045: If Your Wallet Could Talk [1/3]
If Your Wallet Could Talk is a three-episode podcast series that was created at the LA Ossa Production Camp in March 2022.
Podcast team: JoJo Evonlah, Brenda Hernández, Quinn Greenhaus, Saranne Rothberg, Tiffany Yu
Guest: Shang Saavedra, personal finance educator, Save My Cents
Shang reached the ability to be work optional by the time she was aged 31, by focusing on increasing her income, lowering her expenses, and investing all her savings. During the day, Shang is a corporate working mother, and at night, Shang creates content around investing, personal finance, and mindset, on her blog savemycents.com and Instagram @savemycents. She has a heart for teaching Americans how to retire with dignity, with a focus on mental health, behavioral psychology, and an attitude of doing things scared. She lives with her husband, child, and two cats.
Instagram: http://instagram.com/savemycents
Website: http://savemycents.com
Transcript
Hi, It's Tiffany here and I know we are on a little bit of a break from Tiffany & Yu, the podcast. We are getting ready to gear up to start recording for season three. But in the interim, I wanted to share a three-part mini-series of a project that I had an opportunity to work on back in March. I had the honor of getting selected for Ossa production camp. Ossa is this incredible company that creates a community and network of women podcasters that brought together a group of women podcasters to form teams to learn the ins and outs of what it was like to create a branded podcast. So the brands that I was on the team of was a financial services company who was looking to make different aspects of personal finance more relatable and approachable so these next three episodes are the episodes that we've recorded as part of that will also include the trailer here and the full episode and I want to thank our guests again for coming on and being part of this project. And I also want to give a special shout out to my team. Saranne, JoJo, Brenda, Quinn and yours truly. I hope you enjoy.
why is it that I will let my friend me but I won't tell her how much money I made. If finances burning and you're not gonna want to make time for it.
This is if your wallet could talk to real financial challenges, real solutions who's ever
bought and why should I give him 6000?
A lot of people think an investor is like an old white male sitting in a boardroom on Park Avenue doing these deals. It's not every one of us can be an investor.
Hi I'm I'm a first generation daughter of Asian immigrants, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker and I'm trying to figure out how to save and live well.
And I'm I grew up in a single parent, low income household. I'm on track to graduate debt free and redefine what finances mean to me.
We're bringing on money experts to break it all down and have some real talk.
Some sort of plan or checking in on your money
once a month. Even if a lot of what I'm saying today sounds like gibberish but just try it a little bit. Because future you is gonna really be thankful that current you did a little bit to start,
we realize that we all have a voice in our head about how we feel about our relationship to money, the money.
We all have it. It's in our head. It criticizes us. It can make us feel ashamed, but it can
even celebrate us when you find a bargain or get a raise.
If you're wondering how would it sound and what would it say Caitlyn?
Caitlyn, we really really don't need that in our house right now. And that would be better off and your retirement money. Oh my gosh. Are you sure you want to expand on that? What's your wallet voice? Share with us by tagging hashtag wallet
talk and join us every Tuesday to take control of your wallet at wallet talk.com. Where's the money?
Shang Saavedra reached the ability to be work optional by the time she was aged 31, by focusing on increasing her income, lowering her expenses, and investing all her savings. During the day, Shang is a corporate working mother, and at night, Shang creates content around investing, personal finance, and mindset, on her blog savemycents.com and Instagram @savemycents. She has a heart for teaching Americans how to retire with dignity, with a focus on mental health, behavioral psychology, and an attitude of doing things scared. She lives with her husband, child, and two cats.
Tiffany: So again, we're gonna keep this fun in light. Honestly, it was so fun to do research on this, cuz I learned so much of your background. So I was wondering if you could just start out by telling us a little bit about your money story. Daughter of immigrants, just like me.
Shang: Sure thing, born and raised in China and Europe.
So my background is that I moved around all over the place until I was 10 years old. Then my parents and I came to the United States. My parents were, you know, very typical immigrant Asian parents. My dad was a professor. My mom stayed at home with me and then got, you know, just a office job when she could.
And they were very, very focused on getting me into a good college here in the us. I was extremely lucky that my dad saved and invested enough money that I went to college debt free, which I know is not a privilege that everyone can have. Coming outta college. I [00:01:00] decided to pursue my dreams of being in business.
And so I started out by working in management consulting. I also decided to become a wedding photographer on the side, just because I was very curious about entrepreneurship. I went to university of Chicago for business school on a scholarship and some help from my parents. So again, graduated that with no debt.
And around that time was when I got really serious about just living frugally and investing. Not because I had any goal in mind, but just because I thought it would be interesting to challenge myself, to see how frugal I could be. And I was getting married to my husband and he said, Look, if we can figure out how to live, unless then if we ever were to become parents, then we don't have to worry about this two income trap where like you're trying to figure out childcare and work at the same time.
Um, I mean, this was, gosh. Almost 10 years [00:02:00] ago when we started this and I had no idea what life was gonna look like. I'm like, sure. I'll, I'll try it, I guess. And it wasn't all that fun to be frugal, to be honest. But I was in it for a couple years and one of my friends said. Sean. Have you realized you're part of this fire movement?
I'm like, what fire? I didn't start any fire. They're like, no, no, no. Financial independence retire early. They're like you fit the profile. I'm like, what is that? I Googled it. And it turns out it's this whole community of people who are living frugally and investing so that they can retire early. And that's what I started blogging about it and sharing my story with the world.
Mm, I love that.
Tiffany: And I love that you challenged yourself to be frugal. It was almost like a competition with yourself. Uh, you mentioned a little bit about this side hustle that you had as a wedding photographer. And I know I am part of this side hustle generation. Were you able to generate enough income from that second stream?
Like, can you talk to us a little bit about how you thought about multiple streams of income?
Shang: Yeah. Uh, I definitely hear you. And I mean, my first job started in 2007. So living through the recession of oh 8 0 9, it definitely became very clear to me that you can't bank on just one source of income. And that's when I started my business, I started my business in the recession.
I would say that had I gone full time, I probably could have made a pretty decent amount from that too, over the course of about 10 years and keep in mind some years I wasn't, as Intuit as other years, I kept all the profits from this side hustle. And if I counted it all, I think it was about $200,000 of profits, which I invested completely on top of.
Already what I was saving from my day job. And also I wanna
Tiffany: tell all of our listeners that your Instagram, you donate all of that money. Right. So that could have been another stream of income for you, right?
Shang: Yes indeed. So I'm currently am now on Instagram as save my sense. I blog about personal finance. I teach people how to retire and it started out, I think, just out of a desire to wanna help a couple people here and there who heard about my frugal habits.
And they're like, oh, tell me how you save money. And that's how I came up with the name, save my sense. But then over the years, it kind of evolved into something much bigger with a focus on retirement, cuz people are like, Sh he managed to become work optional at age 31. How can we do it? And I just wanted to be transparent about it, but also not make everyone feel like that they have to have done what I did by their thirties, cuz.
That was like a very extreme example of financial independence, but rather take what I'd learned in that intense process and apply it to wherever you are today to reach the financial goals that you set out. As I saw courses and coaching, and I decided to keep myself honest and not turn into like this.
Crazy kind of influencer that? I think a [00:05:00] lot of people do today on like Instagram and TikTok. I decided that all proceeds made from my account. I donate over my lifetime. And in fact, uh, last year I donated about $40,000 from the account. Wow,
Tiffany: that's incredible. But you wrote this piece for time about some of the misconceptions and, and money barriers and things about money that you had to unlearn as a daughter of immigrants.
So hearing that your dad, you know, invested all of this money, it sounds like you may have inherited that from him, but were there some things that you had to
Shang: unlearn. Absolutely. I was very lucky that my dad took it upon himself to, you know, hit the library and search online, back down the internet.
Wasn't as developed as it was today to figure out how do you invest money and grow it. So I liked that. I learned that from him, my parents, however, never really had to navigate, weigh a career in the American economy. Like my dad's a professor and the academic track is a very. [00:06:00] Specific kind of track. And my mom just did office jobs.
It wasn't like anything crazy. Whereas for me going to college, I had to figure out what did I wanna do for a living then? How am I gonna get that kind of job? And how am I going to utilize the amazing network I went to Harvard? So the network is. Incredible. And also how to advocate for myself. My parents taught me since I was very young that, okay, you must keep your head down.
Don't raise a stink. Don't, you know, stick, stick out. You know, don't be that blade of grass that gets cut. Don't brag about what you do, let your work speak for itself. My first job outta college was management consulting and I realized that I was getting talked over in meetings. I was getting interrupted.
I was told that I was too quiet and that no one really knew what I worked on. And it felt so counterintuitive to everything that I've been told to do as a quiet little Asian girl. And I really learned from that experience that I had to find my own voice [00:07:00] in the boardroom and be able to really promote myself in self advocate in a way that would allow me to succeed in an American context.
You
Tiffany: had to adjust what your parents had taught you, but just how to make it here in the us. Right. So I think what's so fascinating about your story is not only how aspirational it is. Like I think the number of people who wanna reach fire, you know, this financially independent retire early, you kind of got into it by accident, right?
You were challeng yourself to see how frugal you could become your partner was aligned in that. Once you learned that there was this community, this fire community financial independent retire early. What made you so interested in becoming this work optional at 31?
Shang: Yeah, I didn't set a timeline. Um, it just so happened that I hit it at 31 cuz we, we knew how much our annual expenses were and in the fire community you're considered to have her hit early retirement when your, um, net worth is [00:08:00] 25 X, your annual expenses.
And that was when we realized that was possible. And I actually did. You know, take significant amounts of time off from work. I had to go undergo IVF to become a mom. So I went part-time for some of those treatments. When I became a mom, I took an unprecedented one year maternity leave from my company.
Most of which was unpaid. They paid for 16 weeks and in the remainder was unpaid. And I wanted to see if I wanted to leave the workforce forever. And as it turns out, no, not quite. I, I did enjoy the mental challenge of working. I realized that there could actually be a scenario where I can work and also be a present mother.
And so after having gone through what I thought was an early retirement, I unquote unretired returns into work force and then decided to move to a corporate job that has had far fewer hours than what [00:09:00] I had. And now I feel like I'm in much. A much more balanced position where I have the financial freedom where I don't have to fear for my next paycheck.
I don't have to fear that I'm gonna make my bills, but also I get to do what I love, which is incredible and very lucky. And you get to give back through
[00:09:18] Tiffany: your social channels too. Yeah. So I want you to reflect back on this, you know, know 10 year period of being hyper frugal, I guess I'll call it. You know, we hear from a lot of our listeners that.
[00:09:31] They wanna travel. They wanna be able to go do things and invest in self care. Like if you look back at that period, is there anything you wish you could have done differently? Are there experiences you wish you could have had in your twenties or it kind of all led up to this point? You're like, I know I wanna be a mom.
[00:09:47] I know. I wanna take time off. Yeah. How are you kind of thinking about that planning?
[00:09:51] Shang: I think the only I may have had is. There were a couple weddings that I missed out on because of expenses and looking back, I'm like, I should have [00:10:00] just gone to those weddings that was so silly for travel. Both my husband and I were really extremely lucky that we figured out how to do this on a budget.
[00:10:08] We both worked for consulting firms. At the time you get to travel a lot for your job, you accumulate points and mile. And then we did, um, a lot of those bonus signups. So you get like extra 50, 60,000 miles on top. And that's what we used. To travel. And because we already traveled on a corporate dime, we had really great statuses with loyalty programs and that allowed for upgrades.
[00:10:30] So the travel was taken care of absolutely. On the self care part. That's where I had to really dig deep and ask myself, what does self care mean for you? I thought for the longest time, it meant having. The latest and greatest in fashion and being able to eat really nicely. I am a huge foodie. I, I mean, New York city is amazing for this.
[00:10:51] It's so tempting to be eating out all the time. Then I finally realized. During the journey that what I really wanted to solve for was that I was lonely [00:11:00] and that I sometimes would feel down about my own career and felt like I needed to dress up to overcompensate for, or look a certain way, or just go shopping to make myself feel better about a bad day at work.
[00:11:13] Once I realized that that was actually what I was solving for, then I'm like, Shopping and eating out is not gonna solve this for loneliness. I just need to hang out with my friends and put effort into friendships and for career, I just need to be very kind to myself. And I think that really, really helped me on not spending too much on the quote unquote self-care side, because I was truly addressing the underlying issue rather than, you know, papering it over with buying stuff.
[00:11:40] Tiffany: I think that level of like reflection and introspection is so, is so important. I'm imagining all of our listeners like going out and buying a journal for themselves to start reflecting on, on their own money journey. And really what's at the root of, you know, what they feel like they're lacking. And, and like you said, what self-care really looks like for them.
[00:11:56] So I wanna transition to talk about our friend IRA. [00:12:00] So you are part did this fire financially independent retire, early IRAs. What role did they play in helping you get
[00:12:08] Shang: to that point? So the IRA is basically an account that you can open, save some taxes and invest for your retirement. That really is what the basics of it is.
[00:12:19] Yes. There's like rules around how much you can put in and when you can take the money out, et cetera, but that is at its core. Isn't retirement. Investing vehicle. I love IRAs because they save on taxes and I'm the kind of person where I'm like, yes, I should pay my taxes, but I'm not gonna over tip the government.
[00:12:40] And so I use not only IRAs, but also my employers are private employers and they allow me to use 401ks. For people who work in government or nonprofits, this might be the 4 0 3 B 4 5 7 B or the thrift savings plan for those who work in federal government. And then on top of that, I was very lucky [00:13:00] that I had, you know, very high paying jobs.
[00:13:02] So I maxed out all those accounts and then anyone can also open what's called a taxable brokerage. This is just any plain trading account that you open with a financial institution. There's no limit on how much money you can put in and you can trade and invest. It just means that there's no tax benefits to.
[00:13:19] So you just
[00:13:20] Tiffany: named off like a bunch of different accounts. That just hearing them I'm overwhelmed. I'm like, this is a shopping list. I don't know what all of these are. Like where do you have like a hierarchy of what's the first thing you should put your money into, like is IRA at the top of that list?
[00:13:35] Like. should we open that account first? And we know that you're only speaking from your personal experience and not providing financial advice.
[00:13:43] Shang: not investing advice. Don't Sue me guys. Um, very good question. I like to think about accounts basically in three broad categories, ones that your employer provides, ones that you open yourself else and fall under the IRA.
[00:13:58] And the ones that you open, but are [00:14:00] just taxable brokerages. I love starting with what your employer provides, because what happens here is that they're gonna automatically take a cut from your paycheck before it ever hits your bank account and put that into the account and then you can go and invest it.
[00:14:17] Psychology. Means a lot when it comes to personal finance, once we see money put into our bank accounts, we're so tempted to go spend it. Whereas if your employer takes it out for you, you don't miss it. You never saw it in the first place. Exactly. You're like, oh, I didn't miss it. And, and people say, how much do I put in?
[00:14:35] I'm like put in as much as you think you can. And if. After one paycheck, you're like, whoa, that was too much. You can always pull back. So start there, start with that 401k. And for some people who have a high deductible health plan, you can also do a via your health savings account. So there's two main ways to do it.
[00:14:49] One that is done and you're like, all right, I hit the maximum. Then open an IRA, which comes in two flavors, a traditional or Roth. I'm not gonna explain [00:15:00] that here. Basically, if you don't know which one, toss a coin, just open one, you know, figure it as you go really tos a coin. I want you to get in, on investing early.
[00:15:08] And if you max that out, it for this audience will be at $6,000 a year. Then you open that taxable brokerage and you put in however much one, so three types start with the employer, then open your IRA, then do a taxable brokerage. I love that. It's kind of like a little waterfall, like
[00:15:25] Tiffany: employer and then IRA and then these tax brokerages.
[00:15:28] Shang: Exactly. Okay. So
[00:15:30] Tiffany: I know you just give us a little bit of a teaser of the traditional or the off IRA and. You're saying to flip a coin and to see how you feel about it. You use your social media account to really educate audiences about all of these different investment vehicles. And so I was wondering if you could just talk a little bit about what are some of the biggest misconceptions around Roth IRAs?
[00:15:51] Like what are people getting wrong?
[00:15:52] Shang: And as a refresher for people who don't know what a Roth IRA does, you can put in $6,000 into [00:16:00] a Roth IRA, you'll already have paid. Your income taxe is on it by the time that you did it. So you just take it from, you know, your bank account, your paycheck, then you can invest via the Roth IRA.
[00:16:11] And when you decide to withdraw from it at retirement, which is after age 59 and a half, if the investments have increased in value, you withdraw all of it. Tax free. So people love the Roth. IRA Roth basically means after tax and then tax free forward because you don't have to worry about taxes and that's takes up a lot of mind space for me, to be honest.
[00:16:35] The first thing that people get wrong is that they think that you cannot access the money before age 59 and a half. And that is partially true. There's a lot of restrictions on a lot of retirement accounts that say you cannot access the money before age 59 and a half without paying that 10% penalty.
[00:16:55] But the Roth IRA is a little bit special in that there [00:17:00] are ways to access it early. Usually it's after five years of establishing an account, you can pull out some money early. You can do. What's called a Roth conversion ladder. Which is a really interesting concept that a lot of the fire bloggers do, where they take their money, convert it to Roth IRAs, and then they do this over time.
[00:17:18] So it builds a ladder and then five years onwards, you can touch that money without penalty. So it's, it's really cool. I think it's a little bit dizzy to first think about it, but I just wanna say like Don at that 59 and a half, like age make you feel like, oh, I can't retire early using this account. Then I would say the other thing that people get tripped up is these days, a lot of the employer accounts.
[00:17:46] So the 401ks also give you the option of traditional or Roth. So you could have a traditional 401k or Roth 401k, but a lot of people think that the Roth four [00:18:00] is the same as the Roth IRA. And they're not, they're different. You can have both. A Roth, 401k and a Roth IRA. They're not exclusive of each other.
[00:18:14] And I've often seen people say, oh, I have a Roth 401k. So I'm not gonna open a Roth IRA. I'm like, oh no girl, you can do both. You can absolutely do both. Okay. You said something earlier about
[00:18:25] Tiffany: how taxes. Make your brain hurt a little. Uh, so one of the guests that we're actually having later is a CPA. And I'm just curious if there's a question that you could ask this CPA.
[00:18:36] What would you wanna ask
[00:18:37] Shang: her? Such a good question. I'd say, Hey, are there any other ways that I can deduct my kid? just kidding. uh, um, yeah, it, uh, the tax code I think is exceedingly complicated and. There's just like a lot of stuff that I just like, I don't know what I don't know sometimes. [00:19:00] And as a. Quasi business owner, you know, I do file my taxes for running.
[00:19:05] Save my sense. There's definitely a time where like, I don't know when it's right for me to go from what I currently am now, which is a solo LLC to become basically a, a C Corp or a B Corp. There there's like other corporation structures that you can have to be more tax efficient. And I know I'm not.
[00:19:26] Maxing that out right now, but I wonder whether I should be, whether I should be thinking about that. I'm still hearing. Can I deduct my kid? all right. I've
[00:19:36] Tiffany: got one more question then. We've kind of got like a sound bite section, but the last question I have for you is, and I know you busted this myth in terms of the things people get wrong about IRAs, but you have kind of found us niche in terms of like teaching master classes on saving for retirement.
[00:19:51] And I think for those of us who are going down the traditional path of opening these accounts and getting access to that money at 59 and a half, I'm curious [00:20:00] like why you felt like it was important for you to invest and max out these retirement accounts, if you're likely not gonna tap into them for another 20 plus
[00:20:09] Shang: years.
[00:20:10] Learning about the Roth conversion ladder was life changing for me. And I too had the same thought thinking, oh, if I can't touch the money until 59 and a half without penalty, like you can touch the money, just pay that 10% penalty on it. Why shouldn't I, but then I started learning that the really wealthy people, what.
[00:20:28] They do most of the time is figure out how to pay less in taxes, how not to over tip the government. And as I learned that concept, I realized if I'm talking about a net worth in the millions, if I'm not taking advantage of every tax shelter that's available to me, I could be overpay like six figures. In taxes, that's really what IRA and 401k is.
[00:20:51] They're essentially a tax shelter. And like, if the rich are doing it, Hey, I kind of wanna be like the rich, I kind of wanna be like Shrew in that way. Play that game. I learned that you can [00:21:00] convert them early using Roth conversion ladder. There's also something called a rule 72 T withdrawal. These are always to access your money early and.
[00:21:09] I may not always be investing in stocks. For example, these accounts are primarily designed for people who wanna invest in a stock market through index funds and stocks, but there's also a lot of people who retire early by buying real estate. And getting cashflow from people who, from their renters, and that's an excellent way as well, to retire without having to go through the rigmarole of like converting your IRAs and 401ks.
[00:21:37] But I think it's just really important when you're first starting to at least know that you have all these options and that these options give you a huge, huge advantage later in life. And the one thing that I cannot reverse for anyone is time, time. If you use it, right. If you start early means that you have a ton more time for your money to compound and grow.
[00:21:59] And [00:22:00] that's why I want to encourage people to do things scared and get in on this early and just do it anyway. Even if a lot of what I'm saying today sounds like gibberish, like, just try it a little bit, because future you is gonna really be thankful that current you. Did a little bit to start.
[00:22:18] Tiffany: And I actually think that's why there's so much interest.
[00:22:20] I was telling she earlier that the number of people who wanted to talk about IRAs on this podcast, I guess one last question for you. And honestly, your whole thing about passive income, I feel like is a, is a whole nother episode will put a pin in that, but I wanted to ask you when your son become comes of age, cause I know you have a little one.
[00:22:39] Are you gonna have him open an IRA like ASAP.
[00:22:42] Shang: If he makes money even before of age, he can get what's called a custodial IRA even before age 18. So like, for example, if he decides to start, I don't know, lawn mowing service or something, or babysit for other people. The IRS considers that earned income. And if [00:23:00] they have earned income, the parent can help the child open a custodial IRA and invest that for their future.
[00:23:07] I love that, you know, that um, cause, cause your son's what like two, three he's two and a half, but we're already teaching him the value of cleaning up after himself. So he knows he's he's got a, in this house. All right. Now we've got
[00:23:19] Tiffany: our sound bite questions. So. Money, personal finance, investing. It's all like, kind of intimidating before you flip that coin and just put some money in one of these accounts.
[00:23:29] And so I'm wondering what three tips would you give to our listeners to really kind of like mellow out what we're calling like their wallet, voices. Like if their wallet, voices telling them don't invest that money, you're gonna lose it. Like what would, what are three tips that you would
[00:23:45] Shang: give to. Number one, just because you don't see people who look like you investing doesn't mean that you're not an investor.
[00:23:52] I think a lot of people think an investor is like an old white male sitting in a boardroom on park avenue, doing these deals. It's not [00:24:00] every one of us can be an investor. And I really strongly recommend that you don't let that image. The old, old media put you off from of investing number two. Always have a fully funded emergency fund before you get super serious about investing emergency fund.
[00:24:16] I would say for this audience is anywhere between three to six months of expenses must have expenses. And this acts as a cushion in case your investments go awry during a downturn and number three. Starting small is totally awesome. My first investment, I don't think was more than two, $300. Everyone has to start somewhere.
[00:24:39] So don't feel like just because you don't have a lot of money to invest that you shouldn't be investing. That's how you start. Everybody starts with a small amount. Yeah.
[00:24:47] Tiffany: So what I'm hearing from you is if you take one step, it's fully a fund that emergency fund. Then, if you have some extra, you know, check out this retirement waterfall and then last question for you.
[00:24:58] So the show is [00:25:00] called if your wallet could talk. So what is your wallet?
[00:25:03] Shang: Voice? What's it saying? I think my wallet is constantly asking me, are you spending where your values are? Because I'm not gonna be the person that tells you, you have to cut out avocado toast, you cannot have your daily coffee or whatnot.
[00:25:20] I mean, sure that that helps, but in the long run, not really, instead, I would love for everybody to dig deep and say, if I think about the biggest goals that I have in life, if your, your physical goals, your financial goals, your desire to change the world and relationship goals. Is your wallet, the way that you're spending the money in your wallet, helping you reach the goals that matter to you the most, as long as there's alignment there, who cares how you spend your money, I could care less, but I wanna make sure that you're taking care of those goals.
[00:25:56] Jojo: Hi, Sean, how are you? That was a really great discussion. We're [00:26:00] so grateful. You're here year. I just have a few rapid fire questions. Don't think too much. We just wanna pick your brain a bit. So I wanna ask you, can you give us an impression of your wallet, voice? Oh, my
[00:26:10] Shang: God, Sean, are you sure you wanna spend on that?
[00:26:15] wonderful. Wonderful. I, I always think my Walla voice is gonna be a little annoying, annoying.
[00:26:22] Jojo: So you graduated from college debt free and I'm on track to do the same. And I wanna know what advice you have for current college students or other student to graduating debt free, you know, to go from zero to hero.
[00:26:33] The absence of debt is one thing, but the presence of wealth is another. So how do we. Take those steps to build a sound financial future straight outta college.
[00:26:41] Shang: Well, number one, I believe that you are fully capable of having a financially abundant. Life. Amen. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. And when you believe in that, then you're gonna make the right career choices and the money choices that will lead you into that abundance [00:27:00] and into that wealth.
[00:27:01] And so if anything I would say is. Have a positive attitude towards money, cuz then that's going to bring you the luck and the blessings that you're looking for. Okay.
[00:27:12] Jojo: So have a positive attitude towards money. Really? Good advice. Next question. As someone who's, self-employed starting her own business, how will she know when the right time is to open her own IRA?
[00:27:24] Shang: If you are self-employed. You actually have a couple of options for retirement, you could do. What's called a solo 401k. You could also do a SEP IRA and then you can also do just the plain traditional or Roth IRA. So I'm just telling you guys, you have options, uh, Google a little bit, check them out, but definitely don't need to wait for a threshold.
[00:27:48] As long as you feel like you're ready to invest some money for the future. Go ahead and open those accounts. Lovely.
[00:27:55] Jojo: Okay. And you say we don't need to wait for a threshold. What is a threshold in this
[00:27:58] Shang: scenario? I would [00:28:00] say as long as you have fully funded that emergency fund of three to six months of living expenses, heck get investing, get.
[00:28:09] Lenny for your future.
[00:28:10] Jojo: All right. And last question, as a fellow Christian, I understand that the Christian community, at times demonized wealthy individuals as if they were modern day tax collectors, but Jesus never said do not have money. He simply said, do not love money. So how do you justify your faith and
[00:28:28] Shang: finances?
[00:28:29] Oh, my gosh. I'm so glad you brought that up because, uh, this is not a question that I get off in, but my Christian faith is a huge part of my identity. I love to bring up that parable where a master gives 10 talents to three servants and asked them to do something with it. And two of the three invested it and came back with more money and a one servant buried it underground, which made the master really, really angry.
[00:28:55] In the modern daytime, our talents are our time, [00:29:00] our resources and our money. And the reason why I focus so much on giving away the majority of my wealth is because I believe that if I am blessed with abundance and I get a lot of money, it doesn't mean that I should be spending. Myself. And so it's okay to have a lot of money, but what you do with that money, are you doing it for God or for yourself?
[00:29:25] That is, I think what, uh, Jesus really cares about. Woo.
[00:29:30] Jojo: You are preaching. Is she speaking to somebody this afternoon? Thank you for those wise wise words. Yes. The night is come when no man can work. Thank you so much for that answer. Thank
[00:29:41] Shang: you.