No One Is Going To Care About Your Money Like You Do With Lynnette Khalfani-Cox | HMM 39

EPISODE 39

[INTRO MESSAGE]

[00:00:08] ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the Her Money Matters Podcast, the podcast to help you take control of your finances. Join your host, motivational money coach, Jen Hemphill, as she shares with you practical, simple money insights and real life stories by women like you. Let’s get to it.

[INTRODUCTION]

[0:00:26.6] JH: Hello, this Jen Hemphill and welcome to yet another episode of the Her Money Matters podcast. I’m excited to have you tuning in today to today’s show. I have to tell you, it’s been such a fun and rewarding year so far this 2016, our community over our free community over on Facebook is growing and the ladies in there are just fabulous, there’s just been a lot of fun in there.

So if you haven’t joined us, it is a free group, you can do so by going to Jenhemphill.com/community and that literally takes you to the Facebook group, you just click “join” and we’ll be sure to add you. Also, it’s a good idea to be in there, or on my list if you prefer, because I will be starting to doing some short yet fun challenges all of course regarding a money topic.

If you are in there you will definitely be in the know or if you are already on my email list, you will definitely be notified, but it’s always just even more fun over in the Facebook group because you get to connect with others versus just me in the email. So just wanted to make sure to point that out.

Today we’ve got a great guest and let me tell you what you’re going to learn in today’s episode. You’re going to learn what advice this guest‘s sister gave her that has been huge for propelling a successful career in business. She is going to share why she defines herself as a hybrid versus a spender or a saver and it’s really interesting.

She’s also going to talk about a pivotal life moment she had and why she has not looked back and you are going to be the first to know, she’s never talked about this about what change her and her husband have made on how they manage their personal finances. So that’s going to be interesting. Let me go and share a little bit about Lynnette Khalfani-Cox.

She is a money coach and is a nationally known personal finance expert, she is a speaker and a New York Times bestselling author who has written 12 money management books. Her latest book series is called College Secrets which focuses on paying for college without excessive student loan debt. That sounds like a good one to get. She is a CEO of themoneycoach.net LLC, a financial education company serving corporations, nonprofits and consumers. She has also appeared on the Steve Harvey show, Oprah, Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, the Today Show, The Talk and many more TV shows and news programs. What a resume right there, right?

Let’s go ahead and not delay and meet Lynnette.

[INTERVIEW]

[0:03:53.3] JH: Welcome Lynnette to the Her Money Matters podcast. I am excited to have you here.

[0:03:59.7] LK: Thank you so much, I’m excited to be here.

[0:04:01.9] JH: Yes, we recently connected and met at FinCon, which is a conference for financial bloggers but I think honestly, it’s evolved too so much more than that and I have to share with you Lynnette because it was just such a treat for me personally to meet you because when I began this journey, you don’t know this. When I began this journey, I began thinking of a title of what people — because you need to have some sort of title right?

[0:04:30.7] LK: Some kind of handle, right?

[0:04:31.6] JH: Something, right. And people didn’t quite understand what — because my credential is an AFC, an accredited financial counselor and they always get it confused with financial planner. So I thought, money coach. Naturally I googled that up and guess what came up first? You. That’s the first person that came up and of course naturally I was curious like, “Who is Lynnette?” And I saw all the accomplishments and it was a little intimidating.

Hello, you’ve been on Oprah! But it was inspiring at the same time and I really knew that if you had this much impact and success, it definitely means there’s opportunity out there, we know there’s over seven billion people in this world, which means that we need more people because we can’t do it by ourselves to help educate people in finances.

So on behalf of others that are in the same area as I am and educating people, just thank you because you’ve basically made a name for us and pretty much put a base line. So I really, really appreciate that.

[0:05:43.0] LK: I’m so honored for you to say that. I really love what I do and I figured, “Oh wow, it is going on like 20 years now. It’s been a fun ride and really I can’t see myself doing anything else.

[0:05:56.9] JH: That is awesome. Well, are you ready to dive into these questions?

[0:06:01.1] LK: I am indeed.

[0:06:02.5] JH: Perfect. Well w know how well accomplished you are. But I am really curious, just something, tell us something interesting, unique, something that may be, not many people know about you. Something obviously that you’d be willing to share.

[0:06:18.5] LK: Oh hmm, where do we start? And it doesn’t have to be money related, right?

[0:06:24.8] JH: Nope, it can be anything.

[0:06:27.2] LK: Okay, well, one thing is that I am practically deathly afraid of thunder and lightning.

[0:06:36.8] JH: Oh, I get you.

[0:06:39.1] LK: I don’t know why, I mean I do, “Ba-boom!” It’s like the heavens are just kind of raining down on you, but I’m trying to get past that but you know I think when I was growing up in Southern California, it was like a big production. My mother would be like, practically like, “Hide, get under the table,” or something. That probably didn’t help.

[0:07:02.2] JH: Right.

[0:07:04.4] LK: But now, I try to keep it calm and just, when it’s really, really super, just a lot of thunder and rain and hailstorms and with my kids, I just try to be calm like, “Oh that’s just the thunder,” inside I’m panicking.

[0:07:17.5] JH: Talking to yourself. Self-talk. No, I hear you.

[0:07:22.0] LK: I really never tell anybody that.

[0:07:24.2] JH: Now we know, now we know.

[0:07:27.5] LK: I never told another interview that.

[0:07:30.3] JH: Well thanks for sharing that with us, we all have our thing. I know for me, it’s heights and tsunamis. There was one time when we thought we were going to move to Hawaii and I told my husband, “People love Hawaii,” and I love it as far as very touristic place, a place to go visit and vacation but to live there, just the thought — and I think it’s part of it because I also have this claustrophobic thing about me. So just the thought of the tsunami and just figuring out, “How am I going to save my family?” It just doesn’t work for me. Tsunamis and heights are just for me, that’s the big thing.

[0:08:06.7] LK: Yeah. Well, I totally feel you because we all have our fears, right? We all have our phobias and some of them are rational, irrational, whatever but the challenge is to kind of manage it and just like not let it control everything that you do.

[0:08:23.2] JH: Absolutely. So I am curious Lynette, as the money coach, how did you grow up around money? I’d like to hear your money story.

[0:08:32.8] LK: Sure. Well I grew up in a household, like I said I was raised in Los Angeles, my parents were actually both from New York and my dad was a shoe shine man in Harlem. His father was a shoe shine man and so was his father.

[0:08:49.2] JH: Oh, okay.

[0:08:51.8] LK: Yeah, very interesting and unique. My dad decided of all things to become an actor and that was the reason he moved to Los Angeles. I think if anybody wants to be an actor, it’s like New York or LA, right?

[0:09:03.2] JH: That’s the place.

[0:09:03.1] LK: New York probably wasn’t cutting it. And it was like “Hollywood” at the time. My parents came to California when I was about two years old and parents had five daughters all girls together. Then, frankly, one of my earliest memories in terms of growing up was about my parent’s arguing a lot about money.

My mother would basically say, “Oh Michael, you need to get a regular job,” because my father had all this shoe shine stands at hotels, outside of car washes and my mother would say, “Oh if it rains out here, you can’t make money and just go work at floor shine the shoe store, you’d be the manager there,” because he knew a lot about shoes and indeed he did become the manager there but he was just miserable. So he ultimately quit.

But I’ve really kind of grew up seeing a lot of scrimping, saving the bare little bit that my family had. When my parents divorced, I was about seven years old and my mom had to mostly, from a financial perspective, raise us by herself. My dad was still around and we always saw him and a couple of my sisters lived back and forth with the two of them et cetera.

But I just definitely grew up in a household where it was always like robbing Peter to pay Paul. I just remember seeing my mother threading and sitting at the table and worrying about what she called “doing her budget” which was essentially trying to figure out which bills she could afford to pay and which ones would have to just wait.

[0:10:45.8] JH: Right, right. I hear that.

[0:10:48.3] LK: I kind of feel like part of what I learned or the message that I got, I just thought everybody was pretty much broke and in debt and not really able to save and kind of get ahead. Obviously, I did grow up and learn that that’s not the proper way, that’s not the only way certainly. But it took me a long, long, long time to kind of work through my own financial challenges which I’ve kind of been pretty upfront and talking about.

[0:11:18.7] JH: Right. Now, tell us as far as did that influence for you to become a money coach? I mean what inspired you in this direction?

[0:11:29.5] LK: I can’t say that my early childhood or upbringing influenced me to become a money coach. Although, I can credit my father, I would say, largely with my decision to be an entrepreneur. I sort of always, just in the back of my head, thought that it will be kind of cool to just do your own thing and my father taught me so many great things about the value of hard work and that all honest work is good work and not to judge people based on their titles or how much money they make or don’t make. Stuff like that.

My father is very, very fiercely independent. I went through a long professional career mostly working in financial journalism and when I was downsized from my job as a Wall Street Journal reporter for CNBC in 2003, at first I was like, “Oh this is not right, this is not fair, I thought I was supposed to have a contract.” You know.

I had a friend who remained on at the Journal and she kind of ever so gently said, “Well, Lynnette, maybe this is an opportunity? Didn’t you kind of always say that you maybe you want to start a business one day,” and I said, “Yeah, but on my own terms, not like this.” But of course, she was right, thank you very much Melanie Trottman.

She was right and I remembered that to this day because my last day on air at CNBC was March 1st, 2003 and even though I did kind of lament and cry and fuss and whine and carry on a little bit about it for a very brief time. In that same month, March 2003, that’s when I started my business. And I haven’t looked back. Its worked out great that it’s been very successful, mostly with the help of my second husband, my husband Earl. It’s great to have a partner that she worked with in business that can kind of keep it all afloat.

So really, I would say I guess long story short, I sometimes teach people now that when you leave corporate America and kind of do your own thing, it’s usually with, I either call it a feather or a baseball bat. The feather is the nice planned exit, the going away party but the baseball bat is like, “Bam! Bye, you got to go.”

[0:13:50.0] JH: That is funny. It’s crazy how the timing of that because it was something that in the back of your mind, the independence that I think your father had a big influence on and just waiting to be an entrepreneur. So there was just no time like the present.

[0:14:09.3] LK: Yeah. You know, you kind of have to, sometimes you are cast into that sink or swim scenario and in this case, I’m really, really happy to say it worked.

[0:14:18.9] JH: Right, that’s wonderful. Well thanks for sharing that. What would you say is the best money advice you’ve received?

[0:14:26.0] LK: I think probably without question, the best money advice I’ve ever received was from my sister Debbie, Deborah Daryl. She passed away unfortunately recently.

[0:14:36.0] JH: I’m sorry, to heard that.

[0:14:37.2] LK: Yeah, thank you. Debbie was such a wonderful person in so many regards but she always told me two things, one of which is to know your value and your worth and to always bring your A game. So she demanded excellence and again this was something that we learned in our household from both of our parents.

Again, our parents, they never said to the five of us, the five girls, “Are you going to college?” It was, “Which college will you be attending?” So all five of us did go to college and three of us, including Debbie, we got graduate degrees and three of us became business owners. My dad actually remarried I should say, some years later. And I had another sister Tiffany. There’s really six girls.

[0:15:26.8] JH: Oh wow!

[0:15:27.8] LK: Yeah, but I think that Debbie’s advice helped me in so many regards in my career because it made me unapologetic, unashamed, and unafraid to negotiate, to ask for what I was worth, to know how to leverage my skill sets and to go after opportunities and to be financial rewarded for the attributes and the skills and the knowledge that I brought to the table.

So that helped me in my career as a journalist when I was a Dow Jones reporter and a CNBC correspondent and Wall Street Journal reporter, and et cetera. But it also has helped me tremendously in business over the past almost 13 years now. So from a financial perspective, knowing my worth and then being excellent at what I do, kind of bring in my A game, has really, really served me well and I apply it in every facet of my financial, professional, and personal life.

[0:16:36.4] JH: That’s beautiful and that’s definitely some great advice from your sister because as women, the value piece, in general and of course obviously you’re not under this umbrella but then in general, some women just don’t value their work as much, they’re intimidated to negotiate a higher salary or to charge the prices that they’re worth. So that is definitely a great piece of advice that your sister gave.

[0:17:05.0] LK: Yup.

[0:17:06.8] JH: How about a favorite money quote?

[0:17:12.3] LK: There’s a lot of great quotes about money and does it sound too narcissistic if I say one of my own?

[0:17:19.5] JH: No, go for it!

[0:17:21.9] LK: I’m really fond of telling people and frankly, of reminding myself that there is no level of income that can’t be outspent. It doesn’t matter if you make $20,000 a year, $200,000 or $20 million. If you spend more than you earn, you’ll always be broken in debt.

[0:17:42.6] JH: Yes.

[0:17:44.2] LK: The person who is making $20,000 a year but spending $30,000 a year or the person who is making $200,000 but spending $300,000 or the person who is making $20 million but spending $30 million, really, they’re all in the same boat. So I just try to remind people, and indeed even myself that it’s not about making more money, it’s about what you’re doing with your money and largely about your spending habits. Indeed, there is no level of income that can’t be outspent. It’s just a reminder to me and hopefully to others to be prudent in their choices with what they do with money.

[0:18:27.4] JH: I like that, that is a great quote. How about tell us, are you a saver? Or would you say you’re a spender?

[0:18:35.1] LK: Well, my husband would probably say I’m the spender of the family. Sometimes I think God plays like a cruel joke on us and always hooks up a purported spender with a saver, a hoarder with a splurger. A procrastinator with a planner and an organizer. In general though, I think that I’m a saver but relative to my husband who can squeeze a nickel out of anything. I’m probably the spender of the family.

So you know, I’m a hybrid and I’ve definitely acknowledged that a part of the reason that I was in debt, I had back in 2001, I had $100,000 in credit card debt. This was obviously with my ex-husband and I took three years, I paid it all off and I never missed a single payment and I wrote this book about getting out of debt called Zero Debt: The ultimate guide to financial freedom and it went on to become a New York Times bestseller et cetera.

[0:19:35.8] JH: That’s awesome.

[0:19:36.8] LK: Again, I’ve been very honest in saying candidly that part of the reason that I was in debt is that I was sort of a classic over spender and a poor money manager. So sometimes you have to get away from that when you find that part of your money personality is rooted in childhood and in other factors where maybe you felt like, “Oh I’ve missed out on some things or I deserve it,” or you want to splurge and give your kids certain things.

I think I’m a little bit of a hybrid between the two. I sometimes talk about other money personalities. Overall, what I would call myself most is a planner. That’s really the financial personality that fits me. I’m always trying to forecast into the future and think, what’s going to be a year from now, three years, five, 10 years down the road and I try to govern my finances accordingly.

[0:20:30.6] JH: Right, I love that. Now, you mentioned your husband. I’m curious how you divvy up or how — are you the money manager in the home? Or do you divvy up your personal — taking care of your personal finances? How does that work in your household?

[0:20:49.5] LK: Okay, Jen, I’m going to let you in on something and this is definitely the first time that I’ve told anybody this. Frankly because it’s something new in our household that we’re trying. So no, the short answer is no, I don’t manage the money in our household in terms of being the one who actually pays the bills and does everything.

My husband, who is very excellent and good with money as am I, does pretty much everything. So he uses online banking and he automates a lot of bills and pays things online and he manages most of the accounts. So we have mostly joint accounts, we have some separate accounts as well, but for the most part, he handles the household…

[0:21:42.8] JH: Finances?

[0:21:44.2] LK: Transactions, finances and which might surprise some people, because they’re like, “Oh wait, her husband does it?” Yes, that’s totally true. Now, this is our eight — well we passed eight years of marriage and eight happy good years, eight loving years and I tell everybody, anybody who knows me knows that I just brag all the time about my husband. ‘Cause I feel like, “Thank you god, I got it right the second time around.”

[0:22:09.7] JH: That’s beautiful.

[0:22:11.8] LK: Thank you. But like every other couple, we have our challenges with money, we have disagreements about money, we have different approaches sometimes to how things should be handled and it’s never, to be honest with you, it’s never, there’s no knock down drag out fights, there’s no arguments or yelling, like it’s nothing like that at all.

It’s more strategic, it’s more sometimes focus or priority or which comes first or things of that nature. So one of the things that we just started doing, my husband was so shocked that I told him this in the beginning of September. This is September, October, November — so this is the third month. I told him, I said, “You know what? Let’s try something,” and he said, “What?” I said, “Why don’t you do everything in terms of the decision making?”

He said, “Really?” I said, “Yes.” I said, “I trust in your 100%, I have faith in your financial skills and abilities, I know obviously you want the best for our family and you’re going to make good choices.” And honestly, for most of what we’re talking about or what we might have some disagreements about, there’s not necessarily wrong answer. It’s more about priorities as I mentioned, or which comes first?

Or if we’re going to say, “Here, here’s our $10,000 check,” how much are we going to put towards, prepay our taxes? How much are we going to throw in to our retirement savings? What are we going to put in savings? What are we going to put towards the bill, stuff like that.

So what we did, Jen, was that I told him, I said, “We don’t even have to have conversations about it. You go ahead and do whatever you want to do at every level. Whatever you want to throw into savings, whatever you want to put aside for taxes, whatever you want to pay towards bills, whatever you want to put in the 529 plans,” and all of that. And honestly, it’s been working beautifully.

Now, let me be clear that I have not abdicated financial responsibility in the sense that my husband is a real tech geek and I say that with all the love in the world because I think that the geeks shall inherit the earth. But he’s a spreadsheet guy and I’m more of a pencil and paper and calculator person, but he gives me all these spreadsheets and shows me every account. So I’m fully aware as I had been before. I see all of our financial position that I see the net worth numbers, I see everything.

But in terms of actual decisions, I said, “You know what, just go on and decide. Whatever you want to do, just go ahead and do it.” It’s kind of been a little liberating, its’ something new we tried but it’s kind of like, we’re both busy frankly and a lot of, we’re like, “Okay, we spend too much time in talking about all this?” And I think part of it is that because I am a money coach and I actually like to talk about money, so I’ll probably talk him to death.

I’ve been on the phone with my mom and she’s called me one morning and I’m like, “Oh I’m sleeping.” I said, “Earl and I were up last night and just talking,” and she was like, “Uh huh, talking.” And I said, “No, no, no, really, just like talking in the bed to two or three in the morning, strategizing, going over business opportunities.”

And sometimes, because we live, breathe, eat and sleep this stuff, because this is our business and we both are co-owners, we’re equal owners in our financial education company and because as entrepreneurs, we’re passionate about what we do and we teach this to our kids, this literally permeates every area of our life. It’s very fluid. We don’t make clear delineations and say, “Now it’s business time, now it’s personal time, now it’s family time, it’s always sort of blended and mixed together.”

[0:25:56.5] JH: Yeah, I’m sure it’s hard to set that. It’s interesting because I think you said a key point. Every couple is different, how they manage their personal finances but the key point that you mentioned is that you are both in the know. Even though he may be making the decisions, he shows you what’s going on and I think that is so key in a lot of couple’s are lacking is just being at least being in the know as to what’s going on, the money that came in, the money that came out, the net worth those type of things, in a certain point and that was the key thing that stuck out from what you said which I think is very important.

[0:26:37.8] LK: Right, not only that. I mean, because he’s a person who is really good with data and spreadsheets, he likes to show me things and present it in a certain way which is great because then we can always see a snapshot, we can track things over time, we can make adjustments on the fly, that helps. But also, the way that we have our finances setup, we’re both automatically in the know because we get email alerts for our credit cards.

If one of us is out and if he says, “Oh I’m going to run down the street to Costco.” If he also makes a stop at the bank or goes to Walmart or something, I’ll see it because every transaction, we both get email alerts to see. We’re constantly tracking our spending and then things of that nature. So yes, he keeps me in the know but then we also, by way of sort of checks and balances through our financial accounts, we’ve set it up so that we’re both fully informed about what’s going on.

[0:27:33.8] JH: Right, no that’s perfect. How about your favorite money guru? Who is that? I feel like you’re one in itself but who would you say?

[0:27:46.4] LK: Oh that’s a good question. My favorite money guru? I don’t know that I have a favorite money guru. I can certainly talk about some of my influences and like I remember reading David Bach, the author of the Finish Rich series and being very, very impacted by Smart Women Finish Rich, Smart Couples Finish Rich and really liking his approach in style and to this day I still admire his work.

There’s a lot in the entrepreneurship category, folks that I admire and I tend to read a lot. I don’t know if I would say a favorite but I’m just kind of, I’m always picking up things and tidbits and learning things. I like the idea of multiple strings of income and I recently read Grant Cardone and his book about 10X.

Just about taking it up a notch and just doing things at a bigger level and so I don’t know if I would say I have a specific kind of financial money guru. There’s so many people and so many different spaces, there’s some experts who just are in the college financing space and that somebody like a Mark Kantrowitz who I look at and say, “Wow, this guy just has numbers and data and information coming out of his head and out of his ears.”

Or whether it’s somebody who is just kind of killing it on the topic of homeownership or student loans, you know? I don’t know, I wouldn’t point to one in particular but I think there’s a lot of people out there doing a lot of good work and like you said at the top, with all the billions of people in the world, none of us can do all this, we’ve got a Herculean task.

[0:29:35.0] JH: Yes we do. I know I had spoke with, I don’t’ know if you’re familiar with Denise Duffield Thomas and she said something that struck me that was so very true is that when I asked, it was this question or a favorite money book but it was just not about having a favorite but it’s basically at what stage or what phase in life she’s in and that’s — she may be going towards more of a personal development book or maybe a certain type of money book let’s say, she’s trying to get out of debt or whatever the case be. So it was more on the phase and the stage of life that you’re at. So I thought that was really cool.

[0:30:11.7] LK: Yeah, and you know what? It totally makes sense because it is, right now for me, I have college on the brain because my daughter has gone off to college and I’m prepping more for my son who is a sophomore in high school. And then my little one, she’s nine years away from college but I know the importance of planning.

[0:30:32.9] JH: Yes.

[0:30:34.8] LK: Like I said, whether it’s just for me personally, I love things that propel me as an entrepreneur so that’s why I mentioned The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone. But just other — you can just take a host of people who help you to achieve whatever goal you need to in that particular time and sometimes it evolves and honestly, and again, this might sound crazy but my husband is really one of the smartest and best money gurus that I know.

[0:31:04.5] JH: Oh, that is so sweet, I love that.

[0:31:06.4] LK: Our friends call his sayings and expressions “Earlisms”. He comes up with it, beauties. I told him, I fell in love with him in part because, not only because he’s such a wonderful person and good heart and all that, but just talking to him, he uses the most beautiful analogies and his way of speaking is you just get connected.

He does that a lot in very practical ways as well. He often give me, believe it or not, a lot of ideas for the content and what I write. He’s the one who told me, “Oh you should write a book about debt. If you write a book about debt, that would become a best seller a New York Times,” now he was right.

[0:31:50.9] JH: Well now I have to meet Earl.

[0:31:52.8] LK: Yes.

[0:31:53.3] JH: I’ve met you, now I have to meet your husband.

[0:31:55.9] LK: Yup, my better half indeed.

[0:31:58.1] JH: Oh that’s beautiful. So I’m not going to ask you about your favorite money books. I’m going to phrase it as to the one that has had a big influence on you, since I know you love to read. One that comes to mind right away, the first one.

[0:32:14.4] LK: Well that’s why I mentioned David Bach, to be honest, when I said about Smart Women Finish Rich. I guess probably for me, right now, when I read, I’m always looking for something that’s new or different or the Aha, insightful thing. I like Seth Godin who just does a tremendous amount of work around marketing and branding and just sort of, just such a thought leader in so many ways.

I love The Dip, for example. Which talks about, you know, kind of, what is the phase that you're in, when should you quit and give up or when should you push forward and how do you recognize if you’re in a cycle, or if you kind of picture it like a chart, you’re in a dip and it’s right before things are about to turn up and get better. Part of it is about investment, about time and effort and energy and what you’re putting into something.

Because sometimes you do something you might launch a new project, a service, whatever and then you see a great return or then it dips off. Then you think, “Okay, is this a cycle, is this a market? Or should we focus our efforts and prioritize and look at stuff over here or elsewhere?” I don’t know, sometimes I’m reluctant to say anyone because it seems like you might favor some of your even close friends who you’ve read and.

[0:33:32.0] JH: No, no worries. Yeah, you mentioned several, you’ve mentioned the David Bach books, you’ve mentioned Grant Cardone, you’ve mentioned Seth Godin. So we’ll go with that. Thank you so much for your time Lynnette, this has been fun. As you know, this podcast is about making money simple and taking control of it. How would you finish this sentence? Her Money Matters because _____.

[0:33:59.7] LK: Because no one is going to care more about your money than you do.

[0:34:03.6] JH: Yes, that is beautiful. But thanks again Lynnette.

[0:34:09.4] LK: You’re so welcome.

[0:34:10.6] JH: I want you to tell us where is the best place for people to find you and learn more about you?

[0:34:17.4] LK: They can visit my free financial advice blog, Askthemoneycoach.com and we’ve got probably almost 2,000 articles up there, my video content, and places where you can ask questions.

[0:34:31.3] JH: Perfect, well I’ll be sure to link that in the show notes and Lynnette, it’s been a pleasure speaking with you today.

[0:34:37.6] LK: Thank you so much.

[0:34:39.2] JH: I really appreciate your time.

[0:34:41.1] LK: Of course, I appreciate you, take care now.

[0:34:42.9] JH: All right, take care.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[0:34:45.4] JH: Wasn’t Lynnette impressive? I hope that you enjoyed hearing our interview as much as I enjoyed chatting with her. Something that really stood out in my talk with Lynnette was really the super, just super strong union between her and her spouse. There were definitely a united front and it’s no different when it came to the finances. This is so huge for making a marriage stronger, a relationship stronger.

For those of you having a spouse or a significant other, like I said during the interview, it is so important for both of you to be in the know of what’s going on with the finances, to know the cash flow, to know when bills are paid, to know if they’re paid automatically, if maybe some are paid manually. To know exactly how much you have for groceries or for eating out, those type of things.

It’s definitely important because it’s obviously by knowing you’re going to be able to make a better financial decision. So I just wanted to reiterate that in case you didn’t catch it in the interview. But let me tell you a little bit about my situation with my husband. With my husband, we’re definitely both in the know as far as what our financial goals are.

I take care of the money management. So I take care of the bills, I establish the budget and I communicate those things to him saying, actually, via email because even though I tell him, he doesn’t tend to have it — he has so much, his job is so demanding, it’s just incredible how much brain space it takes. So I verbally communicate that to him but I also email this to him, so he has it in front of him. “This is what our finances are looking like, this is what we have for groceries and eating out, those type of things, this is how much money we’re putting away every month. Those type of things.”

Here is the thing why I do that. Because as I mentioned, his job is so demanding, he doesn’t want to honestly deal with it. He trusts me, fortunately he does since I am his spouse. He does not want to add another thing to his brain. So that’s how I do that portion as far as I just communicate that with him so he knows and since we have our money separated as far as our daily expenses, whether groceries, eating out, those type of things.

Those are separated from the monthly bills, all those things. That once that money is gone is gone. He is aware like I communicate like, “This is how much money is left, this is what else we need to do the rest of the month,” that way, he is in the know, that’s how I handle that because he doesn’t want to know but I have to somehow let him know.

The other thing that I do plan on doing because I do manage the money and god forbid something happened, he needs to know, he needs to be able to pick up — I can’t talk today — where I left off. I need to leave him some sort of in striations as far as, “This is how I do the flow of the payments, these are automated or maybe these are manual. Whatever all those things.”

That’s what I still need to do for me to feel at peace fully. If you please by all means, keep me accountable and if that’s something that you feel would be helpful to you as well, by all means, do it. Because you just need to be prepared, right? We just never know, we’re not on earth forever, so we just need to be prepared and make it easier for our loved ones.

So I just wanted to share that with you and let you in a little bit on my life so you’d know that I don’t have it perfectly together. We’re still a work in progress, so I wanted to make sure and share that with you. I also wanted to give a shout out to Amy. She is in our Her Money Matters free community over on Facebook.

She’s a hard working single mom, she works two jobs, not just one, she works two jobs. She’s also an active participant in the group, she asks questions, she provides feedback and what I really have loved about her is that she’s not afraid to ask for help and you can tell she’s really got a strong desire to better her financial picture.

So she has that freedom, she has that one less thing to worry about because she’s busy, a single mom with two little ones. So Amy, I’m really excited to have you in the community and I can’t wait to hear more from you and your progress. That is a wrap, if you haven’t joined us over in the Facebook group, I’ll give you the link really quick one more time. It’s jenhemphill.com/community.

I want to thank Lynnette for being with us today, sharing all she shared today, being a wealth of information, sharing how she grew up with money, she just shared so much today. So be sure to check out the show notes on where to find Lynnette and so much more at jenhemphill.com/39. That is Jenhemphill.com/39. So thanks again for tuning in and I’ll catch you next Thursday.

[END]