Welcome to Money Talk - 177

[00:00:00] Welcome Money Buddies to this week's episode of Money Talk. This week we're talking about an exciting announcement, the importance of Money Talks and how to start a great Money Talk. I'm your host Skyler Fleming and let's get talking.

[00:00:23] Welcome to the new and improved Money Talk. Now time for the big announcements. I've changed the name and redone the entire website. Also, it's now just simply moneytalk.show. No more long, hard to remember URL. Just simply type in moneytalk.show and you're there. The brand new website looks amazing. And let me know what you think by clicking on it in the show notes. You'll also notice in the show notes is a link to text me directly. That's also a brand new feature that I'm announcing today.

[00:00:46] So you can now send me text directly from the show notes. So head over there, click on the link to send me a text and then let me know what changes you like about the new brand and the new updates. I'm super excited for these changes and I think aligning this brand in this way is going to prove to be very helpful for the growth of the show and the future of Money Talk. We do have some moneytalking points for this week that I'm going to talk about here shortly, but I want to use this announcement episode as one that you can share with people to help them learn about Money Talk.

[00:01:11] So let's talk a little bit about the show itself. So you know exactly what this show is all about. What is Money Talk? Well, Money Talk was born out of my time working at a credit union call center. I found myself helping people with their financial situations and the majority of the time the resolution was found through a simple and easy money talk. So once I moved on from that job, I realized I wanted to stay in the personal finance space. So I started this podcast. Now I've been going strong since September of 2021. Wow. It's been a long time.

[00:01:40] But in that time, I've talked to hundreds of great guests, been on countless podcasts as a guest and had many great money talks to help you and everyone else listening begin to learn how to improve their personal finances. But after all these years, Money Talk is a weekly podcast, newsletter and website for young adults to begin to learn how to get started talking about money. It's something that impacts every single area of our lives. So we all have to be talking about it.

[00:02:02] If we're not talking about it, we're missing out on so much from the opportunity cost of investing when you're young to learning how to manage debt as you navigate college and your first job. Those two topics are just a small sample of what I love to talk about here on the podcast, which, of course, is money and how you can make sure you're handling it best and with the most confidence possible. I love to take any questions that you might have and help you navigate your financial situations. Here at Money Talk, we're called money buddies. Think of it like a gym buddy, but for your money.

[00:02:31] Everyone in this community is here to help you stay accountable and do better with your money. After all, let's talk about money so that we can all do better with money together. I hope that helps you understand just what Money Talk is all about. Be sure to head over to the show notes and send me a text to let me know what you think of the new name. Everyone who sends me a text from this first episode within the next week will be entered into a drawing to win a $10 gift card. I'll announce the winner on the next episode. And speaking of upcoming episodes, I have a segment that I want to introduce to you and talk to you a little bit more about the upcoming schedule for Money Talk.

[00:02:59] Welcome to Skylar's Storytime. This is a segment that will appear on and off, but I'd love to use my podcast as a way to share my own financial stories with all of you so that you can see how my wife and I are handling money and how we're making it work for us. But the storytime that I have today is about an upcoming exam that I'm taking. I'm taking the CFP exam to become a certified financial planner on July 15th. So wish me luck with that.

[00:03:22] But you can still expect a show every single week because this show has proved to be a very useful tool in helping me study for the exam. So I'm excited to continue to bring you all more financial knowledge. And I'm very, very excited for the CFP exam. And I think it's going to be a great opportunity for me. And it's going to help me fine tune my financial knowledge and help me continue to bring all of you more great financial insights. So I do have even more for you in today's episode, which has already been jam-packed with announcements and updates.

[00:03:51] But let's get to some money talking points so we can finish out with a more standard episode that you've all come to love at this point. The first money talking point is how do we benefit from talking about money? Well, you've heard this on multiple episodes at this point. It's something I love to emphasize. We learn so much from each other. I learn so much from every single guest. And there's been changes that I have implemented in my financial life because of the guests that we've had on. Here are a few examples.

[00:04:16] Paul Merriman, back on episode 113, helped me change up our taxable investing account allocation to include more small cap value. That's a great episode to go check out. Dana Miranda has been on episodes 107 and on episode 156. And she helped me realize that we don't have to be so strict with budgeting and avoid giving that blanket one-size-fits-all advice. It's really helped me relax a little bit more with the budget, not feel so restricted by my own doing and making it think that the budget is the only thing I have to live on.

[00:04:46] But those are another two great episodes that are great examples of why it's important to talk about money. Because any conversation, you don't know which one you're going to have, could completely change how you do your finances. One more example is Matt and Jana from the Coast Fight Couple on episode 159. They completely changed the way my wife and I are looking at financial independence. We went from just messing around with these big fine numbers and maybe floating the idea of Coastify to actually implementing it. We figured out a plan and it really helped change our mindset around financial independence.

[00:05:15] It completely changed it all for us, which is fantastic. And another great example of how having these money talks can be so beneficial for your life and your financial life and your financial future. There are so many great instances on my podcast that you can go back and listen to where me and a guest have been able to have a money talk and explore new ideas and bring new tips and tricks to the forefront for every single one of the listeners. So go back to my over 177 episodes at this point and check out those great interviews, conversations, and money talking tips.

[00:05:43] What have you learned from so many episodes? I've definitely learned when we all talk about money, we begin to unlock and understand other viewpoints. And that is super helpful and a real benefit of talking about money. We can challenge our ideas and our preconceived notions around money and we don't have to keep doing it the same way forever and ever and ever. We can challenge it, change it up, and do something different. But we're never going to be able to do something different if we don't talk about money together. So that's the first money talking point about how we benefit from talking about money.

[00:06:12] The second one here is what do we lose out on if we don't talk about personal finances? Well, we lose out on so much opportunity, especially speaking to the young adults in my audience. If you don't talk about money when you're young, you're going to find yourself in very tricky financial situations in the next 5 or 10 years because things get so much more complicated. You may find yourself buying a house that you don't really need because you just think, oh, that's what you have to do and you don't really understand the cost. But if you talk to someone about that, then you can get ahead of it and not have to worry about it so much.

[00:06:42] You also might buy a car when you don't need one and maybe an e-bike or something is a good option for you to save a ton of money. Or maybe the car you already have from high school still works, but talking about it can get you to look into some ways to save some money on travel and expense and things like that. You can also begin to find yourself spending money on stuff that you don't need for some random reason. Who knows why most people buy the stuff they buy. Most of it is unnecessary.

[00:07:05] But if you're not talking about money and beginning to understand where your expenses are going and how you can save money and how money is beneficial for you in the long run, you can just spend it because you don't really have any other goal in mind. And of course, the biggest opportunity cost, which I'm hinting towards, is not investing. If you're a young adult and you're not investing, you are missing out. You need to start investing right now. And there's always the yesterday was the best time to start investing. So if you didn't, then today is the best day to start. If you haven't started and you're still a young adult, you have to get going.

[00:07:34] I can't emphasize this enough. And if you feel like you haven't started investing or you're behind and maybe you're not a young adult anymore, there is still time. So don't get too worried about that. But I want to emphasize here that if you're a young adult, you need to start now because compound interest has such an awesome benefit for you. If you can get on board with that early and start riding that train all the way to the top of the mountain. There are a lot of things when it comes to personal finances that we need to talk about. But you don't have to talk about them all at once. You can have little conversations here and there.

[00:08:04] And it's not hard to talk about them. Have simple conversations when things show up like credit card opportunities or credit card debt or student loans or buying a house or paying rent or decreasing your bills. Things like that. Have simple conversations about money when the situation arises. And if you don't feel like you're young, you always have more time ahead of you to start saving and start investing. So cut yourself some slack. Most people don't care or worry about their finances.

[00:08:29] So if you're listening to some sort of personal finance podcast, you should feel really motivated that you're doing the right thing. Because you're trying to get on the right path with money. Most people live their lives on monthly payments, unfortunately. So if you're listening to this show or any other finance show, you are already a leg up from everybody else. So begin to have the conversations to get yourself back on track to where you feel confident about your money. Simple conversations will do that. So what's on your mind? As I'm talking about things we can miss out on if we don't talk about money, what is coming to your mind? Head over to the show notes.

[00:08:59] Click the link that says send me a text. And send me a text. What's on your mind? I would love to talk about it in a future episode. And remember, if you text me, there's an opportunity to win a $10 gift card just by sending me a text from this episode. And I'll announce the winner on the next episode. I would love to hear what's going on with you, potentially talk about it on the show, even just text you back. So let me know what's on your mind. But that does it for the second money talking point in terms of what we lose out on if we don't talk about money. The third money talking point is how can you start a money talk?

[00:09:27] Well, go to moneytalk.show, which listen to that awesome sounding brand new website. Click on free resources at the top and check out my money talking points. This is a great guide that I put together years ago that still stands up. Think of it like baby steps, money gears, or financial order of operations, but for talking about money. It's going to help you get the conversations going. Plus, it's been revamped for the new branding, so it looks awesome, clean, and nice.

[00:09:51] Let's go over the seven money talking points real quick here so that you can take one from this episode and go have a money talk right away. The seven money talking points are what will I do in an emergency? How am I making money? How am I spending money? How am I saving money? Do I want to pay off all my debt? What do I want my retirement to look like? And what are my big money goals? Which one resonates to you? For me, it's what are my big money goals? That's something my wife and I love to talk about. What are the things that we want to do with money when it gets to a point that we have more than enough?

[00:10:20] That is a really fun conversation to have whether you're married or not. If you're single, talk about it with your friends because you can begin to plan, hey, let's go on a world cruise or something together. And regardless of how things change in the future, whether you're 20 right now and you know things are going to be completely different in five years when all your friends graduate, move on, potentially get married and who knows what. If you begin now to dream about those big money goals, you're going to be able to get your money working in the right way for you right now.

[00:10:47] And like I said, you get on board of that compound interest train or you get your money on the right track right away. And it's like a rocket ship. It just takes off. So use these money talking points, whether you think things are going to be the same in two months, two years, 20 years. Talk about them now so that you can begin to get your mindset working in that correct direction. Take whichever one of those money talking points resonates with you and go and have a money talk about it today. But that's a wrap for this episode of Money Talk, Money Buddies.

[00:11:14] I hope you are just as excited about the new name, new website, everything else I got going on as I am. Don't forget to check out the show notes and send me a text. Let me know what you think about all this and this episode. And you might even win a $10 gift card. Let me know what you think. Most importantly, take a moment this week and have a money talk about one of the seven money talking points. Whether it's a friend, a partner, or a coworker or whoever, getting that conversation going is going to be the first step towards doing better with your money. Thanks for being a part of this community.

[00:11:42] And as always, let's keep talking about money so that we can all do better with money together. Talk to you in the next episode. And thanks for listening to this week's episode of Money Talk. I'm your host, Skylar Fleming. Have a great week. Thank you for listening to Money Talk. 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.