Tackling Personal Finance and Facing the Numbers with Erin Lowry Founder of Broke Millennial

Alright, so it's time. It's time to get your financial life together. There, I said it! Whether you are a money maven or a personal finance newbie - today's conversation will be just the dose of inspiration you need to get in control of your finances.

Meet Erin Lowry, Author, Personal Finance Expert, and the woman behind Broke Millennial. Her goal is to provide practical advise to Millennials so you can navigate pesky financial questions and challenges.

Tune in below as we talk about misconceptions in saving money, best practices to pay off debt and loans, how to start investing, and more! 

SHOW NOTES:

Having started her career with a degree in theater and journalism, Erin learned you don’t have to be a mathematical servant to make it in the financial world (0:40.)

Money was discussed frequently in Erin’s household growing up, but not as a topic of stress as she later discovered monopolized other people’s lives. Despite making minimum wage through three jobs, Erin found herself less stressed out than some of her friends who still even had their parents' support (1:40.)

Broke Millennial, an early blog of Erin’s, empowers others through her storytelling of how she has managed to figure out her finances while living in New York City. Shortly after, due to its success, Erin received book deals and launched her career into personal finance (2:50.)

The biggest misconception Erin finds in the finance world is the belief that you have to be wealthy or have reached an arbitrary level of financial stability to start investing( 4:05.)

Erin shares that the common phrase, “Save for retirement” really should be, “Invest for retirement”. This means you are the investor and that you have access to the market  to make your money work and grow for you (5:00.)

A good first step Erin recommends to get started is to face your numbers and really understand where you stand. How much debt do you have? How much do you earn after taxes? Then ask yourself, what are your goals? (6:00.)

When it comes to debt, Erin finds it is important to understand what form of loan you are working with so you don’t get caught off guard by the interest. Make sure it is affordable for you to pay off or set up a repayment plan if necessary (9:10.)

Erin believes it is absolutely okay to talk about finances in the workplace and actually writes about how to do so appropriately in one of her books (14:00.)

Erin finds it’s beneficial to ask your LinkedIn connections for guidance (colleagues that are at a similar level as you) when determining comparable salary ranges (17:25.) 

There’s now wrong way to run finances at home with a significant other. But, it is important to expose all finances prior to any engagements so you find a fair balance (21:00.)

When it comes to savings, Erin finds it is important to write your goals down with a timeline and work financially backwards (24:00.)

Try not to tie your self-worth to your paycheck. Ask yourself what will keep you happy in the long term (25:40.)

Interested in learning more and continuing to follow Erin’s journey? Follow Broke Millennial here! Need a hand in getting started with your finances? Checkout her bundles, workshops, and shop here!

Keep an eye out for Erin’s latest book, Broke Millennial Talks Money, released on December 29th, which provides stories and advice to navigate awkward money conversations.

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Thank you readers, to tuning into the Brava Podcast. If you like the show please leave a review on iTunes! 

What from our conversation inspired you today? What do you hope to hear next? Tweet or message us on Instagram @BravaPodcast to tell us what you want to hear, even if it’s your own story! 

Paying Off Debt with Financial Hype Woman Berna Anat

Today we’re going to be discussing a lesson that they didn’t teach me in college. How to pay off debt. Honestly, with how many students now end up in college debt you would think this would be a no brainer to add to any curriculum!

Whether you are ready to take on your college debt head-on, pay off your car loans or get that credit card bill to zero this conversation is going to make that a whole lot easier.

Meet Berna Anat, your new and much needed financial hype woman.

In today’s conversation you are going to leave with at least 3 takeaways: 1) how to start tackling that loan 2) how to look forward and start investing in your future and 3) that finance is not a scary word – and that you can do this. Let’s get to it.

SHOW NOTES:

Berna may have a career in finance but believe it or not, Berna doesn’t have a background in finance! She is a financial literacy creator who teaches young people, especially young people of color, about money (1:40.)

She had $48,000 in college debt and $12,000 in credit debt and knew it was time to switch her mindset. When she googled “budgeting advice” and “how to pay of credit card debt” she realized the information that was coming up was written by men, a stark contrast to her own voice (6:00.)

For Berna, “financial literacy” means learning the rules of the money game as it stands in 2019. It can be different for each person sees it: how do I set-up my money habits now for how it will make sense down the road. She thinks it’s incredibly important for women right now because we have so much purchasing power (7:30.)

Did you know that not until 1974 could women not have their own lines of credit? (9:30.)

Last year we reached 1.5 trillion, yes trillion, of student debt in the U.S. and women hold 65% of that value and are paying off student debt slower than men after graduation (10:00.)

Looking to pay off your student debt? Berna has tips for you. First and foremost, put more of your paycheck towards your debt than you were previous comfortable with and learn to live off less of your paycheck (12:10.)

Focus on your smallest loan first to kick off the momentum (15:00.)

The gender wealth gap affects women differently. Women of color are often erased in the 81 cents ratio. For instance, Hispanic and Latina women earn as little as 51 cents to the dollar. (16:00.)

“It’s not as simple as 81 cents! We can’t keep erasing the women who exist inside of this gender pay gap and are suffering more than others. ”

— Berna Anat

Investing is for everyone and you don’t need a lot of money to invest. (19:10.)

“Go out and claim the damn dollar you’re worth! ”

— Berna Anat

Currently one of Berna’s next professional financial goals is to create a 6 month business emergency savings. 6 months of the costs it takes to run her business. Another goal is to make enough consistent money to be able to hire help to continue to develop her brand and company (23:13.)

Want to dive into more information about budgeting, financial literacy and investing? Check out Berna’s website and sign up for her newsletter!

Resources:

Check out this amazing free investing course collab between Ellevest and The Budgetnista!

Meet Nadia De Ala

Ladies Get Paid

Bettermint

Wealthfront

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Thank you readers, to tuning into the Brava Podcast. If you like the show please leave a review on iTunes! 

What from our conversation inspired you today? What do you hope to hear next? Tweet or message us on Instagram @BravaPodcast to tell us what you want to hear, even if it’s your own story! 

Innovation, Technology, & Start-Ups with Erica Amatori

For today’s discussion, we’re going to take a step into the start-up space. Whether you have your eyes set on an entrepreneurial venture in retail, finance or technology I hope that our conversation will ignite a spark within your own career path.

Let me introduce to you a powerful serial entrepreneur. Today’s guest is Erica Amatori. She’s the Director of Marketing at Burrow and Co-Founder of TheBit at the impressive age of just 23. Tune in below!

SHOW NOTES:

Erica is the VP of Marketing at Burrow, an e-commerce start-up that is changing up the furniture space. Their value lies in that their furniture is extremely comfortable and adaptable. She’s also the co-founder of thebitdaily.com a source from crypto-education and a crypto-community (1:26).

On knowing when to invest her time or money on a start-up, Erica first needs to believe in not just idea, but also the team (2:50).

“To know whether a start-up is right for me I act like my own venture capitalist firm.”

Start-ups are a roller coaster. The highs are high, the lows are low. When you don’t think there is a market for your service or product, you have to be real with yourself and move on (5:12).

“It’s not a failure, it’s a learning.”

— Erica Amatori

Book recommendation by Erica: The Dip by Seth Godin ß Click here to check it out.

With an idea, is it better to be authentic or original? Erica says neither. She thinks you truly need is product market fit. A demand and audience for the product (7:15).

To Erica, “innovation” means to find opportunity gaps and fill them. Finding a broken process and fixing it (9:00).

Innovative ideas come from innovative people. Character traits such as curiosity allow you to question the current processes and finding new solves. Practice this by always asking questions (10:20).

“Behind every successful person there are a lot of unsuccessful years.”

— Erica Amatori

Want to get start in your start-up now? Erica advises to go out there and start doing market research and find if your product or service is valuable (13:20).

Loved this episode? Share your voice and leave a review on iTunes now!

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The Brava Podcast hosted by Stephanie Campbell has quickly rose to be one of Pittsburgh Top Podcasts and Top Women Business Podcasts to listen to. For more information, check out the Brava Podcast "About” page or reach out to Stephanie at stephanie@thebravapodcast.com.

Collaborative and Controversial Conversations with Laura Freedman

Whether you are in the workplace, with friends or at home, more than ever complicated and controversial conversations surround us. Today on Brava I am honored to have Laura Freedman. Laura is a public speaker and financial advisor. Prior to her role as a financial and investment advisor, she was a Senior Human Resource Executive for a Fortune 500 company and an Executive Consultant. Laura brings over 25 years of experience advising leaders on business strategy and mitigating risk. Tune in to listen to our conversation below!

SHOW NOTES

Laura has always been an early riser and I’ve always admired her self-discipline (1:12).

She describes her career transition as a “dual-professional citizenship” because she spent her first half of her career in people strategy and then crossed-over to finance and investing. Now she finds that she is integrating both as a financial advisor as she specializes in executive transitions (1:50).

It was when she was receiving her Executive MBA that she became fascinated by finance and how to make optimal decisions in the face of uncertainty (2:40).

When asked about the value of her MBA…

“It was absolutely worth it…it ultimately was the trigger to a very dramatic career change that I love.”

— Laura Freedman

Upon completing her MBA, Laura’s daughter shared with her “Thank you. Now I know that I can do absolutely anything.” Laura encourages listeners to not lose sight of the positive ripple affect on the people who are closest to you (5:05).

Laura believes that creating change requires collaboration with individuals who hold opposing views. When asked how this is possible, Laura shares that it’s cultivating humility and continuous learning in the conversation (6:12).

She shares that "words can get in the way”. Rather than stating that there is an apparent issue (for instance unconscious bias) she speaks to the importance of instead defining the specific behaviors or observations (9:43).

“What are your observations? What led you to this conclusion?” Laura talks to the importance of making someone’s thought-process transparent to lessen judgement (14:30).

Humility and learning is just the start to mitigating and reducing tension but finding (and using) your voice is part of the equation too to influence the change that you want (16:50).

On “Finding your Voice” Laura believes that clarity leads to strength in conversations (20:00).

Laura is currently launching the Pittsburgh Women’s Alliance, the result of dynamic women that represent women professional groups, non-profits, and more that are coming together to help women advance and thrive. With the launch comes a free site with a master calendar so that women can help find impactful events happening in Pittsburgh. Check it out here: https://pghwomensalliance.org (24:00).

Ready to make change in your own backyard? Laura shares that it doesn’t have to be big to be a meaningful difference. Starting the conversation and bringing women together are the first steps. (26:30).

Want to keep listening? See our latest episode show notes here.