April 22, 2025 • 35 mins
On this episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, I spoke with Cady North, Author and Founder of North Financial Advisors about changing the way we think about money and why we need to dare to dream big.
In this episode we discussed:
- It takes courage to make big changes like taking a sabbatical or starting a business.
- Women are more intentional and tend to think longer term.
- You should be a partner with your client.
- Why you should help your clients learn about money so that they are empowered.
- Understand your money habits, ask yourself why you are making certain decisions.
- Take the time to review your employee benefits.
Connect with Cady North:
Books:
- The Art of the Sabbatical: A Money and Mindset Guide for Your Next Work Break (Bookshop)
- The Resiliency Effect: How to Own Your Adversity to Act on Your Biggest Dreams (Bookshop)
Resources mentioned:
- The Power of Compound Interest on The Get Ready Money Podcast (here)
- Kinder Institute of Life Planning (here)
- Investopedia (here)
Bio:
Cady North is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, author, and entrepreneur. Her parents were small business owners, and she learned to balance a business checkbook by the age of 13. She spent more than a decade advising high-level executives of Fortune 500 companies while working for industry giants such as Bloomberg and Financial Executives International.
In 2015, after a life-changing sabbatical, Cady took the leap to start a financial planning business, North Financial Advisors, helping women act on their biggest dreams and build resilience for the future. As an investment advisor, international public speaker and author, her work has been featured in Bustle, Business Insider, The Washington Post, and Forbes. Her book, "The Resiliency Effect" teaches us how to own our adversity to act on our biggest dreams. Her latest work, "The Art of the Sabbatical," is a money and mindset guidebook for taking a life-changing work break. She is also a Registered Life Planner® and has an MBA from Georgetown University and BA from The University of Texas at Austin.
The Get Ready Money Podcast and its guests do not provide investment advice. All content is for educational purposes. Guest opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Get Ready Money Podcast and Tony Steuer.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Are you looking to get ready, be prepared and
transform your financial future?
Then you've come to the rightplace.
This is the Get Ready MoneyPodcast with Tony Stewart, where
Tony has insightfulconversations with financial
experts who are changing the waywe think about money.
Catch up on the latestfinancial trends and hear
(00:27):
practical advice from Tony andhis expert guests so you can
build healthy habits that work,Be empowered with tips for
implementing small changes thatcan have a big impact on your
financial future.
So sit back and get ready tohear from today's guest.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast changing the
way we think about money.
I'm pleased to be joined todayby Katie North.
Katie is an author and founderof North Financial Advisors.
In this episode, we'll bediscussing Katie's insights on
how we change the way we thinkabout money and dreaming big.
Katie, welcome to the Get ReadyMoney podcast.
(01:09):
Thanks for joining us today.
Thanks so much, tony.
Yeah, excited for theconversation, you know.
So let's get started with alittle bit about you.
What is your origin story?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, so I am a career changer.
I came from the corporate worldactually doing a lot of
advocacy in Congress aroundfinancial regulations, and I,
you know, after a period ofburnout and taking a sabbatical,
I decided to sort of pivot andmove more into personal finance
(01:41):
and I launched at that time myfinancial planning practice
called North Financial Advisors.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well that's interesting is, you know, with
your background in advocacy andCongress is because you know I
had some experience myself withthe California Department of
Insurance.
I mean, is that what spurredyou to thinking about being in
financial services yourself?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, I mean, I'd say , you know, I like, like a lot
of people you know, in their 20sand maybe early 30s, I was
doing a lot of kind of soulsearching and for me I think you
know, journaling is a reallygreat way to explore some of
those things for me.
And you know, journaling is areally great way to explore some
of those things for me.
And so I remember writing downin a journal, probably eight
years, even before I started myfinancial planning practice or
(02:32):
really had any clue how to dothis, I had written down that I
wanted to do more one-on-onepersonal finance kind of work
rather than kind of the morecorporate space.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
And you know, it just was a seed that was planted.
I think that's awesome, youknow so, so it's okay.
I'm just curious about talkinga little bit more about Congress
.
Is you know because I know inCalifornia that was hard to move
things to the legislature, evenif you know they were possibly
(03:04):
obvious to me.
I mean, do you feel sometimesthat maybe that impacts money
and how people are thinkingabout it?
Because you know, some of thesethings just take a while to
happen in Congress when they getdiluted.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
They do.
You know, I think that's bydesign as well.
I mean, the government is meantto move slowly because you
don't want wholesale changes inlaws and regulations every year
or every six months.
And so I think statelegislatures some state
legislatures don't even meetevery single year.
They maybe only meet everyother year.
Congress tends to move veryslowly as well because they want
to deliberate and discuss.
(03:41):
Because they want to deliberateand discuss, and you know, I
think that plays a role too injust how like it mirrors a
little bit and how people managetheir personal finances.
You know, change is hard acrossthe board.
Whether we're looking at, youknow, congressional approval
process of new laws andregulations, or we're looking at
our careers or our personalfinances, change is often really
(04:02):
hard.
The status quo is our brain.
It's like a well-worn path inour brains and it's easy to
stick with what we've alwaysdone.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah, Well, I love that and that directly does
impact money and all parts ofour lives and I think you know,
for Congress you know, it.
You know, changes are big thatthey make sometimes and they
have unintended consequences.
I think, as we've seen fromother legislation is like wow, I
(04:31):
don't think that's quite whatthey intended.
Yeah, exactly it plays out and Iknow they go through that, you
know, like the what ifsscenarios.
So that's, that's awesome.
I appreciate you talking aboutthat a little bit.
So you know, let's switch gearsand talk about your book.
Yeah, what, what inspired youto write the art of the
(04:52):
sabbatical?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yeah, so I would say that I've become a sabbatical
advocate by accident.
You know when I took mysabbatical back in 2015 before
launching my financial planningpractice.
I did not know then howtransformative and how powerful
that experience would be in mylife.
You know, for me I was veryburned out in my career and I
(05:15):
knew that I just couldn'tcontinue going forward and I had
to kind of stop the spinning,as I like to call it, and stop
the stress altogether.
And for me I just needed to notdo anything and it was a big
teaching moment for me because Ithink I had placed so much of
my self-worth in achievement andbusyness and getting stuff done
(05:36):
in my career that when I didn'thave that anymore, it was a way
to relearn who I was when Iwasn't working and that in turn,
helped me discover, I think,how to build a business and how
to create something for myselfthat wasn't so hustle focused,
that was very sustainable for meand created a lot of balance in
(05:56):
my life that I didn't haveprior to my sabbatical.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Interesting because I think that's something a lot of
us struggle with as we come outof college, maybe, or high
school, and we go into ourcareers and then you know, we
just go one thing follows theother and then all of a sudden
you know 20 or 30 years you'rein.
So that really did allow you tocalibrate.
Now was that between yourcareer in Congress and financial
(06:23):
planning?
Speaker 3 (06:24):
It was.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah, it was.
You know, I was working for aglobal news and data
organization, so I was more likecommunicating and analyzing
what Congress was doing to thegeneral public and to businesses
and kind of playing that roleof translator.
And that lends itself reallywell to financial planning,
right, because in my work withclients that's kind of my role.
(06:49):
It's like I want to explain andhelp them understand, you know,
not just what the IRS is doingor new regulations on the books
are doing, but in general justgive them a way to learn more
about their personal financesand feel more empowered.
And so I was able to, you know,take that previous experience
and utilize it and I think itmakes me a better planner.
(07:10):
Having had the experienceworking in corporate, it's like
I kind of understand my clientsmore, the kinds of compensation
packages they get, the kinds ofnegotiation that they do
whenever they're up forpromotion and that sorts of
things, so that that plays a bigrole in the work that I do with
clients.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Well, that's awesome, and I think you said something
to emphasize that you know quitea few of my guests talk about
is helping clients feelempowered.
I mean, why do you feel that'sa core?
Because a lot of advisors, Ithink, come from that school.
Like you know, I'm going tohelp my you know I'm going to
(07:46):
more tell my clients what to dorather than allow the clients to
make those decisions forthemselves.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
All of us in that program my cohort were very
successful in our careers.
We maybe had multiple kind ofcertifications and educational
backgrounds behind our names,not just the MBA that we were
working on, and we were all of asimilar age as well, and yet
there were so many that had alot of fear and anxiety and
concern around personal finances.
And even being someone incorporate finance, for instance,
and leveling up in their careerin that way does not
necessarily mean that you willhave the skills to manage your
own personal financeseffectively.
And so you know, I grew up in afamily where I learned to do a
lot of this stuff early on.
My parents were small businessowners.
I was like balancing thebusiness checkbook when I was a
(08:47):
kid, working in the office,collecting sales tax and
calculating it and all that kindof stuff, and so I kind of had
a comfortability withspreadsheets and finances in a
way that a lot of people don'tgrow up with.
And so I knew going throughthat MBA program that there was
an opportunity to work withpeople who were working
(09:10):
professionals, who are younger,that aren't normally served by
this profession, who aren'tretiring or about to retire,
right, and so it's definitelysomething that it requires a
different approach.
Right Like you're a partner anda sounding board for your
clients as they move throughtheir careers and build their
(09:30):
wealth, versus someone coming atyou saying, well, do this.
Not that I find that there'sjust a lot more success that
clients have when it feels likean empowering approach.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
I love that and I think that's so important for
advisors and insurance agents tothink about is to be a partner
with your client, to help yourclient guide them as a counselor
rather than as a director, Iguess.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
That's what good coaches do, is they help people
succeed and learn.
So one of the things you talkabout is dreaming big.
Why should people dream big?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah, I mean, I think this comes up with my work and
coaching clients who are takingsabbaticals too right.
It's like, I think, when we talkabout the status quo and our
careers, it's kind of like thenext thing the big thing might
be, feel scary and unknown, andso our brains shut down and say
maybe we shouldn't do this.
(10:32):
It feels a little scary, butwhen we start to do something,
think, you know, dare to dreambigger for ourselves, like
deciding to take a, an extendedtime off from work, when all of
our peers are saying, no, youmust work, work, work and build
(10:53):
your career ladder and keepgoing and keep moving.
It takes a lot of courage, and Ithink it takes a lot of
brainpower to like turn thewheels and kind of shift gears
in that way, and when we do this, though, and having the courage
to do something like take asabbatical right, it unlocks
things that we never knew weeven needed to to understand or
or work on Right, and for me,that that's the way it happened.
(11:15):
It's like I didn't even knowhow much of a role, uh, work
played in terms of myself-esteem, and when I was able
to divorce that from mypersonhood right for a period of
time.
It helped me develop ahealthier way of thinking about
work and balance in my life andto me that's a growth moment.
(11:36):
That's a huge growth moment.
That wouldn't have happened hadI not dared to dream a little
bigger for myself and, you know,have the courage to take the
time off from work.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
I love that Dare to dream a little bigger.
So I just that.
That is awesome.
So, you know, let's talk aboutthe courage that it takes,
because you know there are a lotof people you know I mean,
whether we're talking abouttaking sabbatical or, like you,
starting their own firm orwriting a book.
You know, I've talked to somany people in financial
(12:07):
services are all like I'd liketo write a book, but you know
that I don't know if I can do it.
I'm a little nervous about it.
I mean, how do you encouragepeople to?
You know, because I don't wantto say find the courage, but to
discover, like discover thecourage within themselves.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, I mean I think you know the people that I know
who've done big things anddreamed big for themselves.
They don't just sit in a vacuumand do it right Like you need
people around you who aresupportive and you need to find
I mean, mentorship is kind of aloaded word, I think, for a lot
of people but find people thatyou can bounce ideas off of and
feel supported by.
(12:48):
And when you do that you startto feel not so alone in your
crazy ideas and I think that cangive you energy in a lot of
ways.
A lot of the work that you knowI've done with the Kinder
Institute I'm a registered lifeplanner shows that you know when
you build energy around yourpurpose and your vision, that's
(13:08):
when the change can happen.
When we don't have that energyand it's just an idea or a side,
something comes across yourmind.
It's hard to take action on it.
But one way that we can buildenergy is by talking to people
and learning more about like, ifthe idea is to write a book
(13:28):
right Learning more about theexperience that other people
have had writing a book and howthey were able to be successful
and I know for me personally,had I not joined a writing
cohort, I probably wouldn't havehad my first book written and
definitely not had my secondbook written.
So for me, joining a writingcohort was really powerful
because I could link up withpeople once a week and chat
(13:50):
about my progress, and it didn'thave to be anything fancy, but
it kept the energy moving.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Well, that's awesome.
And yes, so you mentionedGeorge Kinder, who I've been
fortunate enough to have on thisshow and who is simply amazing.
So a shout out to George Kinderand the Kinder Institute
There'll be links in therebecause being a life planner is,
you know, such a different wayof looking at serving clients
(14:21):
that it's just amazing.
So I want to shout out to thatfor people.
So, and as you point out, is asupport system is key, that you
need to find a support systemfor anything that you do, even
if it's just a chat about it and, you know, go through it.
(14:42):
So I love that that youmentioned that.
That's awesome.
So, you know, one of the thingsthat we also talk about is
women tending to be a little bitrisk averse.
Is why are women risk averseand do you think this also
impacts what we've been talkingabout with daring to?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
dream.
Yeah, I mean, I don't thinkwomen are risk averse per se,
but I think women are veryintentional looking at the long
term of things.
Right, we see this on corporateboards like.
Where corporate boards havemore women on the board, they
tend to make more long termdecisions and better decisions
in the outcome of the company.
A 100% male board will tend totake higher risks on the front
(15:28):
end and maybe not all of themwill pan out, and so I like to
reframe this.
I don't think women are riskaverse at all.
I think women are just veryintentional, and so this does
play a role in what they'rewilling to do, right?
I mean, I think women like tolearn a lot about something
before they make a decision todo something, and this could go
towards the decision to startinvesting, maybe outside of a
(15:49):
retirement account.
A woman would want to learneverything about it before
making a choice and maybe ismore likely to bring on someone
to help with that before makingthe choice, whereas a man might
read an article and think, yeah,I'm going to do this.
So we start to see thisdichotomy play out.
(16:10):
But what we do know fromresearch is that women are
better investors in the long runwhen they do invest, and so
there's a real power there thatwomen have, and I think it's
just a matter of building eachother up and making sure that we
are plugging in to learn newthings and making decisions that
are going to be in our bestinterest for the long run.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
That's awesome and that's something I've heard from
other guests is that women tendto take that longer approach,
and I know in my own you knowwhen I've worked with clients in
the past is that generally menare oftentimes focused on the
return of the investment or theprice of the investment rather
than making sure they'reactually accomplishing the goal.
(16:58):
I guess getting stuck in thetactics rather than the entire
process.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Yeah, yeah, kind of the shiny object syndrome.
I mean, in a way it's like it'svery tempting to buy into that,
but it's like you really do.
When it comes to investing orreally anything about wealth
building, you really do need tothink about the long term.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah, I love that.
It's important to think of thelong term and you know, know,
crypto bros just crossed my mind, because it is bros, you know
yeah, it does tend to be, I knowwe could go on that.
I know we could go down thatroad, but you know, but I think
that's a really goodillustration.
When we think about, you know,the whole crypto movement, it's,
(17:42):
for the part, it's aconversation about men, yeah, so
you don't see a lot of womenout there talking about crypto,
or at least, I guess, leadingthe conversation.
Maybe that's a good way to putit.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Right, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
That's awesome.
You know.
One of the other things youtalk about is building
resilience and I don't know,does that also build into you
know, maybe what you discoveredduring your sabbatical or during
your travels is is you know,how did that come to you?
To you know that resilience issuch an important part of being
financially successful andsuccessful overall.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think you know my first book,
the resiliency effect, whichcame out in 2020, that was my
COVID project, my COVID babythat I birthed.
You know I talk a lot about howresilience is actually a
double-edged sword, becausethings that happen in our lives
that create resilience alsocan't we carry with.
You know, fragments of that thatmay be getting in our way,
(18:46):
right, and an example of thatfor me, you know, having grown
up and had to like, become veryfinancially independent from a
very from a young age and learna lot of things on my own is,
you know, I think that's whatplayed into me focusing so much
on work and achievement to tryto have to me, focusing so much
on work and achievement to tryto have my self-esteem needs met
(19:09):
.
And so, while I was a veryresilient person from the
outside and could do a lot ofthings on my own, fiercely
independent, right, there werefragments that remained from
time earlier in my life thatwere holding me back, and so,
when it comes to resilience, Ithink it's always important to
examine that dual edge sword,right, and things that could
have protected us in the past,we may no longer need them, or
(19:34):
parts of them, and so, while wemay have gotten through it and
had resilience as a result,we've got to look at the other
side of it, sort of the shadowside of what may be holding us
back.
That is related to thatresilience we built.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Yeah, I think that's good.
I think with money, that'soften a huge issue is there is
something that's holding us backand that self-examination is so
important to come back and dothat.
So you know, just you know wehaven't really touched on that
(20:11):
book.
Before we jump into the GetReady questions, you know, just
tell us a little bit about thatbook.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Yeah, so, like I said , the resiliency effect came
about.
It was my COVID project, and Ithink what I was really seeing
in my practice at the time withclients is that lots of people
could name big dreams that theyhad for themselves, but very few
were actually acting on themand there were things holding
them back.
And I think it goes back to alot of what we were talking
(20:38):
about the status quo effect oflike that feels safe, that feels
secure.
Taking a risk might feel alittle jolting for our bodies
and our brains, but throughoutthe book I have a lot of journal
prompts that help explore someof the background related to our
feelings on the big goals thatwe have on our life generally.
(20:59):
And so, you know, for me a biginspiration for that book was
doing the morning pages.
I don't know if you've everheard of this, but it's a, you
know, an approach.
It's a book and it's anapproach to kind of unlock
creativity that lies dormant inall of us and it's really just
about a daily writing processand journaling process.
(21:21):
And so for me, I was goingthrough that at the same time
that I was writing the book, andso a lot of the discoveries
that I was making for myself.
I was able to incorporate orincorporate reflection pieces
from that, and so it was a verycool experience because it
wasn't solely a personal financebook per se though there's some
(21:41):
personal finance wisdom inthere too it was more like a
broader life reflection kind ofa book.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
That's awesome.
So, uh, that's great.
So let's uh jump into the getready money questions.
You say the questions that I'llask all my guests are a little
bit more rapid fire.
Uh, the first one is what basicmoney concept do you wish
people knew?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Um, you know, um, this probably gets talked about
a lot on your show, but theconcept of compound money, I
know that like Roth accountsdidn't become a thing really
until the mid to late 90s.
But I always say like I wishsomeone had told me back then,
like start your Roth right.
I was in high school at thetime.
So it's like if somebody hadtold me to put tax-free money
(22:26):
away from my income, I wouldhave much more in my Roth IRA
account because of compoundinterest right.
It would have grown andcompounded in the background.
And you know I didn'tnecessarily have that
information in high school.
I learned about it much later.
But compound interest is thismagical thing that the earlier
you start and what you can dofor your kids too, is amazing,
(22:48):
because you can start them veryyoung growing and compounding
through investing in a way thatwill create wealth for them well
into the future.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
That's awesome and you're right, that is something
that probably at least half theguests bring up compound
interest and I'm always gladwhen a guest brings that up
because I hope that reinforcesfor everyone listening, whether
you're a consumer, theimportance of compound interest
for yourself, or if you're infinancial literacy education,
(23:21):
making sure that you're talkingabout the magic of compound
interest.
And, as longtime viewers andlisteners of the show know, we
have an episode dedicated tojust compound interest that
we'll link to in the show notes,so I'm glad you brought that up
, katie.
That's awesome.
Um, so what is one simple thingpeople can do each year to set
(23:45):
themselves up for financialsuccess?
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Uh, you know, taking some extra time to review your
benefits that are offered to youat your job is a really
powerful way to learn somethingabout your personal finances but
also save money, and I'mthinking an array of everything
that you elect at work, likelooking at your tax withholdings
and trying to understand thatmore, that more looking at the
(24:14):
healthcare options that you'rebeing given, the life insurance
and the disability insuranceoptions you're being given, and
making sure you're learning alittle bit about it each year.
That you're also evaluating thatamazing wealth building tool
which is saving in yourworkplace retirement plan, and
you can't just select thatnumber one time and then forget
about it.
You've always got to be pushingforward.
The IRS updates the minimum,the maximums that you can
(24:35):
contribute to those accountsevery year, and so it's always
worth a review of taking a lookat all of these.
You know wealth buildingcomponents that are just being
offered at your workplace andthey're often forgotten about,
because it's another one ofthose things where it's like we
pick it one time and we think Ilearned it back.
(24:58):
Then I'm just going to stickwith the same thing, but it's
not always the same year afteryear, and it's a good, good time
to review it for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah, now I strongly urge people to do it and people
subscribe to my newsletter.
Those, you know is are some ofthe weekly action items
reviewing different areas ofyour employee benefits, because
I think so many people, as asyou say, are on autopilot when
it comes to their employeebenefits and sometimes it's as
you mentioned.
It's like, well, this is whatI've done, but a lot of it is
(25:26):
that you need to take the timeto examine the different
benefits.
There's a lot of power in whatcompanies, a lot of employers,
offer to you as an employee, soit's worth the time to go
through it and learn about itand see what you're being
offered.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
There's even ways to give yourself a raise just by
looking at your tax withholdingsand selecting your benefits in
the right way.
Right, you don't have to askyour boss for this kind of raise
.
It's like this stuff is sopowerful it can actually impact
what you take home in yourtake-home pay.
So it's real money, you know.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Definitely yeah, and that's the thing, as you point
out, with the retirement planand corporate matches and the
different options, taking a lookat, maybe, the default
investment.
If your company has a defaultinvestment for the 401k, Is that
the right investment for you?
Does it have the lowest expensecharges?
As you talk about, one way togive yourself a raise is to save
(26:26):
on the expense charges on theinvestments in your retirement
account.
A lot of good things you can dofor yourself.
So the next question is what isone habit that people can
change when it comes to theirmoney?
Speaker 3 (26:45):
You know, I think figuring out what your habits
are around money is a good wayto start with that, you know,
because I see the gamut right ofpeople who are money avoidant,
who will kind of put their headin the sand and not do anything,
and that's a habit that needsto be explored like sort of the
why, why do I do that?
And then there's also peoplewho make you know fast and split
(27:07):
decisions around purchases thatmaybe could stand to deliberate
a little bit more on things.
And so I think it's definitelyyou know.
The first step is to examine,like, what are your habits
around money and where did thosecome from?
When maybe think about like,what are your first memories
around money and whatexperiences you have really
early on, those can be reallygood ways to help you learn more
(27:42):
about yourself and maybe startto shift your thinking a bit
more so that you can make betterdecisions.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Experiences.
You know, even growing up as achild, if you saw your parents
argue about money, that may keepyou from communicating with
your partner about money,because you, you know, you
equate it in your mind with like, if I talk about money with my
partner, we might end up arguingand that's a bad thing.
So you know, understanding that.
(28:09):
So, Katie, what money myth areyou trying to break?
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Money myth.
Let's see, you know, I think mepersonally, because I grew up
being very independent, likehaving and literally having to,
you know, cover myself for myexpenses and things like that
paid for my own college, covermyself for my expenses and
things like that I paid for myown college had to learn how to.
(28:34):
I worked full time during mycollege so I could, you know,
pay my rent, that kind of thing,right.
I think I've been on a lifetimejourney of undoing some of the
thinking that is like save, save, save at all costs and protect
(28:59):
at all costs, because there isvalue in being able to spend
money when it's necessary.
And I think taking thatsabbatical back in 2015 was also
a good teacher on that front,because it was a time when I had
been saving a ton of money.
I had enough money to live offof for three years if I really
needed to, and that gave meenough courage and enough safety
feeling to start living off ofthat income for a little while,
which created a lot moreopportunity for me, which
(29:22):
created a lot more openness andexcitement right in the end,
being able to launch my firm andhave a new way of working that
wasn't so hustle focused, and soI think there's some of that
that continues with me today thesaving and the protection of
wealth but I've been able to letgo of it along the way, which
(29:44):
has been good for me.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Well, that is awesome and I think that's something
you know, especially when welook at people who are retiring
is them flipping the switch fromaccumulation to spending.
It's something that a lot ofpeople struggle with, you know,
for a number of really goodreasons.
But it's also that permission,as you know, because sometimes
(30:07):
in personal finance it can be soextreme, like the fire movement
.
You know, financialindependence, retire early and
people are like not spendinganything but you're not enjoying
your life at the same time andfinding freedom, because it
sounds like that decisionbrought you freedom in other
ways.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
For sure, no question , and I think you know.
Going back to things that Iwish people knew more is like
money and wealth is an incomestream and it should be thought
of that way, not just like youknow something on the shelf,
you're collecting Right it's.
It actually represents anincome stream and you should
think of it that way when youexamine alternative situations,
(30:49):
whether it's jobs, saving more,saving less.
You know all those sorts ofthings.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Awesome, awesome, all right.
Well, the next question, katie,is we're going to get out the
time machine for a second.
What advice would you give youryounger self if you could go
back in time, knowing what youknow now about money?
Speaker 3 (31:11):
You know, I would want my younger self to have
more confidence around um movinginto the personal finance space
earlier.
Um, like I said I had I wantedto do this for a long time and I
I maybe didn't know how ordidn't have the um the
mentorship in my life to figureit out, but I think um had I
(31:32):
been a little bit more curiousand reaching out to people and
finding some mentors, I wouldhave been able to launch this
career much sooner, and thatwould have been great for me.
So that's, I think, what Iwould wish, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
That's awesome, that's great advice.
So what is your number onego-to money resource for
yourself, your favorite moneyresource?
Whether it's a podcast, book,newsletter, app, website, what
do you turn to?
Speaker 3 (32:03):
You know I love a good old Investopedia.
You know, reading articles onInvestopedia, I think that's a
really great information source.
To when we talk about likebreaking up not needing to learn
the whole thing overnight, butmaybe breaking up into smaller
pieces Investopedia is a greatresource to learn a little bit
about topics just in a fewminutes.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, investopedia is a great resource.
It's one of my go to resourcesas well, so I encourage people
to check it out.
There'll be a link toInvestopedia in the show notes.
So, katie, to wrap up, what isyour number one tip on changing
the way we think about?
Speaker 3 (32:41):
money.
You know money is a tool thatwe all have and I think you can
do a lot of things with yourmoney more than you think, if
you spend the time to makepriorities and build a plan
around those priorities.
In my work trying to encouragepeople to take sabbaticals, a
lot of people would think, well,how am I ever going to have the
(33:02):
money to support myself?
But really it just takes somethought and planning ahead and
over the course of months andyears you can build up resources
to cover you for something likethat.
You just have to have the ideaand then you can build a plan
around it.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Have an idea and build a plan around it, and I
think that's such a key is thatyou do need to have a plan
around.
It is that so many people youknow, for whatever reason, don't
make a plan with their money.
But, as you point out, it's atool and it's a resource, and
understanding how to use aspecific tool allows you to use
(33:45):
it better.
And that goes for any tool,physical or like we talk about,
with money.
So where can people learn moreabout you?
Where can they pick up a copyof your books?
The artists, the sabbatical andthe resiliency effect.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yeah, so all the books are available on Amazon
and anywhere you get your booksfrankly.
I mean Audible.
Both of them are an audio book.
You can find it more about meand some of the work that I do
at katynorthcom.
My name spells a little funnyso I've got to spell it out
C-A-D-Y-N-O-R-T-Hcom.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
That's awesome.
And, as always, there will belinks in the show notes to find
Katie's books, social mediaprofiles and to her websites.
So, katie, thanks for takingthe time to join us today on the
Get Ready Money podcast.
Yeah, nice chatting, tony.
Yeah, so, and thank youeveryone, as always, for tuning
(34:43):
in to this episode of the GetReady Money podcast.
If you learned something todayto change the way you think
about money, please be sure tosubscribe and to tell a friend.
Until next time, let's changethe way we think about money.
You.
Are you looking to get ready, be prepared and
transform your financial future?
Then you've come to the rightplace.
This is the Get Ready MoneyPodcast with Tony Stewart, where
Tony has insightfulconversations with financial
experts who are changing the waywe think about money.
Catch up on the latestfinancial trends and hear
(00:27):
practical advice from Tony andhis expert guests so you can
build healthy habits that work,Be empowered with tips for
implementing small changes thatcan have a big impact on your
financial future.
So sit back and get ready tohear from today's guest.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast changing the
way we think about money.
I'm pleased to be joined todayby Katie North.
Katie is an author and founderof North Financial Advisors.
In this episode, we'll bediscussing Katie's insights on
how we change the way we thinkabout money and dreaming big.
Katie, welcome to the Get ReadyMoney podcast.
(01:09):
Thanks for joining us today.
Thanks so much, tony.
Yeah, excited for theconversation, you know.
So let's get started with alittle bit about you.
What is your origin story?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, so I am a career changer.
I came from the corporate worldactually doing a lot of
advocacy in Congress aroundfinancial regulations, and I,
you know, after a period ofburnout and taking a sabbatical,
I decided to sort of pivot andmove more into personal finance
(01:41):
and I launched at that time myfinancial planning practice
called North Financial Advisors.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well that's interesting is, you know, with
your background in advocacy andCongress is because you know I
had some experience myself withthe California Department of
Insurance.
I mean, is that what spurredyou to thinking about being in
financial services yourself?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, I mean, I'd say , you know, I like, like a lot
of people you know, in their 20sand maybe early 30s, I was
doing a lot of kind of soulsearching and for me I think you
know, journaling is a reallygreat way to explore some of
those things for me.
And you know, journaling is areally great way to explore some
of those things for me.
And so I remember writing downin a journal, probably eight
years, even before I started myfinancial planning practice or
(02:32):
really had any clue how to dothis, I had written down that I
wanted to do more one-on-onepersonal finance kind of work
rather than kind of the morecorporate space.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
And you know, it just was a seed that was planted.
I think that's awesome, youknow so, so it's okay.
I'm just curious about talkinga little bit more about Congress
.
Is you know because I know inCalifornia that was hard to move
things to the legislature, evenif you know they were possibly
(03:04):
obvious to me.
I mean, do you feel sometimesthat maybe that impacts money
and how people are thinkingabout it?
Because you know, some of thesethings just take a while to
happen in Congress when they getdiluted.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
They do.
You know, I think that's bydesign as well.
I mean, the government is meantto move slowly because you
don't want wholesale changes inlaws and regulations every year
or every six months.
And so I think statelegislatures some state
legislatures don't even meetevery single year.
They maybe only meet everyother year.
Congress tends to move veryslowly as well because they want
to deliberate and discuss.
(03:41):
Because they want to deliberateand discuss, and you know, I
think that plays a role too injust how like it mirrors a
little bit and how people managetheir personal finances.
You know, change is hard acrossthe board.
Whether we're looking at, youknow, congressional approval
process of new laws andregulations, or we're looking at
our careers or our personalfinances, change is often really
(04:02):
hard.
The status quo is our brain.
It's like a well-worn path inour brains and it's easy to
stick with what we've alwaysdone.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah, Well, I love that and that directly does
impact money and all parts ofour lives and I think you know,
for Congress you know, it.
You know, changes are big thatthey make sometimes and they
have unintended consequences.
I think, as we've seen fromother legislation is like wow, I
(04:31):
don't think that's quite whatthey intended.
Yeah, exactly it plays out and Iknow they go through that, you
know, like the what ifsscenarios.
So that's, that's awesome.
I appreciate you talking aboutthat a little bit.
So you know, let's switch gearsand talk about your book.
Yeah, what, what inspired youto write the art of the
(04:52):
sabbatical?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yeah, so I would say that I've become a sabbatical
advocate by accident.
You know when I took mysabbatical back in 2015 before
launching my financial planningpractice.
I did not know then howtransformative and how powerful
that experience would be in mylife.
You know, for me I was veryburned out in my career and I
(05:15):
knew that I just couldn'tcontinue going forward and I had
to kind of stop the spinning,as I like to call it, and stop
the stress altogether.
And for me I just needed to notdo anything and it was a big
teaching moment for me because Ithink I had placed so much of
my self-worth in achievement andbusyness and getting stuff done
(05:36):
in my career that when I didn'thave that anymore, it was a way
to relearn who I was when Iwasn't working and that in turn,
helped me discover, I think,how to build a business and how
to create something for myselfthat wasn't so hustle focused,
that was very sustainable for meand created a lot of balance in
(05:56):
my life that I didn't haveprior to my sabbatical.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Interesting because I think that's something a lot of
us struggle with as we come outof college, maybe, or high
school, and we go into ourcareers and then you know, we
just go one thing follows theother and then all of a sudden
you know 20 or 30 years you'rein.
So that really did allow you tocalibrate.
Now was that between yourcareer in Congress and financial
(06:23):
planning?
Speaker 3 (06:24):
It was.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah, it was.
You know, I was working for aglobal news and data
organization, so I was more likecommunicating and analyzing
what Congress was doing to thegeneral public and to businesses
and kind of playing that roleof translator.
And that lends itself reallywell to financial planning,
right, because in my work withclients that's kind of my role.
(06:49):
It's like I want to explain andhelp them understand, you know,
not just what the IRS is doingor new regulations on the books
are doing, but in general justgive them a way to learn more
about their personal financesand feel more empowered.
And so I was able to, you know,take that previous experience
and utilize it and I think itmakes me a better planner.
(07:10):
Having had the experienceworking in corporate, it's like
I kind of understand my clientsmore, the kinds of compensation
packages they get, the kinds ofnegotiation that they do
whenever they're up forpromotion and that sorts of
things, so that that plays a bigrole in the work that I do with
clients.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Well, that's awesome, and I think you said something
to emphasize that you know quitea few of my guests talk about
is helping clients feelempowered.
I mean, why do you feel that'sa core?
Because a lot of advisors, Ithink, come from that school.
Like you know, I'm going tohelp my you know I'm going to
(07:46):
more tell my clients what to dorather than allow the clients to
make those decisions forthemselves.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
All of us in that program my cohort were very
successful in our careers.
We maybe had multiple kind ofcertifications and educational
backgrounds behind our names,not just the MBA that we were
working on, and we were all of asimilar age as well, and yet
there were so many that had alot of fear and anxiety and
concern around personal finances.
And even being someone incorporate finance, for instance,
and leveling up in their careerin that way does not
necessarily mean that you willhave the skills to manage your
own personal financeseffectively.
And so you know, I grew up in afamily where I learned to do a
lot of this stuff early on.
My parents were small businessowners.
I was like balancing thebusiness checkbook when I was a
(08:47):
kid, working in the office,collecting sales tax and
calculating it and all that kindof stuff, and so I kind of had
a comfortability withspreadsheets and finances in a
way that a lot of people don'tgrow up with.
And so I knew going throughthat MBA program that there was
an opportunity to work withpeople who were working
(09:10):
professionals, who are younger,that aren't normally served by
this profession, who aren'tretiring or about to retire,
right, and so it's definitelysomething that it requires a
different approach.
Right Like you're a partner anda sounding board for your
clients as they move throughtheir careers and build their
(09:30):
wealth, versus someone coming atyou saying, well, do this.
Not that I find that there'sjust a lot more success that
clients have when it feels likean empowering approach.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
I love that and I think that's so important for
advisors and insurance agents tothink about is to be a partner
with your client, to help yourclient guide them as a counselor
rather than as a director, Iguess.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
That's what good coaches do, is they help people
succeed and learn.
So one of the things you talkabout is dreaming big.
Why should people dream big?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah, I mean, I think this comes up with my work and
coaching clients who are takingsabbaticals too right.
It's like, I think, when we talkabout the status quo and our
careers, it's kind of like thenext thing the big thing might
be, feel scary and unknown, andso our brains shut down and say
maybe we shouldn't do this.
(10:32):
It feels a little scary, butwhen we start to do something,
think, you know, dare to dreambigger for ourselves, like
deciding to take a, an extendedtime off from work, when all of
our peers are saying, no, youmust work, work, work and build
(10:53):
your career ladder and keepgoing and keep moving.
It takes a lot of courage, and Ithink it takes a lot of
brainpower to like turn thewheels and kind of shift gears
in that way, and when we do this, though, and having the courage
to do something like take asabbatical right, it unlocks
things that we never knew weeven needed to to understand or
or work on Right, and for me,that that's the way it happened.
(11:15):
It's like I didn't even knowhow much of a role, uh, work
played in terms of myself-esteem, and when I was able
to divorce that from mypersonhood right for a period of
time.
It helped me develop ahealthier way of thinking about
work and balance in my life andto me that's a growth moment.
(11:36):
That's a huge growth moment.
That wouldn't have happened hadI not dared to dream a little
bigger for myself and, you know,have the courage to take the
time off from work.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
I love that Dare to dream a little bigger.
So I just that.
That is awesome.
So, you know, let's talk aboutthe courage that it takes,
because you know there are a lotof people you know I mean,
whether we're talking abouttaking sabbatical or, like you,
starting their own firm orwriting a book.
You know, I've talked to somany people in financial
(12:07):
services are all like I'd liketo write a book, but you know
that I don't know if I can do it.
I'm a little nervous about it.
I mean, how do you encouragepeople to?
You know, because I don't wantto say find the courage, but to
discover, like discover thecourage within themselves.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, I mean I think you know the people that I know
who've done big things anddreamed big for themselves.
They don't just sit in a vacuumand do it right Like you need
people around you who aresupportive and you need to find
I mean, mentorship is kind of aloaded word, I think, for a lot
of people but find people thatyou can bounce ideas off of and
feel supported by.
(12:48):
And when you do that you startto feel not so alone in your
crazy ideas and I think that cangive you energy in a lot of
ways.
A lot of the work that you knowI've done with the Kinder
Institute I'm a registered lifeplanner shows that you know when
you build energy around yourpurpose and your vision, that's
(13:08):
when the change can happen.
When we don't have that energyand it's just an idea or a side,
something comes across yourmind.
It's hard to take action on it.
But one way that we can buildenergy is by talking to people
and learning more about like, ifthe idea is to write a book
(13:28):
right Learning more about theexperience that other people
have had writing a book and howthey were able to be successful
and I know for me personally,had I not joined a writing
cohort, I probably wouldn't havehad my first book written and
definitely not had my secondbook written.
So for me, joining a writingcohort was really powerful
because I could link up withpeople once a week and chat
(13:50):
about my progress, and it didn'thave to be anything fancy, but
it kept the energy moving.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Well, that's awesome.
And yes, so you mentionedGeorge Kinder, who I've been
fortunate enough to have on thisshow and who is simply amazing.
So a shout out to George Kinderand the Kinder Institute
There'll be links in therebecause being a life planner is,
you know, such a different wayof looking at serving clients
(14:21):
that it's just amazing.
So I want to shout out to thatfor people.
So, and as you point out, is asupport system is key, that you
need to find a support systemfor anything that you do, even
if it's just a chat about it and, you know, go through it.
(14:42):
So I love that that youmentioned that.
That's awesome.
So, you know, one of the thingsthat we also talk about is
women tending to be a little bitrisk averse.
Is why are women risk averseand do you think this also
impacts what we've been talkingabout with daring to?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
dream.
Yeah, I mean, I don't thinkwomen are risk averse per se,
but I think women are veryintentional looking at the long
term of things.
Right, we see this on corporateboards like.
Where corporate boards havemore women on the board, they
tend to make more long termdecisions and better decisions
in the outcome of the company.
A 100% male board will tend totake higher risks on the front
(15:28):
end and maybe not all of themwill pan out, and so I like to
reframe this.
I don't think women are riskaverse at all.
I think women are just veryintentional, and so this does
play a role in what they'rewilling to do, right?
I mean, I think women like tolearn a lot about something
before they make a decision todo something, and this could go
towards the decision to startinvesting, maybe outside of a
(15:49):
retirement account.
A woman would want to learneverything about it before
making a choice and maybe ismore likely to bring on someone
to help with that before makingthe choice, whereas a man might
read an article and think, yeah,I'm going to do this.
So we start to see thisdichotomy play out.
(16:10):
But what we do know fromresearch is that women are
better investors in the long runwhen they do invest, and so
there's a real power there thatwomen have, and I think it's
just a matter of building eachother up and making sure that we
are plugging in to learn newthings and making decisions that
are going to be in our bestinterest for the long run.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
That's awesome and that's something I've heard from
other guests is that women tendto take that longer approach,
and I know in my own you knowwhen I've worked with clients in
the past is that generally menare oftentimes focused on the
return of the investment or theprice of the investment rather
than making sure they'reactually accomplishing the goal.
(16:58):
I guess getting stuck in thetactics rather than the entire
process.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Yeah, yeah, kind of the shiny object syndrome.
I mean, in a way it's like it'svery tempting to buy into that,
but it's like you really do.
When it comes to investing orreally anything about wealth
building, you really do need tothink about the long term.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah, I love that.
It's important to think of thelong term and you know, know,
crypto bros just crossed my mind, because it is bros, you know
yeah, it does tend to be, I knowwe could go on that.
I know we could go down thatroad, but you know, but I think
that's a really goodillustration.
When we think about, you know,the whole crypto movement, it's,
(17:42):
for the part, it's aconversation about men, yeah, so
you don't see a lot of womenout there talking about crypto,
or at least, I guess, leadingthe conversation.
Maybe that's a good way to putit.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Right, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
That's awesome.
You know.
One of the other things youtalk about is building
resilience and I don't know,does that also build into you
know, maybe what you discoveredduring your sabbatical or during
your travels is is you know,how did that come to you?
To you know that resilience issuch an important part of being
financially successful andsuccessful overall.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think you know my first book,
the resiliency effect, whichcame out in 2020, that was my
COVID project, my COVID babythat I birthed.
You know I talk a lot about howresilience is actually a
double-edged sword, becausethings that happen in our lives
that create resilience alsocan't we carry with.
You know, fragments of that thatmay be getting in our way,
(18:46):
right, and an example of thatfor me, you know, having grown
up and had to like, become veryfinancially independent from a
very from a young age and learna lot of things on my own is,
you know, I think that's whatplayed into me focusing so much
on work and achievement to tryto have to me, focusing so much
on work and achievement to tryto have my self-esteem needs met
(19:09):
.
And so, while I was a veryresilient person from the
outside and could do a lot ofthings on my own, fiercely
independent, right, there werefragments that remained from
time earlier in my life thatwere holding me back, and so,
when it comes to resilience, Ithink it's always important to
examine that dual edge sword,right, and things that could
have protected us in the past,we may no longer need them, or
(19:34):
parts of them, and so, while wemay have gotten through it and
had resilience as a result,we've got to look at the other
side of it, sort of the shadowside of what may be holding us
back.
That is related to thatresilience we built.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Yeah, I think that's good.
I think with money, that'soften a huge issue is there is
something that's holding us backand that self-examination is so
important to come back and dothat.
So you know, just you know wehaven't really touched on that
(20:11):
book.
Before we jump into the GetReady questions, you know, just
tell us a little bit about thatbook.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Yeah, so, like I said , the resiliency effect came
about.
It was my COVID project, and Ithink what I was really seeing
in my practice at the time withclients is that lots of people
could name big dreams that theyhad for themselves, but very few
were actually acting on themand there were things holding
them back.
And I think it goes back to alot of what we were talking
(20:38):
about the status quo effect oflike that feels safe, that feels
secure.
Taking a risk might feel alittle jolting for our bodies
and our brains, but throughoutthe book I have a lot of journal
prompts that help explore someof the background related to our
feelings on the big goals thatwe have on our life generally.
(20:59):
And so, you know, for me a biginspiration for that book was
doing the morning pages.
I don't know if you've everheard of this, but it's a, you
know, an approach.
It's a book and it's anapproach to kind of unlock
creativity that lies dormant inall of us and it's really just
about a daily writing processand journaling process.
(21:21):
And so for me, I was goingthrough that at the same time
that I was writing the book, andso a lot of the discoveries
that I was making for myself.
I was able to incorporate orincorporate reflection pieces
from that, and so it was a verycool experience because it
wasn't solely a personal financebook per se though there's some
(21:41):
personal finance wisdom inthere too it was more like a
broader life reflection kind ofa book.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
That's awesome.
So, uh, that's great.
So let's uh jump into the getready money questions.
You say the questions that I'llask all my guests are a little
bit more rapid fire.
Uh, the first one is what basicmoney concept do you wish
people knew?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Um, you know, um, this probably gets talked about
a lot on your show, but theconcept of compound money, I
know that like Roth accountsdidn't become a thing really
until the mid to late 90s.
But I always say like I wishsomeone had told me back then,
like start your Roth right.
I was in high school at thetime.
So it's like if somebody hadtold me to put tax-free money
(22:26):
away from my income, I wouldhave much more in my Roth IRA
account because of compoundinterest right.
It would have grown andcompounded in the background.
And you know I didn'tnecessarily have that
information in high school.
I learned about it much later.
But compound interest is thismagical thing that the earlier
you start and what you can dofor your kids too, is amazing,
(22:48):
because you can start them veryyoung growing and compounding
through investing in a way thatwill create wealth for them well
into the future.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
That's awesome and you're right, that is something
that probably at least half theguests bring up compound
interest and I'm always gladwhen a guest brings that up
because I hope that reinforcesfor everyone listening, whether
you're a consumer, theimportance of compound interest
for yourself, or if you're infinancial literacy education,
(23:21):
making sure that you're talkingabout the magic of compound
interest.
And, as longtime viewers andlisteners of the show know, we
have an episode dedicated tojust compound interest that
we'll link to in the show notes,so I'm glad you brought that up
, katie.
That's awesome.
Um, so what is one simple thingpeople can do each year to set
(23:45):
themselves up for financialsuccess?
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Uh, you know, taking some extra time to review your
benefits that are offered to youat your job is a really
powerful way to learn somethingabout your personal finances but
also save money, and I'mthinking an array of everything
that you elect at work, likelooking at your tax withholdings
and trying to understand thatmore, that more looking at the
(24:14):
healthcare options that you'rebeing given, the life insurance
and the disability insuranceoptions you're being given, and
making sure you're learning alittle bit about it each year.
That you're also evaluating thatamazing wealth building tool
which is saving in yourworkplace retirement plan, and
you can't just select thatnumber one time and then forget
about it.
You've always got to be pushingforward.
The IRS updates the minimum,the maximums that you can
(24:35):
contribute to those accountsevery year, and so it's always
worth a review of taking a lookat all of these.
You know wealth buildingcomponents that are just being
offered at your workplace andthey're often forgotten about,
because it's another one ofthose things where it's like we
pick it one time and we think Ilearned it back.
(24:58):
Then I'm just going to stickwith the same thing, but it's
not always the same year afteryear, and it's a good, good time
to review it for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah, now I strongly urge people to do it and people
subscribe to my newsletter.
Those, you know is are some ofthe weekly action items
reviewing different areas ofyour employee benefits, because
I think so many people, as asyou say, are on autopilot when
it comes to their employeebenefits and sometimes it's as
you mentioned.
It's like, well, this is whatI've done, but a lot of it is
(25:26):
that you need to take the timeto examine the different
benefits.
There's a lot of power in whatcompanies, a lot of employers,
offer to you as an employee, soit's worth the time to go
through it and learn about itand see what you're being
offered.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
There's even ways to give yourself a raise just by
looking at your tax withholdingsand selecting your benefits in
the right way.
Right, you don't have to askyour boss for this kind of raise
.
It's like this stuff is sopowerful it can actually impact
what you take home in yourtake-home pay.
So it's real money, you know.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Definitely yeah, and that's the thing, as you point
out, with the retirement planand corporate matches and the
different options, taking a lookat, maybe, the default
investment.
If your company has a defaultinvestment for the 401k, Is that
the right investment for you?
Does it have the lowest expensecharges?
As you talk about, one way togive yourself a raise is to save
(26:26):
on the expense charges on theinvestments in your retirement
account.
A lot of good things you can dofor yourself.
So the next question is what isone habit that people can
change when it comes to theirmoney?
Speaker 3 (26:45):
You know, I think figuring out what your habits
are around money is a good wayto start with that, you know,
because I see the gamut right ofpeople who are money avoidant,
who will kind of put their headin the sand and not do anything,
and that's a habit that needsto be explored like sort of the
why, why do I do that?
And then there's also peoplewho make you know fast and split
(27:07):
decisions around purchases thatmaybe could stand to deliberate
a little bit more on things.
And so I think it's definitelyyou know.
The first step is to examine,like, what are your habits
around money and where did thosecome from?
When maybe think about like,what are your first memories
around money and whatexperiences you have really
early on, those can be reallygood ways to help you learn more
(27:42):
about yourself and maybe startto shift your thinking a bit
more so that you can make betterdecisions.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Experiences.
You know, even growing up as achild, if you saw your parents
argue about money, that may keepyou from communicating with
your partner about money,because you, you know, you
equate it in your mind with like, if I talk about money with my
partner, we might end up arguingand that's a bad thing.
So you know, understanding that.
(28:09):
So, Katie, what money myth areyou trying to break?
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Money myth.
Let's see, you know, I think mepersonally, because I grew up
being very independent, likehaving and literally having to,
you know, cover myself for myexpenses and things like that
paid for my own college, covermyself for my expenses and
things like that I paid for myown college had to learn how to.
(28:34):
I worked full time during mycollege so I could, you know,
pay my rent, that kind of thing,right.
I think I've been on a lifetimejourney of undoing some of the
thinking that is like save, save, save at all costs and protect
(28:59):
at all costs, because there isvalue in being able to spend
money when it's necessary.
And I think taking thatsabbatical back in 2015 was also
a good teacher on that front,because it was a time when I had
been saving a ton of money.
I had enough money to live offof for three years if I really
needed to, and that gave meenough courage and enough safety
feeling to start living off ofthat income for a little while,
which created a lot moreopportunity for me, which
(29:22):
created a lot more openness andexcitement right in the end,
being able to launch my firm andhave a new way of working that
wasn't so hustle focused, and soI think there's some of that
that continues with me today thesaving and the protection of
wealth but I've been able to letgo of it along the way, which
(29:44):
has been good for me.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Well, that is awesome and I think that's something
you know, especially when welook at people who are retiring
is them flipping the switch fromaccumulation to spending.
It's something that a lot ofpeople struggle with, you know,
for a number of really goodreasons.
But it's also that permission,as you know, because sometimes
(30:07):
in personal finance it can be soextreme, like the fire movement
.
You know, financialindependence, retire early and
people are like not spendinganything but you're not enjoying
your life at the same time andfinding freedom, because it
sounds like that decisionbrought you freedom in other
ways.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
For sure, no question , and I think you know.
Going back to things that Iwish people knew more is like
money and wealth is an incomestream and it should be thought
of that way, not just like youknow something on the shelf,
you're collecting Right it's.
It actually represents anincome stream and you should
think of it that way when youexamine alternative situations,
(30:49):
whether it's jobs, saving more,saving less.
You know all those sorts ofthings.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Awesome, awesome, all right.
Well, the next question, katie,is we're going to get out the
time machine for a second.
What advice would you give youryounger self if you could go
back in time, knowing what youknow now about money?
Speaker 3 (31:11):
You know, I would want my younger self to have
more confidence around um movinginto the personal finance space
earlier.
Um, like I said I had I wantedto do this for a long time and I
I maybe didn't know how ordidn't have the um the
mentorship in my life to figureit out, but I think um had I
(31:32):
been a little bit more curiousand reaching out to people and
finding some mentors, I wouldhave been able to launch this
career much sooner, and thatwould have been great for me.
So that's, I think, what Iwould wish, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
That's awesome, that's great advice.
So what is your number onego-to money resource for
yourself, your favorite moneyresource?
Whether it's a podcast, book,newsletter, app, website, what
do you turn to?
Speaker 3 (32:03):
You know I love a good old Investopedia.
You know, reading articles onInvestopedia, I think that's a
really great information source.
To when we talk about likebreaking up not needing to learn
the whole thing overnight, butmaybe breaking up into smaller
pieces Investopedia is a greatresource to learn a little bit
about topics just in a fewminutes.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, investopedia is a great resource.
It's one of my go to resourcesas well, so I encourage people
to check it out.
There'll be a link toInvestopedia in the show notes.
So, katie, to wrap up, what isyour number one tip on changing
the way we think about?
Speaker 3 (32:41):
money.
You know money is a tool thatwe all have and I think you can
do a lot of things with yourmoney more than you think, if
you spend the time to makepriorities and build a plan
around those priorities.
In my work trying to encouragepeople to take sabbaticals, a
lot of people would think, well,how am I ever going to have the
(33:02):
money to support myself?
But really it just takes somethought and planning ahead and
over the course of months andyears you can build up resources
to cover you for something likethat.
You just have to have the ideaand then you can build a plan
around it.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Have an idea and build a plan around it, and I
think that's such a key is thatyou do need to have a plan
around.
It is that so many people youknow, for whatever reason, don't
make a plan with their money.
But, as you point out, it's atool and it's a resource, and
understanding how to use aspecific tool allows you to use
(33:45):
it better.
And that goes for any tool,physical or like we talk about,
with money.
So where can people learn moreabout you?
Where can they pick up a copyof your books?
The artists, the sabbatical andthe resiliency effect.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yeah, so all the books are available on Amazon
and anywhere you get your booksfrankly.
I mean Audible.
Both of them are an audio book.
You can find it more about meand some of the work that I do
at katynorthcom.
My name spells a little funnyso I've got to spell it out
C-A-D-Y-N-O-R-T-Hcom.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
That's awesome.
And, as always, there will belinks in the show notes to find
Katie's books, social mediaprofiles and to her websites.
So, katie, thanks for takingthe time to join us today on the
Get Ready Money podcast.
Yeah, nice chatting, tony.
Yeah, so, and thank youeveryone, as always, for tuning
(34:43):
in to this episode of the GetReady Money podcast.
If you learned something todayto change the way you think
about money, please be sure tosubscribe and to tell a friend.
Until next time, let's changethe way we think about money.
You.
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