Have you ever wanted to become better at managing your day-to-day money in order to help prepare you for success? Maybe you have a large amount of debt and don’t know how to figure out a better way to manage your money. It all starts with a mindset shift. Today, WTR welcomes Linda Hannon, the founder of Real Family Finance, which provides online classes to teach women how to manage their money. In today’s podcast, we will be discussing 5 key points to thinking differently about managing your money. This episode will ultimately help you with making a plan to manage your money and build more wealth.

Ingenious tactics to accumulate wealth, for people who see things differently.

Linda Hannon

Linda is the founder of Real Family Finance, online classes to teach women how to manage money.

Website

https://realfamilyfinance.com/

LinkedIn URL

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindahannon/

Facebook URL

https://www.facebook.com/RealFamilyFinance

YouTube URL

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK-aKdi0Jn-5EKDyfKmI7Mw

NOTES:

• [00:27] Kevin: Today we're joined by Linda Hannon, the founder of Real Family Finance which is online classes to teach women how to manage money. If you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit about where you came from and what inspired you to get to where you are today.
• [01:02] Linda: I was in the corporate world for over 30 years[01:10] I used to specialize in companies that were in distress (crisis management)
• [01:36] Like a lot of people, in my early 20s I felt like I had not been taught how money works, and even though I did it for a living, I did not get my personal finances under control
• [04:30] I went on a mission on how my personal finances worked, and I had an advantage due to the accounting background, but it was hard[04:44] Took classes but the classes only covered a piece of something, not the whole thing
• [05:02] In accounting, they didn't teach how to manage your personal finances or how to budget. They would teach you how to count money that came in, but they wouldn't teach you how to proactively plan
• [05:42] It took me years and a lot of mistakes along the way before I figured it out, but I eventually came up with something that worked for me[05:56] I was at a networking event and a woman asked me: Do you do for people what you do for businesses?
• [06:28] I started teaching live classes and took off from there
• [06:32] I was amazed to realize that no one knows how money works, there are no resources
• [06:38] Kevin: There really isn't. It's one of the reasons for this WTR podcast and that there needs to be more coaches out there[06:44] To help you understand what the tactics are on how you manage your money
• [07:14] Linda: I think we both talk about the same thing and that is that you can't think in pieces, you need to have a fundamental base to work from and then there's a place to drop the pieces into[07:25] If you don't have that fundamental base and a fundamental plan, then nothing is going to work or it's going to be very painful
• [07:36] Kevin: Hope is a great thing to have, but it's not a plan
• [07:42] Linda: As we both know, one of the big factors for money is time
• [08:08] Kevin: So, today we're talking about thinking about managing your money and the 5 key points to thinking differently so that you can help prepare for that success
• [08:35] Linda: The 5 pieces that I talk about as my baseline are:[08:54] Budgeting (people need this all the time)[09:09] Understanding how much money is coming into your life and figuring out where it's going, and then having both happen with purpose
• [09:21] You have some control over how much money comes into our lives
• [09:35] People have more control over their spending than they think (lifestyle choices) [10:59] Making sure that the lifestyle that you're choosing is something that fits with all the rest of your math
• [11:40] Debt management[12:13] There's good and bad debt, has to be in balance
• [12:21] It's so important for people to have an actual plan for their debt
• [15:10] If you make yourself miserable and you can't function, how are you going to be able to get out of the situation you're in?[16:07] People's lives can change so quickly when they change that thought process
• [16:17] Savings[16:22] About looking into the future and starting to think about what you want and how to get there
• [17:18] No matter how small it is, you need to introduce savings into your thought process
• [18:14] Opportunity cost: if you have a dollar that you lose, you're not losing just that dollar, you're losing that dollar and everything it would've earned for you overtime
• [19:08] If people have goals, you somehow make it happen
• [20:58] You don't have to stay on one path, we can all shift paths as we get new information
• [21:06] Investing[22:09] I have met some good financial advisors, and the truth is that investing can be complicated and you definitely shouldn't hesitate to find someone to help you with that (you can start simple)[22:58] You have to have your own expectations of what you want that person to do
• [23:01] You need to talk to them and make sure they're talking on the same level as you and make sure you understand what it is they're going to do for you
• [23:43] A financial advisor isn't necessarily a money manager
• [25:18] Retirement planning[25:57] When you're in retirement, you're doing something, not just sitting around (will need more money to do those things)
• [26:54] There's no more money coming in, so what's guiding your spending limits?[27:07] Find out what your resources are and how long they will last
• [27:40] Even if you stay at the same lifestyle, you'll still need more money due to inflation
• [27:58] Still will need to pay taxes
• [28:53] Kevin: Before we close for today, I'm going to ask you for our WTR value bomb which is in your experience something our listeners could look to avoid and what they can do about it
• [29:05] Linda: We talked about the thing that I found the scariest and that's investing. My advice is as you're getting started, invest in things that you understand[30:02] Don't be afraid to ask questions about how things work especially when talking to a financial advisor as a resource
• [30:11] Start simple, and then build, and don’t be intimidated by it
• [30:30] I have a quiz that people can take that's actually fun (What's your money personality quiz) by going to realfamilyfinance.com/quiz