December 16, 2020 • 27 mins
1. How can we become comfortable talking about money?
2. How can we narrow the wealth gap that exists between men and women?
3. How can we increase our level of confidence in managing investments?
Women make better investors yet we lack the confidence to manage our investments. We also live longer than men but continue to experience a wealth gap that makes us vulnerable in retirement. So how do we fix this? How do we get women to be more comfortable talking about money and building wealth? In this episode, I sit down with Michele Baci, a savvy investor with a simple formula to help women become more confident in managing investments.
We hope you come away with the knowledge, tips, and resources to help you gain the confidence you need to build your investments and become financially independent.
Subscribe to HerCanvas today to get your answers to the questions that matter most to you, and ultimately, find the inspiration to live your best life.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Did you know that on average women live five years
longer than men.
This means that we need moremoney to retire comfortably.
Yet a large percentage of us arestill uncomfortable talking
about money, continue to face awealth gap compared to our male
counterparts and lack theconfidence to manage
investments.
So how do we become comfortabletalking about money?
(00:23):
How can we narrow the wealth gapthat exists between men and
women?
And how can we increase ourlevel of confidence in managing
investments?
We set out to answer thesequestions with the help of
someone who has found a simpleformula that works and who
proves that you don't have to bea financial pro to build your
investments.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
[inaudible]
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Hey, everyone, welcome to her canvas podcast,
where we discuss the topics thatmatter most to women and help us
find the inspiration to live ourbest lives.
I'm your host[inaudible] today.
I'm joined by Michelle paci.
Michelle is a host of therapyroulette, a podcast which
focuses on mental health in acomedic light.
(01:14):
Michelle is also a, self-taughta savvy investor.
She began investing in 2017inspired by her decision to move
cross country.
By starting over in a new city,she was motivated to educate
herself about investing andfinancial planning.
She started investing with freeapps that require as little as$1
(01:34):
to start investing and graduallyworked up to opening several
brokerage accounts withdifferent goals in mind for each
women make better investors.
Yet we lack the confidence tomanage our investments.
According to a study done byMerrill Lynch.
Women are as confident as men inmost financial tasks like paying
(01:55):
bills and budgeting.
Actually it's 90%, 84%respectively.
Yet that number drops to awhopping 52% when it comes to
managing their investments.
On top of that, women are justnot comfortable talking about
money in this same study.
61% of women were morecomfortable talking about death
(02:17):
than money.
Ouch.
Today we're here to change allof that.
We'll be talking about thethings women can do to get the
confidence they need to managethe investments.
Welcome to the show, Michelle.
I'm so thrilled to have you ontoday.
It's a pleasure to be here.
That's a crazy statistic.
(02:37):
You just threw out that we'remore comfortable with death and
talking about money.
When I saw that study, I waslike, okay, that is not good.
We need to change.
I luckily can say on theopposite way where I'm less
comfortable talking about that.
More comfortable talking aboutmoney too.
I have to say I'm notcomfortable talking about death
(02:59):
at all, but I am comfortabletalking about money.
Um, maybe you can start bytelling us more about your
background and what led you totake charge of your financial
planning.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Sure.
I am a writer and a up comedianand I've been hustling, working
a lot of odd jobs in myprofessional life.
I've only recently in the pastyear, uh, started working like a
more regular full-time officejob.
So I was used to like juggling awaitressing gig or a babysitting
(03:31):
gig, like kind of scrapingtogether every month.
And, um, when I moved crosscountry from New York to Los
Angeles, I had been very frugalleading up to the I'd really
like planned for the move.
So when I got to Los Angeles, Iwas sitting in my new apartment
and thinking like, Oh, I, Icurrently have a surplus of
(03:52):
funds.
And I luckily found a jobimmediately, a waitressing job.
So I wasn't short of cash.
Um, and so I was like, I havethis extra money.
I should learn how to make itwork for me.
I should start looking up how toinvest rather than just sit on
it in a savings account and hopethat it lasts.
I wanted to put it to good usebecause they had extra money on
(04:13):
hand.
And so just by reading internetarticles and by starting a few
accounts on free apps or verylow cost apps, I was able to in
real time learn how to investwith like dollar amounts, like
under$10.
You would see grow over timewith these, uh, very easy to
use, like very easy to educateyourself apps and I've become
(04:36):
much more confident in the pastthree years, I started investing
in 2017 and I've since tried totell friends and my boyfriend's
like, it's so easy to do youneed is like the money that you
don't need immediately, that youcan stand to lose if you happen
to lose on your investment.
And if you can, you know, spare10 bucks, you can get started.
(04:59):
Yeah,
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah, yeah.
I always say that.
I think a lot of times, uh, bythe way, that's great.
That's a great story.
I always, you know, uh, tellfolks that, um, a lot of times
they don't invest because theythink that you have to have a
lot of money to do it.
And um, if you start with just alittle whatever you can spend
(05:21):
over time and in the aggregatethat adds up, right.
And when you think aboutcompounding, you know, that,
that, you know, it's like you'regrowing your money while you're
sleeping.
And like you said, um, you haveto do it with money that you're
okay to lose, right?
So if it's$10 or$20, and as yougo along and maybe get a better
(05:43):
job or just have a little extra,then you can add to, you know,
that, you know, to that amount,
Speaker 3 (05:53):
If you get like a, a hefty tax refund or get some
kind of work bonus and you comeinto extra money, it's smart to
tuck that away in an investmentaccount and watch it grow over a
year or two years, however longyou plan to keep it there.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I totally agree.
So, um, let's dive into thequestions.
Um, the first question actuallyis to prompt.
So the first question is how didyou get into investing that's
one?
And then the second one is whydid you start investing?
Speaker 3 (06:22):
I first got into it because I was doing decently
well with money.
Um, with my job, I was workingin New York city as a nanny, and
I had a bunch of differentclients.
I would nanny for.
I kind of had like a steadyweekly routine of, uh, nannying
and getting paid on a weeklybasis.
(06:44):
And it was enough to cover myrent and groceries.
And I had, you know, a coupleextra hundred dollars or so
every month.
And I figured instead of justparking this in the savings
account, my friends, um, I have,uh, like, you know, a pretty
smart group of friends, I thinkwho some of them wants to school
for business.
And they had recently been liketalking about investing just
(07:05):
whenever we would hang out kindof as like a side topic.
And I was like, Oh, they must beinvesting.
I should look into it.
And so I did a little bit ofinternet research.
I recommend NerdWallet.
NerdWallet is a great financialwebsite to learn about stuff
like this.
And from reading NerdWallet, Ilearned stash is a simple app to
(07:26):
use.
You can invest with like acouple dollars and acorns is a
free app to use, or it mightcost a dollar a month.
So I started a stash account andacorns account investing like
maybe$5 a month and paying$1 forthe accounts.
I was spending$6 on each ofthese accounts every month and
(07:47):
watching my money grow in realtime and adding to that,
treating it like a game or somenew skill, I was learning, I got
really into it.
And then after a few months ofthat, I progressed to like
investing larger amounts ofmoney, investing in more
individual stocks and just doingmore research learning as they
went along and realizing like,as long as I had some money in
savings and I had an emergencyfund in case like I couldn't pay
(08:11):
rent next month, then I couldstill invest whatever extra
money I had that extra a hundredevery month that I was luckily
in surplus up.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
That makes sense that that's really affordable too.
Like a dollar to pay a dollarto, you know, get, have an
account and, and invest.
That's pretty good.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
No, I was investing.
Yeah, like less than$50 a monthwhen I first started.
And just that little amountwould either grow or it would
stay the same.
Um, you could also like, itcould go down, but you're not
really losing much by investing$15.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
I agree.
Now do do those, uh, likeNerdWallet and stash.
Do they have resources, like, dothey guide you along?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
NerdWallet is like financial literacy website.
They do research, um, on creditcards, investing bank accounts.
So if you're looking upsomething related to finance in
general, NerdWallet's reallygood.
And up to date with that stuff,just to tell you what, what a
bank or what investing platformmight be right for you.
(09:15):
And then staff is a good, a lowcost app.
I think it costs a dollar amonth for the basic stash app
where you can invest a fewdollars and see how that money
grows.
And they have educational toolsand they have like a little
coach who can offer you advicebased on the portfolio you're
building.
So they try to make it likeappealing to beginning investors
(09:38):
or people with no investingexperience.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Got it.
Now, would you say how much timewould you say you have to spend
doing it?
Like on each app,
Speaker 3 (09:48):
You could spend a minute doing it.
You could spend like no timedoing it.
You could automate everything.
So I would, as a nanny, I wouldlike put the kids down for a nap
or I would drop them off attheir, their school.
And then I would go on stash anddeposit$5 and pick what sock I
wanted to deposit that in.
And that's it, it took a fewminutes of my time.
(10:10):
Got it.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
So, so for, for anyone who doesn't have a lot of
time, they can't use that as anexcuse that, Hey, I don't have
time to do it.
Anybody can actually make thetime because you don't need that
much time to get it done.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Right.
I mean, it, I think it helps todo some research, especially if
you are investing a largeramount of money than$5.
So do your research, butultimately you're going to
invest your money.
It's either going to grow.
You'll, it'll get reduced orit'll stay the same.
Hopefully it grows over time.
If you're parking it there for,for like a couple of months, a
(10:46):
couple of years.
Got it.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I know now how true or do you have to lose right
now?
How often do you check in onyour investments?
Cause that's the other thing, Ialways say that once you invest
your money, you just can't leaveit in there and not, you know,
monitor to see what's happening.
How often would you say youcheck in to see how your
investments are doing?
Speaker 3 (11:11):
It really depends on how much free time I have,
because if I, if I'm not like asbusy in my work day or my every
like day to day life, I wouldcheck in more often, maybe once
a week just cause I do, I do tryto be like somewhat active.
Whereas I'm watching my,watching my individual stocks
and like checking my portfolio,seeing how it's doing.
But for the average investor, Iwould say you can check in once
(11:33):
a year.
And that's plenty, especially ifyou're not doing high-risk
moves, you're not investing insome brand new company that
might fail, but like a morestable company like Apple or
like a blue chip, that's beenaround a long time.
Um, checking your investmentsonce a year is like the average
for most people.
Got it.
(11:53):
One
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Of the philosophies I have, um, since you were talking
about what kind of stocks is Ihave this philosophy is that if
you're using it and all yourfriends are using it and your
friends, friends, and yourfamily and everybody is using it
, um, you don't need to be asavvy investor to know that
that's a good stock.
And especially if you do alittle bit of your research and,
(12:16):
and learn a little bit moreabout the company, um, a lot of
times you can't go wrong.
Right.
Um, so I think there are tricksout there that can remove the
intimidation factor where youthink, Oh my gosh, I have to
know so much about finance andinvesting to be able to jump in,
but really you don't,
Speaker 3 (12:39):
It can be intimidating, especially like,
as I look up articles based oncertain stock picks, like
there's so much breakdownanalysis, there's a lot of like
crunching numbers that goes, butI'm not crunchy any numbers
other than, yeah.
Is this a good company?
Do I believe in their products?
Do I know people using theproduct?
(12:59):
Yes.
Then I usually invest, like,I'll read a couple articles and
get a general vibe of it.
Like, do they think it's a goodpick or are they not sure?
And then I, I investaccordingly, but I don't, I
don't sit there like developingmy own charts.
I just kind of like passivelyread a few things and have a
good feeling.
And I am investing like extramoney.
(13:20):
This is not money.
I'm trying to send a kid tocollege with, or, you know, buy
a house with this is like my,you know, money to play with and
hope it grows.
And if it doesn't grow, I'myoung, you know, I'm 30 years
old.
I don't have a family to raise.
So if I lose it tomorrow,hopefully it gets, I get it back
at some point, but it's not ahuge deal to me.
(13:41):
So I'm like, I play with like adecent level of risk, but I
also, I invest for the longterm.
So I invest in a company and I,I want it to stay there for a
long time.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Makes sense.
You brought up a good pointabout, you know, age and taking
into consideration your level ofrisk based off of how old you
are.
So if you're younger, you cantake on more risk.
And if you're older than youneed to be a little bit more
conservative because you don'thave as much time to make a
correction, anything happens,right?
Speaker 3 (14:14):
You want to access that money, you know, when
you're nearing retirement or forsome purpose.
Whereas for me, I'm like, ah, Ihave no idea what I'm going to
use this money for probablyretirement.
I have, I have time to waste andplay around with it.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
So the other question I have is when would you
recommend, and this is a goodsegue because we were talking
about age.
When would you recommend someoneto start investing?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I would say today, like, just start today.
Um, especially if you have like,like if you have$5 that you
don't mind losing, so invest inone of the free apps or the low
cost apps like acorns or stash,Robinhood is another free app
and you can invest dollaramounts.
You can buy fractional shares ofcompanies.
(15:03):
You don't have to buy a wholeshare of Tesla.
You can buy a fraction of Teslafor example, or something like
that.
But ultimately you should startinvesting when you have the
money to spare.
So if you don't, if you havealready a good emergency fund or
any set away for like somethingthat, that may happen, like say
you get in a car crash, Godforbid, or, you know, your house
(15:25):
catches fire and you need$600tomorrow.
You have that in an emergencysavings account somewhere.
But if you have that moneyalready tucked away and you have
an extra, you know, surplus inyour checking account, go ahead
and invest that.
Yeah,
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Absolutely.
I was just thinking, as you weresaying that, that, you know,
even for like high schoolstudents, for instance, um, or
if you're even younger thanthat, and you're getting a, uh,
a stipend every month from yourparents or from your, sometimes
your aunt will give you somemoney or your grandparents would
give you some money.
It's actually a good idea tostart.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
If you're a relative, gives you like a Christmas gift
every year for a hundreddollars, it's smart to learn how
to invest that a hundred dollarsbecause it will become a hundred
thousand, you know, at somepoint, if you keep with that
plan of, Oh, I'm going to investmy a hundred dollar Christmas
gift every year, prettyexponentially over time.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Right.
And I do believe that financialplanning should be taught
earlier.
I think that it, we just miss anopportunity to start early,
because like you said, if thereare resources out there to help
you actually manage theinvestments yourself, no matter
how young you are, especially ifyou have money that, like we
(16:47):
said, if it's not a big deal foryou to lose a little bit here
and there, and you're young,it's a good way to learn.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I agree.
You just want to make sure youdo the research before you
start.
So you don't, uh, trust thewrong person or the wrong
financial planner with yourmoney, but that's why reading
something like NerdWallet orsome kind of legitimate
financial resource can point youin the right direction.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Absolutely.
Okay.
So let's get into, uh, sometips.
So what are some of theactionable tips you can share
with our listeners today to getthem started?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
I would say, um, if you don't already automate your
savings by tucking a certainamount away every month or so
into your savings account, Iwould start doing that.
It's an automatic transfer fromyour checking into your savings,
whether it's, you know,$5,$10,small amounts that really adds
(17:47):
up and then you can, Oh, I havethis extra, whatever it is,
amount of money in my savingsaccount.
I don't need it anytime soon, Icould invest that at very low
costs in an app or a brokerageaccount, like TD Ameritrade or
E-Trade, they both have very lowcosts to opening a brokerage
(18:08):
account.
And then you can get startedinvesting with, you know, very
little amounts of money that youhave.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
I agree.
I believe automation iseverything because you forget
about,
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Yeah, I was doing research for this podcast and
one of the tips is like the bestway to raise capital is I
automatically deducting fromyour paycheck and transferring
it.
That's the account money youdon't even see missing from your
paycheck.
It's already taken out and putin some other account for you.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Exactly.
And when you budget, you don'teven think about that money you
budget with whatever isleftover.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Think about like when you order pizza and you tip the
pizza delivery person a fewbucks, like, do you notice that
$3,$5 is missing?
No.
So why not put that in aninvestment account and work for
yourself while also tipping thepiece of back office?
Speaker 1 (19:07):
I would say that is probably one of the biggest
tips.
If anybody should take anythingout of this is automate,
automate, automate your savings.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Yes.
And I would say also just readas much as you can or listen to
YouTube videos, whatever yourpreferred method of learning or
educational resources.
There's so much out there on theinternet.
And if you're looking upsomething that you know is a
real website with like practicaladvice, I don't know about,
there's some weird subredditsout there.
(19:37):
So I've known about those, butI'm definitely going off of like
NerdWallet talking to yourfriends and family who, you
know, are pretty savvy withmoney.
That's a good way to get a lotof tips too.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
That's true.
And I would like to add to thatthere are a lot of investment
firms now, not a lot, butupcoming that, that are actually
industry that I actuallytargeted towards women and women
investors.
One of them is Ellevest.
I don't know if you're aware ofElvis, but they have some really
(20:10):
great free resources.
Um, yeah.
And, uh, one of the things thatI read about is, you know, how
every time people tell you,don't go buy a cup of Starbucks.
You need,
Speaker 3 (20:25):
If you become a millionaire,
Speaker 1 (20:30):
It's like, go get a Starbucks coffee.
Okay.
That is not going to build you.
Buying Starbucks is not going tokeep you from building wealth.
You know, there's a lot needier,a lot of, uh, better advice out
there, investment advice outthere for other than don't buy
coffee.
I thought, um, I thought thatwas really great.
(20:52):
And I would say podcasts topodcasts are great for, and
there are so many aboutfinancial investment, including
what we're doing today, right?
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've gotten into a few financialpodcasts over the years.
It does help build yourknowledge, your confidence, just
listening to other people'spersonal stories or other
people's advice.
Yeah,
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I agree.
And one of the things I've I'vedone also is following them on
social.
Like I follow Elvis stones onInstagram and I also subscribe
to their newsletter and theyjust have a wealth of
information.
So when you're bored or you havea few minutes to spare or you're
standing in line at the grocerystore, it's just so easy to pull
(21:36):
it up and be like, Oh, I didn'tknow about that.
And sometimes, uh, they give youthe information in snippets, so
it doesn't feel
Speaker 3 (21:44):
That's great.
Yeah.
I'd never have looked into Lmyself, but I know a family,
like a cousin of mine uses itand I've heard really good
reviews about it.
So it's doing good work,especially if it's targeting
women who might not be asconfident to go to lunch and
investing.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I totally agree.
Okay.
So we're going back to our lastquestion and we already touched
on it because we were talkingabout, uh, some of the resources
that, uh, women can tap into.
So are there other resources andtools that you can think of that
you can share with us today thatwomen can tap into to gain that
confidence they need to invest?
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Well, like you were saying with reading the
newsletter from Ellevest orreading some of their snippets,
like just reading that stuffwhen it comes across your desk
or your inbox or the newsheadlines, when you see
something about money, financessaving, why not read it, skim
it, maybe it's stuff you alreadyknow.
But even if you already knowthese things, it could reinforce
(22:44):
it in your, in your mind.
And you can, like, it could bethe motivation for you to put it
to work.
I always try to read up on like,whatever finance topics I come
across.
And I would say, talk to people,open the conversation,
especially if you are a femaleand you might have a lot of
female friends or family memberstalk to them about money.
(23:05):
Cause women don't talk to eachother about money enough.
And that's why we get paid 80cents on the dollar for every
dollar manmade.
You have to be open about itbecause you're not going to
learn anything.
If you don't talk about it orask questions,
Speaker 1 (23:20):
I completely agree.
And the other thing I want toadd to that is don't be afraid
to ask, you know, I always saythe worst that can ever happen
is for someone to say no, but ifyou come, you know, to the
table, armed with your data and,um, to support, why you asking
for more money, it's highlyunlikely.
(23:41):
Someone's going to say no, andthis, they just don't want to
pay you.
Right.
It doesn't hurt to ask.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
It doesn't hurt at all.
If anything, you'll open thenegotiation.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Absolutely.
Um, is there anything else youwould like to add to that before
we close out?
Speaker 3 (23:58):
I would say if you want to get into investing, do a
little bit of research and thenjust start, like, if you have an
hour in the morning before work,or, you know, if you have an
hour of your day read up on howto invest and then the next day
go do it, it doesn't take a lotof work.
It doesn't take a lot of moneyand it's really going to help
you in the long run.
(24:19):
So stop waiting around and justdo it.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I agree.
That's a great way for us toend.
Well, thank you so much,Michelle, for joining us today
and share your amazing insightson how we can gain the
confidence we need to manage ourinvestments.
I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Of course, it was my pleasure.
So, so nice talking to you.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Oh, before you go, if our listeners want to learn
more, how can they get in touchwith you?
Cause you know, they might havesome questions.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Of course.
Yeah.
You can find me on social media.
On Instagram.
I'm at Michelle with what?
L B a C I comedy, Michellebotchy comedy.
And on Twitter, I'm Michele withone L E ACI, just Michelle bace.
Um, you can listen to my podcasttherapy relapse and just find me
on the internet.
I'm always happy to talk, youknow, BME and we'll talk about
(25:11):
money.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Awesome.
And I have to tell everybody, Idid listen to your podcast
therapy roulette, and I thoughtit was great.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Oh, thank you.
I it's a new project and I'msuper excited about it and I
love the podcasting universe.
So it's so nice to be a part ofit.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
I do too.
And hopefully, maybe the nexttime we'll have a session where
we'll talk about what you dowith your podcast, because I
think it's really great whatyou're doing.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Yeah.
That'd be awesome.
And it's a blend of mentalhealth and comedy trying to
bring more of both into yourlife.
So I love it.
And it's been a great passionproject so far, and I'm so glad
you're doing your podcast too.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Yes.
It's a passion project.
That's uh, was a long timecoming.
So it's exciting to be in thisuniverse, like you said.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Yes.
And you're empowering women,which is one of the best goals
out there.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Absolutely my passion in life.
But
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Thanks.
Thanks,
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Michelle.
Um, again, thank you for comingon.
Hopefully we'll we'll have youon another time.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Thank you so much.
I hope to talk again soon.
All right.
Have a good one.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
Your investments does not have to be intimidating by
educating yourself.
Finding low cost apps to get youstarted taking your level of
risk into consideration.
Automating your savings, askingquestions and making the time
you'll be well on your way togaining the confidence you need
to build your investments.
(26:35):
That's all for our show today.
Be sure to subscribe to ourpodcast on Apple podcasts,
Spotify, Google podcasts, andPandora.
One to learn more about how tobuild your investments and
wealth.
Check out a personal financecoffee and cash blog post on
gap.
use.com.
Also don't forget to connectwith our Facebook community at
(26:56):
gab news women to continue thisconversation and many more along
the way until next time, staysafe and find the inspiration to
live your best life.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
[inaudible].
Did you know that on average women live five years
longer than men.
This means that we need moremoney to retire comfortably.
Yet a large percentage of us arestill uncomfortable talking
about money, continue to face awealth gap compared to our male
counterparts and lack theconfidence to manage
investments.
So how do we become comfortabletalking about money?
(00:23):
How can we narrow the wealth gapthat exists between men and
women?
And how can we increase ourlevel of confidence in managing
investments?
We set out to answer thesequestions with the help of
someone who has found a simpleformula that works and who
proves that you don't have to bea financial pro to build your
investments.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
[inaudible]
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Hey, everyone, welcome to her canvas podcast,
where we discuss the topics thatmatter most to women and help us
find the inspiration to live ourbest lives.
I'm your host[inaudible] today.
I'm joined by Michelle paci.
Michelle is a host of therapyroulette, a podcast which
focuses on mental health in acomedic light.
(01:14):
Michelle is also a, self-taughta savvy investor.
She began investing in 2017inspired by her decision to move
cross country.
By starting over in a new city,she was motivated to educate
herself about investing andfinancial planning.
She started investing with freeapps that require as little as$1
(01:34):
to start investing and graduallyworked up to opening several
brokerage accounts withdifferent goals in mind for each
women make better investors.
Yet we lack the confidence tomanage our investments.
According to a study done byMerrill Lynch.
Women are as confident as men inmost financial tasks like paying
(01:55):
bills and budgeting.
Actually it's 90%, 84%respectively.
Yet that number drops to awhopping 52% when it comes to
managing their investments.
On top of that, women are justnot comfortable talking about
money in this same study.
61% of women were morecomfortable talking about death
(02:17):
than money.
Ouch.
Today we're here to change allof that.
We'll be talking about thethings women can do to get the
confidence they need to managethe investments.
Welcome to the show, Michelle.
I'm so thrilled to have you ontoday.
It's a pleasure to be here.
That's a crazy statistic.
(02:37):
You just threw out that we'remore comfortable with death and
talking about money.
When I saw that study, I waslike, okay, that is not good.
We need to change.
I luckily can say on theopposite way where I'm less
comfortable talking about that.
More comfortable talking aboutmoney too.
I have to say I'm notcomfortable talking about death
(02:59):
at all, but I am comfortabletalking about money.
Um, maybe you can start bytelling us more about your
background and what led you totake charge of your financial
planning.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Sure.
I am a writer and a up comedianand I've been hustling, working
a lot of odd jobs in myprofessional life.
I've only recently in the pastyear, uh, started working like a
more regular full-time officejob.
So I was used to like juggling awaitressing gig or a babysitting
(03:31):
gig, like kind of scrapingtogether every month.
And, um, when I moved crosscountry from New York to Los
Angeles, I had been very frugalleading up to the I'd really
like planned for the move.
So when I got to Los Angeles, Iwas sitting in my new apartment
and thinking like, Oh, I, Icurrently have a surplus of
(03:52):
funds.
And I luckily found a jobimmediately, a waitressing job.
So I wasn't short of cash.
Um, and so I was like, I havethis extra money.
I should learn how to make itwork for me.
I should start looking up how toinvest rather than just sit on
it in a savings account and hopethat it lasts.
I wanted to put it to good usebecause they had extra money on
(04:13):
hand.
And so just by reading internetarticles and by starting a few
accounts on free apps or verylow cost apps, I was able to in
real time learn how to investwith like dollar amounts, like
under$10.
You would see grow over timewith these, uh, very easy to
use, like very easy to educateyourself apps and I've become
(04:36):
much more confident in the pastthree years, I started investing
in 2017 and I've since tried totell friends and my boyfriend's
like, it's so easy to do youneed is like the money that you
don't need immediately, that youcan stand to lose if you happen
to lose on your investment.
And if you can, you know, spare10 bucks, you can get started.
(04:59):
Yeah,
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah, yeah.
I always say that.
I think a lot of times, uh, bythe way, that's great.
That's a great story.
I always, you know, uh, tellfolks that, um, a lot of times
they don't invest because theythink that you have to have a
lot of money to do it.
And um, if you start with just alittle whatever you can spend
(05:21):
over time and in the aggregatethat adds up, right.
And when you think aboutcompounding, you know, that,
that, you know, it's like you'regrowing your money while you're
sleeping.
And like you said, um, you haveto do it with money that you're
okay to lose, right?
So if it's$10 or$20, and as yougo along and maybe get a better
(05:43):
job or just have a little extra,then you can add to, you know,
that, you know, to that amount,
Speaker 3 (05:53):
If you get like a, a hefty tax refund or get some
kind of work bonus and you comeinto extra money, it's smart to
tuck that away in an investmentaccount and watch it grow over a
year or two years, however longyou plan to keep it there.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I totally agree.
So, um, let's dive into thequestions.
Um, the first question actuallyis to prompt.
So the first question is how didyou get into investing that's
one?
And then the second one is whydid you start investing?
Speaker 3 (06:22):
I first got into it because I was doing decently
well with money.
Um, with my job, I was workingin New York city as a nanny, and
I had a bunch of differentclients.
I would nanny for.
I kind of had like a steadyweekly routine of, uh, nannying
and getting paid on a weeklybasis.
(06:44):
And it was enough to cover myrent and groceries.
And I had, you know, a coupleextra hundred dollars or so
every month.
And I figured instead of justparking this in the savings
account, my friends, um, I have,uh, like, you know, a pretty
smart group of friends, I thinkwho some of them wants to school
for business.
And they had recently been liketalking about investing just
(07:05):
whenever we would hang out kindof as like a side topic.
And I was like, Oh, they must beinvesting.
I should look into it.
And so I did a little bit ofinternet research.
I recommend NerdWallet.
NerdWallet is a great financialwebsite to learn about stuff
like this.
And from reading NerdWallet, Ilearned stash is a simple app to
(07:26):
use.
You can invest with like acouple dollars and acorns is a
free app to use, or it mightcost a dollar a month.
So I started a stash account andacorns account investing like
maybe$5 a month and paying$1 forthe accounts.
I was spending$6 on each ofthese accounts every month and
(07:47):
watching my money grow in realtime and adding to that,
treating it like a game or somenew skill, I was learning, I got
really into it.
And then after a few months ofthat, I progressed to like
investing larger amounts ofmoney, investing in more
individual stocks and just doingmore research learning as they
went along and realizing like,as long as I had some money in
savings and I had an emergencyfund in case like I couldn't pay
(08:11):
rent next month, then I couldstill invest whatever extra
money I had that extra a hundredevery month that I was luckily
in surplus up.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
That makes sense that that's really affordable too.
Like a dollar to pay a dollarto, you know, get, have an
account and, and invest.
That's pretty good.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
No, I was investing.
Yeah, like less than$50 a monthwhen I first started.
And just that little amountwould either grow or it would
stay the same.
Um, you could also like, itcould go down, but you're not
really losing much by investing$15.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
I agree.
Now do do those, uh, likeNerdWallet and stash.
Do they have resources, like, dothey guide you along?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
NerdWallet is like financial literacy website.
They do research, um, on creditcards, investing bank accounts.
So if you're looking upsomething related to finance in
general, NerdWallet's reallygood.
And up to date with that stuff,just to tell you what, what a
bank or what investing platformmight be right for you.
(09:15):
And then staff is a good, a lowcost app.
I think it costs a dollar amonth for the basic stash app
where you can invest a fewdollars and see how that money
grows.
And they have educational toolsand they have like a little
coach who can offer you advicebased on the portfolio you're
building.
So they try to make it likeappealing to beginning investors
(09:38):
or people with no investingexperience.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Got it.
Now, would you say how much timewould you say you have to spend
doing it?
Like on each app,
Speaker 3 (09:48):
You could spend a minute doing it.
You could spend like no timedoing it.
You could automate everything.
So I would, as a nanny, I wouldlike put the kids down for a nap
or I would drop them off attheir, their school.
And then I would go on stash anddeposit$5 and pick what sock I
wanted to deposit that in.
And that's it, it took a fewminutes of my time.
(10:10):
Got it.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
So, so for, for anyone who doesn't have a lot of
time, they can't use that as anexcuse that, Hey, I don't have
time to do it.
Anybody can actually make thetime because you don't need that
much time to get it done.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Right.
I mean, it, I think it helps todo some research, especially if
you are investing a largeramount of money than$5.
So do your research, butultimately you're going to
invest your money.
It's either going to grow.
You'll, it'll get reduced orit'll stay the same.
Hopefully it grows over time.
If you're parking it there for,for like a couple of months, a
(10:46):
couple of years.
Got it.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I know now how true or do you have to lose right
now?
How often do you check in onyour investments?
Cause that's the other thing, Ialways say that once you invest
your money, you just can't leaveit in there and not, you know,
monitor to see what's happening.
How often would you say youcheck in to see how your
investments are doing?
Speaker 3 (11:11):
It really depends on how much free time I have,
because if I, if I'm not like asbusy in my work day or my every
like day to day life, I wouldcheck in more often, maybe once
a week just cause I do, I do tryto be like somewhat active.
Whereas I'm watching my,watching my individual stocks
and like checking my portfolio,seeing how it's doing.
But for the average investor, Iwould say you can check in once
(11:33):
a year.
And that's plenty, especially ifyou're not doing high-risk
moves, you're not investing insome brand new company that
might fail, but like a morestable company like Apple or
like a blue chip, that's beenaround a long time.
Um, checking your investmentsonce a year is like the average
for most people.
Got it.
(11:53):
One
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Of the philosophies I have, um, since you were talking
about what kind of stocks is Ihave this philosophy is that if
you're using it and all yourfriends are using it and your
friends, friends, and yourfamily and everybody is using it
, um, you don't need to be asavvy investor to know that
that's a good stock.
And especially if you do alittle bit of your research and,
(12:16):
and learn a little bit moreabout the company, um, a lot of
times you can't go wrong.
Right.
Um, so I think there are tricksout there that can remove the
intimidation factor where youthink, Oh my gosh, I have to
know so much about finance andinvesting to be able to jump in,
but really you don't,
Speaker 3 (12:39):
It can be intimidating, especially like,
as I look up articles based oncertain stock picks, like
there's so much breakdownanalysis, there's a lot of like
crunching numbers that goes, butI'm not crunchy any numbers
other than, yeah.
Is this a good company?
Do I believe in their products?
Do I know people using theproduct?
(12:59):
Yes.
Then I usually invest, like,I'll read a couple articles and
get a general vibe of it.
Like, do they think it's a goodpick or are they not sure?
And then I, I investaccordingly, but I don't, I
don't sit there like developingmy own charts.
I just kind of like passivelyread a few things and have a
good feeling.
And I am investing like extramoney.
(13:20):
This is not money.
I'm trying to send a kid tocollege with, or, you know, buy
a house with this is like my,you know, money to play with and
hope it grows.
And if it doesn't grow, I'myoung, you know, I'm 30 years
old.
I don't have a family to raise.
So if I lose it tomorrow,hopefully it gets, I get it back
at some point, but it's not ahuge deal to me.
(13:41):
So I'm like, I play with like adecent level of risk, but I
also, I invest for the longterm.
So I invest in a company and I,I want it to stay there for a
long time.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Makes sense.
You brought up a good pointabout, you know, age and taking
into consideration your level ofrisk based off of how old you
are.
So if you're younger, you cantake on more risk.
And if you're older than youneed to be a little bit more
conservative because you don'thave as much time to make a
correction, anything happens,right?
Speaker 3 (14:14):
You want to access that money, you know, when
you're nearing retirement or forsome purpose.
Whereas for me, I'm like, ah, Ihave no idea what I'm going to
use this money for probablyretirement.
I have, I have time to waste andplay around with it.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
So the other question I have is when would you
recommend, and this is a goodsegue because we were talking
about age.
When would you recommend someoneto start investing?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I would say today, like, just start today.
Um, especially if you have like,like if you have$5 that you
don't mind losing, so invest inone of the free apps or the low
cost apps like acorns or stash,Robinhood is another free app
and you can invest dollaramounts.
You can buy fractional shares ofcompanies.
(15:03):
You don't have to buy a wholeshare of Tesla.
You can buy a fraction of Teslafor example, or something like
that.
But ultimately you should startinvesting when you have the
money to spare.
So if you don't, if you havealready a good emergency fund or
any set away for like somethingthat, that may happen, like say
you get in a car crash, Godforbid, or, you know, your house
(15:25):
catches fire and you need$600tomorrow.
You have that in an emergencysavings account somewhere.
But if you have that moneyalready tucked away and you have
an extra, you know, surplus inyour checking account, go ahead
and invest that.
Yeah,
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Absolutely.
I was just thinking, as you weresaying that, that, you know,
even for like high schoolstudents, for instance, um, or
if you're even younger thanthat, and you're getting a, uh,
a stipend every month from yourparents or from your, sometimes
your aunt will give you somemoney or your grandparents would
give you some money.
It's actually a good idea tostart.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
If you're a relative, gives you like a Christmas gift
every year for a hundreddollars, it's smart to learn how
to invest that a hundred dollarsbecause it will become a hundred
thousand, you know, at somepoint, if you keep with that
plan of, Oh, I'm going to investmy a hundred dollar Christmas
gift every year, prettyexponentially over time.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Right.
And I do believe that financialplanning should be taught
earlier.
I think that it, we just miss anopportunity to start early,
because like you said, if thereare resources out there to help
you actually manage theinvestments yourself, no matter
how young you are, especially ifyou have money that, like we
(16:47):
said, if it's not a big deal foryou to lose a little bit here
and there, and you're young,it's a good way to learn.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I agree.
You just want to make sure youdo the research before you
start.
So you don't, uh, trust thewrong person or the wrong
financial planner with yourmoney, but that's why reading
something like NerdWallet orsome kind of legitimate
financial resource can point youin the right direction.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Absolutely.
Okay.
So let's get into, uh, sometips.
So what are some of theactionable tips you can share
with our listeners today to getthem started?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
I would say, um, if you don't already automate your
savings by tucking a certainamount away every month or so
into your savings account, Iwould start doing that.
It's an automatic transfer fromyour checking into your savings,
whether it's, you know,$5,$10,small amounts that really adds
(17:47):
up and then you can, Oh, I havethis extra, whatever it is,
amount of money in my savingsaccount.
I don't need it anytime soon, Icould invest that at very low
costs in an app or a brokerageaccount, like TD Ameritrade or
E-Trade, they both have very lowcosts to opening a brokerage
(18:08):
account.
And then you can get startedinvesting with, you know, very
little amounts of money that youhave.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
I agree.
I believe automation iseverything because you forget
about,
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Yeah, I was doing research for this podcast and
one of the tips is like the bestway to raise capital is I
automatically deducting fromyour paycheck and transferring
it.
That's the account money youdon't even see missing from your
paycheck.
It's already taken out and putin some other account for you.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Exactly.
And when you budget, you don'teven think about that money you
budget with whatever isleftover.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Think about like when you order pizza and you tip the
pizza delivery person a fewbucks, like, do you notice that
$3,$5 is missing?
No.
So why not put that in aninvestment account and work for
yourself while also tipping thepiece of back office?
Speaker 1 (19:07):
I would say that is probably one of the biggest
tips.
If anybody should take anythingout of this is automate,
automate, automate your savings.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Yes.
And I would say also just readas much as you can or listen to
YouTube videos, whatever yourpreferred method of learning or
educational resources.
There's so much out there on theinternet.
And if you're looking upsomething that you know is a
real website with like practicaladvice, I don't know about,
there's some weird subredditsout there.
(19:37):
So I've known about those, butI'm definitely going off of like
NerdWallet talking to yourfriends and family who, you
know, are pretty savvy withmoney.
That's a good way to get a lotof tips too.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
That's true.
And I would like to add to thatthere are a lot of investment
firms now, not a lot, butupcoming that, that are actually
industry that I actuallytargeted towards women and women
investors.
One of them is Ellevest.
I don't know if you're aware ofElvis, but they have some really
(20:10):
great free resources.
Um, yeah.
And, uh, one of the things thatI read about is, you know, how
every time people tell you,don't go buy a cup of Starbucks.
You need,
Speaker 3 (20:25):
If you become a millionaire,
Speaker 1 (20:30):
It's like, go get a Starbucks coffee.
Okay.
That is not going to build you.
Buying Starbucks is not going tokeep you from building wealth.
You know, there's a lot needier,a lot of, uh, better advice out
there, investment advice outthere for other than don't buy
coffee.
I thought, um, I thought thatwas really great.
(20:52):
And I would say podcasts topodcasts are great for, and
there are so many aboutfinancial investment, including
what we're doing today, right?
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've gotten into a few financialpodcasts over the years.
It does help build yourknowledge, your confidence, just
listening to other people'spersonal stories or other
people's advice.
Yeah,
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I agree.
And one of the things I've I'vedone also is following them on
social.
Like I follow Elvis stones onInstagram and I also subscribe
to their newsletter and theyjust have a wealth of
information.
So when you're bored or you havea few minutes to spare or you're
standing in line at the grocerystore, it's just so easy to pull
(21:36):
it up and be like, Oh, I didn'tknow about that.
And sometimes, uh, they give youthe information in snippets, so
it doesn't feel
Speaker 3 (21:44):
That's great.
Yeah.
I'd never have looked into Lmyself, but I know a family,
like a cousin of mine uses itand I've heard really good
reviews about it.
So it's doing good work,especially if it's targeting
women who might not be asconfident to go to lunch and
investing.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I totally agree.
Okay.
So we're going back to our lastquestion and we already touched
on it because we were talkingabout, uh, some of the resources
that, uh, women can tap into.
So are there other resources andtools that you can think of that
you can share with us today thatwomen can tap into to gain that
confidence they need to invest?
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Well, like you were saying with reading the
newsletter from Ellevest orreading some of their snippets,
like just reading that stuffwhen it comes across your desk
or your inbox or the newsheadlines, when you see
something about money, financessaving, why not read it, skim
it, maybe it's stuff you alreadyknow.
But even if you already knowthese things, it could reinforce
(22:44):
it in your, in your mind.
And you can, like, it could bethe motivation for you to put it
to work.
I always try to read up on like,whatever finance topics I come
across.
And I would say, talk to people,open the conversation,
especially if you are a femaleand you might have a lot of
female friends or family memberstalk to them about money.
(23:05):
Cause women don't talk to eachother about money enough.
And that's why we get paid 80cents on the dollar for every
dollar manmade.
You have to be open about itbecause you're not going to
learn anything.
If you don't talk about it orask questions,
Speaker 1 (23:20):
I completely agree.
And the other thing I want toadd to that is don't be afraid
to ask, you know, I always saythe worst that can ever happen
is for someone to say no, but ifyou come, you know, to the
table, armed with your data and,um, to support, why you asking
for more money, it's highlyunlikely.
(23:41):
Someone's going to say no, andthis, they just don't want to
pay you.
Right.
It doesn't hurt to ask.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
It doesn't hurt at all.
If anything, you'll open thenegotiation.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Absolutely.
Um, is there anything else youwould like to add to that before
we close out?
Speaker 3 (23:58):
I would say if you want to get into investing, do a
little bit of research and thenjust start, like, if you have an
hour in the morning before work,or, you know, if you have an
hour of your day read up on howto invest and then the next day
go do it, it doesn't take a lotof work.
It doesn't take a lot of moneyand it's really going to help
you in the long run.
(24:19):
So stop waiting around and justdo it.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I agree.
That's a great way for us toend.
Well, thank you so much,Michelle, for joining us today
and share your amazing insightson how we can gain the
confidence we need to manage ourinvestments.
I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Of course, it was my pleasure.
So, so nice talking to you.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Oh, before you go, if our listeners want to learn
more, how can they get in touchwith you?
Cause you know, they might havesome questions.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Of course.
Yeah.
You can find me on social media.
On Instagram.
I'm at Michelle with what?
L B a C I comedy, Michellebotchy comedy.
And on Twitter, I'm Michele withone L E ACI, just Michelle bace.
Um, you can listen to my podcasttherapy relapse and just find me
on the internet.
I'm always happy to talk, youknow, BME and we'll talk about
(25:11):
money.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Awesome.
And I have to tell everybody, Idid listen to your podcast
therapy roulette, and I thoughtit was great.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Oh, thank you.
I it's a new project and I'msuper excited about it and I
love the podcasting universe.
So it's so nice to be a part ofit.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
I do too.
And hopefully, maybe the nexttime we'll have a session where
we'll talk about what you dowith your podcast, because I
think it's really great whatyou're doing.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Yeah.
That'd be awesome.
And it's a blend of mentalhealth and comedy trying to
bring more of both into yourlife.
So I love it.
And it's been a great passionproject so far, and I'm so glad
you're doing your podcast too.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Yes.
It's a passion project.
That's uh, was a long timecoming.
So it's exciting to be in thisuniverse, like you said.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Yes.
And you're empowering women,which is one of the best goals
out there.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Absolutely my passion in life.
But
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Thanks.
Thanks,
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Michelle.
Um, again, thank you for comingon.
Hopefully we'll we'll have youon another time.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Thank you so much.
I hope to talk again soon.
All right.
Have a good one.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
Your investments does not have to be intimidating by
educating yourself.
Finding low cost apps to get youstarted taking your level of
risk into consideration.
Automating your savings, askingquestions and making the time
you'll be well on your way togaining the confidence you need
to build your investments.
(26:35):
That's all for our show today.
Be sure to subscribe to ourpodcast on Apple podcasts,
Spotify, Google podcasts, andPandora.
One to learn more about how tobuild your investments and
wealth.
Check out a personal financecoffee and cash blog post on
gap.
use.com.
Also don't forget to connectwith our Facebook community at
(26:56):
gab news women to continue thisconversation and many more along
the way until next time, staysafe and find the inspiration to
live your best life.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
[inaudible].
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