. So I have handed in my second round of edits for my book to my publisher. And unless there's really any, I think that's kind of it. I think that's the end of editing. I don't know. We will see if she still has some notes. But it was honestly not as hard as I thought. Like I was worried. I talked to so many people and they're like, oh, the editing was so much worse than writing. I'm like, I don't, I didn't have that experience.

Thank goodness. Because writing was, I know, I like, I say I never want to do this again, but that's not true. It's more just like, I don't want to do that right now. Like I just finished. I don't want to. It was a lot of work. It was a lot of work. So right now we're at the stage of kind of figuring out a title, even though I did submit a title when I originally pitched this book. It's not the title. It's not the right title. And so that is what we're working on now. And it is not easy. It is like I don't love any of them. And I have to just reconcile that I may not love any title ever for my book. And which makes me sad because it's like I want this is such a good book in my view. It is like I've obviously I've read it a lot. And I still really like it. And it's such a I think

important book. And I want a title that will show that if you just see it, the cover, I want you to be like, Ooh, that looks good. And it is so hard to find a title that does that. If you just see it, the cover, I want you to be like, ooh, that looks good. And it is so hard to find a title that does that. Hence why there's a lot of great books with terrible titles. So yeah, we're figuring that out. And then we're going to have conversations about the book cover. And then basically the next phase, like right after now, is there's a copy editor who's going to basically go through the book line by line. I'm very excited about this. And, you know, just, you know, word choices, phrases, or sentence structure, fix all that, because let me tell you, I'm, you know, I like writing, but I know I'm not the best writer in the world. Or maybe that's not true. But no, I'm definitely not the best writer in the world. But

I think I'm a pretty decent writer. But I definitely need someone to take a look at things and maybe just, you know, shape them a little bit nicer. And then also legal. So we've got to have some lawyers take a look at everything so I don't get sued. So that's what's happening next. And, you know, I'll let you know every phase of the way. I actually do have a YouTube video that I just posted on my YouTube channel, kind of more in depth about what my experience has been like just in this whole past year. So if you can check that out, jessicamorehouse.com slash YouTube is where you can easily get directed to my channel. But yeah, so that's kind of the news of the day, really. I mean, it's one of those things where it's like, gosh, I'm so busy the past couple months doing these rounds of edits. I haven't really had much of

a chance to think about what do you want to do once you're done that? I don't know. I haven't thought about that at all, really. I just have been blinders focusing on this kind of situation. So I don't know. I mean, I do know. I do have a couple things on my list. I have one more course to finish that I signed up for a year ago, and then I had to pay money to renew it. So annoying. What a waste of money. That is the last requirement in terms of my educational requirements to become a CFP. And then I think probably what I'm going to do is there's, I think it's called a professional education program you have to do. I don't know if I'm going to go direct to the CFP, honestly, probably because it scares the crap out of me. I think I'm going to try to do the QAFP, the

Qualified Associate Financial Planner designation first. But I'm going to have to finish this course first and then see what I want to do. But that's, yeah, still studying, still studying for this darn designation. And I feel like by the time you know it, it's going to be summer. Does anyone else feel like that? Like, I'm not mad at it. I love summer, but this year is going fine. Too quickly, way too quickly. But with that, let me share who is going to be on this show next week. I've got a new friend I just met a few, maybe a month or so ago, Jamie Monty. She is a CPA based out of Canada. So we're going to be talking about taxes, but she also creates a lot of amazing content.

If you are self-employed or a small business owner and you want to know taxes and literally, this is why I want to make more YouTube videos not about self-employed and taxes, because I haven't really posted too many videos in the past year, obviously, because I've been writing this book. But every single day, I get like five comments, if not 10 comments every single day across all these different videos asking me questions about taxes and self-employment. And I always tell them, yeah, like here's the answer to your question, but I am not an accountant. So now I have someone that I can kind of, you know, send those people to because she knows what she's talking about. She does this every single day. So

we're gonna have a really great time talking about that. And then very exciting the week after, so this will be April 24th, I'm doing a solo episode. So that is just like an AMA, ask me anything kind of thing. I posted some, you know, like an Instagram and a YouTube reel asking, and I also sent out an email newsletter about it. I basically, what I'm trying to say is I need your questions so I can answer them in this solo episode. If you can help me out, that would be great. You can literally just DM me on Instagram, anything you want. It could be a personal question. It could be a money question. It could be anything under the sun. I just need your questions so I can compile them all and do this really great Ask Me Anything episode. So do that. You can find me on Instagram at Jessica I. Morehouse, or you can just email me directly. That's fine too.

Jessica at JessicaMorehouse.com. That's where you can find me. So that is it for me. Thank you so much for listening. a big thank you to my podcast team video edit by justice crar and produced by mravcanada.com thanks for listening i will see you back here next wednesday looking forward to it have a good rest of your week this podcast is distributed by the women in media podcast network find out more at women in media.network