By the time we reach our 40s and 50s, money stops being theoretical.

It becomes personal.

It’s no longer just about income — it’s about security, freedom, legacy, reinvention, marriage, divorce, risk, and the quiet question so many smart women ask themselves:

Am I actually building wealth… or just maintaining a lifestyle?

In this episode, I sit down with wealth advisor and financial strategist Hayley Dickson to talk about what midlife women often get wrong about money — and how to reset your financial life with clarity and intention.

We unpack:

1. The blind spots high-achieving women still have
2. Whether it’s truly “too late” to build serious wealth after 40
3. Financial independence inside marriage
4. Risk in midlife — when to take it and when to protect
5. Lifestyle upgrades vs. long-term wealth
6. Designing a financial life that aligns with your values

This conversation isn’t about shame. It’s about ownership.

Midlife is not when you step back financially. It’s when you sharpen.

About Hayley Dickson

Hayley Dickson, CFP®, CEO & Founder of RIPPL Wealth Management

Hayley Dickson, CFP®, is the CEO & Founder of RIPPL Wealth Management. A former SVP of Global Acquisitions at Fremantle Media who walked away from a six-figure entertainment career to revolutionize wealth management, Dickson became the fastest-growing advisor in Northwestern Mutual's history before launching Rippl Wealth Management in 2025.

As a financial life designer, Dickson provides truly comprehensive planning, democratizing sophisticated strategies for everyone from first-generation wealth builders to self-made entrepreneurs to seasoned professionals seeking discerning counsel that’s often reserved for ultra-high-net-worth individuals. Unconventional and bold in her approach, she builds her practice on radical transparency and trust.

Exclusive Offer for Listeners

Hayley is offering our listeners a complimentary 30-minute one-on-one Life Design & Wealth Strategy Session (a $500 value). This private offer is capped at 30 individuals – simply mention this episode when you reach out to reserve your spot.

To claim your session, send an email to rippl@nm.com mentioning "The Iconic Midlife" in the subject line or fill out the contact form directly on their website:

https://rippl.nm.com/contact.htm

Connect with Hayley:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayley-dickson

Instagram: @hayleywdickson

Join the Inner Circle: https://the-iconic-midlife-with-roxy-manning.kit.com/3433416614

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Let’s Connect

Social media: @theiconicmidlife (show) | @redcarpetroxy (host)

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Even just reserving time to think and talk about money is the first step. You know, what would the perfect investment be? Well, here's the punchline. It doesn't exist. Doesn't exist.

I love how you refer to yourself as a financial life designer.

I help my clients use the money that they work so hard to earn to design the life they want to live.

I think women are often are just like waiting, wait until the new job, wait until I find a partner, wait until this to make these big financial moves. And like that is again, shotgun in the foot.

It's like, well, if I do it this way, then it has to stay this way forever and ever and ever. And it's like, no, you can always change, right? You can always be flexible.

Well, you just have to have a plan.

As far as timing goes. Is it ever too late for a woman in midlife to get involved, start investing, but in order to truly like

to build real wealth, no, it's never too late. Homo sapiens cannot live on a budget. They can't.

Thank you. You need to talk to my husband about that success.

The way that I define success with my clients is are you getting what you want when you said you wanted it, with who you wanted it and the way you wanted it and how you wanted it?

Today's guest is someone I genuinely believe every woman needs in her corner. Not just because she understands money, but because she understands the life behind the money.

Hailey Dixon is a wealth advisor and financial strategist known for helping successful women and families build intentional long term wealth.

After beginning her career in entertainment, she transitioned into finance, became one of the fastest growing advisors at Northwestern Mutual, and eventually launched her own firm focused on transparency strategy and designing financial lives that actually align with who you are. And that's why this conversation matters. Because by the time we reach our 40s and 50s, we're not just earning.

We're making decisions that shape the next 20, 30, even 40 years of our lives. Marriage, divorce, risk, reinvention, legacy. The question of whether we're actually building wealth or just maintaining a lifestyle.

If you've ever felt confident on the outside but quietly unsure about what's really happening with your money, this episode is for you. So before we dive in, take a second and tap. Follow wherever you're listening. It helps the show grow and it helps more women find these conversations.

And it makes sure you never miss an episode like this one. We're talking about midlife wealth blind spots.

Smart women still have what real financial independence looks like and how to feel powerful, not Just financially, but emotionally, in the decisions you're making. Hailey, I'm so glad you're here. Welcome to the iconic midlife. Haley, how are you today?

Thank you, Roxy. I'm so excited to be here and make money. Sexy. That's my favorite thing.

Oh, we love sexy money. I mean, that just is the best turn on, right? That's so cool.

Well, I loved reading about your story because you are this, like, magnate, like, financial advisor, but you actually started out in reality television. So kind of talk a little bit about, you know, this whole trajectory. I think it's so interesting.

But also, oh, before I forget, you and I are both from Texas too, so we've got the Texas girls situation under our belt. But I would love to hear about the whole, like, origin story.

Absolutely. Yeah.

So, you know, in the entertainment world, I came out here when I was in my mid-20s and accelerated up that entertainment world ladder in 10 years.

And I went from an assistant to an SVP and I did international television distribution and kind of living the vision of me and stilettos and in business class traveling to Cannes, in London and all of that sexy stuff. Actually, you're in pajamas, as you know, not stilettos, when you're in business class traveling.

But I got to this point where I just didn't feel like I was meant to be in the entertainment world anymore. Talking about content and not having an impact in the world. And that felt crazy to me because who has a why in their work?

When I was 33 and I had a six month old baby and a husband in business school and thought about real estate, and then I'm like, I don't really care about property and came across this idea of being a financial advisor and really understanding the qualitative and quantitative element of it.

And it just felt perfectly aligned with my love of coaching, my love of strategic advice, and my love of helping people do things they never thought they could do in a way that is really fun and adventurous. So now I've had ripple for 10 years now. And, um, I love what I do. I am meant to do this.

And I'm on a revolution to change the way that women experience money and experience partnership.

So why was it so important for you to shine a light on finances, especially for women?

So I had a pretty big ego shift. A humbling experience going from corner office Hollywood exec with an unlimited budget, you know, to gum on a shoe.

Financial advisor, you know, where there's 17 on every corner. And I realized really quickly how people in general feel about financial advisors, right? Which is lack of trust.

You know, that's typically a white male. No offense to, you know, that part of the world. I married one. Mansplaining, and that's 57.

And, you know, and jargon and, you know, you don't feel safe or secure. And I realized really quickly that I am different. I look different, I talk different, I act different, I plan different.

I call myself a financial life designer.

And so I realized really early on that the way that I can in the first two or three, four minutes of talking to somebody, shift their energy into heavy, daunting. Ugh, why am I here? To. This should be a really fun, exciting conversation. Money and the fact that I worked so hard to get to where I am.

Like, I should be living the life in the way I want to, and that should be fun, right? So that's where I found, like, this is my gift to the world, you know?

And your background, I thought was so interesting because you were giving me a little bit of, like, insight into that. You moved around a little bit and had what seems to be, like, a very colorful mom.

So tell me a little bit more about that and how that kind of influenced.

So my father was the second, and I had a third and a fourth stepdad.

And through that experience, and my mother's an RN, and she was educated and all this kind of stuff, but I saw the turbulence of money and what that creates. And I remember. This is just. If I can share a little story here. I remember coming home from sophomore year at college. I went to Vanderbilt.

I came home, and I was helping my mom pack yet again to move out of one house into another house. And I came across this textbook. It was a textbook assigned to her sixth grade textbook, Home Economics. I flip open.

It's like dust, you know, I flip the. To a chapter that says evenings at home.

And it was instructions that says, hey, you know, when your husband arrives home from work, ensure he has a cocktail, most likely a martini, in his hand within 30 minutes at dinner, make sure you don't talk about your problems. And the children remain quiet because he's had enough problems at work.

And I'm sitting here, you know, with my mom's Jane Mason, you know, kind of, you know, there and her pencil script thinking, what like this is. My mother was taught one generation, and so she was raised to be a wife, you know, that was what she was raised to do, you know.

And so, you know, for me, it's like from a very early age I was determined to be independent, like financially independent, empower women, empower myself, empower, you know, and here I am.

You definitely took that experience and you know, made it into some. Something that really propelled you, which is so cool, you know, And I think so many of us, you know, want to do that and look to do that.

And you know, I think we kind of hit a point in midlife, especially like post 40 where we are looking around and you know, there's caregiving, there could be marriage and divorce, there's career pivots, you know, like you had, you know, different things that arise and come up.

So for somebody like in their 40s and 50s, where all of these things are kind of playing into one another, what should this woman be paying attention to in order to have the best financial life for herself with all of these different factors going on?

I mean, like you said, there's so much change, you know, in any person's life at any time.

But you know, with taking care of aging parents and the kids and working and being, you know, But I think if I could take a step back and just say, even just reserving time to think and talk about money is the first step.

Because I find it so fascinating, you know, that especially with my really sophisticated career based women that are really confident and masters at their craft, by the time they're 45 to 55, right.

And they have it all together except for money side and kind of COVID secret epidemic going on where everybody else thinks, everybody else has it figured out, but nobody has it figured out, nobody's talking about it because they've gotten to be such experts in their craft that it feels too vulnerable or there's a ton of shame there, like woulda, coulda, shoulda, or I know my own P and L back and forth. But they have no idea what their own balance sheet looks like.

Like, and so I would say the first step is just dropping a pin and taking a moment to understand what do you have and you know, and where's that going to take you? Just as a basic step?

Yeah.

I mean, is that like, okay, so like when you want to kind of go through and just see, is that like a review that you're doing with a financial planner, is that something you should do? Like just with your partner or like just going through, like, how do we get like an accurate read on everything?

I mean, I guess it depends on if you're a, you know, go to the gym, you know, on your own person and can be disciplined, or if you want a trainer and you go to the gym, or you have to be sent for a class, I need to be sent for a class, or have a trainer of that feature. And so, you know, I think finding the right financial partner, and that's even challenging in and of itself because the landscape is so confusing.

But, you know, the world is evolving when it comes to financial partnerships. So it's, it's very much like, like what I call myself, like a holistic life designer.

I'm a cfp, which is the highest credential, and I've got my series seven, all that kind of stuff. But, you know, I do complete holistic life design.

So everything from wealth management to cash flow to the behavioral psychology of all of this, versus a lot of people out there are just either selling insurance or they're just trying to manage their money, right?

So it's like, how do you find that partner that you can have that, that big conversation with, you know, so, so that would be, you know, I think if you have a financial advisor right now and you think about what do they do for me other than managing my money, you might want to think about what else is out there because you're not getting your money's worth if you're paying them a fee on what they manage. And they're only managing money and not telling you, hey, do you have a trust? Hey, have you thought about long term care?

Hey, you know, you know, do you have a 529 set up for your kids? What are you doing in terms of tax strategy? It's a huge thing that I do.

How, how can we, you know, instead of, can I write off Netflix, like, how can we save 10 or 20 or 15% off in taxes over the next decade? So back to our question. You know, I mean, I think finding the right partner is critical.

And I think some, sometimes people think, oh, I'm not there yet, I don't have enough yet to be worthy, or I'm not, you know, and there's all different kinds of models out there to find a partner.

But if you're on, if you're on your own and you just want to DIY it, I think making a simple balance sheet, like understanding, you know, I have what's called a financial ecosystem that I can talk about, you know, as well as to how to create your own financial ecosystem so that you have peace and clarity in your, in your financial life and all the headlines and all of the president and all the shit that, excuse me, you know, creates, yes, this toxic energy which creates these limiting beliefs around what's possible for yourself. We got to create your own economy and in economy you flourish. So that's, that's the coaching I do see.

That's really good because you have to take, you know, take it from within and just like, you know, make the first move really yourself. You have to like, put yourself in a good place where you're getting the right information.

And I think, like, to your point, I think there's so much going on in the world today that we don't know half the time, like, oh my God, you know, is this going to affect like financial, you know, stress and burden and like all these things. So like, how do we keep all this straight?

Like, should we be freaked out anytime we hear, you know, something is going on in the world that could, you know, possibly affect our retirement or like our finances in some way? How do we deal with that?

I mean, first of all, you're watching TikTok and there's some guy from Kansas, I love Kansas, whatever. But it was like, who's 62, saying this is what you should do.

And you're 34 and you're working in tech in San Francisco, like, or you're 55 and you're, it doesn't, you know, that's not relevant. And so I think what we can control, we can control.

And when I talk, let me talk about the ecosystem because you can do this with or without, you know, a financial, you know, planning partner. So the goal of the ecosystem is to be able to make decisions based off of what you want in your life outside of external influence.

And so, meaning if inside your ecosystem we have different buckets of capital, right, that are defined differently and each bucket has a job description. So one of the buckets is cash or money market, you know, just cash reserves. And the other bucket is retirement, right?

So whether it's Roth or pre tax tax deferred, another bucket is property. Another bucket is a non retirement account, just a regular investment account that's accessible and liquid.

Another bucket might be your business or investing in a friend's business, maybe some crypto, maybe some art or whatever it is.

But when you think about all these buckets, what's cool is together they create what we call the perfect investment because they all have different pros and cons. And this is really big deal because if someone comes to me and says, hey, what would the perfect investment be? Well, here's the punchline.

It doesn't exist, but if it did, it would have these six qualities. So one, totally liquid, no restrictions, always access it. Number two, tax free, of course. Right. Number three would be no risk associated. Right.

Number four would be little to no skill needed. Right. Number five would be little to no fees. Right. And so when we think about these characteristics, let me give you cash. Cash is super effective.

It's there, it's really great. It's liquid, it's no risk. But it's highly inefficient because you're losing purchasing power.

You know, Chipotle burrito is going to be 25 bucks in 10 years. And if you just keep 14 bucks in your account, you're going to be able to buy half a burrito. Right.

So then you look at kind of retirement that's not liquid until you're 60, 59 and a half. Some of it's tax free, some is tax deferred. But we need that because you get a great tax incentive. Right.

Property's not liquid, but it's a great portfolio diversifier. Right. And you've got great overall yield. And then you've got kind of a midterm investment account that's totally liquid. You know, so.

And why I'm saying this, you know, Roxy, it's so important is that let's say that taxes go up and you're in a place in your life where you need to take. You're in retirement or you're in a place where you want to take money out of your investment account.

Well, maybe you decide to pull from a vehicle that is tax free or if markets are up or if markets are down, let's not pull from your market based vehicles, let's pull from cash. So all of these things, there's a president elected, there's this happening, right?

The interest rates go up so that no matter what's going on outside, you have choices. For us, it's like financial freedom is choices.

So if you can have these different buckets that have different purposes and job descriptions, then you can react in a proactive way to what you want and how you're going to live. That makes sense.

Yeah, that totally makes sense. And from what you're saying too, it sounds like, you know, there's all these different buckets. So it sounds like diversification, which.

Let's say there's a woman in midlife, let's say she's 40, 45, 50, 55 or even older.

And she's never invested, like, never once done anything, just is sitting on some, some cash, you know, maybe from, you know, she's been working for, you know, while. So she does have cash accumulated but has never invested. Where does she start, especially at that age?

I've had so many clients like this, right.

They've worked so hard and they're financially independent and they have a really healthy balance sheet, but they are playing into what feels safe when they're actually shooting themselves in the foot, like with a shotgun. And so there's three destructives of wealth. I'll mention them, but one of them is exactly what you said. Number one, taxes.

Number two, inflation and purchasing power, and number three, emotions. So let's focus on the second, inflation and purchasing power.

It is so strange, kind of the way that our emotions play out with money because we tend to do things that make us feel safe, right. But actually are really setting us up for failure.

And so when someone has, you know, hoarding, I would say, a lot of cash, a lot of, you know, that isn't invested.

They are going to run out of money, you know, because if inflation is 3% per year and you're making zero, or even if you're making 3%, that's going to be, you know, if, if you're making zero, you're going to be negative, you're making 3%, you're going to be, you know, basically at. Even because of inflation, you'll never be. You're going to be treading water always. Right.

And so I think it's important in the ecosystem, you know, to have three to six to 12 months of expenses, depending if you're W2 or you're a business owner in cash. Everything else needs to be working for you in some capacity.

So what do you think is the best way to build passive income in this, in this world? Because I feel like that's another thing too.

I mean, I see people that have invested and, you know, not very sexy businesses, let's say laundry mats and things like that, right? Like where it's just kind of like, you know, they're getting income, but it's, you know, and it's passive income. But like, things like that.

Like what are some good ways to really build some passive income?

Well, I think it depends on how much you want to be like involved in this side hustle of yours, you know, I mean, the laundromat, you know, it's done. I've had a lot of clients like move in, move into that space or car washes or storage units or vending machines or, you know, things like that.

But it is a part time job, you know, so there's that element of it and it can work great. You know, then of course there's investment properties and new things of that nature.

And I think when people think of passive income, that's not really a term. I think it would be like leveraged income because there's always risk in some way.

But I think what people forget is, you know, if you have a million dollars, let's just say in the stock market and it goes up by 10%, well, that's a hundred thousand dollars of passive income as well, you know, So I think it's a combination of you, do you want to be a landlord?

Do you want to be involved and learn and listen to the podcasts and you know, and find the property manager and go visit the laundromat and you know, like, right then I love that avenue.

But a lot of people just say they want to do that but don't really have the time, especially when you're in your midlife and you have all these other things that are, that are going on. And so I think, you know, one of the things that, you know, it's like your money can make you a lot of money.

What are the fears that people have about putting money in the market? Is it going down? And so I think education around how to ensure that you never have to pull money out of the market when it's down is important.

Understanding that, yeah, that's a good point.

You never want to pull money out when the market's down.

And I think a lot of people have that default where they're like, oh my God, they start, like it starts going down and people are like, oh, I better take my money out, but it's actually count. Like you should not be doing that. Right.

What should you be doing if you have capacity?

Right. You should be putting more money in. Right. Because it's like you want it to like keep growing once it comes back up. Yeah.

And it's a good time to buy when it's going down.

Yep.

And remember how I said earlier about it is so fascinating to me about like how people's emotions and choices and lens through which they may take action with things that have to do with money or the stock market is so strange.

So let's say that you're, you know, it's lovely Sunday afternoon, you know, you decide to go shopping and you walk into, you know, a great store and there's a beautiful dress that's like 40% off. Like, you're like, hell, yeah, I'm buying that dress, I'm gonna wear it. I'm gonna look hot. Right? Whereas if the dress was, oh, you know, 40% above.

It's the, the price, you're like, what? This is ridiculous. But people, you know, actually operate exactly like, like, like that in the market. So, you know, when things are really exc.

And about 50% of people sold at the bottom or close to the bottom because they panicked. It's so sad because in that moment, people are so afraid that this time is different. There's never been a global pandemic.

There's a bird that's, you know, that, you know, like there's a covet. What is happening, like this is now the whole world's going to shut down. I better pull all my money. That is normal.

It recovered the 34% and then it grew another 16%. And so that's the third destructor of wealth emotions.

So we cannot be emotional when we're investing. Correct. I mean, if you find something you love. Right. I would imagine, okay, that's a good way to maybe use your emotions when you're investing.

But like, like, if you just let your emotions guide you, you might make the wrong choice.

Totally. And so. So, absolutely. But how do you actually put it that into practice? There's framework. So. So back to the ecosystem.

Anything that you put into the market, you should have flexibility on that for at least two years. So what I mean is, you know, you know, dollars that you put into the market. Right. One out of every four years market to turn negative.

Three out of four are positive. So a 76% chance that if you put money in Jan 1 and you fast forward 12 months, it's going to Be up. That's pretty good, but it's not great.

So someone says to me, is now a good time to invest in the market? I would say, well, what is it for? What is the intention of that money? That's what you need to ask yourself.

And if you said to me, roxy, well, I got to pay my kids tuition in six months, I say no, because we don't have enough of a Runway to understand, to be able to ride through the wave. Okay, so if you said to me, I don't know, I just have this cash on hand. I've got, you know, 12 months of expenses in cash.

I got another $50,000 that I just need it to work for me, and I don't know what to do. And. And I just want to grow the next three, four, five, ten years. Yes, that's the time. So try not to time the market.

Is now a good time because of, you know, politics or markets or this or that? It's. Can you afford to. To ride the wave of the downs? Because the average bear market, meaning when markets are down, is about 1.1 years.

The average bull market's 5.5 years.

Ah, okay, so it's much longer.

Much longer. And the returns are also much higher.

So timing, like, you have to put the timing into perspective. Like, it is going to come back sooner rather than later. I mean, it's going to stay higher than not.

Yeah, like, don't try and time the market. That is, you have to be right twice whenever we want to sell it. That is one of the biggest, you know, mistakes people make.

And one of the biggest mistakes is they wait because they're waiting for the right time to put their cash in. You know, I'm just going to wait until this. Or wait until this thing seem really scary.

Well, yeah, because that's how people click on headlines and make you read things.

But like, if you have enough safe capital in that bucket of cash reserves and you have stable income, you know, and you don't need those dollars in the next two years, not that you couldn't access them, but just to ride up that wave like that, that weight sitting on that cash is just. It's so sad. It makes me so sad for people, really. You're afraid, you know.

Yeah.

As far as timing goes, is it ever too late for a woman in midlife to get involved, start investing, but in order to truly like to build real wealth, Definitely not. Is it ever too late? Okay. It's never too late.

Oh, it's never too late. What's the saying? You know, when's the best time to plant a tree? Yesterday.

The next best time is today, you know, But I mean, I am so blessed and honored to serve, you know, women, you know, 45 to 55, a lot of them, you know, I serve the couples and whether it's a heterosexual or, you know, or a queer couple or whatever, but I have a lot of single women that I serve in this space. And it's so very special because there's a lot of heightened emotion because, you know, no one ever talked to them about money was taboo.

No one taught them. We don't learn it in school. Right. Ever. But then there's this weird pressure from society that we're supposed to understand money.

It's like if I had to wire my house with electricity, I'm not gonna like Google how to do it. I'm gonna hire someone to come in and do it. And so. But there's this pressure that comes from our parents. But also, you know, everybody has that dude.

Typically it's like, ah, I shorted Tesla and like says like S and P this and that. And you just like, oh, I don't know this. I'm just going to be in denial. Shame.

So to be that person to educate from a non jargon like my clients and these women are so smart, they're sophisticated, they're, they're, you know, and so I'm not going to insult their intelligence by not explaining to them what the, what the input can be into your freedom formula, that's what I call it, a wealth building system. That, that is going to be explosive for you.

And so being able to be there for them, you know, and like especially they don't have a partner and they expected to have a partner and they didn't think that they this place in their life at 52 or whatever it is, you know, making decisions on their own. Should I sell the property? Should I buy the property? You know, like these, these questions like I'm their financial life partner. It's.

And it's a wonderful thing to be.

Yeah. And thank goodness they have you, you know, because you need somebody to bounce off ideas like that.

Yes.

And yeah. So I mean, thank goodness.

Exciting you right now as far as like investments go, is there anything new that's kind of coming up that you're like, wow, wow, wow, this is going to be good.

Yeah. Without giving any specific investment advice. Yes.

Yeah. You're like disclaimer.

Because all of these people that aren't licensed and don't have designations and aren't Actually financial planners can talk whatever they want because they're not regulated. But then people like me that actually know what they're talking about, like can't.

So anyways, so let me just, let me, let me share a big trend right now. So that's immediate thing that you can do, you know, your listeners can do.

So right now there is an evolution in like what asset classes people think are going to confirm are going to grow. So let me just back up for a second. Asset classes, I say that and people are like, I don't know what that is.

An asset class is just a way to classify a company. So one asset class is US Stock. And then there's large companies, large cap, middle sized companies, mid cap, small companies, small cap, basic.

Another one is international. And there's international developed and international emerging international companies.

Now these international companies are things like Mercedes Benz, Toyota, Ray Ban sunglasses, Sephora, BP, Unilever. These are, you know, companies that Anheuser Busch that people are very aware of.

So what tends to happen is it's cyclical where US domestic companies outperform international and international performs domestic. We have been in a 20 year, two decade cycle of us crushing international, not only us, but giant cap tech companies, right? The magnificent seven.

So we're talking the Apple, the Amazons, right, The Alphabets, the Nvidia, the Netflix, right, the Microsoft.

And so I bet if you pull up your portfolio right now and you look at what percentage of my portfolio is exposed to the S&P 500 or US stock, you'll be heavily weighted into us because that's what's done really well the last couple. So there's what we call recency bias. And this is, if I could put a billboard up all over the country, I would do this.

So what happens is this is cyclical, right? So if you look back the last five decades, three out of the last five international outperformed.

So as the dollar weakens, which it is weakening, having a diversified portfolio, having exposure to the international marketplace is so critical. And if you look at last year, The S&P 500 large cap returned 70%, international emerging developer 30% and 32%.

And so you're seeing this trend and I'll add on top of that is, you know, it's easy to say, you know what, I know Apple, I'm going to invest in Apple. Or these are things that you're familiar with where it's not as easy to say what company in India or what company.

You know, that's why there's index funds and ETFs.

But if you look at your portfolio and you are heavily percentage into us, I would seriously think about the power of diversification and what asset classes like international as an example, are undervalued in our perspective and being able to kind of ride that value up.

Again, not investment advice, but just something to really think about with your recency bias of how do we again take some chips off the table, we've made some great money and put those chips back into things that have a greater upside potential and less downside potential potential. So I got a little techy there, but I think that's a good action item, you know?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now what do you, what are your thoughts on like all this bitcoin stuff?

Yeah, so I mean, my thoughts on bitcoin is that it is in the is. So let's go back to the ecosystem that within the ecosystem, bitcoin is super, super, super high risk.

Now that could mean super, super, super high return or it could mean zero. Right. That's the relationship between risk and return.

And so I would put in that category art, or investing in your buddy's wine bar or something that high risk can be really great return, but can also go to zero. And so for bitcoin, I can't make any recommendations on whether to invest in bitcoin or not.

I can say that I have some in bitcoin, but in general, I would say you want to look at your net worth and say in, in that super high, high risk bucket, Maybe you have 3 to 5% of your net worth in that bucket. So that if it hits really big, like you're, you're, you're in it. But if it zero, it's a bummer and we'll be sad.

But it doesn't derail your financial life. Design your financial plan. And that's so critical.

That's so critical.

But then you look at those stories, you know, where these people got in on bitcoin right at the beginning and put in, I don't know, 10 grand or something. And now they're like multi, multi millionaires, you know, just living the life.

So it's like sometimes you just don't know when things are gonna hit, like when they do, you know?

Yeah, but you don't hear the stories. And I have many clients has happened to you that did the same, got really greedy and then lost their entire net worth, you know. So it goes both ways.

You just hear the good ones. Usually no one's out there broadcasting the crappy mistakes they made. Only the Amazing, brilliant ones when it comes to investments.

Yeah. They're not like, oh, my God, I lost.

Look at this dumb decision I made.

Let me write about it.

No one does that. That's why it's even more intimidating, because you only hear half the stories or less, you know?

Right, right. It's true. It's true. Now, what should we be preparing for? Because life events happen, right? So it's like aging parents, kids are going to college.

Like, what are the best ways that we can prepare for those things? Like, are there special accounts that we should have?

Are there, you know, places where we should be putting our money in preparation for those things? Even our own retirement, you know, because that's also not in midlife. Not too far off.

Yeah. I call retirement work optional. Because, you know, it's like, especially with midlife.

Like, sometimes, you know, I'll meet people that are 55 and they're like, I'm ready to be done yesterday. And then some people that are like, I'm never gonna stop working. And neither of those things are true.

So, you know, in retirement for our parents, it was like, woohoo. IBM, 40 years pension. You know, where's the kid on the bike? I have my Arnold Palmer. I'm waving, I'm walking my dog.

Like, that's not how life is anymore. Like, you know, that's. We're so dimensional and so dynamic. And so, you know, I call it change of pace or work optional.

So at some point, Roxy, I'll use you. You're going to want to be work optional. Now, you love what you're doing, so you might keep doing this forever or you wouldn't be doing it right.

And so there is a point at which I want my clients to have the choice to stop working. You know, but they don't have to stop working. So maybe they want to, you know, give.

Not make as much money and hustle as much at their W2 job at Netflix or for whatever, but. And they want to be on a board or cons.

And so, you know, I think it's really important for, you know, on the retirement side to think about, you know, what's possible for me a lot of the time with these women.

And, you know, I'm 43, so, like, you know, but, like, the 45 to 55, like, it's unbelievable how much they've accumulated, how great they've done, and how little they believe that they have. Like, they still believe that they don't have enough.

And I'm like, I'm showing you mathematical forecasts and they, it takes them months, if not years to actually believe that they're safe.

Wow.

I think that is so fascinating because, like you're saying these women are like, successful, you know, they have all the things, like, they've done well for themselves. Like, so why is that? Why do they have this, like, block when it comes to that?

And what are the, the biggest mistakes that they are making as it relates to, you know, financial planning?

I mean, we go, they go to worst case scenario, what if I lose my job? What if, you know, and what if I'm never able to get a job again? And I'll say, well, have you ever been unemployed for more than six months? 12.

Well, no.

No. And you've been working for how long? 35 or 40 years. Okay, got it. So if that happens, we'll have a plan because we have that safe bucket of capital.

But let's not plan for it now. They plan for like, well, what if this, what if that? And they, and it's like the 1% chance that something's going to happen.

They're putting faith in that 1% with 80% of their thoughts and action. So we have to have a plan for that, but it's not the plan. Right. And I think that's a huge, huge part of it.

And coupled with the fact that their entire relationship with money has been often from a place of denial, shame, frustration, really not understanding it, being taught it's taboo to talk about, feeling heavy about it. They probably all have financial advisors or many of them do, but they don't like them. They don't even know what they're missing.

And so, you know, part of our mission at Ripple is like to, like I said, to make you have more money than you've ever had. You're making more money than you ever had. You have more choices than you've ever had. So let's create and have fun and make this adventurous.

What do you want? Why do you need to wait till 60 to go to Africa when you retire if you can do it at 55?

What are we waiting for to experience and accelerate joy, you know, and showing them the math, because once they see it and experience it, you know, it takes time for them to really think, you know, what I've done really well and I am safe and I understand that if I. Some of the mistakes, if I keep 35% of my net worth in cash, I will not be able to maintain joy and to maintain the lifestyle I want to have.

They get it because I show them historical data. This Is what can happen with this? This is, you know, and then they're like, oh, I get it. Let's go.

Yeah. As they should and live the life, you know, and.

And I think a lot of it, too, is like, there's some kind of a thing, like, you're saying we didn't grow up learning about money and, like, financial literacy, and frankly, we were kind of told not to talk about money because it's gauche or it's, like, tacky, you know, like, shouldn't want to go. Let you. That shouldn't be, like, your goal. You should want to be, you know, serving others and, you know, making sure everyone else is okay.

And like, oh, that's so gross that you just want to, you know, go for the money or what have you.

Which I think has, like, done such a disservice for women, especially in our age group now, because it's like, we've gone through this programming, and it's interesting because I look at my daughter, and in her school, they teach financial literacy now, which is amazing. You know, I'm like, that's great that these kids are learning. But I think for us, it takes so much deprogramming of, like, you know, all of this.

And frankly, I think it's fucking awesome if somebody is like, I'm gonna go out there, I'm gonna kill it. I'm gonna make, like, you know, whatever the number is. Right, Exactly. Like, why? Yes.

Why should we feel guilty for wanting to be successful, you know, financially or otherwise? You know?

Yeah, right. It's so true. You know, it's like. It's like, you know, we're working so hard. We're working so hard.

We're putting in the time, we're hustling, but what are we actually working for? Validation, you know, whatever it is. But actually, money. That's what we're working for.

Yet we don't take the time, even an hour, a quarter, an hour a year, to talk about our money and say, this is what my money is doing right now and this is the life I want to live.

Which, by the way, part of what I do is cultivating clarity around that, because people don't really know, and they don't feel like they have permission to dream. And so this is where money and is that connected?

Is there a cohesive plan of short term, midterm, long term, and retirement planning and just starting it, testing it. This is the other thing, too. It's like, well, if I do this, I make this choice. What if I don't like it, we'll just change. We'll change.

Yes, there it is.

Or we'll pull it out of the market. Or we'll, you know, like it's not, it's not a forever decision.

Right, exactly. So with that, like, how often should we be checking in with our finances and like, should it be like a month, monthly?

You know, something where we're like looking into things monthly or more often or less often? Like, what is a good barometer for

that monthly is setting up for failure? Because people aren't going to do that, I would say, you know, I mean, it depends if you have a financial planner.

If you don't have a financial planner, through what lens do you want me to kind of give you thoughts on that?

Oh, that's a good point. Well, first off, I guess another, another good resource would be like the best way to find a financial planner.

Also, I would imagine that anybody in any sort of investment value portfolio should have some sort of either a financial planner or somebody that can like advise them about what to do, because it's not. How are they going to know, you know, really where to jump in and do all the things.

So first off, I think probably maybe that's also like a misconception is that people think, oh, I need to have X amount of wealth to have a financial planner. But that might not necessarily be true. Right.

It really isn't. I mean, there's different, there's all different types of partnerships. Compensation structure.

The most common way in which financial advisors are compensated is a percentage of the assets, the accounts they manage for you, and that is to serve the top 1%.

Because if you want a really good team that's actually going to be proactive and guide you, then they're going to say, oh my God, Roxy, you're so amazing. But if you don't have a million dollars for us to charge you 1% and make 10,000 a year on like, come back when you do, like, bye.

Like, so, so, you know, a lot of people are shut out from that, but the models are changing.

So everything from, you know, little, like monthly, you know, 25, 50 bucks a month for kind of, you know, software that kind of helps you get organized. Then, you know, the kind of new emerging model is what's called fee based planning.

And it really democratizes, I mean, democratizes the financial planning system space.

So those that, you know, there's a, there's a type of client that I really love working with which is, you know, first time somethings, first time, seven figure first time this first Gen college.

Like, you know, these, these individuals that have this ambition and drive and hustle and like, you know, and maybe, you know, they're, they're close to a million or they've got, you know, high six figures or mid six figures and they have tremendous capacity to get to 1, 2, 3, 4, whatever it is, but they don't have the resources or the ability to understand how to do that.

And so fee based planning is a really great way for if you don't have 500,000 or a million yet and you have 50,000 or 100,000, you can hire someone, pay them a flat fee for their advice and counsel. Maybe it's anywhere from, you know, 500 bucks a year to 6,000 bucks a year to plus. So like want to look up like fee based or fee only.

Planners, you know, aren't just going to make commission on your total net worth and not value you or your life or your potential until you're at a million. That's a really great place to start.

That's a good point. I love how you refer to yourself as a financial life designer. Now how is that different than a financial planner?

First of all, you're right, it does sound more sexy, you know, like making like finances sexy. I'm like, definitely, yes,

yes.

How does that, how does that differ from a typical financial planner?

Well, so there's so many names, a financial planner, wealth management advisor, financial representative, you know, all these different things that make it so confusing for the consumer.

So I think one of the most important things, if you want a really quality, holistic financial life designer, financial planner, you want someone that has the CFP, a certified financial planner. CFP. I have that. About only 18% of people that call themselves a financial advisor have that designation.

It's the highest planning that you take two years of college, course you take the bar of financial planning.

And so that just shows you have a real planner, not someone masquerading as a planner that really is just trying to product push or just gather your assets with a cookie cutter plan. And it's hard to tell that. So cfp, I would say is an absolute requirement to work with a financial advisor. Okay, okay. That's huge.

So you want to really, you know, investigate and kind of ask them like, you know, tell me what, what are all of your services that you offer? Right. Like what, what are all the things that you do above and beyond just managing money?

A lot of people if you ask that what do you provide other than managing money, they're like, don't know what to say, the robot can really manage money. I think you're going to be paying someone just to manage your money. What's the purpose of that? You need real partnership. And so why do I call myself?

I got distracted. Roxy. So a. I think the word financial planner is so gross, and I just don't like it.

Like, I remember when I first moved from my sexy entertainment job, I was at a wedding in the Hamptons, and I said, for the first time, oh, I'm a financial planner. And, like, the look on these people's face when I met them, like, they turned around and went to the bar for another. You know what I'm saying?

Oh, my God. I cannot say that to people. They're gonna think I'm snake oil saleswoman or something, you know?

Like, so I had to think of something that is actually what I do, which is I help my clients. You know, you use the money that they work so hard to earn to design the life they want to live and pay less in taxes and accelerate joy.

And, like, that's what it is.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. It's not just about, give me your money and let me invest it. It's like, success.

The way that I define success with my clients is, are you getting what you want when you said you wanted it, with who you wanted it and the way you wanted it and how you wanted it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's. I think that's to. Your point, is, like, defining success, right?

Because it's like, your clients probably all have different definitions of success, but what is, like, for a midlife woman that you're working with? Like, what do you typically hear? Like, what is she saying to you? Like, I want what for the rest

of my life, I want to make sure that I can live my life in a secure and safe environment to where, if I live to 103, I'm okay? I don't become a burden on my children. You know, I'm. I'm not living off of Social Security.

You know, I think longevity is a big thing we got to talk about. Right? I mean, because our brains still tell us from a Darwinism, biology perspective, we're Gonna die at 72, and we are not.

Right, Right.

And so the issue is that our neurons aren't saying, hey, you're 18, you're 18. Start saving money. Let's go. We got to. You know, that doesn't turn on until 45, really, now. And so. And so, you know, it's that. It's that.

That success of, like, understanding. I have built a really beautiful balance sheet.

And if I don't take action to get it in the right buckets, like I'm going to be up a creek without a paddle at 78 or 82. Right. And so longevity was a big concern and really modeling out what if you live to 100.

I mean, honestly, like that's, that's, that's the way of the world now. I mean, people are living like, you know, women. It's not unheard of to live into your 80s as a woman and beyond.

So that is like, that's a real concern I would think, for women. Like you're saying, right. I mean, longevity, like it's all about beating the clock.

So I'll show them. Listen, if you spend 8,000amonth, whatever inflation adjusted, you, if you, you know, between the ages of 62 and 100, you're good.

And we run it through all these different scenarios, you know, and we optimize and we create tax efficiency and it's just, I cannot tell you, I mean, I am just so addicted to the feeling of someone feeling safe and secure and empowered and their money, like that's what financial freedom is. Peace and clarity and confidence in your financial world. And there is no reason why we shouldn't all have, I mean, resources, right?

But like that, that, that, that, you know, you shouldn't feel that way.

I mean, that's what we want, that's like we want that security. Yes.

You're not alone. Everyone thinks that they're unique in this.

And it's like the woman with the Chanel bag and the Maseratis probably has a work like liabilities out the kiboots that in your balance sheet is way better. So stop comparing yourself.

Yes, yes, it's true. Although I don't feel bad about investing in Chanel because I feel like it always, you know, I mean, it will always hold its value. Right, I agree.

I absolutely agree. But not if you have to put on a credit card. I mean, the things I see in Los Angeles, I mean, come on, you know. Yeah, yeah. Oh, for sure. That's crazy.

Everything is for show. I mean.

Well, especially like you're saying, because you came from like the reality TV world where you're seeing all of these people living these lives that maybe are not authentic and, you know, not real, you know, so that's, that's an interesting perspective. I know we do see a lot here in la.

Yeah, exactly. And I wanted to share like a stat that I looked up because it's always shifting and evolving, but there's a Analyst firm called Cerule C E R U L L I.

So this is something that's unbelievable. So $40 trillion expected to transfer to widows, to women, female widows, and then 47 trillion to transfer to the next generation.

So Warner Midlife and these older parents, you know that like this is what we have to really be thinking about is are we prepared for this?

What does it feel like not waiting until it happens and then being like deer in the headlights, like starting to really work on your financial wellness. Which by the way, I think that this is, you know, financial wellness foundation for financial health. I mean for, for, excuse me, for health.

Like if you feel like really confident and clear in your financial world, you will, like I'm telling you, attract the right partner, attract the right job, get fit, you know, be inspired.

Because I don't think people don't understand women don't understand how toxic their relationship with money is and how much it's preventing them from thriving in other parts of their world.

Like it's, it's all tied in, right?

Totally.

Yeah. And it shoots it. It's like it's another stressor if it's not in a good place.

Like that affects your nervous system which as we know in midlife our nervous systems are already frazzled and you know, the biological changes are happening. And so.

Yes.

Yeah, right. Like the perimenopause and the menopause and it's like all these things

like that both at the same time, you know, it's, it's, you know, but like I think women are often, are just like waiting, wait until the new job, wait until I find a partner, wait until this to make these big financial moves. And like that is again, shotgun in the foot.

Yes. Don't live in the future. Like live in the now. Like live right now. Right, yeah, that's, that's very important. How do we get.

Because you brought up the 13 year old, makes me think of my daughter as well, who's a preteen.

Mine just turned to last week. So I'm like, oh, nice.

I know all the things, all the things are like on the cusp of happening. Right.

How do we get our kids, especially in that like age group of like the tweens and the teens and how do we get them excited about their financial future and about, you know, being involved in being investors and, and all of those things.

You have a lemonade stand as soon as they're able to stand up. I love to teach my. I did lemonade stands and I was growing up, I would go door to door. So it was like 100% point of sale.

But I think it's so important for. To teach children young and make it fun about, okay, here's a startup cost or something. You have 30 bucks to go to Target.

You buy the lemons, you buy the, you know, country made, whatever it is, we bake the cookies. Here's the profit that we get. You got to pay me back for what the cost, the investor cost the startup was.

And then from that money, you know, there's these amazing little physical kind of piggy banks. We say, okay, how much are we going to save? How much are we going to spend and how much are we going to donate?

You know, and really teaching them those three buckets, you know, of life, I think really builds that, like, principle. And so now when my kids earn money, it's like, okay, you know, I deserve to spend, you know, a certain amount of this money. I deserve to save it.

And I also just, you know, I'm going to give some to charity. And so I think that's a really great way of thinking about it. And then as kids get older, you know, I like that. What's it. The green.

Green light card, you know, that one of those, those cards that you can put money, you know, on the balance of that card and you can kind of track their spending and they can, you know, I used to not get my, my allowance until I balanced my checking book. So it's like, you know, finding.

Yes. The old balance checking book. I remember that. Yes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, so making enterprising fun for kids to learn about businesses and making money and making the world a better place.

Yeah. Should we have our kids There was for. I'm now, of course, perimenopause brain. I'm blanking on the. The actual name for it.

But where we make our kids employees of our companies, like if they're LLCs or what have you, and pay them a certain amount, I think it's like, is it 13,000 a year? You know, that's like tax free for them. Like, do you. Do you recommend doing things like that?

Yes. I mean, so TikTok makes it seem a lot easier and legal to do that than it actually is. And so it's a state by state thing.

And you have to look at both like IRS law as well as like child labor Law, you know, in that state. So, but here's the bottom line.

I can say in California, if you have a family owned business like, like, you know, a podcast, for example, and you want to hire a 10 or 11 or 12 year old to, you know, pick up the trash at an event or, you know, do something to help your business, that's a legitimate thing and that's a real thing. Right. So there's a certain amount you can pay them. They can fund a Roth IRA from earned income. That's all great.

But if you are, you don't have a family business, you know, and you want to hire your kid to do something, like, technically that's not going to cut it if you're audited, because it has to be like a family business with the state of California, you know, and if you have a podcast and you want to pay your 1 year old to pick up trash, well, that's also not going to cut it if you're audited on like the child labor law side because a 1 year old can't pick up trash.

And so, you know, there's a real and a lot of, you know, and this is definitely something you want to talk to like your attorney about and your CPA about.

But people you'll find when you actually ask professionals this question, they're very wishy washy because, you know, it has to be very, it's not as easy as they make it sound.

Okay, good to know, good to know.

Self employed, that's the first thing to think about. And then the age of the child is the second thing. And that the job they're doing is actually something they could do at that age for that business.

Yes. That they could physically like do themselves. Okay, this is, these are all very good points.

What do you think are like the three things that a midlife woman could do tonight to ensure the best outcome for her financial future in the next, let's say like year, like the next 12 months. What are like three things she could do like right away to kind of get herself on a good trajectory for that?

So I would say number one, and I have a great, you know, there's some giveaways and things I want to talk about with you too for your audience so that I have really beautiful template. I hate monthly budgets. Let me just say that people are surprised when I say that because every person, homo sapiens, cannot live on a budget.

They can't.

You need to talk to my husband about that because I try to tell him that all the time. I'm like

however, every month is different. Like, stop. Because people like I can do. And they fail. And then they're like, oh, it's just me, everybody.

However, I need you to fill out a monthly budget. I call it the joy equation. What does it cost to live a joyful life? So you get an idea of travel. It's an exercise, right?

And so filling that out and then looking at how much cash you have. So let's say it's your. Your joy equation is $10,000, right? So. And you have a consistent flow of income.

You really should not have more than 30 to 60,000 in your cash reserves, bank accounts, high yield savings, unless that money is earmarked for something. Does that make sense?

Okay, yes.

Taxes earmarked for down payment, earmarked for tuition. But if it's just an emergency fund, you would not believe, like, I'll find someone who has $360,000 of cash.

If they spend 10,000amonth, that's three years of cash. I'm like, what is this for? And you're like, like, what is this? What is the intention. That's. What is the intention of this money?

And they're like, I don't know. It's just like my emergency fund.

I'm like, wow, three years of an emergency fund.

I mean, that's a really big emergency. They're like, yeah, I'm like, that's big. And so that would be the first thing I would say is.

And I can share the template is figure out what your joy equation is.

You know, multiply, you know that by, you know, if you're a business owner and you have real lumpy variable income, I would keep at least 12 months of expenses. That's. That's.

That way, you know, with the roller coaster, you're safe in that down year, but, you know, and, and get anything above and beyond that 3, 6, or 12 months, depending on your income situation working for you. Meaning invest it, investing.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah. In a diversified way, you know. So what does that mean? Well, you have some, you know, U.S. stocks, international stock. You just find.

Find a great ETF that has a globally diversified index fund. I know that seems really overwhelming, but just type in globally diversified index fund. You'll find one. They're all over the place. It doesn't matter.

Or Vanguard or Black. It's all the same, right? So that's the first thing. And again, I can share that template with everybody.

The second thing that I would do, and you can do this either by finding a financial advisor that can build a life Design a financial plan for you, or there's software, you know, that you can find. And you know, and, and you know, if it's a software, like just typing in, like, here's your age, date of birth. I have this much in 401k pre tax.

I have this much in Roth. I have this much in cash, you know, like, if I want to be work optional or retire at this age, like, how am I, am I on track or not?

And I think that's such a big step because people don't want to do that because even if they are on track, like I said before, Roxy, they don't. They think that they're not.

And so they're literally shotgun to the foot again, not looking at their reality because they're afraid of, like, where they may be. And if they're not in a good place, they need to know that. And that should be unempowering. Like, okay, let's go. I'm not there. I'm ready.

Let's turn the or. If they are there, it should be now. How do I accelerate?

Right.

And the third thing that I would do, and this is not as sexy, but really important, if you are in between 45 and 60, it's really important that you look into long term care insurance. So what is long term care insurance? It is. Medicare is beautiful for many, many things.

It's great, you know, insurance coverage for, you know, chronic things and medications and all that. But our country does not take care of us as we get old, just because we get old. Right. So it is so important.

And if you wait till after 60, even after 57, it gets so expensive because everybody uses it. So it's so expensive.

So locking in long term care, meaning if you're unable to, to take care of yourself, whether it's old age or just you got into a car accident or God forbid, you lose a lot leg or, you know, it's important for you to have that coverage to be able to pay the 10, 15 or $20,000 a month, depending on what state you live in, it's going to cost for you to have in home care or to go to a facility that doesn't have cockroaches in it.

Right, right. And both of those are expensive options, you know, they're both expensive. Yeah.

Because nobody wants their kids to take, you know, and a lot of, you know, so.

And it's one of these things that you don't want to face because you're facing all these other things of morbidity and like, oh my God, Long term care. I'm 48. What you talking about? I'm going, like, if you don't think about it now, it's going to be too late.

And if you have an early long term care event for whatever reason, that's going to be the biggest pressure in your cash flow than anything.

Yeah, no, for sure, for sure.

What about if a woman is looking at her, you know, financial setup and is finding that she is not in the place where she wants to be and I mean, and she's starting to panic, like, what can she do to kind of turn the tides?

Here's another concept. So, you know, I hate monthly budgets, but I love what we call a planning budget. Okay, so here's the cons of this.

And this is what I walk my clients through as part of the life design and all of that. But you can do it on your own.

First step is to fill out that joy equation, that monthly expenses to get to the planning budget, which is the amount that we can plan with, the amount that we can dedicate of new dollars coming in from income towards wealth, towards net worth, building towards goals. So if you take your gross income, this is what my job is for my clients initially, gross income. Let's get the taxes down as much as possible.

Let's get that bill to the irs, down to gross income, less taxes. That's what net of what you get to live off of or what you get to save. So from that bucket, you with me? Okay, we then take out the joy equation.

What does it cost to live a joyful life? And then whatever's left over is the planning budget, which needs to be put to work intentionally year after year. Okay.

What most people do is they say, let me live my life, I'm gonna. And like, oh, I have another extra 500, I have an extra thousand and I'll just throw it into this account.

And they try and manage their flow, their growth by their monthly expenses, which is again, failure. So if we can flip the frame and just say, okay, in the ecosystem, 3, 6 to 12 months of cash, anything above and beyond should be working.

But what about dollars coming in? We automate our 401ks, those that are W2, boom, boom, boom. That's a planning budget of up to 24,500 a year.

If you're doing it that you don't even think about because it's boom, boom, boom. So above and beyond that, what else can we automate?

So if you, if you don't have a planning budget after you've gone through that Then you need to reduce your spending. You should have goal planning budget of 20% of gross income. If you make a hundred thousand, the goal for the planning budget should be 20,000. Okay?

Yeah, because it's a leaky bucket. Because. So what you need to do is automate it. Automate it. You automate your 401k, open up an individual or joint investment account.

That's a non retirement account. Put a thousand bucks a month in, Automate it. Put 250 into your kids 529s. Automate it. Right? Just. And so people will say, but what if I do that?

I'm not going to be able to go on the trip or you know, test it for three months and if you come back to me and you tell me that your life is so miserable and you have no joy because we're putting, then we'll change it. But try it. I have not had one person ever come back to me to change it. I promise you. This is thousands of people.

Our brain again is telling us, stay inside the cave. There's a saber tooth tiger out there that's going to get you.

No right?

Get out. Try totally pivot flip. And that's why our firm's called Ripple too.

Because we're like, you know, like, it's like the ripple effect, but also all the snow melting and it comes a stream, there's a boulder and you go like. It's like life is intrinsic and always flexible and moving and flowing, you know, so get on board.

Yes, get on board. And then that is a good point too. It's always flexible. It's always changeable. I think that too is like a block that people have.

It's like, well, if I do it this way, then it has to stay this way forever and ever and ever. And it's like, no, you can always change, right? You can always be flexible.

You a thousand dollars a month into your investment account and in two months you, it's, you can just stop it. It's so crazy how hard is people just to need to get them just to test this. That's the word I use it just to test it.

Like three months later, they come back for their prelim strat session meeting and they're like, you're right, I didn't notice it. I'm like, baby, you're like mind value.

Yes. Listen to you. You know what you're talking about. And so what else should people know about Ripple?

What if they want to become a part of Ripple and what you guys are doing?

Yeah, no, thanks for asking. So now we're based in Los Angeles. We have clients all over the country. Has to be US based, so clients all over the country.

You know, our website is, it's Ripples, no E. So it's R I P L dot NM as in New Mexico dot com. And it's we're women led. So I have a partner who's a woman as well. We're a team of eight people.

We do fee based planning, which means we charge a flat fee for planning and the fees can be anywhere from, you know, as low as 2,000 a year for all the counsel and advice up to, I had fees of 50,000 a year. It was a very complex estate, you know, so, you know, we do seven meetings in the first year and then two meetings thereafter.

So it's a lot of foundational planning.

But we do it in a way that's not overwhelming, it's concise, it's clear, it's fun, it's exciting, you know, and, and like you said, we really want to democratize that planning space.

But one of the things too is I believe when I'm thinking about that word democratize, it's not just make it accessible to all different types of people and demographics and net worth, but it's also like I have clients that have a nine figure net worth that I'm bringing them ten figure net worth strategies for the nine and then the nine figure net worth try to bring into the eight and the eight figure net worth. So I'm bringing to the seven. So there's so many things that someone that has half a million of net worth or it makes, you know, 250,000 a year.

There's so many strategies out there that aren't brought to them and they should be at scale.

And so that's like, you know, we really want to simplify and create confidence and peace for our clients, user experience and educate them, not make them an expert because they only really want to know like what time it is, not how the clock is made right.

They don't want to see the sausage being made right.

You know, but also like up level the sophistication. Another big thing we do, we don't do your taxes. I'm not going to do Tax returns.

But we are, I think, what most people expect their CPA to be, which is proactive. Big idea. Thinking.

Thinking about, you think, hey, you know what, if we did this, we could trim 10% off when you take the money out in 10 years, whatever it is. So we're kind of future tax planners. So our process.

And I'd say, you know, I was thinking about this before I talked to my coo, and so we would like to offer, so we do 30 minute, one on one consults that we typically charge for that we would offer kind of free, complimentary, I guess I should say, consults to your listeners. We'll do up to 30 by May 1st.

So for the first 30 that reach out and mention that they listen to this podcast, we'll do that complimentary session, which really what that is, is we can get to know your financial world, share some templates and tools with you, talk about how we could add value if it makes sense. Because we're interviewing you too.

Like, it's not like we're, you know, but, but ultimately what you'll walk away with is like more clarity and confidence about your current plan if you have one, or how to start one if you don't. And then, you know, if it feels like there's value and synergy, then we can talk about engaging in a partnership.

So, yeah, we wanted to cap it at 30, so hopefully that's helpful.

Yeah, that's very helpful. Oh my gosh.

Everyone listening should definitely jump in on that, you know, I mean, just to get that knowledge, even for that, you know, that much time, that's a wonderful thing. So thank you for that, turning the gears a little bit. I wanted to ask you about your 25 year old self. And first of all, what did she look like?

What was she, you know, what was she doing? What did she look like? Like, how was her life going and what advice you would give her now?

Dude, I've always been a hustle, a hustle girl. Like, you know, at 25, let's see, I moved out to Los Angeles, right, like right around my 25th birthday.

And so when I got into the entertainment world, I was an assistant. And I was kind of an old assistant because, you know, you're kind of like, you know, 21, 22 typically. And so I was fluent in Spanish.

I'd lived in South America for a year. I got into a really cool company called Reveley that did like the Office and Ugly Betty and the Biggest Loser.

So I was on the NBC Universal backlot, like thinking I was the queen of, you know, Hollywood. Like, six months after working, you know, like, the trolley would go by and I would hide, pretending that I was famous, you know, whatever.

Like, you're like, I made it. Yeah. I mean, I just. I would do anything in the sense that. I mean, like, I. I think it's so important to. No task is below you. No task is above you.

No assignment is below or above you in that time in your life. And so I was working with a bunch of dudes. It was me and, like, 12 dudes at this company, okay. And the fridge was disgusting.

I remember one night just cleaning out the fridge, and they come in. It was like the biggest thing, you know? And then I also. I created a path for myself.

Like, there were so many holes that needed attention, that needed systems, that needed, you know, that I just started building an acquisitions pipeline. Things would come in, and I would start to track them. And so it really. I created my own role.

And I think if you can have that kind of proactive ability to say, I see a place that needs time and attention, and I'm going to provide a solution. So that's where I was. And I'm so proud of what I did in entertainment. I moved up quickly, and it was.

I was really good at it, and I got to travel and, you know, just. But I just got to this point where I'm like, I was put on this planet to impact in a bigger way, and reality television.

And Jersey Shore wasn't the one.

Yeah, totally, totally. And that was such the, like, dawn of reality tv, too, at that time. I mean, I'm like, the high, like. I mean, it was like. Like huge, you know, Huge.

Right.

The top. Top of its game.

The top of its game. I mean, were you working on specific shows with reality?

Yeah, so I worked at a studio called Fremantle for most of my career, which did really big formats. So American Idol, America's Got Talent, Price is Right, Family Feud, all of these big shows.

And so a lot of the work that we would do is I would go to Cannes twice a year.

And, you know, at one point, there was like, 65American Idols, you know, meaning Australian Idol and, you know, and, you know, Dubai Idol and all of these things across the world that were happening. And so that was my job to, you know, sell those formats to other countries.

And Britain's Got Talent, America's Got Talent, you know, all of those things. So that was.

That was one part of my job that was really fun working on those, like, big, shiny, you know, they called the shiny floor Game shows, shiny floor show, the voice, things of that nature. And then the other part of it was I would acquire what we call finished tape. So U.S. shows that were, you know, produced.

So let's think of, like, remember, like, Deadliest Catch that was on history, like that, you know, so that show created a whole spawn of, you know, different types of reality shows that were, like, male focused, and so that. And so, you know, we would.

I would do deals with the networks of the production companies, and I would say, hey, like, let's sell this US show, you know, to Australia or to France or to whatever. And that was before things were global, you know, where you had to literally do a deal to.

To, you know, to license the rights to air and show one country the other. Now it's just like, Netflix Global.

Yeah, totally. Everything you goes to Netflix and it's like, everywhere, you know? Yeah.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. I mean, I think people look at it and they're like, oh, it's all glamor because it's entertainment. But that's what I tell people all the time, too.

I'm like, it is so not glamorous when you're in it.

Dude. I'm so glad that I'm not in the entertainment anymore.

I mean, the amount of clients I have in the entertainment world that are just like, how do I get out? And that's one of the things that we've been doing, is transition plans. I love helping, especially midlife.

Like, it's like, I've been doing this my whole life, so, like, how do I transition out of this or move into consulting or, you know, and have the golden handcuffs of the equity compensation or whatever it is? Like, I love that kind of work because I did it, and I know it's possible, but you just have to have a plan, right?

It's like, we have enough cash flow for this long, and then we do this, and then if it doesn't work, guess what?

You go back.

Yeah.

Yeah, totally, totally. Like, people should not, you know, it's. There's always possibility. Like, always possibility.

You know, whether it's a career pivot, a divorce, you know, some big life change. There's always a way to, you know, work around that, financially speaking, you know. So what is the biggest lesson you've learned in midlife?

God, you know, I've always. I was grateful to my mother for, like, raising me in a very, like, conscious universe.

Like, I read Edgar Tolle's Power of now at 21, and it totally changed my life just about the present. And, you know, Just, just really like controlling what you can control.

And you know, and you know, I remember reading once really early on that women's intuition is one of the most powerful, if not like the most powerful tool in existence. That's a big statement.

And that we typically only use about 10% of our intuition when we know, we feel and we know something and our body is telling us something, or, you know, it's telling us something, but we suppress it and we put it down. And so I think in midlife I try and increase, you know, the amount of intuition I listen to by a percent per year.

That's good. That's a positive change.

25%. My team is like, don't you go over 50? We have to use data and analysis to make decisions. I'm like, this just feels right. Let's go with this.

We appreciate your visionary aspect, but so I just think like really paying attention and creating space to pay attention to your intuition.

Yeah, I like that. Compounded. Compounded intuition.

Yeah, there it is. Yeah. You know, because we don't have it, we all know it, eventually it's going to, going to come out. So listen to it.

It very rarely leads you the wrong way. It's usually exactly where you need to go.

You know, I tell my clients when I'm kind of giving my initial deck presentation, you know, like that as part, we have a financial freedom formula, which is our five step wealth building system. And the fifth step is being uncomfortably comfortable is I want to like trademark that of just, you know, I love Jen Sincero's badass book.

I read that book when I was leaving entertainment and moving. And she had a quote in there that says, like, if you want to live a life you've never lived, you have to do things you've never done.

And I feel like that with finances, you know, so I'm sitting there telling someone, like, listen, if you want someone that's going to be sit back and let you make emotional, logical choices with your money, like, don't partner with me because I'm going to. I'm on your team, but we are going to talk about why are you making this decision? What is the, you know, like.

And I want you to be uncomfortably comfortable. That's going to feel scary and it should, because vulnerable vulnerability. Thank you. Brene Brown. Right. Is a synonym to courage. That's what it is.

A lot of courage in our midlife with our money. We haven't had how to do that.

Yes. Reprogramming ourselves to think about money a totally different way than what we've been used to, you know, it's not that hard.

I'm telling you. It does not take a ton of time. You just have to cry. Like 20% of people cry. The person they talk to you within 10 minutes.

Really?

Yes. Wow. Yes. And they come in like, why am I here? This is another bullshit financial. And then I.

And then they realize that they have a huge barrier inside of them. They have this whole stuff that's been locked up and it comes out that's overwhelming. And we, we honor it and we look at it and we say, this is it.

So are you, you know, like, are you ready to elevate?

And it's like, that's the first step though, is, is, is, you know, changing your mindset and, and, and, and acknowledging the limiting beliefs that you have around money. Acknowledging them, seeing them, feeling them, and then spelling them and creating new beliefs.

That's a good point. That's a good point. How are you living iconically right now?

You know, I have decided to. The statement, when you say, in two or three years, I will blank. I'm doing it now. And it's crazy.

Like, you know, I said the reason why I'm here talking to you, I said, in two or three years, I'm gonna hire an amazing public relations team that can see me and help me get the message out. Because I cannot get this message out with a one on one conversation with everyone I talk to. I need to write books. I have to scale the message.

I have to show people what's possible with their money. But it's always like, in two or three years, the cost, the time, the whatever.

And then I just said, you know, what the time is now, what am I waiting for? And so I think that's what's making me live this iconic life. Because I'm in the space of putting myself out there in a way that I haven't.

And with that comes haters, and that comes, you know, just more vulnerability. So I walk my talk.

Yes, well, and a lot, a lot less fucks, as I like to say too.

Dude, take gaff. Yeah. Actually like the first five minutes of talking to a potential person, I'm inviting into the firm to see if that like, offends them.

Because if it does, it's like, you're out. I can't, I can't, I can't serve you if you think is like an offensive word.

Exactly. It's an everything word.

It's a.

Yeah, totally.

You know, and at the same time, I'm, I feel like you know, I'm really a part of a 7 year old boy and a 10 year old girl and yeah, I'm really present for them. Like, you know, when I'm present, I'm present and, and I'm really proud of that as well.

I think that that's iconic as well because these, these years pass so fast.

Yes, yes. No, that's a good thing. When at the end of the day, I mean that's what everyone says on their deathbed.

It's not, you know, the accolades or what you did, it's like who you loved, you know, your relationships, like all of those things are the things that really, really matter, you know.

What about you?

Gosh, I feel like for the first time I'm really living.

I feel like authentically to who I am, like not giving as many fucks as we were just saying and like kind of just being whoever you know, I'm meant to be like right then and there. Not really and not.

And being able to put myself out there without thinking about what people are going to think too, I think is a really big thing for me.

It's like, you know, what I could look like, you know, I'm not going to be, as that saying goes, you can be the sweetest peach in the basket and somebody is not going to like you. You know, it's like I am never going to be for everybod.

Am only here for, you know, me and for the people I love and the people that matter to me, you know, and that's fine and I don't need to be everybody's favorite, you know.

But like I just think as living as true to myself without giving, you know, all that care and consideration to the things that don't matter and the people that don't matter. You know, I think that that is like been really important for me especially like eliminating. Yes. Going into this like, like midlife time, you know.

And I think just being as secure as possible with who I am now. There's obviously days where I'm like, oh my God, I feel like about myself, you know, like having a down day or whatever that is.

I think that's normal. But at like the end of the day just to know, you know, I'm okay with who I am, I think is a big step, you know.

So I want to ask you, I know this is not, you know, but, but I imagine again, I know we're just meeting each other and I can't wait to get to get to know you better and hopefully random things like I bet People looking from the outside at you would think you've had that kind of. For 10 years, I bet. I mean, I mean, you know, so like, I bet they think that, you know, and so. So, like, when.

When do you think you really shifted into. I am really authentically me. Because there's been some element of that for a long time, I'm sure.

But was there a shift or something that made you, like, really?

Yeah, I think it was maybe a combination of things. I think it's age, like getting older.

Once I sort of hit, like, I would say mid-40s and things, you know, like, I started just having so much more life experience and you know, having, you know, my, My friends, my best friends are my same friends I've had for 30 years, like since college. And you know, so I think having, having that.

Also having my daughter, you know, I had her as an older, quote, unquote, what they call a geriatric pregnancy. You know, I guess I'm like high risk. Yeah, totally high risk. Geriatric.

I had her at 39, so I think because I had her and then like, as she started coming of age, like when I was in my 40s, you know, I really had, thankfully, I feel like that life experience behind me where I wasn't. And not that it's not a good thing to have kids when you're younger, but I feel like I lived so much life at that point that I was more in who I was.

So I think having her, I also wanted to be a good role model to her, you know, in a lot of ways. So, you know, I think being secure in myself would only help her be more secure in who she was.

Because ultimately, ultimately at the end of the day, you know, I pretty much do what I do for her, you know, I want her to have, you know, all the things and like, be that secure person and know who she is, you know, And I think the only way that she's going to learn from me about that is if I role model it myself, you know, so that. Thank you.

Thank you for all you do for this beautiful community. You know, it's just, it's.

It takes a lot of courage and, and, and to get out there and have these hard conversations in a way that's real and authentic. And I always say, like, I like to shock people. Like, you know, like, I like to say things or have a hot take in something that's, you know, shocking.

Exactly, exactly. Because you know what? It doesn't matter what the fuck. Like, the people who don't like it or what? You know what I mean? It's like, who cares?

Good, good. Shock them. Like, make people think differently. Yeah. Yes, totally, totally, totally.

I think it goes back to our Texas roots too, you know, like, totally does. Right? Because in Texas, like when you grow up, you are tough. Like, you are like, like, you know what the is up, you know, if

we come back and do another one, we should do big hair.

Yes. Oh, my God, we should totally do like Texas themed, like, do like a whole Texas themed episode. We'll have like big hair, sparkly man

block, and margaritas afterwards.

You know, I do love a margarita.

Oh, girl, give me a silver coin all day.

Yes. Oh, my gosh, I love that so much. Okay, okay. You have to tell everybody where they can find you.

Yes. So I imagine you'll put something in the show notes, right? We have just like, so, so I'll include just.

You can go onto the website and fill out the form and reach out to me. I'll also include my email. You can reach out to me there and. And yeah, yeah, I would love to. Just to connect and impact and see where it takes us.

It's. I'm addicted to this. I'm addicted to it. It's so good, you know, and it's lovely. I'm so grateful. I'm so blessed.

It's wonderful.

I found this. Why?

Yeah, yeah. You find your calling, your purpose. I mean, that's pretty iconic.

You can make great money doing something I love that's really, truly changing people's lives. It's like, hello, Hiring too. If there's any financial advisors out there looking to leave some of these big firms that aren't male led. So heads up.

It's all about the women coming together. The midlife women.

Right?

Like, come on.

Yes.

Come on. So powerful. So powerful. Yeah. And hot. Always, always hot. Requirement.

Oh, my God. You know, one of my friends, when. When she introduces herself, she's so funny. I'm gonna have to send out this episode.

But instead of saying like, it's nice to meet you, she goes, it's so lovely for you to meet me. What a wonderful opportunity for you to get to know me.

Oh my God, that's so good.

Way I didn't do it as well, but it was like, it's so cute. She's like, how fortunate for you to be able to.

She's like, I'm so glad I can bestow myself on you. Yeah, that's amazing opportunity too.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you. So fun.

Like empowered and money doesn't have to be heavy.

Like, let's go, let's go, let's fucking go, let's fucking go. So thank you so much, Haley. It's been a pleasure.

And be sure you come back on Thursday for Haley's Game episode, because we are playing a very fun financial game and you're not going to want to miss it. This was a necessary conversation, because money in midlife isn't just about spreadsheets or retirement projections. It's about freedom.

It's about knowing you have options, and it's about being able to make decisions from clarity instead of fear.

If something in this episode challenged you or gave you that little nudge to finally look at your numbers, ask harder questions, or take ownership in a new way, don't ignore that feeling. Midlife isn't the time to shrink financially. It's the time to sharpen. If you found value in today's conversation, here's what I love for you to do.

First, share this episode with one woman in your life who deserves to feel powerful about her money. Second, leave a quick review on any podcast platform.

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The link is in the show notes. We are not doing midlife quietly. We're doing it informed. We are doing it intentional, and we are absolutely doing it on our own terms.