S2 Ep1 Resolutions for Investors

We're back! We we're excited to kick off season 2 with a conversation about resolutions, the upcoming year, our goals and how to keep yourself in the game. We talk about the mindset of "always an investor", defining that you are an investor regardless of how active you are in the market one day to the next or how much money you have invested. 

Listen to how we replace the old-fangled New Year Resolutions with positive Financial Resolutions, and how to cope with a changing financial situation.

Also in this episode, we are looking to continue the conversation with our listeners by inviting you to share your stories with us. If you've got a story about your financial resolutions and goals in 2022 or your journey as an investor that you want to share, send it to us via our site or social media -- in text, video, voice memo...however you like!

Welcome back to Women Take Stock!

Transcript

JJ: 0:00

we're going to acknowledge that this year may not be just another. Step up on the trajectory to infinity

Dana: 0:09

how do I divert my cashflow from one place in my life to another, to increase my investing opportunities and to keep my investing life active.

JJ: 0:18

rather than saying, well, that was an experiment and I couldn't even afford. Well, it's like, well, you did afford it for awhile and then something happened, but you're going to get back into it.

Dana: 0:28

You're

JJ: 0:29

still

Dana: 0:29

investor, you're always an investor. that's part of who you are now.

Tula: 0:34

for friends, all at different places in our financial and personal lives, looking to pull back the curtain on the seemingly mysterious often testosterone-driven world of stock investing.

Jen: 0:44

And if for women without business degrees can figure out the market as a side hustle. Well, so can you, can

JJ: 0:50

us as we learn the basics, buy, sell, scratch our heads, hold our breath, commiserate and celebrate hopefully more of the latter. We aren't experts. So please note that this podcast is for general information purposes only.

Jen: 1:04

yeah. Anything resembling financial advice is purely coincidental.

Dana: 1:07

That said we are hoping to make a little over a lot of money doing this. And if money is power, well, we want some of that too.

JJ: 1:14

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to women. Take stock season two. Isn't too. Yay. It was after an amazing per season. We're so excited to be back and we are really excited to kick off with a 2022 forecast show. Yeah. Yeah, not really forecast. I guess it's more about goals. We're not looking into

Dana: 1:39

our crystal balls, which we, what the stock market's going to do and make everyone millionaires, including

JJ: 1:44

ourselves. That's the next episode. So be sure and tune in. I will. It's noted

Dana: 1:51

on my calendar. No. What we're about we're actually going to talk about today is our

JJ: 1:55

What are we going to talk about today? Our goals are Our goals, the new year, new you framework. It always kicks off a lot of resolutions and a lot of things we want to do. I mean, five of

Dana: 2:09

those resolutions right now that the media is always telling us as women that we need to resolve or resolute

JJ: 2:18

one loses. To find a husband or a boyfriend three, get more sleep. Um, clean out your closet. Oh yes. Five. I would say get a new look, you know, cut your hair. Completely change your appearance too.

Dana: 2:38

don't buy so many Starbucks so you can save money.

JJ: 2:42

To invest to invest. Yes. Get

Dana: 2:46

your husband to invest. Right? So you and your partner can buy a house together and be tied together forever and

JJ: 2:53

ever, and ever. Well, yes, every single woman I know. And a lot of men too, you do start off the year saying, yeah, I'm really going to get in shape and I'm really going to eat better. And I'm really going to do these things. I wish at age 22 and 25 and 30, I would have been saying, what are my financial goals, other than earn more money and maybe pay off some credit cards or buy something. So it's exciting to recast that. To be a positive financial goal and what we're going to do different here on women take stock we're going to acknowledge that this year may not be just another. Step up on the trajectory to infinity

Dana: 3:44

infinity, meaning infinity dollars,

JJ: 3:46

infinity dollars, infinity dollars in your bank account.

Dana: 3:51

I think that's a great point. And I think just the idea that we're sold this thinking from when we're younger, like. Well, it's just, it's always going to get better. You're always in the future. You're going to have more money. You're going to have more wealth. You're going to be happier. You're going to have more things. You're going to be more secure and that isn't necessarily always the case. And not only does it hurt when that happens and it's a painful place to be, but yeah. That you haven't met those expectations that society has set for you also, it makes it even more painful. So you've got this sort of shame element to it, this embarrassment element, but you also have the fact of what's actually happening, that you're not in the most comfortable financial place perhaps. And how do we, as women get through that comfortably, how do we just accept that, that that's what's happening and be solution-oriented versus. Oh, man. How do I cover this up? So people don't really know that I'm totally fucked right now. Um,

JJ: 4:48

right now that's okay. We are all grownups here. When earlier you were saying, oh, there's an underlying theme of new year. New you that's all. The younger and the one place you don't want that to happen is with your finances. So it's like, oh, this is what I was earning 10 years ago, or, oh, I used to have this much credit card debt. Then I got rid of it and now I have it again. I have it again.

Dana: 5:16

Yeah. So I actually recently sat down and, and I was, I used this particular kind of spreadsheet that I created, you know, I don't know an Excel like 25 years ago and it has the same, like, you know, input, output my expenses. I have this other page with like what my earnings should be gross and net and. I was looking at the stupid spreadsheet and I'm thinking like, holy crap, I used the spreadsheet 20 years ago and I flicked back to, you know, many years ago. And I thought, I don't like that. It doesn't look that different. And, you know, there were times it looked a lot different, but it looks a little bit too much like when I was 30 and I really don't like that. And it makes me really uncomfortable. And I think more about the anxiety of that versus like, The reality of that, like, okay, just accept it. That's what's happening right now for whatever reasons that's happening. Let's maybe think about those reasons, but don't be so stressed out about the fact that it's happening. Figure out how to solve it and get past it versus feel bad about it.

JJ: 6:18

Yeah, absolutely. And I think too, because that's happened to me in my 20, 22 financial goals are going to be changing as a result of that. You mentioned earlier shame and it does feel shameful. And I feel infantilized like, oh, I'm back at that place. Where if friends say, Hey, let's get together. I'm like, uh, how about pre-call. At my place, you know, you bring the coffee, you bring the coffee and I'll supply the mugs. That's not a great feeling. Right. And then having that shame on top of it, where I feel like it, it can be counterproductive to actually getting your act together. And sometimes, sometimes I think. It's about, it's not just, oh, I've gone through a dip and you know, I'm sure a lot of listeners will have this, you know, it's like you lose a job. Or if you have a partner, your partner loses a job or you move, lose a partner, you lose a partner. Things shift around. Something happens with your child. Maybe your child, you know, starts going to school or you have medical expenses or anything like that that can affect your income or your just trajectory in terms of, uh, in terms of your finances. So those things happen. And often I've had, I've had some like ruptures over the past few years in my finances. Yeah. I've gotten past the point where my knee-jerk responses, how am I going to get back to where I was? Because I feel like it can be quite negative because it's like, I'm trying to hang on to something instead of, uh, focusing on, okay, what's the situation? You know, what can I do? What can I do about it right now? What can I do about. In the future and also being able to assess, you know, some things like if people have big medical bills, I mean, luckily that's not a situation I'm in, but if they do, you know, oh, if it's a one-time thing, you can say, well, here's my plan for paying it off. However, if it's ongoing medical expenses, You have to absorb that into your whole financial worldview and

Dana: 8:41

figure out your plan and forever with that in mind, which I think is hard to do. It's hard to make that adjustment, right? Because planning for the future seems like when I was a kid, it seemed when I was a younger adult, rather, it seemed like. How to protect yourself from bad things happening financially. And no one wants to think about that. My sense of saving was about saving money to get out of a jam or to protect yourself when you're older or when something really bad happens, as opposed to like life happens. Here's, here's, what's going to happen. You know, you're going to get older, shit's going to go down and you're going to have to deal with things. And.

JJ: 9:21

It's it doesn't

Dana: 9:22

seem like this commonly accepted, like life trajectory, like this is these things could happen or they will happen. Like we get older, our bodies start to break down or our car breaks down or things do happen. And

JJ: 9:35

there's this idea

Dana: 9:36

of like, You can do something to

JJ: 9:38

stop that from happening. So then if it does happen, it's on you

Dana: 9:41

and you screwed up and it's like this, like you always have control. And if something goes off the rails, it's really your fault. So you really need to like clean that up and clean it up quick.

JJ: 9:52

And. It's this idea of

Dana: 9:54

like making a mistake. This it's almost like an accusation, like you messed up.

JJ: 9:58

We don't generally talk that much about personal finance on women. Take stock. That's not really our main focus, but it's such an important part of the day to day with your finances. Because as you say, instead of thinking about unexpected, Financial events just to be quite broad, but you know, whether that's, I need a new tire or I broke my leg or I lost my job or whatever that, when these bad things happen, we tend to think of it as an anonymous. Rather than, yeah, that's going to be like regular life for the rest of your life.

Dana: 10:34

That word is perfect. Anomaly. That's exactly the way I think it's framed. And that anomaly, then the talk around that is how to get out of it. The quick to get back to normal, get back to zero, get back to zero plus, and instead of take a deep breath, this is where you are right now. I mean, obviously if you're in an emergency situation and you're homeless or it's an extreme situation, that's scary and painful and you act accordingly. But I think for a lot of women, Especially women on their own. There's this idea of like, how do I, how do I just make the perception that everything's fine and how do I make everything fine? So I don't have to deal with this like emotional crash that's going to occur.

JJ: 11:16

Um, well, and Dana, you too. MI JJ, we are on our own in that we are the only breadwinners in our households. Exactly. Which can be

Dana: 11:29

empowering, that extremely intimidating. And our world is really not set up for, you know, the single parent household

JJ: 11:38

or single person, single person to exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So second on from that, I think about 20, 21. Financial goals. So for me, in this context, I think 2021 was a pretty good year for me investing, considering it was really my first full on active investing, looking at companies, investing in companies that I researched them and then invested and then got out at certain times. Sometimes I think I've only lost money on two. To stop bys. And one was only like five shares. So that was okay. That was fine. That was okay. I could absorb that, but it was

Dana: 12:27

blanket all of this with

JJ: 12:28

COVID. Yes, COVID exactly. Overall, I think 20, 21, my financial goals starting out. I had this little bit of money and it's like, I can play with this. And as we talked about before, it's always so important. Anything you invest, you can afford to lose well, going into 2022. That nest egg is a lot smaller

Dana: 12:53

now. And that's not because of investing choices that you made that's because

JJ: 12:58

of life happening, correct? Yeah. Right. Exactly.

Dana: 13:02

Exactly. That's a great question. Like what do people do? W w what do you change when the, when your life circumstances changed and how does that affect your investing moving forward? Does it affect your investing? Is this now, is that money that you could lose money? You can't lose. So you take it out of the market, or what is your thinking on that?

JJ: 13:24

Yeah, for me, I mean, I cashed out of my crypto, both, both my Bitcoin and my Ethereum, because I needed that money to cover expenses. And I mentioned it earlier, but one was buying a new tire, another, another, uh, like my dependable car, suddenly the starter motor went. And I didn't know. I, I, I talked to a couple of people in my family who know more about cars and they said, oh yeah, we think it's starter motor. You have to take it in. No, no, that's T that's 2020 threes resolutions. But, but they all did that thing where they said, Ooh, sounds like the starter motor. It's like, oh, I don't like that sound. And then I take it into the mechanic and he said the same thing. He's like, Ooh, that's going to be about 500. It was like, oh, I wasn't expecting that. Um, yeah. So, so for me, um, some of that money is. This feels sad to say. I feel a little embarrassed. I feel about like what you were just describing. Some of that money is out of the market for now. Like it's not, it's not even there as something set aside anymore. I've had to use it. And that it made me feel quite sad at the time when suddenly I realized, oh, I don't have any more crypto. Right. Yeah, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna

Dana: 14:45

match you on that. I'm totally parallel your situation. I had the same thing happened for different reasons. I changed jobs and I relocated for a new job and then relocated back after that job, didn't work out all, all of us in 2021 and it ate up all. My savings and all savings. All of my investing, which is my savings in the market, mostly in crypto. And I felt, I felt really disempowered. And I also felt like you're saying, I felt sad that I didn't. I was looking at the market totally differently than I was, uh, you know, a year before. And it was, um, really disheartening and. Yeah. So this question of like, okay, do I just absorb

JJ: 15:29

this and accept it? Do I feel ashamed? Do I

Dana: 15:32

like scramble to try to figure out a new solution? And I think it's hard to just sometimes sit still and be

JJ: 15:37

like, okay, what am I going to do with this now? What we have to do is we have to think about our investing as part of this continuum of our financial life. And at times, I mean, things like your retirement accounts, of course, those tend to be things that we contribute to little by little over time. So we don't touch those. When we started women take stock and I had this money, I thought this will, this will be my little investing pot and I'll have some. Some losses, but mostly wins and that pot will just keep growing and growing over time.

Dana: 16:13

Your expectation was this, uh, increasing trajectory, right?

JJ: 16:17

Yeah, yeah. To infinity money. And, um, and actually that amount has gone down, not because of investing losses, but because of life. Yeah. And so,

Dana: 16:32

so here though, those a question, like, do you throw everything up in the air or you. JJ are you or us as women and say, oh, forget it. And just walk away or just accept this as one of those downward moments, one of those dips in life, and don't run away from investing. Maybe take, maybe make a plan of what takes the money out of your investment. Or even if you have to take it all out. Don't trash your investing mode because it's just not working right now for other reasons, don't think, oh no, I can't do that anymore. Justin explained me a little smaller. Maybe it's maybe it at zero, but it's still going to be there. And

JJ: 17:13

yeah, that's a great, that's a great point where you're still in investment mode. Even if you're having to take a hiatus on actually putting your money into this or moving it around or whatever. I, I, um, watched something the other day, a video about earnings per share. And it was like, I need to know a little bit more about earnings per share, even though right now, I don't, I don't need actively that piece of information, but I think, I think in the past I would have been, I would have felt like. Oh, I feel so bad when I even think about it. I feel like a trigger for it would be a trigger. And so then I would try to avoid those feelings by saying to myself, well, I don't have time for that right now. I've got other priorities for my money and, um, You know, if somebody asked me about it, I would say, oh yeah, I did some investing. I did pretty well, but you know, I'm doing other things right now, whereas yeah. Where my mindset now is, okay. I don't have money right now to be actively investing or a lot of money. I have a little bit still in the market, but that I'm still an investor and I'm still reading and I'm still learning and that's still. One of the most powerful ways. I think we can, we can increase our money. We can be active participants in the market and just the money world. And also actually it's made me reevaluate to I've certainly looked at my, looked at my budget and thought investing is a really important part of what I'm doing. And. Now that I've had to kind of readjust and have these expenses and whatnot. It's like, okay, well, how can I move a little money from elsewhere in my budget, over to the investing. So it's available. And I think that's a really big mind shift for me. And I think it's really, I dunno, I feel like it's really important. And it also is a bit of a. Of a sock in the arm for my investing self, who was feeling a bit ashamed and sad. And I don't want to talk about I have I failed at this where it's like, no, you haven't made a

Dana: 19:36

proactive decision, a proactive investing decision. And it wasn't about choosing which stuck should I buy herself. It was about how do I. Open up my cashflow or how do I divert my cashflow from one place in my life to another, to increase my investing opportunities and to keep my investing life active. I think that's great. I love that you made that decision and that you recognized you made that decision

JJ: 20:02

And it's rather than saying, well, that was an experiment and I couldn't even afford. Well, it's like, well, you did afford it for awhile and then something happened, but you're going to get back into it. And in the

Dana: 20:14

you're always an investor. that's part of who you are now.

JJ: 20:17

Yes, exactly. Yeah. And that kind of leads us on to. What we're going to be doing in the future episode with our listeners, we want to hear your investing stories really do we really do so when we, when we kicked off season one, we hoped we would get listeners. And what we found was there's a landslide of people, not just listening, but also sharing their stories with us, either emailing or through social media. It was so great to hear some of those individual stories. And we want to hear more because of this listener special we're doing where we're going to highlight some of the. Yep. And no matter

Dana: 20:59

whether you're in your twenties or you're in your sixties or you're in the UK or the us or France or India, we want to hear from you. and we want to share your stories with the rest of our listeners and inspire them as well. So reach out to us through email, social media, And let's keep that conversation about.

JJ: 21:18

Yeah, so tune in for our next episode, we're really looking forward to it and looking forward to a great 20, 22 with women, take stock signing off. This is JJ and Dana, and we'll see you next time. See you next time.