On the latest episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, I spoke with Marie Burns, financial planner and women’s financial advocate about changing the way we think about mind, money and motion.
In this episode we discussed:
Why balance is key.
How women can gain confidence with their money.
Taking the emotion out and get started.
Recognizing that money is a tool, not a reflection of our worth.
We are all unique. What works for one person, may not work for another.
The importance of putting your money on auto-pilot, when possible.
Marie Burns, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), has been advocating for women’s financial health for over 20 years. Originally from Wisconsin, married 40 years with nine grandchildren, she has helped clients with their financial lives in a fiduciary capacity in a bank setting, accounting firm, at Vanguard, at a financial planning firm and now writes, speaks, and educates women in her Mind, Money, Motion financial education business. She also has an independent advisory and investment management practice called Focus Point Planning. She is on the board of The Financial Awareness Foundation, a member of the Financial Planning Association of Greater Phoenix, author of a financial checklist book/e-bundle series, and podcast host of Mind, Money, Motion.
Itty Bitty® Getting Financially Organized Book: 15 Key Steps to Organizing your Financial Life (Amazon) (https://amzn.to/3wnArfT)
Your Amazing Itty Bitty® “Before” Financial Checklist: 15 Important Actions to Complete Before the Loss of a Loved One (Amazon) (https://amzn.to/3oxedp6)
Your Amazing Itty Bitty AFTER Financial Checklist: 15 Important Actions to Complete After the Loss of a Loved One (Amazon) (https://amzn.to/3f48jIJ)
Your Amazing Itty Bitty® Getting Financially Organized Trilogy: Three Itty Bitty Books Combined to Organize Your Financial Life (Amazon) (https://amzn.to/3bHMj4w)
On the latest episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, I spoke with Marie Burns, financial planner and women’s financial advocate about changing the way we think about mind, money and motion.
In this episode we discussed:
Why balance is key.
How women can gain confidence with their money.
Taking the emotion out and get started.
Recognizing that money is a tool, not a reflection of our worth.
We are all unique. What works for one person, may not work for another.
The importance of putting your money on auto-pilot, when possible.
Marie Burns, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), has been advocating for women’s financial health for over 20 years. Originally from Wisconsin, married 40 years with nine grandchildren, she has helped clients with their financial lives in a fiduciary capacity in a bank setting, accounting firm, at Vanguard, at a financial planning firm and now writes, speaks, and educates women in her Mind, Money, Motion financial education business. She also has an independent advisory and investment management practice called Focus Point Planning. She is on the board of The Financial Awareness Foundation, a member of the Financial Planning Association of Greater Phoenix, author of a financial checklist book/e-bundle series, and podcast host of Mind, Money, Motion.
Itty Bitty® Getting Financially Organized Book: 15 Key Steps to Organizing your Financial Life (Amazon) (https://amzn.to/3wnArfT)
Your Amazing Itty Bitty® “Before” Financial Checklist: 15 Important Actions to Complete Before the Loss of a Loved One (Amazon) (https://amzn.to/3oxedp6)
Your Amazing Itty Bitty AFTER Financial Checklist: 15 Important Actions to Complete After the Loss of a Loved One (Amazon) (https://amzn.to/3f48jIJ)
Your Amazing Itty Bitty® Getting Financially Organized Trilogy: Three Itty Bitty Books Combined to Organize Your Financial Life (Amazon) (https://amzn.to/3bHMj4w)
Speaker 1:
Are you looking to get ready, be prepared and transform your financial future? Then you've come to the right place. This is the Get Ready Money Podcast with Tony Stewart, where Tony has insightful conversations with financial experts who are changing the way we think about money. Catch up on the latest financial trends and hear practical advice from Tony and his expert guests so you can build healthy habits that work, Be empowered with tips for implementing small changes that can have a big impact on your financial future. So sit back and get ready to hear from today's guest. So sit back and get ready to hear from today's guest.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast changing the way we think about money. I'm pleased to be joined today by Marie Burns. Marie is a women's financial advocate, speaker, podcast host, author and grandmother. In this episode, we'll be discussing how we change the way we think about mind money and motion. Marie, welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast. Thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3:
Thank you, absolutely my pleasure, tony.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, always fun to talk with you. So, you know, let's get started. You know, tell us a little bit about yourself. What is your origin story?
Speaker 3:
Well, I think, like all of us although I'm not going to take a long time to go back to childhood, but I think all of us really it all started in childhood. So I was one of those kids that we loved to have a lemonade stand. We would raise money for muscular dystrophy through a carnival in the neighborhood. We had paper routes, you know the whole.
Speaker 3:
You learned, spoken or unspoken, along the way, that if you wanted money to spend for and at that time probably our main priority in life was penny candy you remember penny candy, the money for the penny candy you had to earn it. So I kind of always had that interest in money from that aspect, I think early on. But then in high school and college I was very also interested and passionate about health and more preventive health and wellness than anything else. So I ended up in the career of nutrition and health with a minor in business. So I was a registered dietitian for Baker's Dozen years and then I segued into the financial side of my my degree and got all my licenses and certified financial planner designation. So I basically went from helping people balance their diet and exercise to balancing their finances all behavior related.
Speaker 2:
Well, and I think a lot of people don't get that. You know his behavior is so key to money. So that connection and you know I've had other guests on who come from, you know, maybe not similar but health care related backgrounds and have had a very different outlook on money, um, you know. So as we get into that, you know, maybe let's talk first about. You know, mind Money Motion is why did you name your business and podcast Mind Money Motion?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, you know there's a lot like you know a lot that goes into choosing a business name and of course, these days, one of the considerations is the SEO what keywords are people going to be searching for to find you, whether they stumble upon you or intentionally looking for you? And so part of that was me wanting to be sure money was kind of in the title of the business, as well as the fact that my whole mindset is the more we take care of our mind and our body, the less we have to worry about running out of money, and that again is probably partially my diet and exercise background as a registered dietitian, but then also my business side of my personality and my background and experience is the whole money, life, and I'm a true believer in balance in both.
Speaker 3:
So the mind and money. And motion is the body part. Just kind of seemed like a good search word and yet at a glance you maybe get a gist. If you even didn't know for sure exactly what the business was about, you would have an idea that it's health and or finances. So whether that's worked or not, I can't tell you for sure. That was my logic and then I'm probably a logical thinker and so I put it in alphabetical order mind, money, motion. So that's how it lays out.
Speaker 2:
Well, it sounds great. I love it. And I think you know we don't talk about that taking care of our health and that I don't know if you know Steven Gwynnip who talks about that, about our healthcare span, that you know we may have this long lifespan but if the last 10 or 15 years are spent in poor health, we can't really enjoy it. So you know, do you find that you talk with your financial planning clients about that?
Speaker 3:
Oh, absolutely, and you know it might feel backwards, but sometimes I'm the one encouraging them to spend. Some people have a really hard time right Once they're retired and in drawing out and spending. But again, it's, it's, it's a balance of, if not now, when and what are you waiting for?
Speaker 3:
You know this was meant for you to help enjoy your life and I'm here to to kind of be the edges of how much is too much, but I also can see how much is not enough. So it's definitely part of the conversation from the money standpoint and then reminding them. You know I'm I'm not going to be doing diet plans like I used to as a registered dietitian or, or, you know, giving people exercise coaching, but certainly recognizing and bringing up that lifestyle is definitely part of the equation, along with the spending side of things. So that's important to be trying to balance all of that. And, and one of my favorite lines probably is you know, this is not my life, this is yours, but I'm kind of the outside objective. You know how, in a consulting capacity, you're a fiduciary and giving them recommendations based on what you see is in their best interest. But it's ultimately their life and their decision to do for or against your advice all along to do for or against your advice all along?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and I think having people make that transition from accumulating to spending is very scary, because we all have that fear of running out of money, especially those who are a little bit older, because I remember hearing stories about my grandfather during the Great Depression who lost his. He had two or three laundromats and he lost them in the Great Depression and so you know my grandparents ran out of money when my dad was growing up and so you know, knowing that that can happen I think puts a scare in you. I mean, how do you talk with your clients about something like that when they have that? Maybe it's a good fear, I mean a healthy fear, I don't know.
Speaker 3:
No, and that's you're right. That's. One of the most common worries is I don't want to be the bag lady or I don't want to be the man under the bridge, and so much of that comes again from childhood that that's kind of what I'll bring in, just like I had money experience in childhood. That influences your feeling and your comfort level with today's natural reaction to money, your financial life, decision making around that. So even just helping people acknowledge what was it like in your household growing up around money whether it was talked about or you just felt the tension or the lack of concern related to money all of that imprinted us. Now, fortunately, we're adults and we can educate and change our actions. But just the acknowledgement, I think, helps people feel a little less guilty or maybe to at least understand and too often what I find with couples is it's not just ourselves, it's our partner that we also need to understand what baggage, if you will, came from their childhood into this relationship out of no control of their own, you know.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, no, and that's a great point. I think it gets back to what you were talking about earlier is the under-inclusion of things like behavior, because these are the factors that really are going to impact the decisions that clients make. You know, with the risk tolerance for spending, there are many people, like you say, like myself included, are going to be risk averse when it comes to spending money in retirement and are probably going to have too much in accumulation because it's a fear. So I think it's important for people to think about these things and, like you say, is to incorporate, you know, like your money story.
Speaker 2:
What was it like growing up for you with money? What kind of conversations? Because for me, if my parents argued about money, then that's probably something I'm going to go gosh. What do I want? To talk to my spouse about money? It's uncomfortable, you know. It led to arguments. I saw my parents argue about money, so you know. Ergo, I talked to my spouse about money. We're probably going to argue about it, but that's not always the case Absolutely, like you say. You know we can change that narrative.
Speaker 3:
Right and I think, just the acknowledgement of what influenced you and then looking at if you're in a relationship, what are your financial roles in that relationship, and then part of what I've seen and experienced and really probably focus on more in my mind money motion business, where I'm really trying to educate women, versus my focus point planning practice where I work with couples and women. My focus point planning practice where I work with couples and women and my reason for why am I singling out women on this side of my education effort is basically statistics, because women outlive men in every country. So it's not by choice, it's kind of, I think, a physiological thing probably that is driving all of that. So I watched one of my grandmothers become a widow in her 30s and then again in her 80s. I watched another grandmother become a widow in her 50s, which I think the national average in America of a widow is like 57, 58 years old, which is surprising to a lot of folks. And then one of my aunts was widowed three times.
Speaker 3:
So that, and then what I've seen with clients over 20 years is 80% of married men die married, 80% of married women die single. That's why 90% of all of us women will eventually be solely in charge of our household finances, so I'm trying to help the underdog here who's going to be dealing with it, if they aren't already to just be prepared. Like your whole focus is, you know, to be financially prepared and aware in providing things. Like you have your toolkit as far as resources and actionable items that you can take to get more comfortable and aware right now.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think those figures are staggering and people you know don't realize you know, you know well, we, like you said, is you know your grandmother was a widow at 30. You know, when we think of a widow the stereotype is that you know widows 80 years old wears black, maybe like in the old movies or something, but that's not widows. And I just want to give a quick shout out to the Modern Widows Club. So if you are a new widow or you know somebody who's a widow, the Modern Widows Club does great work and has great resources for widows. Sorry, a little commercial on there for them.
Speaker 3:
Oh, that's great. They're not a sponsor.
Speaker 2:
I just love the work and believe in the work that they're doing, so I just want to shout out to them. But I think that ties in is that I think especially women are oftentimes taught you know, hey, you know, you're not the money person. The men are typically the money person in a relationship. How do you change that narrative to have women start gaining the confidence that they can handle the money?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and so financial literacy education, you know, is certainly part of what we hope to see more and more of in our country.
Speaker 3:
I think about half of our high schools across the United States now require financial literacy as part of their education, even to graduate from high school, which is great.
Speaker 3:
But there's a lot of room for improvement education in this country. We used to teach it in home ec to the women as a how to manage, you know, the household. And then wars came and the women had to go to work and they dropped the financial education from the curriculum is what it looks like happened historically. So we're trying to bring it back, but from an adult standpoint, you know, again raising the awareness now that you're an adult, you're on your own or you're in a relationship. You know you're in a relationship attend a workshop, read an article, pick up a book. You and I both are DIYers from a standpoint of trying to provide resources so that people don't feel like they have to spend a lot of time. But here's a tool that can help you learn and implement within your own life, in the comfort of your own home, most of the time, to take action on again understanding what you have so that you are able to make wiser decisions going forward.
Speaker 2:
And that's important, and you mentioned your resources. You've got some fantastic checklists. You've written a couple of books. Tell us a little bit about your resources, checklists and the books.
Speaker 3:
Yes, yes, my website is a great place to spend a few minutes mindmoneymotioncom. And again, I'm trying to reach most people wherever and however they learn best. So I have videos, if you like videos on YouTube. I'm not a video person, I'd rather read. So I've got blogs, I've got books, I've got checklists that you can either print out Some of us are still paper and pencil people versus just fillable PDFs that you can fill in and save on the computer.
Speaker 3:
So under my resource section, I think, is a variety of individual checklists. I've gone to offering before and after life event checklists, or bundles of a variety of checklists. It's mostly all focused around life events, things that just happen in our lives, from you just graduated from high school or college to oh, you're getting married. To well, I'm going to start having a family. To oh, retirement is coming soon. Now I'm an empty nester oh, my goodness, I lost my spouse death or divorce, so all of those kinds of what we often call money in motion types of times of life because something's happened and financially you have to do something or make a decision, or at least you're impacted. So these are checklists to try to take the emotion out and just help you move forward in thinking of some of the things that can be beneficial to you at those times of life.
Speaker 2:
I think you said something super important there is taking the emotion out is that we have to be careful to not let our emotions color our financial decisions. But that's easier said than done. Uh, to take the emotions out, you know, and that even gets back to our earlier conversation is that our emotions drive I can't remember the statistic, but a really high percentage of our financial decisions. So, you know, just being aware of that already puts you a little bit further ahead of the curve, removing some of the emotions, you know. So, Marie, I want to make sure we talked about it before we jumped into the get ready questions. You know you've created this great pyramid. You know financial life stage. You know which will be in the show notes. Can you share a little bit about that?
Speaker 3:
Sure, this is. This is something that I developed when I was at Vanguard actually. So I've I've had a very helpful and interesting, I think, financial services career from the standpoint of focusing on the behavioral side of life with the whole registered dietitian, diet and exercise. But then I've worked in a bank setting, I've worked at an accounting firm, I've worked for a financial planning firm, I've worked for a big mutual fund, family vanguard, and so now I have independent practice where I kind of cherry pick what I think has been most helpful for clients over the years and that's really what I put into. I call it the financial planning pyramid. I use it more as a learning and exclamation tool when I'm doing financial planning with clients, and it's the same concept as Maslow's hierarchy.
Speaker 3:
Right, you have the base foundation of what you need to have in place to meet your basic needs and from a financial standpoint, those are usually in the event that something dire happens, you're suddenly gone or your income is suddenly gone.
Speaker 3:
So that foundation, you probably would have guessed, is, as it should be, very insurance oriented. So do you have home and auto insurance in place, do you have an emergency fund, do you have estate planning documents, and that's kind of the wealth foundation. Then it moves up to wealth protection, wealth preservation and wealth distribution, which is kind of the ongoing way life evolves. First we're on our own, then we have a family, then we need to worry more about life insurance, disability insurance, et cetera. Then we're a little more established. We need to be sure we're putting away towards retirement. As retirement comes you start to think about what if I need care In your in retirement, you start to think, oh, what else do I want to do from a gifting, charitable standpoint? So it just helps drive the discussion and help, I think, with the understanding of the comprehensiveness of the things we talk about and when we talk about them and why.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and I love that concept is and I think this is, you know it's good for people to think about is that if you don't have a solid foundation, your house isn't going to stand. You know, that's why whenever they build a house, they start with pouring the foundation rather than building the roof. But oftentimes in financial services, you know, basically with anything is we go to the roof, sometimes because that's more fun, you know, like let's eat dessert first, you know, before we have our vegetables. But sometimes you need to get your insurance and eat your vegetables in the financial world. So I think, think that's really important. So you know. So people will be able to find that in the show notes and have that available to them. So, maria, let's jump into the get ready questions. What basic money concept do you wish people knew?
Speaker 3:
I think you know when it comes to just the habit of autopiloting things. So it's not necessarily a money concept, it probably ties back to compounding interest, but setting it on autopilot very similar to 401k it automatically comes out of your retirement account or out of your paycheck into your retirement account, comes out of your retirement account or out of your paycheck into your retirement account. So the autopiloting so that you can experience compound interest. You don't necessarily experience a lot of that in an automated savings but it funds your emergency, you can fund your retirement, you might fund your education planning, diversifying your tax buckets into a non-retirement account. So just the whole concept of the how do you take advantage of the compounding is. You set it and forget it. You take the emotion out and put it on autopilot so that it automatically takes care of itself every month or whatever frequency you decide to be putting money away towards future goals.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think that's so important Systematic. It's a systematic doing it, saving every month, week, whatever. But that's how 401k plans for those of us who have 401k plans or IRAs is. We see it grow when we're steadily putting money aside into it. That's when they grow, just like gardening If you don't water your garden, nothing's going to grow Absolutely. Yeah, shout out to Julie Raines for that one. I do a lot of shout outs where I can. So, marie, what's one simple thing people can do each year to set themselves up for financial success?
Speaker 3:
There are so many. But I would say to me and everybody's motivated differently, so maybe this is not for you, but awareness, and by that I mean taking that financial inventory. And so one of my tools is my net worth summary. If you would just look at every year, this is an informal list or a tool like mine that's very much more detailed. How is it titled? Where are the beneficiary designations? Where is it the account number? All of that that forces you to look at oh, I thought I had more in my retirement. Oh, I don't have anything in the retirement section. Oh, I don't have as much as I should have in the bank. Oh, you know, it just brings the realization of I'm missing some things in these categories. Or the positive could be wow, I'm only putting in the match in my 401k, but look how much that's grown. What if I bumped it up to 10% as an example? So to me, just capturing the awareness of what do you have once a year motivates you to realize and hopefully take action then on the gaps.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and you can't make choices if you don't know your resources. It's really you know. I mean, before you go to the grocery store, if you have a recipe, you're going to look to see if you already have the ingredient on the shelf. Well, maybe you might, you might not, but usually you're going to look and say, well, you know, I don't need more lettuce, I have lettuce at home, and this is sort of the same thing, it's. You know, take a look and see what is in your financial grocery bag. Okay, that's a horrible analogy, but I hope people know where I'm going with that.
Speaker 3:
Well, when I was a dietician, I have to say I'd run into folks in the grocery store and they would immediately look in my cart to see what I was buying.
Speaker 2:
So you had the vegetables on top right.
Speaker 3:
Of course.
Speaker 2:
No snack food on a mat. That's for another episode. Snack foods are the financial gurus. So, Marie, you know this one's definitely right up your alley is what is one habit that people can change when it comes to their money?
Speaker 3:
So I I know that one of the things you've shared with me in the past is just, in our industry, we all need to remember that we're all coming from different backgrounds. So what one habit, one task, works for one person, it might not work for someone else. So I would say the habit would be autopiloting. Set something up on autopilot and I because what does that mean For one person? It might be I'm going to automatically add more to my debt payment, or I'm automatically going to add more to my savings, or I'm automatically add more to my 401k, or whatever it is is dependent upon your situation.
Speaker 3:
So that's one of my freebies on my website, if you go to my resources and my tools is autopilot your finances. It's a checklist of different ways you can autopilot. So if you agree with the autopilot habit, then you have to narrow that down. To which one do you tackle? And so here's a list that gives you multiple ideas, and ideally you would do all of them, but anything is better than nothing. So mindmoneymotioncom resources, tools, autopilot your finances free download. And another way to find out about a lot of these is to just subscribe to my newsletter. Then you're going to get automatic, once a month updates on what's new and help you learn about what's on my website without even browsing it.
Speaker 2:
And that's even easier, put it on autopilot. But I think you said something that's super important. That is an important habit One thing at a time. Yes, you know you don't have to do all these things, you know, in one day. You know, just do one thing, you know, which is also the theory behind the whole get ready movement is one thing, one step at a time. Behind the whole get ready movement is one thing, one step at a time. And then you're making some progress and don't worry about all the other things. They're great, as you said. They're great to do if you can tackle the whole list that Marie has, fantastic. But if you just do one thing, you've done one more thing than you had done yesterday. So that's forward progress.
Speaker 3:
Right and you, I think, have really tagged into the nudging right, your weekly emails with the Get Ready Money movement, because we need nudges, we need reminders. You might say you're going to do something and your email is there to remind them. I also have a financial planning calendar and here again everybody works differently. Some people don't even check their email. No-transcript nonprofit organization trying to raise our financial literacy. And so there you can say this month I'm going to do this, and then I know I won't get to anything else until this month and kind of plan out your year so that every month you're not looking at all 12 months, you're just looking at this month. What am I supposed to be doing? Another way to break it down to one, one thing at a time.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's important and, as you point out, find the system that works for you. Yes, there's not just one system, there's a system that works for you, absolutely. So what money myth are you trying to break? I?
Speaker 3:
think the myth that I hear a lot is well, I'm just not good with money. People are saying I'm just not good with money and I think that's a myth that we have to help them realize. The whole childhood thing, First of all, to recognize probably a lot of how you are today is really not your fault, it was imprinted upon you. But now you're moving forward is definitely you know what you get to decide to do with. So to me it's educating that no one should say I'm just not good with money. Right, it's a choice going forward, once you realize what's made me feel that way today.
Speaker 2:
Well and I think this gets back to what you were talking about too, about women managing their money is a feeling that women can be just as good, and usually are better, with their money, especially when it comes to investing and making better investing choices. You're right, everybody can do that.
Speaker 3:
What do they say? They say the male ego takes over, tony, right, and they think they're going to, you know, pick and choose timing and investments versus just set it and watch it grow and be a little bit less aggressive. Right Is why women tend to maybe do better in the investing they stay invested, they don't jump in and out, they don't try to time things.
Speaker 2:
Yeah Well, there's a great analogy on this. So many many years ago I was a whitewater raft guide and at guide training it was always known that the women guides would be better guides from day one. Maybe in the long term the male guides would always catch up and be just as good as guides, but the women were the best guides in the guide clinic, and the reason being is that they would go with the river. They knew they couldn't fight the river. The men would go in there and try to overpower the river and think that they could conquer it, and the women right away knew that you had to go with the flow and work with the river instead of trying to power through it as an obstacle. And so you know I think that's the same thing when it comes to investing is that you know women, you know, just take that, like you said, they go with the flow of the investing rather than keep trying to think that they can outsmart anybody and everybody that they come across and power through.
Speaker 3:
Great analogy.
Speaker 2:
So I love it. So Marie let's get out the time machine for a second. I love it. So, marie, let's get out the time machine for a second. What advice would you give your younger self if he could go back in time, knowing?
Speaker 3:
what you know now about money. I know I'm going to sound like a broken record, but it's the whole compounding aspect of I would have autopiloted more from the beginning and I would encourage that to all young people. And it's it's the taking the motion out of it, deciding that you're going to and start with anything, because I think that's what happens. We talk ourselves out of it. Well, I'll start my autopilot when you know this is paid off, or when I get a raise, or when the baby is a little bit older, or you know we keep putting it off. Putting it off and remember, anything is better than nothing.
Speaker 3:
And today, compared to longer ago, you couldn't open an account without two to three thousand dollars. As an example, you couldn't add an ongoing deposit into something unless it was X amount of dollars. Today we have the flexibility of starting with nothing in some cases and doing autopilot monthly, whatever frequency, as well as $25 in many cases. So the variability, the flexibility of setting up automatic deposits, contributions, investments, is so much broader than it used to be. But I would go back again to my autopilot advice take the emotion out and just get it started. Start with a little amount. You know the trick there is always start with more than you think you can afford comfortably, because you know you can always back it down. But human nature is we rarely change. We rarely overcome that inertia to go back in and change something so miraculously. You don't see it, you don't miss it, and then higher amount usually works just fine.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, exactly, and that gets back to what we've been talking about too. The theme of, you know, is that you have to pay attention to these things, because most people have inertia with everything, because it's easier, you know. So you have to go back and look at these things and review these things and spend a little time. But if you do invest the time, you will get rewards for investing the time. But, as you point out, is putting things on autopilot helps you, because then you can have some inertia with your financial life because you're already on track to meet your goals. That's powerful advice. So what is your number one tip on changing the way we think about money?
Speaker 3:
I think, from a mindset standpoint and some of this, you know, is terminology, like we've said, we really need to, I think in this country, kind of label money as a tool. It's just a tool. It's not a measure of us or reflection of our value or worth, but it's a tool, an important tool. That thought process of thinking about your bank accounts and your investments accounts as tools and resources can help take the emotion and or any guilt out of things. Because if we think of the word tool, most men would think of you know tools that they use in the garage or on a vehicle and I know I'm sounding biased here. This is just how me and my household, my husband's, supposed to be aware of all those things. And for me tools might be makeup or art tools or sitting at the computer kinds of tools.
Speaker 3:
And if I asked either one female or male say do you ever get emotional about those tools? What if some of them get old? You need to buy more, you know, get rid of some, whatever. Do you feel emotionally attached to those tools? No, and if we took that same mindset with money it's just a tool and helping us to do what we value, I think we would have a lot easier time using money and parting with it. From a standpoint I'm putting it here for later and I'm using this to buy something I value or spend time on. I just think it's it's a healthier mindset.
Speaker 2:
That is awesome advice. That is a drop the mic moment. We have to wrap up the podcast, but we can't quite drop the mic yet. But I think what you say is really valid, that money and particular financial products and services are tools to help you achieve your goals. You know, nobody really is in love with a 401k, but what they are in love with is what a 401k can deliver for them and how it makes them feel and how it achieves their goals. And I think we need to keep that in mind is that all these products and services it's like you point out it's the right tool.
Speaker 2:
And when you were talking, I was thinking about a recipe is that? You know you're creating, you know your retirement recipe and you know if you have to throw out an old wok, you know you're not going to cry because it's not going to impact your. You know your ability to cook your dinner. Well, I mean, maybe you need to get out of the pot, but you know you can substitute that and still make dinner, because your goal is to have dinner. Your goal isn't to, you know, use your walk Usually, maybe if it's a new walk, but I love that advice. So that's, that's awesome, marie. So where can people learn more about you and Mind Money Motion and pick up your checklist?
Speaker 3:
Sure, and a lot of it is where. What platform do you most like to use? Certainly, my website is probably the quickest way to be directly in touch with my workshops, my podcasts, my blogs, my checklists, and that's mindmoneymotioncom. I'm also present on Facebook. Some folks like Pinterest, so I'm there as well. Youtube, again for the video side of things, and if you just go to contact me on my website, I think that's a great starting point. To sign up for my newsletter. It's a once a month email that you're going to find out about three new things that can be helpful, from anything from a workshop to a new freebie, to a blog to read or a video. So check out my newsletter and subscribe.
Speaker 2:
Fantastic and for everybody watching and listening, as always, I'll have all those links in the show notes, as well as a link to the Financial Pyramid we discussed earlier. Marie, thanks for joining us today on the Get Ready Money podcast.
Speaker 3:
Great discussion. Thank you, Tony.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, appreciate your time and insights and thank you everyone as well for tuning into this episode of the Get Ready Money podcast. If you learned something today to change the way you think about money, please be sure to subscribe and tell a friend. Let's change the way we think about money. Until next time, thank you.