EP 57 - Mabel Nunez - Beginner Investing Tips! Build Wealth with Quality Stocks!!

Ready for some awesome beginner investing tips? Mabel Nunez, the founder of Girls on the Money talks about how she went from working in insurance to becoming a big advocate for female investors. Mabel's interest in investing started in college and turned into a business helping women learn about the stock market. She shares why picking high-quality stocks and funds is important and gives advice on how to avoid risky investments like penny stocks and meme stocks. You'll learn about the benefits of ETFs and fractional shares and get tips on the best platforms for new investors, like Fidelity, Schwab, and Stockpile for children. Mabel also talks about balancing business with personal life and the importance of financial education, especially for Spanish-speaking communities. This episode is packed with useful advice to help you make smart investing choices and build long-term wealth. Tune in and get inspired!


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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:45

Welcome back to the Money Focus Podcast. I'm your host, moses the mentor, and on this episode, I'm joined by Mabel Nunez. She's the brilliant mind behind Girls on the Money, which is a company dedicated to educating beginners on stock market investing. Mabel is transforming novices into savvy investors and she's here to share her wisdom on living frugally, saving abundantly and investing intelligently. So let's gain some valuable insights from Mabel's journey and expertise. Let's go, all right. Thank you so much, mabel, for joining Money Focus Podcast. I really appreciate you, and the first thing I would like to start the show off with is just for you to really walk us through your career journey, professional journey and, ultimately, what made you start your business. So the floor is yours.

Speaker 2: 1:37

Thank you. Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm honored to be in your podcast talking about one of my favorite topics. So I guess, career wise, I started my career in the insurance industry. That was actually my first job out of college and it had nothing to do with investing, but I did discover the stock market in college, my senior year, and that's when I became obsessed with the stock market and learning how to invest. So I kind of continue that as like a side hobby while I worked in the insurance industry and I worked there for nine years after college, which wasn't that wasn't my plan I was planning to, okay, I got my first job, let me see how it goes and then transition into, like Wall Street or investment banking. That did not end up happening. I just, you know, you kind of get used to your career and you get promoted and you kind of feel like, not that you're stuck, but that you feel comfortable. So that's what happened to me.

Speaker 2: 2:30

But simultaneously I was actually also investing on the side, learning how to invest, and I was obsessed because I noticed how much money I was making in my investment versus my money that was sitting in the bank. That was one of the main things that caught my attention early on when I started my journey. And then I noticed very quickly that most of the people that would want to talk about investing in the markets with me were men. All of my male co-workers were into stocks and funds or whatever, and my female co-workers would avoid the conversations or say what are you talking about? You're in the markets? Like they thought it was crazy or they were all confused or intimidated because they didn't know how to start doing it themselves.

Speaker 2: 3:10

So as soon as I noticed that, I realized there was a need for more women to get involved in the markets, to learn how to invest the right way, to learn how to build wealth over time. So I kind of you know that sparked my interest into going into that, into that path of kind of teaching more women to invest. So I started with my own female coworkers at my job when I you know, when I was like in my twenties, out of college, and then it kind of balloons into what it is today, which is my business. But that's kind of how my inspiration started. I just wanted to get my fellow ladies also involved because I noticed that they weren't you know, they weren't in it. So that's how it went.

Speaker 1: 3:50

I appreciate you giving that that backstory, because you're right. I mean, you know, I watch CNBC all the time, for example, and I've noticed more and more females on there, but you know years ago for sure it was definitely more male dominated, especially from the analyst perspective, like you might have some commentators that'll, you know, be doing the interviews, but those experts was male dominated for sure. So what investment techniques are you teaching right now, like, what are some things out the gate that you know you try to emphasize for someone in your program that you want to make sure that they have a firm understanding of?

Speaker 2: 4:29

So my investing methodology or technique hasn't changed over the years. He has pretty much been consistent and is what I, what has worked for me and what I teach my audience is to. I invest for the long term, first of all. So I'm an investor that does her research, finds high quality stocks and funds based on that research, and then I hold on to my investments for many years. I tell my audience at least three to five years you wanna be long-term, but personally I've had stocks that I've owned for 15 years, 10 years, eight years. I'm very, very long-term Only because I've noticed that when you invest in quality and you hold on to high-quality investments for a long time, you can see how your money grows and compounds very efficiently, very rapidly, when you compare it to, obviously, money in the bank. That's a methodology that I kind of teach my students and clients just to how to do their due diligence in terms of making sure you're selecting high quality investments, because the purpose is to hold on for the long term and grow your wealth.

Speaker 1: 5:32

Is there any particular metric that you emphasize more than another as far as, like, what would pretty much justify one company being high quality per se, like, is there something if someone wasn't familiar with trading? What are some things you look for?

Speaker 2: 5:51

So I look for different things. We're looking at stocks versus funds like ETFs or index funds. So when I'm investing in individual stocks, I focus on companies that already have a proven track record of profitability. They're growing, they're thriving, they have a lot of money in their cash account to continue growing and thriving. So my method is to focus on the leaders, the high quality investments, and see them continue to flourish over time.

Speaker 2: 6:18

Obviously, I make adjustments if my thesis changes, like if the company no longer aligns with their original purpose or things have changed drastically, where my original reason for buying it changes. At that point I do make considerations and I do sell, but that's very rare. And the point that I'm trying to make is that I don't invest in new up-and-coming IPOs or startups or things that are just getting their foot in the door, because I feel that's extremely risky in the investing world, especially if you're investing for the long term. You don't want to buy a stock that, oh, this new company came out a month ago and they're supposed to be the new Amazon. Next thing. You know they're, like you know, still pennies. They're selling for pennies, they don't move, they don't go anywhere, they go bankrupt. So I don't go anywhere, they go bankrupt. So I don't approach investing in a way that I'm buying the new, up and coming things. I buy what's already established and already set. And also, obviously, when I'm doing my research, I look into metrics like the cash, like I said before, the revenue. Is the revenue growing over time? I look at profits as the profits consistent. I look at the 10Q or the 10K, which are the annual reports or the quarterly reports, to get an idea of their strategies for the future, how they're continuing to grow and thrive.

Speaker 2: 7:32

So I do a lot of fundamental analysis before I buy anything, because I want to make sure that this company is good today and is going to continue to be good in the future. And that's how I am able to keep my peace of mind when I'm investing for the long term, because the market for new or people that already invest you know that it's always in motion. It's always up and down. One day is doing great, the next day everything is in the red and the world is crashing or whatever.

Speaker 2: 7:59

But when you're investing, when you're investing based on fundamentals, on the quality of a business, you're able to keep your peace of mind. You're able to stay calm and collected even when the fluctuations happen, because you know that at the core, the business is great and it's still successful, no matter what's going on. So that's how you're able to just keep your calm. So yeah, I look. Those are some of the metrics that I look into for stocks, like the sales growth, the profits, the cash and just the fundamentals of what the business is all about and where it's going to go in the future. So things like that.

Speaker 1: 8:34

To someone that's listening they might say oh well, you know that's like the boring stuff, but that's the. It depends on what type of investor you are. I mean the safe route. You know that's how Warren Buffett he invests that way. He doesn't go for these fly by night companies and IPOs be billions of dollars and then within a few years they bankrupt. So I mean it's really. You know, it's really about your style and your risk tolerance.

Speaker 1: 9:03

You mentioned volatility. I mean you know it's really tough to wake up one morning to see your account 50% less than what it was the day before. But that can happen. I mean it happens all the time to people. So I like your approach. I mean it's a good style. It's not going to work for everyone, but for someone who wants to kind of like set it and forget it well, not forget it, but just really set it you feel more comfortable. That's a good approach because you do have to do your research on the front end to make sure it's the right type of investment before you put your money in, you know. So that's key.

Speaker 2: 9:40

Two styles to investing, like you said, or two styles to approaching the stock market. There's the day trading side, where you're looking at charts during the day and making decisions based on charts, patterns on a chart. There's the other approach, which is what I do, the fundamental analysis approach, where you're actually looking under the hood of the business, the fundamentals, to make sure that it's a quality business. And, like you said, each style can work for different people.

Speaker 2: 10:05

But me personally, I've been investing for almost 16 years and I've never invested based on a stock chart, because I was never interested in that. To me, it always felt like gambling, so I never went that route, even though I respect the people that approach it that way, that make money that way. I know it can be done, but that's not what I feel comfortable with, so I've always approached it in the fundamental analysis side. It is what has worked for me, so, like, and it is the boring way to invest, but it's the way that gives me peace of mind and allows me to grow my wealth without panicking every other week. Like you said, you got to know what works for you, what you feel comfortable with. So I just wanted to, like, make that point.

Speaker 1: 10:43

Yep, I literally, you know, recently had someone on the show and she said she was a trader. So investing you're an investor, she's a trader. And she noted that when you're trading you have it's about 80% mindset, you know, and again, if your mindset is one that is risk averse, then don't do it. That's not you. You know it'll feel like gambling, like you noted. But again, the overall purpose of my show is to highlight people who can show you how to make money in various ways. So if you listen, you'll be able to say, wow, you know, Mabel, I can relate to her, I like that approach, and then you can tap into her business and learn more. So I appreciate you breaking that down. What would you say are some of the common mistakes that you see that a new investor makes when they try to start investing? What are some common pitfalls that you typically see across the board?

Speaker 2: 11:44

So one very common one for beginner investors is that they feel that, because they have a limited amount of money, that they can only buy like very cheap stocks, like penny stocks, like okay, I only have a couple of hundred dollars, I want to get more bank for my box, so I want to. I'm going to go and buy all these random penny stocks that claim to be the next big thing, and that's a huge mistake. Most of the time, those penny stocks, those very cheap stocks, don't go anywhere. Maybe out of 10, maybe one does anything or none at all. So I always like to show my audience that there are ways to invest in quality, regardless of budget. Even if you only have $100, there's ways to allocate those $100 towards a high quality, like an S&P 500 ETF or even a high quality stock. You know, if you don't want to, if you want to go the stock route, you don't have to settle for what I call trash. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Whenever somebody tells me about penny stocks, I think about trash, like please don't put your money in that. That's the way I put about them.

Speaker 2: 12:45

And another mistake I would say is wanting to keep up with the times or the like the meme stops. Like you know, investing based on hype. Like you go on the internet they're talking about GameStop, gamestop, they're talking about AMC or whatever all these random companies that you don't know what their fundamentals look like You're just going to put money in there because somebody on YouTube said you know it's time to buy. That's gambling. You're not investing. If you want to do that, that's okay, that's your problem, that's your money. You know, I respect that. But when you're doing those type of things, you're not investing, you are gambling. So you want to keep that in mind and you got to be OK with that. So I would think those are the two main pitfalls that people fall into in terms of the meme stock or wanting to buy like the hot trends.

Speaker 1: 13:33

Like you know, like if someone says they have one hundred dollars, right, so there might be an Nvidia stock, for example I don't know what the current price is, let's just say it's 200. Someone might think that they can't purchase a Nvidia stock and you're saying that they just purchase, like your cheap stocks, to kind of account for that. But you know what I do for my daughter. She has an account and she buys fractional shares within her app. So I don't know if that's across the board. Maybe you can enlighten us on that. Do you ever recommend for people to buy fractional shares as they kind of work their way up? So in that example, if something is 200 and you had 100, pretty much buying a half a share Is that something that you recommend or no?

Speaker 2: 14:19

Yeah, 100%. That's one of my approaches in terms of investing in quality regardless of budget. Exactly, fractional shares are an excellent approach. Unfortunately, not all brokers allow for that yet, which I don't. It's so annoying. I don't know why. As of right now, from what I know, only Fidelity and Schwab allowed for fractional shares, and I think other like Robinhood, of course, is an investing app I'm just more a fan of, like the full-fledged online brokers, and I don't know what your daughter uses, but I know there's certain apps that allow for fractional shares, but it's not, unfortunately, it's not standard. So you want to make sure that when you open an investment account, you open one that allows for that, just you know. Good thing that you brought that up. Yeah, it's not a standard thing.

Speaker 1: 15:03

Yeah, what I use for anybody that's watching and listening. It's pretty much kind of designed for kids. It's called Stockpile. It's pretty easy because you know she can search. The goal for her was I wanted her to search the things that she uses. So she's like she loves Apple or iPhone, ipad, roblox. So it's real. It's more kid friendly, the interface is kid friendly and she can take her twenty five dollars and buy Broadcom. That's, I think, probably in the thousands. You know what I'm saying, but it's just a fractional share. But at the same time she's still buying quality companies, because the good thing about that app is that they don't even allow you to buy penny stocks. I think the stock price has to be at least over $5. So you can't get any of these penny stocks. It has to be something that's you know, listed and good standing. So it's a good app. So I would recommend that for kids for sure stockpile is great.

Speaker 2: 16:03

the only thing that they have, like, I think they have a fee involved, which is fun. I don't think it's a crazy expensive fee, um, but if you want and I think what the benefit of something like that is, that it's user friendly for kids, like if you wanted to your kids involved but if you're like an adult and you want to invest for free and you don't want to have to deal with any type of fees, something like Fidelity would be good, because they allow you to buy fractional shares and also there's no transaction fees, there's no monthly fees and things like that. But you know, it depends who the account is for.

Speaker 1: 16:38

So my wife and I we had we had TD Ameritrade and now it's swap.

Speaker 2: 16:40

And it's, it's pretty much great.

Speaker 1: 16:41

I agree with that. What about for you know people cause you noted that you know you do a lot of research for individual stocks. Is it just simply safer for someone to just buy ETFs and just call it a day, or do you recommend for folks to really do the late work and understand how to buy individual stocks also?

Speaker 2: 17:04

So I'm a huge fan of individual stocks and I know there's a lot of people in the personal finance space that say, listen, just buy an ETF and call it a day and whatever. I understand that that's a very valid point for people that don't have the time, the patience or the motivation to be researching stocks and kind of figure it out what's good and what's not so 100%. If you're somebody that wants to invest in the market, wants to grow wealth over time and there's no one to be bothered with the research of individual stocks over time, and there's no one to be bothered with the research of individual stocks buying an S&P 500 ETF or a total market ETF, you can do that and just leave it alone and call it a day. But in my belief, in my experience, there are ways to invest in individual stocks that are not risky in my opinion, even though stocks are risky by nature because reinvesting in an individual company and the worst thing that can happen is the company goes bankrupt. So when that happens you lose your entire investment. But, like I said before, if you're buying stock in companies that have a proven track record, that have a lot of cash, that are leaders in their industry, that, if you think about it, are they going to be here in the next five, 10, 15 years. When you allocate money towards that, those type of investments, you can have more peace of mind and you can still invest in stocks without being overly worried or like concerned about risk.

Speaker 2: 18:28

And the way I approach it with my students is I highly recommend that they start with an ETF, like an S&P 500 ETF or a total market ETF, as a foundation to their portfolio.

Speaker 2: 18:40

So I don't say jump into stocks right away, like build your foundation with the broad-based, broad-market ETFs and then you can layer in some high-quality stocks to kind of have that balance. Because, to be honest with you, when you look at the performance of funds versus individual stocks, depending on the stock, of course, the return on investment is astronomically different. You know the market can return maybe 15, 20 percent in one year, whereas an individual stock can give you like 50 percent returns, 40 percent, you know, again depending on the stock, depending on how it's doing in any particular year. So you do want to have that balance of both. I'm not going to be the type of person that's going to tell you hey, just buy the funds and call it a day, just because I know what stocks can do. But I just want to make sure that people understand how to do their due diligence so that they selecting the good companies, not like the trashy ones. So that is the you know, that's the approach that I recommend.

Speaker 1: 19:40

Good balance because you know ETFs, you know they, they serve its purpose, right. But I agree with you Like I'm not big in the stock market personally. I'm a real estate guy. It's not the wrong with the stock market. I'm just saying, like, personally I don't invest that much. Anytime I get free money I buy a house. So that's pretty much how I do it. I love that.

Speaker 1: 20:03

But what I like about individual stocks is you're rewarded for all the homework that you're doing on the front end. It's like you know you ride with a company. You're like OK, this is, I'm really buying into this business. So when it becomes successful, I'm successful. And that's the part that I like with the ETF.

Speaker 1: 20:24

It's so many different companies within an ETF to where it's kind of like it's that safe space. I mean it's like you're going to have some that's going to lose a bunch of money. So I'm that's going to gain a bunch of money and then some that's going to lose a bunch of money, some that's going to gain a bunch of money and then some that's going to be flat, and you'll just get the difference. So it's not as creative as I would personally like to be, but I get it. It's better than doing nothing, for sure, but you have to do the work when you're an individual stock investor, for sure. That's where you come in, because your, because your company actually provides, you have books and you have a boot camp where you teach people how to actually invest. So I wanted to give you the floor where you can kind of break down the services that you offer.

Speaker 2: 21:06

Thank you. So my company, my main focus, is to teach beginners. So, and the way I created my curriculums, my books, my courses, everything that I offer is with the mentality of somebody that is starting to invest. And I put myself in my own shoes when, back in the days, early 2000s, when I was trying to learn and I couldn't figure it out, like I would check out books from the library or Barnes and Nobles and I would come home and open them and be confused. I'm like, what are they talking about? So the way I created my courses and what I offer is with that beginner in mind. Like I teach, you know, depending on the level of expertise of my audience. I teach everything from the technical side, like how to open the account, how to fund the account and how to do transactions, like where to you know why to click on when you're going to buy something, what to click on when you're going to buy something, what to click on when you're going to sell, because I feel like that's something that they don't really teach you. The books will tell you, yes, invest in the market, invest in the stock market, invest in this or that, but they don't tell you, okay, how do you do it? How do you actually open the account? So I have that part of my offerings focuses on that those very basic things, all the way to how to do your research. What metrics do you need to look into for individual stocks? Or what metrics do you need to look into for ETFs or index funds to make sure that you're making an educated investment decision? So I break it all down in terms of the financials, the fundamental things that you should be exploring expense ratios for you know, different metrics that are not hard.

Speaker 2: 22:39

Like I just want to emphasize to the audience, if there's any beginners listening to this, it is not hard. It is just a skill that you need to take some time to learn, like anything else, like when you go to school to learn whatever it is that you get math or science or whatever. It's the same thing. You're just learning a skill and you need to take the time to learn it and then, once you understand how it works, you can, you know, continue doing it on your own and you'll get better with experience. You'll get better as time goes by. So you just have to start learning. Start, but yeah, then I teach.

Speaker 2: 23:10

Like I said, I teach everything. All the advanced part of the investing, things like how to do your research, you know. That comes, you know, as part of the whole spectrum of my book camp, for example, where I teach all of that from beginning to end. Same with my book. So everything that I offer is focused on people that are just starting out, that have no idea how the market works and want to get started. Or maybe they opened an account but now they're clueless, like OK, what do I buy? Am I making the right decisions? Things like that. So that's kind of what my approach has been since I started my business.

Speaker 1: 24:08

Yeah, I mean we need people like you because there's so many people out there that really don't know where to start. You know the extent of their investing experience might be a 401k, and even that they're just randomly selecting these funds. It's not a lot of education about how to actually build wealth. It's a culture of let's go ahead and get a job, which again a job. It's no shame in it. I have a job, but I use my job to help build my wealth.

Speaker 1: 24:41

You know, what I'm saying. So we need to be able to, you know, change the narrative and let people know, hey, it's powerful things you can do with your money. Saving your money can only get you so far. It'll help you get to a position where you can ultimately get where you need to invest. Yes, because that's when you really start making some traction. So that was going to be my next question. So when you run into people who say I would love to work with you, mabel, but I'm broke, can't do it, you know what are some best practices or potential tips that you offer them to kind of help them live more frugally, you know, so that they can be in a position to invest and grow their wealth.

Speaker 2: 25:26

So great question. So, yeah, one of my models, as people that follow me know, is live frugally and invest intelligently. So what I say is you know, look at your overall budget, like how much? You know the boring things, like what are your core expenses, things that are non-negotiable. You know those are, those stay in your budget because you know those are non-negotiable. But then look at the thing where you are spending extra money. Those are non-negotiable. But then look at the thing where you are spending extra money. Maybe you're going out every weekend, maybe you are.

Speaker 2: 25:57

You know you have like a car that has like a high monthly expense, or like your mortgage. You know things that are also big ticket idols, where you have you paid a lot of money. Sometimes people don't realize how much money goes into these huge expenses that you have every month. Maybe find a way to kind of, you know, pull back on those things if possible, all the like, I said, the expenses that are not necessary in your life. And then all that money that you get to save you know whether it's a lot or it's, you know, a little bit. You can use the extra money to start building your wealth, to start investing it, to start educating yourself on stocks or real estate, which is you know what you do like any, any venue that would allow you to grow wealth over time. You know, invest in that. Invest in educating yourself first, because a lot of people and other mistake people make is just wanting to jump into things without any knowledge of how to approach it, and then they make a lot of mistakes, they lose a lot of money where they can have used that money to to educate themselves. So just look at your extra expenses, do the boring lead work.

Speaker 2: 26:52

You know there's no magic formula. There's no like magic trick to like live a frugal life. You really have to just focus on your core expenses. Also, make a budget for you know fun, because you know you also want to live Like. What brings you joy? Is it traveling? Is it you know new books or whatever it is that brings you joy? Make a budget for that, but don't be mindless about it or be strategic about your expenses, because if your main goal is to eventually build your wealth, you have to be strategic. It's not something that happens just because I always like to say success is no accident. You have to plan for success. So you have to be mindful of those things and make changes accordingly.

Speaker 1: 27:32

I would say from your food grocery budget to invest. The goal is to have that extra money. Find that extra money that doesn't impact your day-to-day needs so that you can put that to work, as opposed to going out every weekend, going to the bar, buying drinks. That stuff adds up so you have to find that clear amount of money. If it's $50, if it's $100, if it's $1,000, now you can say I can put that to work. That's the key. So appreciate that breakdown. What's next for your company? You know, like what. What do you want to accomplish over the next few years? You know, I would love to know what your, your dream state is and how we can support you to get there.

Speaker 2: 28:33

Thank you. Well, my mission has always been the same my core mission of continuing to teach beginners to not only teach them but, like, motivate them on how the market works and get and help them get started and get them on that journey towards wealth building. So my core mission is always the same. I guess ways in which to approach that mission could change. Like you know, I would love to, you know, have conferences in the future, things like that.

Speaker 2: 29:00

Right now, what I have is my book camp. I have a membership where I share investing knowledge and I talk about specific stocks and bonds and things like that. I also want to write more books. I already have two books. I have three One is in Spanish, so two in English that teach investing. So I would love to continue writing books about that topic just to support my core mission. To continue to support my core mission of getting more women and not just women, people that are underrepresented in the investing world, because there's a lot of people that never get exposed to it. So I would love to continue to expand that.

Speaker 1: 29:35

You brought up a good point. You say you have a book in Spanish. You know, educate me. Is that a huge opportunity for you? You know the fact that you know, you're bilingual and you could serve a different. You know demographic pretty easily with your skills, your fluent in English and everything like that, so is that good for your business? I would hope it is.

Speaker 2: 29:56

It is. It is good. The only issue that I'm having is time, because I put a lot of hours. I'm a solopreneur, so I put a lot of hours of my and I do this full time. This is my full time job. I quit my full time job in 2018. So I've been a full-time business owner for almost six years and this is all I do. And even with that, you know, time is limited. And now we didn't talk about this, but I have a baby. I said he's not a newborn, he's a year and a half already, but he also takes a lot of time.

Speaker 1: 30:26

He's a baby.

Speaker 2: 30:35

So you can only imagine my time constraints, but yes, it is a huge opportunity and something that motivates me a lot into the Spanish side of investing, same with the English side. But first of all, we don't get exposed to the stock market. Our culture is more about maybe saving money under the mattress. You know, for the most part, or you know, we're very cautious of banks or financial institutions, for cultural reasons, for historical reasons, whatever it is, and but when we do get exposed to the market, we get exposed through people that are scammers, people that offer super high returns and then they just disappear with your money. So it's very scary. I'm sure that also happens in the English world too, but in the Spanish culture that is extremely common. It is very scary. So what motivates me to continue that work, to find time to continue growing that part of my business is to teach what legitimate investing looks like, to kind of help at least one person stay away from the scammers and kind of like. You know, you know teaching things that you don't grow up learning Like.

Speaker 2: 31:40

I didn't grow up learning about investing. I learned about investing when I was, you know, I was 21 years old, a senior in college. Before that, I didn't even know the stock market existed. I had no idea whatsoever, and I know some younger people do get exposed to the market, but that wasn't my experience and it's not the experience of a lot of Spanish people or people in my culture. So I am very motivated to continue that work, to grow that work, because I feel that it is very needed. But, yeah, time is an issue, but I will work on that, I am working on it, I will find the time. It's all about balance, but, yeah, yeah, thank you for bringing that up. It is an opportunity. It's just a little challenging.

Speaker 1: 32:17

Are you using any AI to kind of help you with your business right now?

Speaker 2: 32:22

I haven't yet Give you some productivity back.

Speaker 2: 32:24

That's a great point. I haven't yet. I have used it here and there for certain things, but I always find myself like rewarding. I was because I always like read the things and I'm like this sounds too robotic, so I find myself like I'm going to reward this whole entire thing. So I have to find I know AI is going to continue to advance and, to your point, I definitely want to leverage that into my business, absolutely Like. I have nothing against it. I know there's a lot of fear around it in terms of taking people's jobs and I understand. But I also want to look at the side of how it's going to help us especially people like me, with my own business and things like that. So I do want to leverage that. I'm glad you brought it up in some way. I just don't know exactly how. I'm sure, as more tools come around, I'll find my way.

Speaker 1: 33:11

But, yeah, it's good to have it. If you ever have questions, let me know. Me and my wife, I mean, we use it a lot in our business and it's a lifesaver to do a lot of the you know, the redundant tasks and things like that. I can, you know, let AI kind of do it for me and I can focus on the things, like you mentioned, that that I don't want to come across robotic, that I need to have some human intervention with. So you, you can slice it however you like. But you know, I know you mentioned you're a solopreneur and you know it's tough. It's tough especially in this day and age. So, you know, utilize some of these, uh, great tools out here, you know, to make your job easier yes, thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 33:52

I will. I will take your word for it. I will take you on for that because, yeah, I need. I'm sure there's ways that I don't know how to use AI that could be helpful for me, so that would be great to know.

Speaker 1: 34:02

Perfect. What final thoughts or advice do you have for the audience? And also, before you go, before we go, close this out with how to reach you, you know. So shout out your website and all your preferred social media contacts, and you know. I just want to say thank you so much for joining the show and the floor is yours.

Speaker 2: 34:23

Thank you. I love being on your show, I love your questions and connecting with your audience. So what I want to say is, if anybody's listening to this and they're not yet investing, they're not yet putting their money to work in any way. But you want to start. Start by educating yourself. I said this earlier, but I want to repeat it because it's so important Don't just jump into things without having any idea what you're doing, because all that's going to do is waste your time and can waste your money a lot of money that you don't. Nobody wants to be wasting money. We work very hard for every penny, every dollar that we make. So I would say, find it in your budget, cut back in any way that you can to. You know, invest in, maybe books, you know following people that you feel that you can trust, whether you want to invest in stocks or you want to invest in real estate or any other venue that is legitimate, because I want to emphasize that please don't go into gambling your money away. Find legitimate methods to grow your wealth and take some time to educate yourself. It is a skill that can be learned. It's not just for the rich and famous. We're an example that the average person can grow wealth just by educating themselves in how to approach different things. So I want to encourage you to do that. Take some time. You know, either the rest of this year. Make it your goal to start educating yourself so that you can really put your money to work, because you can do it Like there's no excuse. You can do it Even if you say you're broke. I can promise you you can find $10, $15, $20 in your budget to start saving up to get to that goal. So I encourage you to do it.

Speaker 2: 35:59

And I guess a way to find me. I'm most active on Instagram at gross on the money. My blog is gross on the moneycom and I also have a sub stack. If any of you are familiar with. The platform is called on the money investing, so you can find me there. But typically on Instagram I post links towards all my platforms, so you can. That's like my main source, and I have a Facebook group that you search gross on the money on Facebook. It should come up. I mean, those are the main ways to find me, but I'll be happy to connect. Send me a DM, send me a message on social media and I'll be happy to connect.

Speaker 2: 36:26

But, yeah, definitely educate yourself. It doesn't just have to be stock investing. I love that. There's other ways to create wealth. You just have to, you know, find how legitimately do it and educate yourself on that. So I'm just so passionate about it. I just, you know, I want to repeat it, so that's why, but yeah, and thank you for having me, I love being on your show. It's an amazing show. So thank you for your mission and please continue doing what you're doing.

Speaker 1: 36:50

Thank you. It was a pleasure having you on and I'll definitely include all your contact information in the show notes. So thank you again and we're out.