How to Start Thinking About Managing Your Investments with Amanda Cantrell - 119

[00:00:00] How do you manage your investments? Today's episode is a great conversation about how to do just that. Welcome to Money Talk with Skyler Fleming, where we break down financial complexity and everyday conversation. Let's get talking. In today's episode, we're talking with Amanda Cantrell all about managing our investments.

[00:00:17] The main focus of this episode is going to be how we manage our investments. I'm going to cover how she manages her investments, how I manage mine, but the real way to get better with investing is you guessed it, talking about money and talking about our investment strategies.

[00:00:30] If you've been listening for a while, you knew I was going to say that, but that's because it's true. It's going to allow you do better than any sort of stock picking, timing the market or any other crazy investment strategy.

[00:00:40] It all boils down to just talking about it more. And that's where we learn the really simple and easy tactics. So if what you learn next is going to be to listen to this conversation, take what you want to apply to your finances,

[00:00:52] do a little bit more research about it, have a money talk about it and then figure out how you can implement it into your finances. But let's get us started with some easy ideas. Amanda and I have a great conversation today all around regular money talks,

[00:01:06] tracking the power of investing in what you value, staying accountable and common investing pitfalls. The power of a written financial plan as well is one of the key things that I took away from today's episode.

[00:01:18] It's a great episode today, so be sure to share with a friend and have a money talk about what you learned. The money talking points for today's episode are, how do you manage your investments and two?

[00:01:28] Do you have a way to manage your investments that's different than normal? With the money talking points in mind, let's get right into today's episode. Hello and welcome to today's interview with Amanda Ken Trell. I'm excited to talk investments today.

[00:01:51] This is a topic I've been wanting to talk about for a little while. The title is kind of a little bit around how I manage my investments, so it's going to be a question we're both going to answer.

[00:02:00] Amanda, would you start out just with a short introduction to yourself? Yeah, I skyler, thanks so much for having me on the podcast like you said, my name is Amanda Cantrell.

[00:02:10] I'm a mom, I'm a military spouse, I live out here in the Pacific Northwest and less appropriate retail planning job after 15 years and started into financial coaching and have several licenses in that field. So yeah, it's a little bit about myself.

[00:02:26] Awesome, thank you so much for introducing yourself there. I'm excited to have this conversation about investing today. Hopefully we all learn some more and get some new ideas, but let's go ahead and just jump right into the first question of how do you manage your investments?

[00:02:39] What do you do with your investments? Yeah, you know, I think personally our household, we do a lot of tracking. That's the main part of our just kind of financial plan. We're constantly looking, Skyler.

[00:02:54] So it could be across a lot of different apps, a lot of different systems. In my early day, I track and manage my investments on spreadsheets, especially as I was going through debt free journeys and things like that.

[00:03:07] But nowadays there's so many great apps that can manage everything, even just the individual company apps. You know, if you're got a 401k somewhere, you can typically log in with just a finger print or your face gain and see what's going on with it.

[00:03:23] And so that's kind of how we get into it. Are we having kind of all over the place? We've got in our household, crypto, we've got insurance as we've got investments. We've got old, retirement accounts, things like that, and we constantly are just looking at them.

[00:03:39] And I think the other thing for me, Skyler, too, is having a personal relationship where you can and involved with that specific investment. Meaning, you know, if you have a financial advisor, is it someone that, you know, you can truly trust, you can call or text anytime.

[00:03:58] You have a question somebody that doesn't get annoyed when you want to meeting, having those personal relationships to an every category. You know, I think investments are so many, so many different things.

[00:04:11] And so many types of financial plans you can have, but, you know, having a financial advisor you can trust, then the insurance broker you can trust. Then a mortgage professional that's managing your home investment. You know, all of those people are incredibly important.

[00:04:26] And that's also kind of how I track it because I like to meet with people face-to-face and talk about my money. And instead of, you know, always having a, you know, the robot to meet. Yeah, I like you hearing.

[00:04:39] Yeah, I like to hear you mention the idea of talking to people about your money. That's kind of the name of this podcast. So yeah, I manage my investments. We, we honestly probably track it less than what you're saying.

[00:04:50] My wife and I check it quarterly pretty much. That's honestly all I'm allowed to adjust is quarterly because before we set that rule in place, I was like, bombarding my wife with, hey, let's do this. Let's change this. What about this investment?

[00:05:03] Crypto this, crypto that. So it's kind of a rule to keep me under control if we're being honest. Which is important. That's why I think there's so many different ways to manage it. Is there something that you feel is good for all your tracking?

[00:05:15] I know in my last interview, we talked about how many credit unions and like you said, different investment platforms have a great way to track it. Is there anything in particular that you use that's really good at tracking?

[00:05:28] That's a good question. You know, I don't know that there's one particular one that I like if you know one definitely let me know because there are so many different ones.

[00:05:36] I think for me, but you know when I first started this journey in personal finance, I'm just a good old fashioned spreadsheet girl. Same.

[00:05:46] I like to list things. I like to build pie charts, be you know, filament, I'm gamifying. So you know whatever works for me is typically going to be spreadsheet. Oh, that's awesome.

[00:05:59] There's also, yeah, there's also, you know, a platform that I like called AppsetMath that kind of ways out. It's typically going to be through, you know, your financial advisor or something like that.

[00:06:10] But it lays out everything on a map and no for me that's very visual and easy. And so if you're missing something on your map, then you can go fill it right and find the right pieces of finance for that.

[00:06:23] So I do like that one but you know there's so many apps out there and things change, you know, with the app process and there's been a couple that, you know, we're super popular that they want to weigh this year.

[00:06:36] And so people are having this, and that's kind of why I like just a good old fashioned spreadsheet. And now to there, you know, you can go online and buy really fancy spreadsheet. Do your stuff fairly cheap and keep it all in track.

[00:06:53] So I love things like that. Do you have that you like? Yeah, when I, when I use the I keep our stuff tracked into, it's called Empower used to be personal capital.

[00:07:01] If you've ever heard of it, it's one of those that you can connect everything to and it just pulls the numbers for you. I don't really get too into it but I just have everything connected there.

[00:07:10] It's an easy way to compare my numbers kind of odd it myself a little bit to make sure my spreadsheet stays on track.

[00:07:15] But yeah, like you said, those spreadsheets people build some fancy templates and they, and the nice thing is is they're often not a subscription since they're just a file you're downloading. So you can avoid that recurring cost.

[00:07:28] Yeah, I discovered that this earlier this well, I guess last year now since it's 2024 but I didn't realize you could buy, you know, great templates on the city. I have to go on S&R, you know, 20 bucks get in the fantastic, you know, financial tracker.

[00:07:46] And it's just kind of plug and play and I agree, then it's not a subscription. It's just kind of up to you. I find it fun to input, you know, I think people get more accountable if they have to fill something.

[00:07:56] Yeah, versus when you just pop it open and see where I'm at. But yeah, I love I love the spreadsheet. Awesome. Yeah, spreadsheets are awesome. That's that was a fantastic beginning to our conversation kind of diving in.

[00:08:09] There's many even just from our first question, there's many ways to manage your investments. But second one here is there's something that you do different that you feel is different from the normal person, something that you like to hang your head on.

[00:08:21] Right. Yeah, great question. I think for me, you know, and my husband, I probably will bring up a lot because we probably more than the normal couple. Talk about our money constantly and actually like your idea, maybe we should limit it to a quarter.

[00:08:37] We're almost in our stuff every day. And it's kind of like a healthy obsession.

[00:08:43] And we like to get in and talk and see, you know, we're looking at our bank account. Where's this going? Where's that going? We're constantly putting, you know, every dollar to work that we can. And so I think that's maybe a little different than most people.

[00:08:57] And I think also that we talk openly even in front of our sons who's just about four years old. And that's very different. I think maybe not so much with our generation, but people, you know, in our parents and grandparents generation.

[00:09:14] I think talking about money was a little bit taboo. And like I love things like this, you know, having a podcast called Money Talk. It's important. And that's why I'm passionate about it.

[00:09:27] I want my sons to know that it's okay to have money conversations even when they're stressful, right? We have the same stressful conversations as every couple. When it's good, when it's stressful, when we're planning for something exciting like a vacation, we want them to hear those conversations.

[00:09:44] And I think that maybe is a little different than most. I would say another thing that we do different than most, like I said, looking at it constantly talking about our account constantly. We're always in lock depth with what we want to do.

[00:09:58] And I think maybe this probably is similar for you to valuing, you know, being out of debt and constantly, you know, making sure we're staying above that, not getting back into debt, that sort of thing.

[00:10:12] I'd say as well for someone like me, we value the concepts of insurance is probably more than the average person. I think just because some personal experience and seeing, you know, people struggle when there was a death in the family or things like that.

[00:10:30] So I think people around my age aren't necessarily the same with kind of concepts. And so I think that's different for us. Yeah, that's fantastic.

[00:10:40] Yeah, definitely talking about it a lot, which is it's kind of unfortunate that we say talking about money is something that's different than most people.

[00:10:47] Because really it should be something we're talking about frequently often and openly like you said, having the conversations around children can really open them up to the financial struggles with the households having the financial opportunities, which is really fun when you get to share those.

[00:11:02] And yeah, talking about it more is definitely something we like to do. We have our monthly budget meetings and we, we like to hold those in high regard when we tell people how we're doing with our money is like, yeah, we make sure to talk about it regularly.

[00:11:14] And one thing that I like that you said is that you value insurance more than maybe a normal person because of personal experiences.

[00:11:22] But I think the key thing that I took from there is there's probably going to be a personal experience that's going to lean you more in a direction that's maybe against the the math, so to speak. Like maybe you have more insurance than you need and that's okay.

[00:11:35] Like there's nothing wrong with that because that's where you value, maybe you're someone who spends more eating at nice restaurants because that's what you value. It's important to consider those sort of things.

[00:11:44] Yeah, yeah, I think that's a great point either because you know, I think two personal finance is that it's very personal.

[00:11:52] And you know, just as unique as your fingerprints right and so many different situations can play into how you were raised and and like he said what you value.

[00:12:03] And what you're trying to do maybe break a cycle or get to a certain point and it can be vastly different experience, you know, for the one person to the next right from you to me. So yeah, thank you.

[00:12:16] You're doing a lot of things, but just talking about it right like you said so.

[00:12:21] Yeah, talking about it is so helpful, which is a perfectly into our next question of how do people benefit from talking about their investment strategies? How do we how do we open our minds up to each other and things like that.

[00:12:34] Yeah, I think you know, talking with people about your strategies is incredibly important. You know, to liken it to you know a military term having a battle buddy and anything is really important.

[00:12:49] Same with finance, you know, you know, I sounds like we're both similar and being on the same page as our spouse and sometimes that doesn't happen right that's not something I can help people with most of the time.

[00:13:02] You know, hey, if somebody's not on the same page, I naturally as their partner or spouse significant other that can be really difficult.

[00:13:10] But what you might have to do is just go get another accountability partner or a battle buddy so to see that will go on the journey with you, you know and having the straight up just accountability to somebody like, hey, I need to meet with you every two Fridays or every month to talk about my spending and just to hold me.

[00:13:30] Right, or hey, I want to talk with you because you're really good at investing. I want to meet with you every month. Let's talk about it.

[00:13:37] And so, you know, I think having that those open dialogue is incredibly important and sometimes they just being open allows openness to come back. It got me. Yeah, it does.

[00:13:48] You know, you might learn something that you can apply quickly or learn about a new exciting investment that you can get in on and so when when you're open and I feel like it just opens the university to.

[00:14:02] And so yeah, I think talking to a buddy is really important. Yeah, and that is an awesome, like throwback to my last week's episode where I talked with Johnny Bowen and he has the term money buddy.

[00:14:14] So like you said, a battle buddy, a Jim buddy. Have your money buddy. So I'm going to help Johnny wave that flag and wave that term and make sure I give him credit because I really like the idea of money buddy.

[00:14:24] Like you said someone to me was regular. Yeah, that's excellent. I think having a money buddy is like going to be a game changer for some people. Right, because if you try to do it on your own sometimes it's just like that.

[00:14:37] And if you're in a good position for the solution right, you go to you want to go to the gym more. By the end of January it's not happening because you didn't have a gym buddy, right?

[00:14:46] So hold you accountable and make you look more like something with money management. Yeah, someone to keep your accountability partners in every area are super helpful. But your strategy can evolve over time, right? That's that's what we want to talk about a little bit next.

[00:15:00] I think this one will give us a little bit more conversation. I think we're going to talk about the strategies of all over time. Specifically, like I preview you a little bit with someone who's 18 versus nearing your time at which is kind of the whole spectrum.

[00:15:12] But you're you're strategy can evolve even over a couple years as your lifestyle changes. But how does that happen for people? Yeah, that's a really great question and a great study. You know, I met with so many people different stages of life different ages. I'm definitely different.

[00:15:30] If even if I think back to you know when I was 18, right? We are just in a totally different mindset first of all different life experiences and different things that we have to focus on. And so I think early in our adulthood it is about, you know, accumulation.

[00:15:46] Maybe it's you know, that's when the debt journey typically start because maybe people are going to college, right? And so they're getting into, you know, the student loan situation.

[00:15:56] And then they're navigating the transition into careers where suddenly they have that regular income and a huge amount of debt. And so it's evolved into paying off debt. And then hopefully they're getting out of that quickly and then really starting to think about saving for their future.

[00:16:15] One thing that I skylar don't know about you, but one thing that I think threw me off just an insults it in general was planning for a child, right?

[00:16:25] So when I had my first son it was actually the height of the pandemic and you know, the world was crazy. And I don't know that I was totally financially prepared for that because it's also not talked about. Yeah.

[00:16:38] And you don't really, you understand like okay, I'm going to have to buy diapers and food for a real long time. But what does that look like? And so there's different stages of life that happen that can come sometimes, you know,

[00:16:51] a section back a little even if you're feeling like you're really good with money. And then of course as we age, you know, going into that protection mode of likes too where, you know, we're getting ready to retire.

[00:17:04] We have these dreams goals, you know, spending time on the beach with our grandkids and have me saved enough over the many, many years to get to that point comfortably.

[00:17:15] And I think if again, there's no accountability throughout the life we're all going to be left short, you know, and not hitting the goals that we want to hit. And sometimes we just kind of expect things to happen, I think.

[00:17:28] Yeah, you got to feel a little bit of a sudden. Yeah, exactly. You have to constantly put effort into it and constantly have accountability and things do change every year of our life, right?

[00:17:40] So always kind of going back to where are you right now, how are you tracking it and who can help you, you know, be accountable. I love hearing threads throughout.

[00:17:52] I have conversations with a lot of different guests on my podcast and I love hearing threads of over the last couple weeks it's been track it, talk about it and then make a plan. And that's just fantastic. Like you said about the baby thing.

[00:18:05] I was my wife and I are nearing that like we're not pregnant, but it's certainly a thought in our mind that of how will that, how much will that cost? Like being to adults with no kids is pretty affordable lifestyle.

[00:18:16] Like we can do what we want, but how do we, how do we put that like in the back of our minds to prepare for it?

[00:18:21] And that's where those money buddies or a community of friends and ask them, like if you know someone who has kids say, how much did that really cost? And then take that into account that'll kind of help you get started rather than just throw you into the fire.

[00:18:36] Yeah, absolutely. And I think like you mentioned, just kind of talking to people that have been through it before, you know, having some friends family that have gone through it, but yeah, there's some things that we think about right, having a family and growing families that never really talked about in the money world.

[00:18:53] And so that costs. And sometimes, you know, people have struggles having a family and can get really expensive. They go different routes and that's something to think about too. Yeah, I think, you know, in general, it's as people are in different ages.

[00:19:10] You know, it's helpful to know and pull back from your own personal experience right when we were a scene, let's go and on. And understand credit cards, you know, I didn't understand the value of saving.

[00:19:23] Kind of talking back to one of the questions earlier, you know, something that I might have done differently than most people I would do remember when I first got those corporate jobs.

[00:19:34] I didn't know much about money, but I did know, all right, this company's giving me a, you know, a 401k for example.

[00:19:42] They're telling me they're going to match me up to x percent if I put x percent in. Well, I started doing that immediately and I think that's something different than most people. Yeah. You know, there's a lot of different tools of thought out there.

[00:19:56] Probably could have put that extra percentage into my student loans or whatever, but that really set me up long term. You know, when I was doing max funding of my 401k at age 25, you know, it's probably abnormal than normal. Yeah. But my age. People underestimate the 401k. Right.

[00:20:16] Yeah. Yeah. I gave me that force discipline and if that money came out of my paycheck, that meant it wasn't in my safety count to spend on privilege. When I was learning to be an adult, right? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:20:30] Different pages of why can can definitely change any learn too. Yeah. And they're all fun. They're all different experiences, but the best part is if you're doing good with your money, there's just so much opportunity that people just aren't afforded.

[00:20:44] That's the 401k is one of the favorite things I get to tell my coworkers about because they know I host this podcast. They know I like to talk about money and things like that.

[00:20:52] So they'll bring me questions, but the other people that are around my age or like fresh out of college and stuff like that and getting their first career. And like you got it at least do the match.

[00:21:01] Like your your single or you're just newly married, your lifestyle will be fine. You'll figure it out.

[00:21:06] So just you got to get the match and get yourself started because the time you have is invaluable to let that money grow, which is just it's awesome when people they see them.

[00:21:15] Yeah, absolutely. And I wish more young people would take the advice because it is hard to say like okay, let me just give away X percent of my page.

[00:21:26] I can buy when you're young, you have that time value of money that's going to compound and it can really set you up later in life just so much faster.

[00:21:36] And hard to describe that to people right when they're in the midst of you know fresh earnings or getting out of debt or something like that. But yeah, super important to it. You get that free money from employers for sure.

[00:21:49] Yeah. And yeah kind of like you were saying like life, you know, you'll figure out a way that's same to go back to the family conversation. It's the same just no, you know when you do have a kid and we'll figure it out. Yeah.

[00:22:01] I might man how are we doing all that it's never did it before, but everything fine right and so you think you're down.

[00:22:08] Yeah, your lifestyle will adjust to however much money you have to spend and you'll be okay. It'll be fine. You'll still have fun in the soil of opportunity. So awesome.

[00:22:17] What are some common investing pitfalls? I think one of them could be not getting your employer match with your 401k, but what are some other pitfalls that people may fall into when they're first getting started.

[00:22:27] Yeah, that's the good point. Yeah, I think not getting matches. I think companies is a huge one. You know, I think one of the biggest pitfalls is that people may earn informed and emotional decisions. Right.

[00:22:42] I've seen so many times when you know like last year's stock market not great and people are making emotional decisions, pulling funds this way that way.

[00:22:52] And it's just not worth it, right? Then you pull it out and what happens while the market bounces back and you miss out. And there's a lot of psychology right involved in money and decisions and when you make emotional decisions you are literally leaving money on the face.

[00:23:11] It's been studied so many times. I've never heard of the Dalbars study where it's really just explaining this psychology and the effect of people's investments when they make emotional decisions. And it's been studied so much that you can really pinpoint a number to it.

[00:23:29] Okay, if you make an emotional decision you're going to miss out on xyb. So emotional decisions around money exists every day, right?

[00:23:39] Even in relationship to marriages. It can be very emotional. Typically because one person or another is not doing the right thing and it causes some friction but promotions exist in money just like they do in every decision of life.

[00:23:56] And so being able to control that can help you control your money and your spending and your decisions do.

[00:24:04] And then I think another investing hit fall that a lot of people we've especially seen in the last several years is things like a crypto right or things that are really really exciting that people jump to and I'm all for jumping on badmackin but you better not jump off.

[00:24:22] Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah, you've got to be kind of long term. Right? So you're going to jump on the bandwagon. You got to stick to that decision and not be emotional when it's doing this for a while. Yeah, that's where the quarterly idea.

[00:24:39] Don't know how long it would be earlier than yeah, exactly. It helps you kind of even out the playing field of time and emotions if you maybe only talk about every now and then.

[00:24:52] But yeah, I was for sure. I had jumped on the bandwagon earlier but when I did jumps on the crypto bandwagon it was you know things that smooth out and we understood it a little more and so we made an informed decision.

[00:25:08] And then you just stick with it.

[00:25:11] Yeah, if you're going to jump on you better be ready to stay on because that's that's that's the saying goes something along the lines of the only people they heard on a roller coaster or the ones who fall off or something like that.

[00:25:21] Like everyone else is fine. So you guys you just got to stay on board and you'll be okay, but I think the first one about emotion plays right into our last question here about written investing plans which is exactly why my wife and I have a written plan that we can only I can only change it quarterly.

[00:25:38] I cannot bring her any other investment ideas or different things to do except quarterly and then that's when we talk about it. We write it down. It helps remove the emotion like you said because there is a lot of emotion in me saying let's do this new crypto this new crypto this bank accounts offering some weird crypto type thing.

[00:25:55] Like there was a lot of emotion in that time period. What do you think about how a written plan can help and bring value to someone's investing life?

[00:26:04] Yeah, you know I used to be the person that would tell you like oh writing goals down that's fluffy it's never going to work. Once I started actually writing down it changed the game because it puts it you know like you said it removes anything else right it's on paper it's in black and why it were on a spreadsheet whatever you want to call it but it's there and it gives you that it's almost like an accountability partner really.

[00:26:34] Right it's a non-personality but it is something that you can look at follow and track and so having those plans written down I think is incredibly valuable.

[00:26:47] I'm also a believer pay if you put it out into the universe that's when things get you know going because you're just thinking about getting out of debt or you're thinking about becoming a day trader or you're thinking about you know matching your employer for a one kind of

[00:27:03] employer for a one-kate that's what it is it's just a thought it's a good intention right and we all have good intentions we want to leave our kids with a legacy we want to save for our futures we all have good intentions but until you really write it down and follow the plan that's all it is an intention and there's no action behind it.

[00:27:26] I think having meetings like you're talking about with yourself is incredibly important and having the plan on paper helps you turn your intentions into real.

[00:27:38] Yeah it's a perfect thing to share with your money buddy to say hey every every one month let's talk about where our numbers are and then on the third month we're going to adjust it so.

[00:27:48] It's a really great way to keep yourself on track keep those action items going actually do what you want to do what you say you'll do but awesome this has been a fantastic conversation and if there is anything that was ever a good.

[00:28:03] And advertisement to go watch on YouTube it's the background of your video I don't know where you are but it looks super nice out there it's sunny and there's water and forest and looks awesome so go check out the YouTube video this as well if you're listening but.

[00:28:18] Yeah it's been a super fun episode getting to talk and yeah to wrap up how can people find you what are you up to where do they yeah where do people get in touch with you if they want to learn more.

[00:28:28] Yeah thanks guys I appreciate you having me on first of all I'm excited to continue watching all of your podcast and hopefully this is helpful for people as well but yeah everybody always mentioned the background.

[00:28:42] It is not a zoom background it is my backyard but no I'm up here in the Pacific Northwest this is the the sailor's sea behind me all known as the Puget Sound but.

[00:28:52] We love it up here would not be here you know obviously without making great money decisions and talking about these types of things as a family but yeah for people to find me.

[00:29:03] You know I think one of my favorite places for to connect with people truly and have some professional conversations is actually linked in and so.

[00:29:12] People can go find a can show financial consulting on LinkedIn follow me there on Instagram see I'm Amanda Cantrell F.B. is in financial coach so. Manicantro and yeah look me up on Instagram or LinkedIn I'll be happy to connect. Awesome.

[00:29:28] Yeah of course everything will be linked in the show notes is everyone expects so you can find her Amanda's information and go connect with her but. Amanda thank you so much for coming on is really great conversation.

[00:29:38] Thank you so much Tyler look forward to more this episode can really have a lot of impact on you there's a lot to go over.

[00:29:45] And if you're to go out and do just one thing from today's episode I think you can honestly have a pretty big impact on your investing portfolio and choices.

[00:29:53] So let's talk about a few of the things let me just hit on a couple ways that they can impact your life fewer to implement them.

[00:29:59] One of the ones that I know comes up all the time is the 401k match it's something I hear about very often anytime I ask someone about investing.

[00:30:07] They're always like oh make sure you're getting your 401k match. It's the first thing that comes up why is that because it's so important.

[00:30:14] It's a basic and easy thing to do and like I said in the episode and in the interview your lifestyle's going to adjust make sure you're getting that match and make sure you're 401k is invested in something simple.

[00:30:24] But that 401k match is the most important thing and if it's the one thing you took away from this episode it's super easy to set up go ask your HR department and get that started because that's going to have a lot of power to allow you to retire.

[00:30:36] Later down the road. Another thing that I thought was really impactful is taking me emotion out of investing. If you're able to do that you're really going to make it a whole lot easier for your investing decisions which is where a written plan comes into play.

[00:30:50] I love that my wife and I have a written plan that I can only change quarterly. This is for my wife's sanity but it's also helped me calm down about how we're investing.

[00:30:59] I'm not wanting to change it up every other day because it's written down and it's something we stick to at least quarterly.

[00:31:05] And that can only update it out often and that can have a huge huge impact on keeping you sane when the market's going up and down because you just don't worry about it anymore. Another one that can have a huge impact is an accountability partner.

[00:31:17] I hope you heard the term money buddy come up again from today's episode as it was in last week's episode. It's what we talked about a lot. Accountability can be a really big thing towards helping you getting your finances on track.

[00:31:27] Tracking is another thing they got brought up yet again. And I think it's one of the biggest things that we can do to get ourselves started. So if tracking is the one thing you take away from today's episode, really consider how you can do it effectively.

[00:31:38] Keep it really simple. Use an app whether it's in power or some other sort of tool that you connect all your accounts to. Use your credit card or credit union account.

[00:31:47] There's very likely a tool that can start tracking everything for you and break it down into categories for you. Last but not least, the power of money talks. Both Amanda and I shared our enthusiasm towards talking about money with our spouse.

[00:32:00] Whether it's with a spouse or with a money buddy having money talks is going to be how you do better with money.

[00:32:06] Or else how are you going to learn about it? Yes, you can listen to every podcast out there. You can listen to every YouTube video out there. But when you really get into it and talk about money with someone, that's when you really start making progress.

[00:32:16] And when you really start getting your questions answered because you're likely going to have questions from everything you listen to. So make sure you have a money talk about what you've learned and then go apply it.

[00:32:25] Before we wrap up here, I want to talk about the money talking points. The first one is how do you manage your investments? This is when I want to hear from you. You heard in the episode and in the interview how I manage my investments.

[00:32:44] So I want to hear from you. Go on YouTube or shoot me an email and leave a comment about how you manage your investments.

[00:32:50] Is there something specific you like to do? Keep it simple and short so we can start some nice, easy-flowing money talks around how you manage your investments. Do you like index funds? Leave a comment about that. Do you like golden silver and that's your investment strategy?

[00:33:03] Leave a comment about that. Do you like cryptocurrency? Let someone know. And that's the power of how we all do better with money together because we're teaching and telling each other what we do and how it can be beneficial

[00:33:13] And we're learning together. The second money talking point is do you have a way of managing your investments that's different from normal. And however you think it's different from normal, let us know. This is going to be a fun one to talk about.

[00:33:24] Like I said, some way that I think I manage my investments a little differently is strictly within the fund. I keep it very simple. We just put our money into an S&P 500 fund and leave it at that.

[00:33:34] I don't try to pick any stocks. I don't know what stock is going up, what stocks going down, what stocks splitting soon. Anything about stocks I do not know. It makes me worry free when it comes to managing our investments.

[00:33:46] I hope you're able to take away some valuable information from today's episode and I hope you're happy to podcast us back.

[00:34:01] I know that I am, we're also back with more content. So be sure to head over to YouTube this week to find even more content with a little bit more of a deep dive into some of the topics that Amanda and I talked about today.

[00:34:11] You can find me on YouTube by searching money talk with Skyther Fleming or by clicking the link in the show notes. Remember just one of the items we talked about today is going to be enough to get the ball rolling for you and get that momentum started.

[00:34:23] So take the one idea that you thought was most interesting. Share it with a friend and have a money talk about it because that's how you're going to actually get it to stick and implement it into your personal finances.

[00:34:33] If you'd like today's episode, then you're really going to like last week's episode. Where the idea of a money buddy came from with Johnny Bowen.

[00:34:39] So be sure to head to your podcast player or head over to YouTube in search for episode 118 and money talk with Skyther Fleming and give it a listen. But thank you so much for listening, money talk with Skyther Fleming. Have a great week.

[00:34:52] Thank you for listening to money talk with Skyther Fleming. This show is provided for informational and entertainment purposes and may not be specific to your unique situation. Please be sure to do additional research before making any financial decisions.