The Keys to Increasing Your Financial Confidence with Christopher Hensley - 130

[00:00:00] Yeah, so the confidence comes with having a safety net and a cash reserve bucket, right?

[00:00:07] So nobody likes to hear that.

[00:00:09] It's not fun.

[00:00:11] But the idea that everybody should have a savings account with three to six months, they're

[00:00:17] committed living expenses, right?

[00:00:19] So you know, after you sit down and do a budget and figure out what your income, your expenses

[00:00:24] are, it's not a guest number than having three to six times that as a safety net.

[00:00:30] And that does two things.

[00:00:32] Welcome to Money Talk with Skyler Fleming, where money matters become conversation starters.

[00:00:36] Let's get talking.

[00:00:38] Welcome to today's episode of Money Talk with Skyler Fleming.

[00:00:41] In today's episode, we're talking with Chris Hensley about his podcast, talking about

[00:00:45] money, talking about investing, money fears and feeling confident with money in our

[00:00:49] lives.

[00:00:50] He's been hosting the podcast and he's been hosting it for over 10 years.

[00:00:53] And he's also a financial advisor.

[00:00:55] He hosts the podcast called Money Matters, and I was recently a guest on his podcast.

[00:01:00] So if you want to go listen to that episode, I'll leave a link in the show notes.

[00:01:03] But to outline a little bit more of what we're talking about today, should you talk

[00:01:06] about money with friends?

[00:01:07] Should you talk about investing?

[00:01:09] These are great questions to be asking.

[00:01:10] And Chris and I dive into how they can be helpful or they could potentially be

[00:01:14] harmful.

[00:01:15] So you may hear me speak of an example where I don't think it's a good idea

[00:01:19] to talk about money.

[00:01:20] And I love talking about money.

[00:01:21] So make sure you stay tuned for this one.

[00:01:23] But Chris and I also get into why we like podcasting so much.

[00:01:26] And I would even encourage anyone who has some field of interest to start creating

[00:01:29] content around it so that you can use it as a way to talk to people that you want

[00:01:33] to be around.

[00:01:34] Want to be around your favorite authors?

[00:01:35] We'll start talking about the books you're reading and so on.

[00:01:39] Podcasts or other content can be a great way to get around those people that you

[00:01:41] look to for help or that you maybe want to have a conversation with.

[00:01:45] Today's segments are going to include the money talking points, of course, as well

[00:01:48] as a handy hint, a personal finance power up.

[00:01:51] And I'm debuting a new segment called the water cooler.

[00:01:54] So be sure to stick around to the end for today's great episode.

[00:01:57] The money talking points for today's episode are how do you feel confident

[00:02:00] with money and to what are your money fears?

[00:02:03] With the money talking points in mind, let's get right into today's episode.

[00:02:16] Hello, everybody, and welcome to today's interview on Money Talk with

[00:02:19] Skyler Fleming joining me today.

[00:02:21] I have Christopher and I was recently a guest on his podcast.

[00:02:24] And now here we are getting to talk about money on my podcast.

[00:02:27] So Chris, would you go ahead and introduce yourself for everyone?

[00:02:30] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:02:31] So I am Chris Hensley.

[00:02:33] I'm a financial advisor.

[00:02:34] I'm the owner of Houston first financial group with with my financial

[00:02:39] advisor hat on, but I'm also a podcaster.

[00:02:42] And so I've been doing money matters podcast for the last 10 years.

[00:02:45] In fact, this year is our decade anniversary.

[00:02:48] So I kind of wear both of those hats.

[00:02:51] Awesome. 10 years is a long time.

[00:02:53] I've been doing this for about two and a half, and it feels like a while for me.

[00:02:55] So I can't imagine how 10 years feels for you.

[00:02:58] How does it how does it feel to be talking about money for that long?

[00:03:02] Yeah, you know, awesome.

[00:03:05] You know, it's it's been a blast.

[00:03:08] It has changed over the last 10 years.

[00:03:11] Money matters as a show started out as a live radio show here in KPF,

[00:03:17] KPFT here in Houston, which is a volunteer run radio station.

[00:03:22] The podcast was kind of an afterthought because we had this thing

[00:03:26] called an MP3 that just got recorded along with the radio show.

[00:03:30] And somebody said, you know, you need to put that on on Libsyn

[00:03:35] and start going with the podcast.

[00:03:36] And that's when podcasts was new media, you know, and now it's not new.

[00:03:41] We have every day, you know, that a lot of people are doing the podcast now.

[00:03:47] So it's been fantastic.

[00:03:48] It's been an evolution.

[00:03:50] A lot of changes over the last 10 years, but I still enjoy it.

[00:03:54] Still still passionate about it for sure.

[00:03:57] Yeah, there's a lot of people like me that have started one in the last couple of years.

[00:04:00] So it's a fun time though, getting to talk to people on all sorts of different podcasts.

[00:04:04] But cool, let's jump right here into the first question of you've been

[00:04:08] talking about money for so long and how has your view on money

[00:04:12] changed from when you first started 10 years ago or so?

[00:04:16] Yeah, you know, it is it has evolved right along with the show.

[00:04:21] That, you know, the neat idea behind money matters was that we were going to do a show

[00:04:28] that was story based for Houstonians that was conversational.

[00:04:33] That wasn't, you know, it was the idea of opposite of what you see on CNBC,

[00:04:37] the talking heads and the investment shows that tend to shoot over us.

[00:04:40] Right.

[00:04:42] It was, you know, down to earth conversations about financial literacy and money.

[00:04:47] But that that, you know, has evolved and changed kind of as as it's gone.

[00:04:54] I keep this picture here next to my desk if I have clients come in.

[00:04:59] But this is, you know, one of the first interviews I did.

[00:05:02] I want to say in the first, you know, 15 episodes,

[00:05:04] this was with a niece Parker who at the time was the mayor of Houston.

[00:05:09] And, you know, that was a really neat experience for me because I was interviewing

[00:05:15] her about financial literacy month in April, which we're in April right now.

[00:05:20] Right.

[00:05:21] And we had a local initiative called Houston Money Week.

[00:05:24] So I was interviewing her about that.

[00:05:26] And I was also interviewing her about the LIBOR scandal.

[00:05:30] This was where Houston was actually involved with a class action lawsuit

[00:05:34] where we sued the LIBOR bond index, which was kind of crazy.

[00:05:37] But it was a neat story and it was neat to be invited in and talk to her.

[00:05:42] What was a couple of things came out of that one when I sat down with her.

[00:05:48] I don't know if you know much about Houston politics.

[00:05:50] A lot of people from outside of Houston wouldn't know this.

[00:05:52] Anise Parker was one of the first openly gay

[00:05:57] mayors in the country.

[00:06:00] And she was one of she was the second female mayor of Houston of all time.

[00:06:04] Kathy Whitmire was the first one.

[00:06:06] Before the show, when we were talking, I managed a bookstore when I was in college.

[00:06:12] Well, she owned a bookstore before she was before she was mayor

[00:06:16] and we started talking about science fiction, which was crazy.

[00:06:20] This was a point of connection that was outside of the interview.

[00:06:24] And you know, fast forward, she ended up putting me on the list

[00:06:29] to be invited to her home every Christmas.

[00:06:32] She had a press where she would invite all the local press.

[00:06:35] And so that kind of gave me some confidence right at the beginning.

[00:06:39] It gave me some notoriety here locally.

[00:06:42] It built some credibility and that was within the first like 15 episodes.

[00:06:46] But it really kind of gave me that shot in the arm that's like, you know,

[00:06:50] we can get the local people, we can go for the higher profile guest as well

[00:06:54] and trying to get like a good mix of that.

[00:06:57] That was a good, you know, first couple of episodes there to see that.

[00:07:02] Yeah.

[00:07:04] How does that connection and how did those connections help and still

[00:07:07] confidence when you're if you're going for that big name guest?

[00:07:10] And you know, you've had some really meaningful connections already.

[00:07:12] How does that help you when you're talking about money with people?

[00:07:15] Yeah, you know, so with as for my profession as a financial advisor

[00:07:21] over the past 10 years, if you go on and you look at the show,

[00:07:24] you can see, you know, I specialize in retirement planning.

[00:07:28] So you could see some of the major thought leaders in retirement planning.

[00:07:31] Right.

[00:07:32] So it's definitely helped with credibility when I'm wearing my business

[00:07:35] owner hat. But the other side of that is not the high profile guest.

[00:07:40] It's just having people on and having conversations.

[00:07:45] And some of those episodes have been the most interesting to me.

[00:07:48] You never know where they're going to go.

[00:07:51] Everybody's got a story and each one of them is interesting in their own rights.

[00:07:58] And so, you know, that that is something that I always keep open to.

[00:08:04] But then I also think I was maybe it was Tim Ferriss.

[00:08:06] I think it was Tim Ferriss.

[00:08:08] One of the things he suggested was, you know, never being afraid

[00:08:11] to just go to the to somebody and asking them for help.

[00:08:16] Right. And so just kind of getting out of my comfort zone.

[00:08:19] I found a sweet spot where as a podcaster,

[00:08:22] I'm kind of prone to getting authors on the show.

[00:08:26] And so I will look for people who, you know, New York Times bestselling authors

[00:08:30] and I'll look on Audible, maybe something I'm listening to currently.

[00:08:33] I say, you know what? I want to pick their brain.

[00:08:36] I want to get deeper in this book than just the audio book.

[00:08:39] And so there's kind of a sweet spot when they published that book where

[00:08:42] if you approach them, they are encouraged to get out and promote the book.

[00:08:47] And so I was I found myself interviewing people that I would never have thought

[00:08:52] that I that I ever would have interviewed.

[00:08:53] And that's happened repeatedly over the last 10 years.

[00:08:56] And it's just such a neat thing that's rolled out organically

[00:09:00] and just just kind of, you know, as the shows progress.

[00:09:04] Awesome. That's you reignited an idea in my mind of that.

[00:09:07] That's what's so nice about a podcast is you can you can take those people

[00:09:11] that you want to talk to and say, hey, I have a small audience.

[00:09:13] Can I pick your brain for a minute for the value of everyone that's listening?

[00:09:17] But also mainly for me.

[00:09:19] And that's something that's so awesome about podcasting is I've

[00:09:21] I've thought about that too.

[00:09:22] And now I'm going to have to pursue it a little further of reaching out

[00:09:25] to those authors that I enjoy their book.

[00:09:27] And I know that it's been a piece of maybe my financial journey or life in other ways.

[00:09:32] And talking to those people, one, that's kind of cool when you get

[00:09:35] to when you get to sit down and talk to those people that

[00:09:38] you maybe look to for inspiration and stuff like that.

[00:09:40] Like I had, you know, the how to money podcast.

[00:09:44] Oh, yeah, them on my show.

[00:09:46] And my one, and when we started as a guy's, I'm a little starstruck

[00:09:49] because I've been listening to you for like hundreds and hundreds of episodes.

[00:09:52] But it's so cool to take those people that maybe have an influence on your life

[00:09:56] a little bit. And I guess that's a recommendation to start a podcast

[00:09:59] because then you can go talk to some really cool people.

[00:10:02] But absolutely. So Lou.

[00:10:05] So far, our main takeaways are start a podcast so that everyone can jump

[00:10:08] on this awesome train.

[00:10:09] But talk you talked to you talked about money to a lot of people

[00:10:14] over a long period of time.

[00:10:15] How does that help you in your life?

[00:10:17] So maybe just those simple conversations you mentioned.

[00:10:19] Everyone has a story.

[00:10:21] How does talking about money help you directly in your life?

[00:10:24] Yeah, I mean, the podcast is almost like a university,

[00:10:27] like an extension of a university to me

[00:10:30] because as a lifelong learner, always keeping open to what you will learn.

[00:10:36] I've learned so much from the guest over the last 10 years

[00:10:40] when it comes to finances.

[00:10:42] I mean, we've covered everything from personal finance, financial literacy,

[00:10:46] investing.

[00:10:48] You know, we've had a little bit of everything because money is such a broad

[00:10:51] topic that each and every time I've learned to

[00:10:57] to kind of absorb the lessons, right?

[00:11:01] And because it's a neat way to come at it because

[00:11:04] I even have other financial advisors on the show all the time.

[00:11:08] And you know, I've recently I've been doing this podcast tour

[00:11:11] when I where I'm being a guest.

[00:11:12] This is the first time I've done this on show number like 16 now you're 17.

[00:11:16] Seventy and it's neat being on the other side of the

[00:11:21] the microphone, but I've had some financial advisors who are like,

[00:11:24] well, I don't want to have you on the show because you're a financial advisor

[00:11:27] over the last 10 years.

[00:11:28] The way I've looked at it is like no one person is going to speak

[00:11:32] to something the same way, right?

[00:11:37] And so for listeners, it's not about me.

[00:11:39] And it's not even about the guests.

[00:11:41] It's about the listeners.

[00:11:42] For listeners, it's to their benefit to have other financial

[00:11:46] advisors on here because they may hit a topic that I've maybe already gone over

[00:11:51] and they're going to talk about it in a different way.

[00:11:53] And it's going to connect to them.

[00:11:55] So I'm very blue ocean, right?

[00:11:57] So all ships go up with a rising tide.

[00:12:00] And so all of those those those guests that I've had over the years,

[00:12:03] I've absorbed a lot of that information.

[00:12:06] I go out. I still do.

[00:12:08] I've got kind of a side hustle here where where companies, besides doing

[00:12:11] my financial planning, I'll go out and I'll do financial literacy talks

[00:12:15] for companies that do financial literacy as part of their employee

[00:12:19] program, right? As part of their EAP through their health insurance.

[00:12:23] And so they'll hire me and I'll do either webinars or in person talks.

[00:12:27] And a lot of the stories that I weave into those presentations

[00:12:31] have come through stuff that the guests have shared with me over the years

[00:12:34] because it's just that good.

[00:12:36] Like, you know, I've got kind of my, you know, tried and true book of things

[00:12:40] that I use, but I've just, you know, you just pick up these stories as you go.

[00:12:45] And it's so it's so neat to see it that.

[00:12:50] Yeah, stories are awesome to tell.

[00:12:51] And that's one thing that I love to tell like my friends and stuff

[00:12:54] when we get talking about my podcast.

[00:12:55] I'm like, guys, you won't believe this story.

[00:12:57] And I may have mentioned this on your podcast.

[00:12:59] I can't remember. But a few episodes ago, I had someone share that

[00:13:03] they were spending their money in order to make it so that they

[00:13:06] had to honestly tell their mom, they couldn't help

[00:13:09] with the family and things like that. And stories like that one blow my mind.

[00:13:13] But it's so fun to hear.

[00:13:14] And I like what you said that people share things differently

[00:13:17] because like I can think of countless examples

[00:13:21] and not off the top of my head, but there's so many times where

[00:13:24] we're speaking on this, we're talking about credit cards, right?

[00:13:26] I have probably five or six episodes about credit cards,

[00:13:29] but everyone's story is different.

[00:13:30] One guy talks about how he took it into his own hands to work with debt collectors.

[00:13:34] I share about avoiding debt altogether and using credit card awards.

[00:13:37] Some people talk about maximizing credit card awards.

[00:13:40] There's just so many different ways to do it that when you hear all those stories,

[00:13:44] it's it's fun. One for for you and I, I'm sure is the host

[00:13:47] to be able to hear all those stories.

[00:13:48] But hopefully the guests are able to take away that one thing

[00:13:51] like you said that impacts them.

[00:13:53] I think that's fantastic. I really liked that.

[00:13:56] Oh yeah, for sure. For sure.

[00:13:57] I mean, in credit card debt is that's one that everybody doesn't matter who

[00:14:01] who they are at some point.

[00:14:02] They've seen it. It's reared its head.

[00:14:04] They've either been a really good steward and they weren't, you know,

[00:14:07] I don't like debt at all or more like more than likely they've had debt

[00:14:11] and they've had to deal with it and they've either knocked it out

[00:14:14] or it's in a continuing thing.

[00:14:15] So getting people comfortable to asking for the help

[00:14:18] and something that they might hear on your show could point them down

[00:14:22] the right path.

[00:14:25] Yeah, I love it.

[00:14:26] So it's so awesome because as you're talking with friends,

[00:14:28] everyone has a different view.

[00:14:29] Like you said, everyone's at least thought about credit card debt.

[00:14:32] Maybe you've been fortunate enough to avoid it, but you've thought about how

[00:14:35] to avoid it. That's for sure.

[00:14:36] So that's why it's so fun to have different topic conversations

[00:14:39] with all sorts of different people.

[00:14:41] But I want to maybe move into a little bit about fears around money

[00:14:45] and maybe this will be an opportunity to learn more about you

[00:14:48] or we can either head in the direction of how you overcome fears.

[00:14:51] But I'd like to start in the direction of someone

[00:14:54] you've talked about money a lot on your podcast.

[00:14:56] You've probably seen a lot of maybe stories to avoid situations to avoid.

[00:15:01] What fears do you have with money

[00:15:03] since you've heard so many different stories?

[00:15:06] Yeah, you know, over the line.

[00:15:08] So I'm 50.

[00:15:09] I'm turning 50 on April 20th today.

[00:15:11] So and, you know, I've been doing financial planning for 20 years.

[00:15:15] I was in banking prior to that.

[00:15:17] I was I was part of a nonprofit here called

[00:15:20] Money Management International, which is Consumer Credit Counselors Southwest.

[00:15:24] That's what they used to do.

[00:15:24] So I've been involved with budgeting and credit cards and a little bit of everything.

[00:15:29] Right. So, you know, I personally kind of seen it all.

[00:15:34] I mean, and even experienced it as I was growing my business

[00:15:37] and putting in sweat equity.

[00:15:39] I had to Uber at the beginning.

[00:15:41] You know, I don't necessarily always share that, but that was part of being

[00:15:44] you know, going from a salaried employee to an entrepreneur.

[00:15:49] And so, you know, you do all of those things to get on track.

[00:15:54] The stuff that we share with clients now that I've experienced a lot of that

[00:15:59] stuff firsthand.

[00:16:00] So it does help to be able to connect personally when you when you talk

[00:16:04] about that with somebody.

[00:16:06] But they're all of those fears you want to be an optimist, right?

[00:16:10] And I'm kind of a core optimist.

[00:16:12] But when it comes to money, a lot of times, you know, you plan for

[00:16:17] hope for the best, but plan for the worst, right?

[00:16:20] I deal with a lot of retirees.

[00:16:22] I would say the biggest fear that I see in that market with that age group

[00:16:27] is going to be running out of money, right?

[00:16:30] And so that that's a very real thing.

[00:16:32] You know, if you don't do good planning, if you don't understand

[00:16:36] with what's going on with social security, if you haven't saved enough,

[00:16:41] you may even still bring some of the credit card debt that we just

[00:16:43] talked about.

[00:16:44] You may even still have student loans out there or you may have signed

[00:16:48] for a student loan for a child and then the child didn't go to school

[00:16:52] and you're stuck with with student loans and you're, you know, in 50, 60s, right?

[00:16:57] So all kinds of things like that.

[00:16:59] Those fears can be be real.

[00:17:02] I think that's why, you know, having a good financial plan, whether

[00:17:06] it's meeting with a professional or doing it on your own, right?

[00:17:11] And those are my favorite people are people that are educated

[00:17:16] when it comes to their finances.

[00:17:18] And that doesn't necessarily mean a degree, right?

[00:17:20] Sometimes educated in finances means school of hard knocks, but those can be

[00:17:25] some of the most difficult lessons to learn.

[00:17:29] So any of those that I've learned along the way, I try to share those

[00:17:33] with other people so they don't make those those same mistakes, right?

[00:17:38] Yeah, I mean, that makes sense.

[00:17:39] And I want to maybe let's talk a little bit in a minute about fears

[00:17:43] of young adults and such, too.

[00:17:45] But I wanted to take us in that direction and a couple of things

[00:17:49] that come to my mind and I'd be interested to hear what you think is

[00:17:52] student loans is one that sounds like it's both sides of the aisle.

[00:17:55] It's the older people who have one that's outstanding or signed a parent

[00:17:59] plus loan or something like that.

[00:18:00] But then young adults have that worry of, well, I ever be able to pay it off.

[00:18:03] Do I need to pay it off?

[00:18:04] Is it going to be forgiven?

[00:18:05] Like that's a whole lot of stress around just that.

[00:18:08] And then things are so expensive that how do you actually pay for stuff?

[00:18:12] Well, I ever get a home, things like that.

[00:18:14] What are some things that you think the younger side of the coin

[00:18:17] have to be fearful or a little worried about with money?

[00:18:20] Yeah, you know, both of the things you just mentioned, home ownership, right?

[00:18:24] I'm always I will start with that one.

[00:18:26] I'm a big advocate of, you know, buying a home as soon as you possibly can.

[00:18:32] It's one of the there's very few things that I can say are great investments.

[00:18:37] And it's a broad recommendation that I can make that is good for generally

[00:18:42] everybody, right?

[00:18:43] Owning a home is good because you end up building equity, right?

[00:18:47] And you can write off the interest because when you get a 30 year mortgage,

[00:18:51] the interest right at the beginning is going to be stacked.

[00:18:54] You're going to have a lot of interest and eventually gets down to, you know,

[00:18:57] a little bit of principal left, right?

[00:18:58] As you get closer to paying it, most of that you can write off your taxes.

[00:19:02] So it's a good tax shelter as you start getting higher income.

[00:19:06] If you're not paying your own mortgage, you're you're renting.

[00:19:09] If you're renting, you're paying somebody else's mortgage,

[00:19:11] whether it's the landlord or a commercial real estate company or something like that.

[00:19:16] So it's, you know, I'm a big advocate for home ownership.

[00:19:20] But from a young person, you would be, you know, the idea of how much

[00:19:25] how expensive things are, right?

[00:19:27] They've always been expensive, though.

[00:19:29] So so the idea of inflation, you know, when I bought my first condo

[00:19:34] when me and my wife got married, we had like a 7 percent interest rate

[00:19:39] back then that was good.

[00:19:41] And now, you know, prior, you know, two years ago,

[00:19:44] we've seen rates as low, historically low, right?

[00:19:47] Where people were getting like 2.5 and 3 percent interest rates.

[00:19:50] And now they're kind of, you know, in a different area again.

[00:19:54] But I, you know, I would say that's that's kind of part of it.

[00:19:57] And as that property grows, you get appreciation in it.

[00:20:01] So I would say, you know, that it's a great goal to have as a younger person.

[00:20:06] You do have conflicting things that are pulling at your goals, though.

[00:20:10] The other one that you mentioned was was college loans, right?

[00:20:14] Or student loans.

[00:20:17] That's a that's a tricky one.

[00:20:19] This is a moving target for sure, because when I was younger,

[00:20:24] you know, you would try to, you know, try not to get.

[00:20:28] You don't want to go into debt.

[00:20:30] But the thinking was that a student loan was an investment in yourself.

[00:20:34] Typically people who have degrees are going to have higher income

[00:20:38] than people that don't.

[00:20:39] I have seen recent.

[00:20:43] There's kind of a trend with some colleges moving towards lower tuition

[00:20:47] or even the idea that maybe no tuition.

[00:20:49] There's been some of these colleges that have kind of rolled that out

[00:20:52] or test bubble that that would be awesome. Right?

[00:20:55] I'd love that.

[00:20:56] I'd love the idea of anybody who wants, who raises their hand

[00:21:00] and says, I'd like to get educated and go get a degree.

[00:21:04] Couldn't be set, you know, the barrier that is finances, right?

[00:21:08] The cost of tuition bars people from going down that road sometimes.

[00:21:14] On the other hand, you know, if you don't pay your student loans back

[00:21:19] and this is my credit counselor in the back of my head telling me this,

[00:21:23] it is one of the few things that they could garnish wages for.

[00:21:26] So if you if you get somebody who falls into bad financial times

[00:21:31] and they think, hey, I'm not going to pay my student loans,

[00:21:34] they don't go away. Right?

[00:21:35] These are things that they can actually garnish your wages.

[00:21:38] They could get it right out of the bank account.

[00:21:41] They can contact the HR person at your employer and connect to the payroll.

[00:21:45] So so, you know, you definitely if you get student loans,

[00:21:49] you want to make sure you're paying them back.

[00:21:51] And when I'm dealing with people that are a little bit older,

[00:21:54] I tend to remind them that if the

[00:21:58] student decides to go to Europe and race motorcycles instead

[00:22:01] of completing the degree, if you sign a plus loan,

[00:22:05] you're on the hook for that.

[00:22:06] So make sure it's also an opportunity if you're getting out into the work

[00:22:12] world and you're trying to build your credit and you don't, you know,

[00:22:16] the idea of your parents signing off on it just to get a little bit

[00:22:19] of a better interest rate.

[00:22:20] Maybe this is when you start building that that history,

[00:22:23] that credit history of paying back your student loan consistently.

[00:22:27] And that's kind of the beginning of getting out in the world

[00:22:29] and establishing your credit for a young person.

[00:22:32] So a couple of different ways to look at that.

[00:22:34] Yeah. And I think the thing is if you're intentional about them,

[00:22:37] they don't have to be such big fears in your life.

[00:22:39] One thing that I took away from that is that your ultimate fear

[00:22:42] should be owing like being overdue to the government because that's

[00:22:47] that's a real problem.

[00:22:48] Like the IRS, stay away.

[00:22:49] That's a big fear.

[00:22:50] Stay away from owing the IRS money.

[00:22:52] So but even a student loans too, like if they're federal student loans,

[00:22:56] you don't want to get super behind on those because the government's

[00:22:58] the people with the power to do what they want.

[00:23:00] So right, there's not they can change the contract or something like that.

[00:23:03] I don't know. But right.

[00:23:05] Very few people can actually go into your bank account and get them or garnish

[00:23:09] them or put a freeze on them.

[00:23:11] Taxes and student loans and alimony even.

[00:23:14] So if you get divorced and you commit something in writing,

[00:23:18] you don't do it.

[00:23:18] Those are the three things you can't just like act like they're not there.

[00:23:22] They will come after you.

[00:23:23] So yeah, there we go.

[00:23:24] Avoid owing the government money or government sort of stuff and things

[00:23:28] like that. That's that's a no go. Awesome.

[00:23:31] So now we talked a little bit about fears and being a little bit worried

[00:23:34] with our money. We're not sure if it's going to make us through retirement.

[00:23:37] We're not sure if we're going to be able to afford life.

[00:23:38] I liked what you said about it's going to be expensive no matter what when you're young.

[00:23:42] So I wrote down don't overhype inflation.

[00:23:44] Like don't blame everything on it.

[00:23:46] Things are going to be expensive and that's OK.

[00:23:48] But how do you feel confident with money?

[00:23:50] How do you turn those fears into?

[00:23:52] Yeah, it's going to be OK.

[00:23:53] I'm going to buy a house eventually maybe not right now.

[00:23:55] But how do you feel confident in the stage you're at?

[00:23:58] Yeah, so the confidence comes with having a safety net and a cash reserve bucket.

[00:24:04] Right. So nobody likes to hear that.

[00:24:07] It's not fun.

[00:24:09] But the idea that everybody should have a savings account

[00:24:13] with three to six months, they're committed living expenses.

[00:24:17] Right. So, you know, after you sit down and do a budget

[00:24:21] and figure out what your income, your expenses are, it's not a guess

[00:24:24] number than having three to six times that as a safety net.

[00:24:28] And that does two things that it one, it gives you that confidence

[00:24:32] that if somebody gets sick, the car breaks down, something's going on with the house.

[00:24:37] Right. We have a place that we can dip into without

[00:24:41] messing us up on our finances. Right. Yeah.

[00:24:44] It's also the other side of that that, you know, people see people

[00:24:48] who are wealthy, who put money into the stock market.

[00:24:51] And, you know, they don't just do that willy-nilly. Right.

[00:24:54] I mean, some people are crazy and they just risk off.

[00:24:57] This would be the person to walk into a casino and just put everything on red.

[00:24:59] Right. But short of that person, a lot of times people who invest,

[00:25:04] they do so with the confidence that they've already got that savings part checked off.

[00:25:09] Right. So once you have those, the fundamentals down of savings,

[00:25:13] then you can jump out and you might be able to weight out

[00:25:18] correction in the market or a downturn in the market because you've got this other,

[00:25:22] what I call the safety net or a cushion.

[00:25:24] Or that's the confidence that you have with,

[00:25:28] you know, going out in the investing or going out and even spending without

[00:25:33] having that that guilt that you're Robin Peter to pay Paul.

[00:25:37] You know, being able to go to the movies or to a concert or something like that

[00:25:42] and spending without having that sense of guilt because you know,

[00:25:45] you have that bucket of money sitting there.

[00:25:48] Awesome. Have a safety net. I love that.

[00:25:50] And that reminded me of a quick story.

[00:25:52] I was interviewing one of my friends on my podcast and he talked about how

[00:25:56] they got a flat tire and that safety net was right there for him.

[00:26:00] And then a week later, my wife and I got a flat tire and I blamed him

[00:26:03] because he jinxed it, but that safety net was right there for us.

[00:26:06] And we ended up saying, oh, the tires are the tread's not great.

[00:26:10] Let's just instead of replacing one or two, let's just let's do all four.

[00:26:13] And that didn't derail anything because we had that little car repair

[00:26:17] fund there and now we can spend the next six to eight months slowly rebuilding

[00:26:21] that because we'll be OK during that time.

[00:26:22] And that's what's so fun about having that safety net, like you said.

[00:26:26] I love it. I love it.

[00:26:28] Awesome. Let's jump to talking about investing.

[00:26:31] You said it's a crazy person to go and just throw it all in there

[00:26:34] and do whatever and not have a plan.

[00:26:36] But for me at my age, I'm 25 and my friends and I will

[00:26:40] all get a text from and say, hey, bitcoins up.

[00:26:42] And I'm like, well, guys, calm down from my experience hearing so many

[00:26:46] other people's stories.

[00:26:47] But is talking about investing with friends actually helpful or does it just lead us

[00:26:52] to that phoma mentality? Is it actually good?

[00:26:54] Should we be talking about investing?

[00:26:57] So that I'll take it two different ways here.

[00:26:59] One is should people generally be talking about investments with their

[00:27:02] friends, family members? Yes, I support that. Do that.

[00:27:06] The other one is, should I be talking about it?

[00:27:08] That's with friends and family.

[00:27:10] And some a lot of times I try to avoid that because being a financial advisor,

[00:27:16] you have to be very careful about making general recommendations.

[00:27:20] And so I'm always somebody I always insist that that if I'm

[00:27:24] if I'm taking on a client or if I'm talking about investments,

[00:27:27] that I do a full financial plan first.

[00:27:30] There are so many people when it comes to investing.

[00:27:34] You know, this is what you're trying to avoid sounding like

[00:27:37] you're making general investment recommendations and somebody saying,

[00:27:41] Chris said I should do this, that or the other.

[00:27:44] And then they come back and sue.

[00:27:45] But that's not just me.

[00:27:46] I'm in one of the most litigious regulated industries out there.

[00:27:51] So there's very specific rules about what we can talk about about investing.

[00:27:55] But generally, I strongly encourage people to get out there

[00:28:01] and learn about investing.

[00:28:04] I never let anybody off of the hook, whether it's somebody who's 25 or

[00:28:09] somebody that's 65.

[00:28:11] In fact, I'm an active manager, so this is not just a buy and hold approach.

[00:28:15] And I can talk a little bit about the difference between that.

[00:28:19] But but with that type of investment management,

[00:28:23] I appreciate people who are intelligent enough to understand what I'm doing.

[00:28:28] So so when so when I so I always encourage people even late in life,

[00:28:32] I don't let people off the hook.

[00:28:33] You need to know what asset allocation is, you know, modern portfolio theory

[00:28:37] of buy and hold, all of the stuff that we learn about investing is true.

[00:28:43] It works, you know, but as an active manager, as people get closer to retirement,

[00:28:49] there's more of a risk of them getting drawn down in a market

[00:28:54] and then retiring and then having to kind of either reset or pushing

[00:28:57] their retirement date off.

[00:28:58] And so it's a different active management or total returns.

[00:29:01] So what I use absolute return, this is another word for the same thing.

[00:29:07] That's a different approach.

[00:29:08] And that and I don't that I would encourage people to seek help, right?

[00:29:11] When they get to that point because it can that part of it can get complicated.

[00:29:16] There are things that are ancillary to just the investment piece,

[00:29:19] social security, Medicare, so much stuff that you can make mistakes on.

[00:29:25] But as a young person, you mentioned Bitcoin.

[00:29:28] So there's another example as a financial advisor.

[00:29:32] I think it's getting better now, but basically what the industry said,

[00:29:35] we can't really give any advice on Bitcoin.

[00:29:38] That's where they were a couple of years ago.

[00:29:40] Now, they've actually gotten some of the Bitcoin.

[00:29:45] There are ETFs, even BlackRock's got one out now.

[00:29:47] So you're seeing some what we consider legitimate fund families

[00:29:51] bring Bitcoin into into the mix, right?

[00:29:55] So where this ends up down the road,

[00:29:58] where we're a little bit more freer to speak about it, that might change up.

[00:30:02] But right now it's one of those things like, yeah, I can't touch that.

[00:30:07] Cannabis stocks were another one.

[00:30:09] That my industry, they'll pick certain things and they'll say, OK,

[00:30:12] this we're not even going to touch with its in football.

[00:30:15] And so you just have to kind of like, all right.

[00:30:18] Do it on your own.

[00:30:19] But yeah, which is which is kind of unfortunate.

[00:30:22] But I also like the mindset, I guess, when you're talking to your friends

[00:30:25] about the financial advisor mindset, if I can't give you a generalized

[00:30:28] recommendation because there's so much specific to it.

[00:30:31] Now we can talk about, hey, I like to do invest in the S&P 500.

[00:30:36] But maybe that's not what's best for you.

[00:30:39] Maybe you need something a little calmer.

[00:30:41] I don't know.

[00:30:42] But I like the approach of we can't give specific advice.

[00:30:45] And even that should probably extend to our friend circles

[00:30:48] because they're still risk and telling your friends to say,

[00:30:51] hey, go put all your money in Facebook or some new startup.

[00:30:54] And then it goes to zero.

[00:30:55] Then you're no longer friends.

[00:30:56] So we put 100 percent on general.

[00:30:59] But even then maybe avoid that a little bit and realize that,

[00:31:02] hey, there's got to be a little bit more education.

[00:31:03] But let's go ahead and wrap up here.

[00:31:06] This has been a fantastic conversation.

[00:31:08] And there was a couple of things we missed.

[00:31:10] So maybe a future episode is in the horizon.

[00:31:12] But I enjoyed this conversation today, Chris.

[00:31:14] Thank you so much for joining.

[00:31:16] Is there anything you'd like to add or where can people find you or your podcast?

[00:31:20] Yeah. So for people who want to find out more,

[00:31:23] I would send them to the podcast, which is www.moneymatterspodcast.com.

[00:31:29] I'm actually after 10 years, we started the YouTube channel about two years ago.

[00:31:34] And it was just we were just posting videos up there.

[00:31:36] And I'm realizing, wait, that's not the right way to do.

[00:31:39] We're having to go back and like actually start, you know,

[00:31:42] building the YouTube site with algorithms and everything.

[00:31:45] So I encourage people to actually go to the YouTube website

[00:31:47] and watch them that way as well.

[00:31:49] Subscribe on there.

[00:31:51] And yeah, that's where I would send them, I think.

[00:31:55] Awesome. Of course, there will be links in the show.

[00:31:56] Now, if that's the awesome thing about podcasts.

[00:31:58] So Chris, thank you so much for joining this has been a real fun conversation.

[00:32:01] I love it. Skylar, have a good rest of the evening there.

[00:32:14] There was a lot of great things that can leave a good amount of impact

[00:32:17] on you from today's episode.

[00:32:18] But a big thanks again to Chris for having me on his show and for coming on mine.

[00:32:23] One thing that I think would be very important to take away

[00:32:25] from the interview is to be involved with your money.

[00:32:28] Make sure you're talking about it.

[00:32:29] Make sure you're aware of what's happening with it.

[00:32:31] Make sure you're listening to multiple different people for different perspectives.

[00:32:34] Don't get stuck in one tunnel or one silo and only listening to one perspective.

[00:32:38] Podcasts are a great resource to both listen to and to have

[00:32:42] so that you get to talk to great people and have fun conversations.

[00:32:45] But education overall helps us overcome our fears.

[00:32:48] This is something that I think can be very impactful.

[00:32:51] If you're worried about your finances because you don't quite know

[00:32:54] how to get out of debt, well, that can be a great place of education.

[00:32:57] If you're worried about your finances because you don't know

[00:33:00] how you're going to handle student loans, there's another place to get educated.

[00:33:03] Education helps us overcome our fears.

[00:33:06] One other thing that I took away that's impactful for me is to not

[00:33:09] give specific advice when I talk to people.

[00:33:11] Instead, talk about ideas and lessons, especially specific investing advice.

[00:33:15] It isn't good to receive or to give.

[00:33:17] It just leaves you feeling confused.

[00:33:19] And then if something goes wrong, then you feel a lot of anger or confusion

[00:33:23] or you could be upset at your friends or it can ruin relationships.

[00:33:26] If you give specific investing advice and then it goes the wrong way.

[00:33:29] So make sure you're speaking about general investing tips, lessons, stories you have.

[00:33:33] But also another thing that's impactful is the importance of an emergency fund

[00:33:36] when it comes to feeling confident around your money.

[00:33:39] If you're feeling worried about losing your job,

[00:33:42] it's probably because you don't have a decent emergency

[00:33:44] fund in place to help cushion that blow if you were to lose your job.

[00:33:47] So make sure you have that safety net in place

[00:33:49] when it comes to feeling confident because it's really going to help you out.

[00:33:52] But that leads right into the money talking points,

[00:33:54] which we're going to talk about next.

[00:34:05] So the first money talking point, how do you feel confident with money?

[00:34:09] Well, like I said, an emergency fund is a huge part.

[00:34:11] But how do I feel confident with money?

[00:34:13] Well, it's regular money talks with my wife.

[00:34:15] That's how I feel confident in what we're doing with our money.

[00:34:18] Our spreadsheet helps me feel confident because then I can look to it

[00:34:21] and know that we're on track when we're staying within the budget that we've set.

[00:34:24] And again, regular money talks help us feel and know that we're on the same page.

[00:34:29] That's a huge deal.

[00:34:30] A lot of couples don't feel like they're on the same page financially.

[00:34:32] So if you're able to get to that point,

[00:34:34] that's when you can really take things to the next level

[00:34:36] and start having fun with your money

[00:34:38] and feel ultimately very confident with your money.

[00:34:40] But the second money talking point is what are your money fears?

[00:34:43] One of my money fears is that we're going to wait too long

[00:34:46] to start saving for retirement

[00:34:47] and that we won't be able to get enough saved for retirement.

[00:34:50] I know this seems kind of silly considering that I'm very young

[00:34:54] in the grand scheme of things and in the investing scheme of things.

[00:34:57] But we're waiting while Rebecca is in school

[00:34:59] and those little bits of time that took past worry me

[00:35:02] that we're going to wait just too long to get started

[00:35:04] and then it's not going to work out for us.

[00:35:06] But gratefully, I know we can do just a little bit

[00:35:09] and I feel much better knowing that we're still investing

[00:35:12] a little bit while Rebecca is in school,

[00:35:14] which I think is something that helps you overcome those money fears.

[00:35:17] If you are in a place where that fear is real

[00:35:19] or you are worried about your financial situation,

[00:35:21] see what little thing you can do to help calm that fear.

[00:35:24] For us, it's making sure we're still investing

[00:35:26] a little bit of money that we can right now

[00:35:28] while we're waiting to get through PA school

[00:35:30] and then start paying down the student loans.

[00:35:32] And then we can really, really get going on investing.

[00:35:35] So that was the money talking points.

[00:35:36] Next, I want to share a quick handy hint.

[00:35:48] Today's handy hint is all going to be around specific advice.

[00:35:51] And the handy hint is really that specific advice isn't good to give

[00:35:55] or to receive.

[00:35:56] It doesn't feel good when you're getting bombarded by text from people

[00:35:59] saying, invest in this, do this with your money.

[00:36:01] You need to do this specific thing.

[00:36:02] And why is that?

[00:36:03] It's because we don't understand

[00:36:05] everyone's specific and unique situation.

[00:36:07] If you've been listening to this podcast for any amount of time,

[00:36:10] you've heard multiple times that everyone's story is different.

[00:36:13] You've probably never heard the same story from two guests.

[00:36:17] And that means the specific advice we're giving out

[00:36:19] isn't really going to be helpful

[00:36:20] because everyone's situation is different

[00:36:22] and people don't really want specific advice.

[00:36:24] They want to have general conversations about stories

[00:36:27] or what you've learned is helpful.

[00:36:28] General advice and pointing people in the right direction

[00:36:31] can be most useful.

[00:36:32] And that's today's handy hint.

[00:36:33] Next, let's power up your personal finances.

[00:36:46] Welcome to the personal finance power up.

[00:36:48] And I want to talk about the power up that is a safety net.

[00:36:51] So let's power up your confidence in your money with having a safety net.

[00:36:54] It's how you stay on track.

[00:36:56] That safety net, like I said earlier,

[00:36:58] can be the key towards feeling unsure about your job

[00:37:01] and feeling OK, even though you maybe could lose your job.

[00:37:04] You know, you have a safety net in the background

[00:37:06] that's going to help you weather the storm of changing jobs,

[00:37:09] looking for a new job.

[00:37:10] You know, you don't need to find one right away.

[00:37:12] So you can take a little bit of time to find the job that you want.

[00:37:15] A thing that I took as a note from my conversation with Chris

[00:37:18] is don't get ahead of the fundamentals.

[00:37:19] They're there for a reason and you have to do them.

[00:37:22] And if you don't do them, you're going to end up racing ahead of them.

[00:37:24] Something is going to happen

[00:37:25] and you're going to get kicked right back down to the fundamentals.

[00:37:28] So if you make sure they're in place,

[00:37:29] you got a whole lot less distance to fall.

[00:37:32] And it's going to be a whole lot easier for you to get back up on your feet.

[00:37:35] So power up your confidence with the safety net.

[00:37:37] Let's debut the new segment called the water cooler next.

[00:37:50] Welcome to the water cooler.

[00:37:51] This is a chance for me to be able to talk about kind of whatever I want.

[00:37:54] So this is my little opportunity to share some of the thoughts

[00:37:57] I have in my mind, whether they're money or not.

[00:37:59] Today, I'm going to be talking about podcasts

[00:38:01] and I want to share a little bit of the excitement that comes from

[00:38:04] creating your own podcast or having something where you create what you want

[00:38:08] and you get to talk to people that you want to be around.

[00:38:10] I shared in the interview that I got to talk to Matt and Joel from How to Money,

[00:38:14] or I've been on Stacking Benjamin's podcast before,

[00:38:16] or I get to talk to guests like Chris or my recent guests.

[00:38:19] It's been so fun having conversations with people who are like minded,

[00:38:23] people who share same interests and even some of the people that I've had on

[00:38:26] have completely different views on money.

[00:38:28] And that's so fun to hear and talk about with my wife

[00:38:30] and share those ideas with my friends and family.

[00:38:33] So I really consider it.

[00:38:34] Start your own podcast, start your own YouTube channel, start your own blog,

[00:38:38] whatever you want to do, find a topic or a craft or something you enjoy

[00:38:41] and create some content around it's going to help you get involved in that sphere.

[00:38:46] And another thing I want to talk about a little bit is potentially changing

[00:38:49] up my online presence.

[00:38:50] If you follow this podcast on social media, you'll know I post regular reels or shorts.

[00:38:55] And I'm considering going away from that.

[00:38:57] I'm considering a little bit less social media and maybe more content

[00:39:01] directly on my website.

[00:39:02] Let me know what you think.

[00:39:03] Is that something you'd be a part of?

[00:39:05] My thought is that I don't really like using social media a whole lot

[00:39:08] in my personal life.

[00:39:10] So why am I creating content that's driving people towards something

[00:39:13] that I don't use myself?

[00:39:14] So I'm thinking of being more intentional with an email list or potentially

[00:39:17] a newsletter. Let me know what you think.

[00:39:19] How would you like to stay connected with the podcast?

[00:39:21] I'd really appreciate any feedback that anyone has on this topic.

[00:39:25] But let's wrap up today's episode next.

[00:39:37] Thank you again to Chris for coming on today's episode.

[00:39:39] I hope that you were able to take something away from today's episode.

[00:39:42] I know that I did.

[00:39:43] There are also some great episodes coming up, so make sure you're subscribed

[00:39:46] and share with a friend so you can have more and more money talks.

[00:39:49] But again, I appreciate everything that was said in today's interview.

[00:39:53] There were some great tips shared about how to be confident with your money,

[00:39:56] how to not be fearful and the awesomeness of starting a podcast

[00:39:59] and getting to talk to people that you really want to.

[00:40:02] So make sure you're listening to other people's stories,

[00:40:04] having great conversations and great money talks

[00:40:06] so that you can feel confident with your money in your life.

[00:40:09] But thank you so much for listening.

[00:40:11] And if you have anyone you know or you want to come on the podcast

[00:40:14] to share a financial story, let me know.

[00:40:16] Thank you so much for listening to Money Talk with Skyler Fleming.

[00:40:19] I'm your host, Skyler Fleming.

[00:40:20] Have a great week.

[00:40:21] Thank you for listening to Money Talk with Skyler Fleming.

[00:40:24] This show is provided for informational and entertainment purposes

[00:40:27] and may not be specific to your unique situation.

[00:40:30] Please be sure to do additional research before making any financial decisions.