Welcome back to New Day Northwest.
You've heard the phrase you've
worked hard for your money,
so you should make it work hard for you.
Well, best selling author and financial
journalist Nicole Lapin says growing
your wealth through investing is key.
This right here is her 4th book,
Miss Independent, where Lapin focuses
on helping women start investing.
Taking the mystery out of finance
and inspiring them to take control.
Well, I didn't come from money.
I figured out how to make my own
money and make it work for me
in the school of Hard Knocks.
And there are plenty of books
about wealth and money out there,
amity, there isn't one, though,
in plain English that breaks it down in
the blocking and tackling step-by-step.
Same language that we're using now.
Or when we get drinks.
I'm saying when because it will happen
and it doesn't talk down to you.
And so here's the reality.
We can't budget our way into wealth.
We can't even save our way.
Into wealth and as high as
your base salary might get.
That's not even going to grow long term.
Well, the only thing that will is
investing utilizing this amazing force
of compound interest that Einstein,
as you know,
calls the eighth wonder of the world.
And that's because your money
can literally make you even
more money while you're
sleeping. That's really amazing,
but I know that there's a lot
of fear surrounding. There is a lot
of fear when it comes to finance.
So what are some of the big fears
that you have heard about or learned,
or even actions that get in the way when
it comes to women growing their wealth?
I think jargon is the number one impediment.
I think it sounds like a foreign language
to a lot of people. It did to me.
By the way I grew up in an immigrant family.
Didn't study this stuff in school.
None of us learned this in school anyway.
If I were in charge of the world,
that would be different,
but it's just a language.
Like anything else, we just don't have
a Rosetta stone for the language.
So I wanted to create one.
I mean look and if you went to
Japan and you didn't speak Japanese,
you'd be really confused if you
went to Wall Street and you didn't
speak the language of money,
you'd be really confused.
And that's OK until you speak the language
and then you can join the conversation.
And so I think that's what really
keeps a lot of folks out of getting
their financial lives together
and out of investing and out of
growing their own wealth.
The stories we tell ourselves
can be fascinating,
but they're all just stories and excuses.
We tell ourselves that we don't have.
Enough money to start.
Well, by the way,
you don't need a lot of money,
you just need a lot of time
and you don't know math well.
A fifth grader can do the math
that's required to get your
financial life together.
It's all the humanities part.
It's the mean girl inside our head.
That enemy between our
ears that's really standing
in our way. I love that the mean
girl in our head and they also
love what you talked about.
This is a language, and as we know,
giving people language gives people power.
So what's one easy thing people
can do today to start on the
road to financial independence?
I think that you should negotiate
all of your major bills.
It's your hard earned money.
You might as well fight for it.
The beginning of the year
is a great time to do that.
You can call your major bill collectors,
including your credit card company,
your credit card.
APR is negotiable just because it
comes on a fancy piece of paper with
letterhead doesn't mean it's set in stone.
The worst thing they can say is no,
and the answer as you know, is always no.
If you don't ask.
So I would say try to hit
your credit card companies.
And get your APR down.
Try to hit your housing.
If you're renting,
talk to your landlord, your cable,
your phone bill, your car lease,
or known and medical debt or insurance.
I mean,
you can often say that you're
leaving to a competitor and many
times they will throw you as a bone
versus losing you as a customer.
Because think about it.
They'd rather take something
than nothing at all.
It is such a good point.
I recently was about to leave my
insurer because my car insurance
because it was just there,
was a better deal and they. My shop,
we're like, yeah,
we'll do that and I was like no,
it's just such an important thing
that you don't know that's awesome
and then doesn't it become addicting?
Did you want to call everybody and
ask them for a better deal? I did
just call my cable company
and did the same thing.
Yeah, and that's just free money.
That's money that you you know you
worked really hard for, and it's
coming back to you. That's awesome.
I love that, and I actually,
I didn't feel guilty,
but I know a lot of people might,
but we shouldn't, right?
We should be just proud
of of making this and not let
this be intimidating, right?
Absolutely I mean budgeting sucks,
but so does being broke.
In fact, I have been there and
been on a brown rice and beans
diet because it felt fancier.
And ramen, and I think that sucks more.
So I think that it's really
important to come to this from an
empowering standpoint, you know.
Oftentimes you'll hear financial experts
tell you to cut out the morning latte.
I will not tell you to do that.
I think in life, in relationships,
the little things matter and finances,
the big things matter.
So it's really important
to get those bills down.
Focus on making more money rather
than nickel and diming yourself or.
Clipping coupons and coming to
it from a place of deprivation
instead of aspiration.
Ooh I'm gonna make so much money I
think here's hoping but one of the
other cool things about this book is
she actually is Q QR codes in the book
that will link you to balance worksheets
so you can kind of do that as well.
Pretty, pretty nifty.