Professional Development

Homework

0:00:01.1 Latrina: Maybe? Yes. Alright, fantastic. So, we are going live. So, I’m gonna give it a moment, I’m gonna let everybody just kinda get settled in and get dropped in. Welcome, welcome. We are back to all the shenanigans that we do in this group. So, we are back and, of course, of course, we’re talking about money because I like to talk about money, and I think you guys should like to talk about money. So, we are going to do that today with a special guest, so this is gonna be exciting. Alright, perfection. Everyone’s getting settled in. I will give the intro in one second. Okay, if I can… There we go. Alright, so nice to see everyone. Everyone’s popping in there and coming on in there slowly but surely. So those numbers are going up, I see you. So today, we are going to talk about money. So, first and foremost, let me just say, welcome back. Welcome back to me and welcome back to you, guys. After having a full July off and taking some time off, we are here and again, like I said earlier, we are going to talk about money. Why? Because money makes the world go round and it’s gonna let us retire one day, and we need to fully and really embrace that.

0:01:24.5 Latrina: And like we’ve said in this group before, we wanna normalize this conversation. Talk about money, use it, investments, all that good stuff. So, it is normal. We like it, we like to spend it, we like to save it. Alright. So, with that being said, we are going to have Naseema here come in. So, Naseema is a good friend, and she is this financial guru that has taken off. And so, she’s gonna talk a little bit about investing, which is the other piece. So, if you have done your due diligence and you have done your homework, you know that we have pieces to this financial conversation, starting with Naseema. We were just talking about budgets and how to do that, especially everyone who has now graduated. We’ve got school loans, we’ve got debts, and we wanna buy all the things. So, we were talking about budgets first and foremost. So, if you have not watched that video with Naseema then you need to go back and watch that, so start there. We don’t want you just to jump into these financial conversations without having a financial picture of what your finances look like, that does not make any sense guys. It’s like going to take boards and you haven’t studied at all, why will we do that? We’re not doing that. So, go back and watch that, first and foremost.

0:02:43.3 Latrina: Then we talked about student loans. So, the burning question on everyone’s chest and how do we pay for it, and what types of loans do I even have, because I just took them so that I could get in school and pass boards. So, we did a whole conversation about that, if you have not watched that video, go back and watch that full of information so you can have a full understanding of what your loans look like and how to pay them off, because that’s gonna be important as well. And then we’re coming towards the end of this financial conversation, and it’s never really the end, but we’re coming towards the boring part, as me and Naseema like to say. It’s the investing part. It might be boring, but this is the part that’s going to allow us to retire and do all the things that we want to do with our families, right? And retire before we reach social security age, or whatever that is… That number is for you. So, that is what we are going to talk about today. So, different kinds of investments, how to pick an investment, so lots of other little things in there that we’re gonna throw in there for you. So, just to give you a little bit of background.

0:03:54.2 Latrina: So, Naseema is the founder of Financially Intentional, a platform about personal finance and living life intentionally. She discusses how taking control of her finances has enabled her to overcome bankruptcy, divorce, break the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. She shares her lessons along her path to help others benefit from the freedoms of financial independence. Outside of encouraging people to get their financial act together, Naseema is a mother and a labor and delivery nurse. Though making six figures for years, she struggled with money. Finally realizing she couldn’t out earn her financial ignorance, so she knew she had to make some changes. By shifting her mindset around money, being consistent and intentional, she’s paid off a million dollars in debt and grew a six figure net worth in three years without living in deprivation. So, that last sentence is very, very important because that means she still goes on vacation, guys. So, that is really, really important. She’s also on TikTok. So, I watch her on TikTok with her girls, having a good time. It’s super fun if you wanna watch that as well. So, I’m gonna go ahead and bring Naseema up. Hey, Naseema. Uh-oh, we can’t hear you.

0:05:06.9 Naseema: Sorry. Got it, got it, got it. Hey, everybody. Thank you for that warm welcome and that lovely introduction. It’s always a pleasure to be here with you, and to share with your community. So, I’m excited. Investing actually is not very boring. [laughter] There’s nothing more that I like than to see my money grow. So, it’s super exciting, especially when you realize that investing doesn’t have to be hard, and then it’s just like, “Yeah, you’re just watching your money blow up like bubble.” And it’s just… It’s a beautiful thing. I Love it.

0:05:45.6 Latrina: I am definitely gonna let you talk about it a little bit. But I definitely have some input on that because I’m fairly new to my investing journey, so definitely have some words of encouragement for people. Alright, I’m gonna bring your slides up, your deck up and then I’m gonna let Naseema take it away, guys. And then I’ll be back.

0:06:10.6 Naseema: Alright, guys. So, I’m gonna just gonna do a brief introduction of myself, if you have not already experienced any of my presentation. So, I’ve met Latrina when we were 18, we went to undergrad together. [chuckle] So, we have been knowing each other for 20+ years. [chuckle] And ironically we went on this path through public policy, healthcare administration, and eventually became nurses. So, it’s very interesting how our path has collided throughout these years and how it’s come full circle, and we are still working together, and I think it’s a beautiful thing. So, I went to USC for undergrad and grad school, went to UCSF for a Master’s entry to nursing program. After I was in healthcare administration for five years, became a labor and delivery nurse, had two girls, started this platform called Financially Intentional to empower people to do better with their finances, because dang! There was so much information I wish I would have known earlier in life, and I just share that information as I learn it. I was in $200,000 in student loan debt from all the degrees that I’ve had. And in some… With all of my debt, including the house in Northern California.

0:07:30.2 Naseema: I was able to pay off under a million… Just under a million dollars in debt in just under three years, and then at that three-year mark, go from a negative net worth to a six-figure net worth. And I’m gonna show you how to do that, because none of that would have been possible without investing. So, on our agenda I’m gonna just give a brief definition of investing, the types of investment accounts we’re gonna focus on, what you should be investing in, my investment hierarchy, and the do’s and dont’s of investing. So, I like to hype everybody up, because I think this is so exciting, it’s super exciting for me, let’s go. So, investing, everybody talks about investing, but what is it really? So, I can read you this definition from Investopedia. But basically my definition is making your money work for you, and it’s the real, only way to build wealth. And actually investing is anything that you use to… A avenue that you use to put your money in so that later it can grow. But it’s the only true way to build wealth. There are different kinds of investment accounts, there’s stocks, bonds, funds, investment trusts, all kind of… And alternative investment like cryptos.

0:08:58.5 Naseema: And just to give a brief definition, stocks are where you own a part of a company, own Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Tesla. Bonds is when you [chuckle] loan the government some money, it’s usually used as a… Like a little hedge, again… Or like a tool or to protect your portfolio in downtimes of the market. So, you lend the government some money. It’s usually low-risk, but it’s low-reward as well. Funds are things like mutual funds, index funds. It’s when things are pooled together, funds are pooled together, and they could be a mix of stocks and bonds and all these things pooled together to increase your diversification but also to increase your market exposure. And then there’s investment trusts, like REITs, REIT stands for Real Estate Investment Trust. It’s basically a way for you to own real estate without actually being a landlord, so you can own a fraction of multiple properties, but it’s traded on the stock market.

0:10:00.5 Naseema: It’s actually a cool investment to own, but we’re really not gonna talk about that today. And then there’s all kind of alternative investments, and what we know right now is the cryptos and the blockchains and the Bitcoins and all those kinda things, that’s really been popular right now. So, those are the type of investment… Some type of investment account. It’s not an all-inclusive list, there’s… Like you can invest in real estate, you can invest in a whole lot of things, but we’re gonna talk… Focus on investing in stocks and funds in this presentation. So, those are the types of investments, but let’s talk about the types of investment accounts. So, nurses primarily have access to 401ks, and that’s if you work… Most companies have 401ks. If you work for a government entity or a public entity or a school, for example if you’re a school nurse, you may have access to a 403b. For example, I work for a hospital that’s part of a local township, and so I am classified like a firefighter, so I have access to a 403b, which is dope, because then I have access to a 457, which I call the ultimate fire account.

0:11:16.0 Naseema: We’ll talk about that a little bit later. But basically, it gives me the same tax deductibility of my income so I can reduce my… Earn income by the same amount as a 401k or a 403b, which gives me almost $40,000 a year in a reduction in my taxable income, so, total. And then there’s individual retirement accounts, so if you’re a traveler, or if you’re self-employed, or maybe you work for a smaller business, and they don’t offer retirement plans, this is something that you wanna do on your own. So, a traditional IRA is similar to a 401k, meaning that it’s tax deductible, but it has a income limit… A contribution limit that’s way lower, 401k is $19,000 versus a traditional IRA, which is about $6000. And the same for a Roth, but the Roth is after-tax, it’s using after-tax money. And the advantage of that is… And it’s at the optimal tax optimizer, because the money that you contribute after tax is no… Can no longer be taxed again.

0:12:28.2 Naseema: So, that growth can no long… Can’t be taxed when you go to take it out. As to where all of the tax deductible accounts, when you go to take it out, you’re taxed at that point and you’re taxed at the income level you’re taxed at, that you’re at the point of withdrawal. So, that’s confusing, it’s a lot of information. We’ll go over it later if you guys have any questions. But listen, let me give you this warning, and this is why I should ’cause I want you to really pay attention. Listen, what a lot of people do is they put money into these retirement accounts like they have their 401k deducted out of their paycheck, and guess what? It’s sitting in a glorified savings account. That does not mean that it is invested. It needs to be invested. Some companies have it set up where it’s automatically invested, but sometimes it’s not, and you have to go and check. If you are setting up your individual retirement account or a Roth, you have to make sure that that money is actually allocated. You have to think about it like, the investment account is just like a house, but like the rooms, you have to put the money in the rooms where they’re actually gonna do the work. Okay? 

0:13:38.6 Naseema: But how should you invest it? We’re gonna talk about this and then let me give my disclaimer. This is not any kind of investment advice. I’m not an investment advisor. If you really want investment advice, go seek a professional counsel, which I am not. You can’t even hire me to do it. I’m just a nurse, but I do know a lot about investing. Anyway. So, where should your money go. Okay. So, this is how we look at it. Like once you get your money into say your 401K or your IRA, you need to decide where your money should go. Okay? Now you can pick individual stocks, you can pick those funds that I was telling you about, mutual funds or index funds, or you… Usually, if your money is automatically allocated by your company, it usually goes into a target-date fund, and the reason why I put in fund 2046 is that the target-date fund is usually targeted towards the year that you will retire. So, if I was gonna traditionally retire, I will retire around 2046… Yeah, that seems hella far away, I’m not doing that.

0:14:45.1 Naseema: And so, that’s why it say fund 2046. And what a target-date fund is, it’s more aggressive the earlier in your career you are, but once you start to approach retirement age, it automatically does these calculations to get you into more secured investments, bonds and things like that, and it prepares you to start withdrawing that money. Now, where should your money go? My rule of thumb, and the reason why investing should be boring is because it should be relatively easy. I always recommend that people put their money in index funds. Why is that? Because it gives you exposure to the market, which… And internationally and nationally, it tracks the market. So, it doesn’t necessarily beat the market, but nobody can really beat the market, over time. The market has gone up like 7% historically. So, it usually falls on that trajectory. On some years you might get 20%, some years you might get 3%, but on average it’s gone up. The market has never gone down, period. And it’s low fees, meaning that the money that’s in that account is not exposed to fees, which ultimately detracts from how much you’re gonna get at retirement. Target-date funds are a good default if you don’t know anything about investing and you just wanna leave your money there, I’m not gonna knock target-date funds.

0:16:18.0 Naseema: The thing is that, they don’t typically perform as well as index funds, as an index fund, and they have higher fees, so it takes away from that pot that you have at the end of your retirement. Individual stocks are super fun, they’re super volatile. A company can go to zero, so you do have that risk. So, you just have to think about it like you… Individual stocks, you could also do like crypto, all that kind of stuff. I always limit that exposure to less than 10% of your portfolio. So, if that’s something that you wanna do, less than 10%. So, that’s where your money should go. Bottom line is, I have a ticker symbol here for an index fund that I love, and there’s usually one that you can Google or you can look up, or ask your financial advisor that manages your retirement account. What is an index fund with a low expense ratio, and that means low fees to invest in? Now, if you’re saying like, “Oh, this stuff sounds really, really confusing, I just figured out that my money wasn’t being invested, how am I gonna figure out where to allocate my money?” I have the ultimate hack for you. Okay. There is this company called Blooom and I… Let me see, I’m gonna post this referral link. I’m gonna send it to you Latrina. I don’t know if…

0:17:53.0 Latrina: Yeah. If you send it to us, we’ll post it in the group for you.

0:17:55.5 Naseema: Okay, yes. So, I put the referral link up there. So, Blooom is a company, it’s called Blooom with three Os, don’t forget that. But they will run a free analysis on all of your accounts, your individual retirement accounts, your 401k, your 403b, and they’ll say, “Hey, this is how much money you’re leaving on the table. Here’s what you can take to your plan administrator or whoever in order to adjust this, or if you wanna work with us, we can do it for you. And it’s less than $200 a year.” I don’t remember how much it is exactly, but it’s less than $200 a year. Now, the reason why it’s the ultimate life hack is because once you sign up for Blooom, you basically have your own financial advisor.

0:18:50.3 Naseema: The people who you call, like if you call the customer service number, they are all certified financial advisors, and they will help you walk through your portfolios if you work with them. And so, I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to work with a financial advisor, but most financial advisors charge about $5000 a year. So, that $200 is a big savings and the amount of money that they save you and help you contribute to your retirement is usually in the five to six figures. So I think the $200 is worth it, and that’s why it’s a life hack. Now, this is an affiliate link, I’m just telling you, you get money if you sign up, but so do I, because I am an affiliate with them. But I only am an affiliate with them because I know their service works, I use their service. It’s an incredible service. I have referred people to use their service, and they have saved five to six figures in their retirement account because of it. So this is for something like… If you don’t even know what I’m saying, if you run this free analysis and all you need is basically like the logins for your retirement account, it’ll run the analysis for you, you can save so much money. So that’s the life hack that I have.

0:20:14.9 Naseema: If you don’t take away anything from this, just remember it Blooom and spell it with three Os, like the lake. Alright. So here’s my investment hierarchy. That means like, how should you invest your money? What is the order? And it might not be linear, but it should typically follow this order. So don’t leave money on the table. Okay. If you work for a company that has a company match, you always want to invest up to the match, okay. Now that you’ve hit your match or you don’t invest in a company that has a match, go ahead and invest in an IRA.

0:20:47.9 Naseema: If you don’t have any tax deduction benefits like you’re a traveler, you wanna do a traditional IRA, or if you’re a traveler and you wanna get more sophisticated and this isn’t on here, you can sign up to be like as a LLC, or this is something that you wanna work with a tax planner for. But if you’re registering yourself as a business, there’s even more benefits that you can do, like a SEP IRA or a different kind of self-employee retirement accounts where you can deduct most of your income. But that would be step two, but you wanna focus on either a traditional or a Roth. Now, what I do is I have a 403b, I invest up to the match and then I… Well, actually, I don’t invest up to match. I maximize because I have a high income and I have high taxes in California. I always make sure that I maximize my contributions, which means $19,500 goes into that account no matter what. And then once a year, I make sure that I contribute to a Roth IRA. And you might say, Well, you have a high… You just said you had a income, and there are max contribution, max income limits for a Roth IRA, but there’s something called a back-door Roth that you could do, which is a little more advanced, which you can Google or we can talk more about later, but there’s a way to do that in the back end.

0:22:09.4 Naseema: After that, I fully fund a 457-2, which I said is another 19.5 19,500 So that’s $20,000 off top, $40,000 in fact, off top that I get… Reduces my taxable income, knocks me down a tax level and then that’s $40,000 that goes towards my future savings, living expenses, all that stuff. And the 457, if you don’t know what that is, that is deferred compensation. You can only have a 457 if you have a 403b, like I was telling you about earlier. The beauty of a 457, and the reason why people who retire early like it is because you have… Deferred compensation is not retirement income. You have access to that money as soon as you separate with the company. So say I wanted to take two years off and travel the world with my girls, I leave my place of employment, I now have that money that I’ve been… That $20,000 basically I’ve been contributing every year that I’ve worked that sit in there that I can then use to travel, to live off of. And it’s non-taxable. It takes away from our taxable income up front, but at the point of withdrawal then is taxable, but guess what? If I’m not collecting a salary, like I said, I’m taking a year off, how much taxes am I gonna pay. So that’s why it’s the hack for early retirement.

0:23:39.2 Naseema: And then after that, you’ve maxed out all these things, all your money is squared away, the next thing you would do was open a brokerage account at like a Vanguard or a Fidelity or something. These are taxable accounts that you can put money in. The beauty of these things is that it is… And I’m sorry, I put non-taxable. These are taxable accounts. The beautiful thing about it is, is that you have so many options. You can do your crypto investing, you can do your 10%, you can do all these things, but there is no limit to when you can access that money, and there’s no limit to how much you can put in there. So that’s the beautiful thing about a brokerage account, even though you don’t get any tax benefits from it, but you have unlimited investment and growth ability. Alright. So bottom line, how much should you invest? Invest as much as you can, as early as you can, and don’t stop. So I’m gonna go over a few dos and don’ts of investing, and then we’re gonna wrap up and I wanna answer any questions that you may have. So do. Start investing ASAP, if you haven’t already. And most people are investing, but they don’t consider themselves investors because they don’t actively invest or day trade, which some people think is the same thing, which is not. But if you have had a retirement account in your life, you are an investor. Okay. I want you to track your investments, I want you to know where your money is.

0:24:53.2 Latrina: You should always know all your retirement account at a glance and if you want a tool to do that, there’s a tool called Personal Capital, but now basically every banking or savings app has a way for you to track and pull in all your investment accounts in there, but do it. Have it all in one place at a glance. If you have worked at another employer where you did have a retirement account, take that money with you. You need to contact them. First of all, you need to set up an IRA, a traditional IRA, and then you need to contact that company and set up a roll-over IRA. And if you work with a good company like a Vanguard or a Fidelity or a TD Ameritrade, they’ll actually walk you through how to do a roll-over IRA, send you the paperwork. It’s pretty straightforward, you just have to know the term, roll-over IRA, and you bring that money with you because number one, you’re getting charged fees for letting that money sit there.

0:25:50.0 Naseema: Number two, you have more options outside of that retirement company to invest in those low-cost index funds, and you probably get a better expense ratio, meaning that you’re not losing money to fees that are eating into your future money.

0:26:03.7 Naseema: Alright. You, even if you don’t have kids, you need to start investing early for future generations. The way that I do that, my kids have 529s which is college savings funds. My kids also have their own brokerage accounts, my kids… Well, I have a seven-year-old and a two-year-old, they have a certain amount of money every month. It’s not a lot of money, is $20 each every month that they can go in and invest. And my seven-year-old can look… She has companies that she picks and she… And some of them are fun, some of them are individual stocks, and she goes in and she picks which company she wants to invest in. So that is helping that generational wealth. But even if you don’t have kids, you should set something aside for the next generation because imagine if you had that auntie or that uncle that have $50000 to the side and pass that on to you, how much further along you could be. Okay.

0:27:00.0 Naseema: And then please, if you don’t take anything away from this presentation, like I said, run your free Blooom analysis because you’ll be surprised on how much money you’re leaving on the table by not understanding how your money is invested. Alright.

0:27:12.9 Naseema: So don’t think it’s too late. It is never too late to start investing, even if it’s not for you, if it’s for the future generations, it’s never too late. A little bit can go a long way especially if it’s left in an account for another generation. Please do not wait until all your debt is paid off. And this is a controversial thing, but I can tell you first hand, during my journey, had to pay the IRS $30,000 because I wasn’t investing while I was paying off my debt. Don’t be like Naseema. Invest even it’s a little bit while you’re paying off your debt. If I had been investing while I was paying off my debt, I could have saved upward $80000 plus, and that’s before you calculate interest in there. Okay. So don’t be like a dodo like me. Alright. Don’t wait for somebody else to do it for you. You can figure this out on your own. It’s really not that hard. I’m gonna give you another resource that got me out of the fear of investing and it’s a book called The Simple Path to Wealth. I also outline it in my book called Smart Money. But those are two resources that will get you jump started. But start today, it’s really not that hard.

0:28:24.7 Naseema: The one thing that you can do, like I said, is run that Blooom analysis and see where you can optimize, and if you wanna work with them, you can really get a leg up and really start making your money work for you as soon as possible. Don’t think investing is the same as trading, like all this cryptos, I don’t… Every day I learn like somebody is day-trading, all this stuff, like all my neighbor, everybody I know is day-trading. That is not investing. Investing is more longer term, is leaving your money and in the account for at least 365 days plus one day and it’s growing money over time. It’s the boring investing. It’s a the set it in and forget it. That’s what you need to be doing. Don’t leave money at your old employer and don’t treat your investment account like a piggy bank. Okay. I know so many people that love to pull from their retirement accounts at work for down payments on houses, and these are things that I’ve all done, so I’m not knocking anybody, but don’t use it as a piggy bank. Really, your goal should be to grow that money. Okay. And then I just don’t want you to wait for X, Y, and Z, whatever excuse you could insert in there, just don’t wait. Get started today.

0:29:40.1 Naseema: Alright. So let’s go to questions if we have any questions, and I will just wrap it up. Just to recap, we talked about what investing is, types of investing accounts, the investing hierarchy, what to invest in, and the dos and don’ts of investing. Alright. So you are so awesome. Let’s go to the questions.

0:30:05.6 Latrina: Fantastic. So I’ve got my nuggets of course. [laughter] I think one of the things you said was, invest as much as you can, as soon as you can. That’s true. And again, it doesn’t have to be much. I know you mentioned brokerage accounts and things like that, and when you don’t know a lot about investing, it’s a little bit scary. Right? 

0:30:30.5 Naseema: Yes, true.

0:30:33.6 Latrina: So good to know people with money have brokerage accounts. That’s kind of how I grew up. You know what I mean? People with money. This is not normal folks stuff. However, you can open a brokerage account with very little money, sometimes nothing…

0:30:49.2 Naseema: Now, especially. And I think what we need to understand is that we are in a revolutionary time for personal finance. They have dropped the barrier to entry for us and we need to take full advantage of that, ’cause most brokerage accounts used to be like $30000 minimums.

0:31:07.1 Latrina: Yes. I think the biggest one I’ve seen as of late, ’cause I am like you I’m investing in those same areas was like $3000. But lots of them have nothing, no minimum. So just go and like she said, even if it’s $50 a month… And I’ll tell you guys a little story. So we have not been investing long as well. And so long before OS ever came to fruition, we started investing just $50 every two weeks, and I would yell at my husband be like, What is this $50, where is it going? Doing our budget, not understanding. But we looked up, I think a year… ‘Cause you forget about it. You set it and you forget it. We looked up like a year and a half later, that account had $7000 in it, and it was just like, Where did that come from? But it was just the market compounding doing its thing, and us just being very consistent with putting the money in the market and just forgetting about it. So baby steps. When we say baby steps, we really mean baby steps.

0:32:19.8 Naseema: Yes, yes.

0:32:21.6 Latrina: And then use your budget, go back to the first video, so you can find more money where you can invest. It does not… Guys, it does not take much in order to change things. And once you get to a certain threshold, usually that threshold is about 100 grand, once you get there.

0:32:42.1 Naseema: Boom. Okay. The amount of time for that to double is crazy. It’ll be like the next year and you’ll be like, “Dang, where did that money… Dang, where did that money come from?” Like serious, compound interest is amazing.

0:33:00.8 Latrina: It’s probably the most underrated piece of math that we talk… That we just don’t address. But once you get there, that’s how these people retire early. You guys read all these articles about how people are retiring at 30 or how they’re retiring at 35, and you’re wondering what on earth what job did they have, what… They just invested and they’ve been investing…

0:33:21.9 Naseema: Yeah. Most people make under $100,000 that have done that. So think about that.

0:33:29.5 Latrina: So one of the questions is, Is it smart to invest in the same type of thing each month or by trying different forms of investments consistently? 

0:33:38.1 Naseema: Like I said, make it as boring as possible, set it and forget it, put your money in a index fund, just keep it in there. Index fund is by nature diversify by companies, internationally. The beautiful part about it is, if you plug in the ticker sample, B-T-S-A-X, you’ll see the top 10 companies. You’ll see Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple, all those companies. Guess what? If Google falls off, it’s gonna drop off of that list automatically. You don’t have to worry about it. It won’t be in that fund anymore, you don’t have to think about it. It’s not like that company goes bankrupt and then your whole portfolio drops. It’s like, Yeah, you’re no longer included in this index, but it’s done automatically, you don’t think about it. So that’s the way to do that.

0:34:22.2 Latrina: Correct. And what she’s talking about are those Vanguard funds. They’re very, very popular. People like them. Why? Because they have a nice rate of return and they’re pretty consistent.

0:34:33.6 Naseema: Right.

0:34:35.1 Latrina: So that’s what you want. You want… You’re playing the long game and you want the consistency. So we’ll get all those ticker symbols together for you guys that she listed and post them for you.

0:34:45.2 Naseema: And the beautiful thing about it is, is that that’s old school now. Like I said, we are at the precipice of some amazing things financially. There are so many now free index funds with good expense ratios and all that stuff. Those things are just tried and true. So there are so many opportunities to invest at a low cost now.

0:35:04.2 Latrina: Yeah. I think Fidelity has one…

0:35:06.1 Naseema: Oh, Fidelity has several actually because they’re trying to compete with Vanguard.

0:35:10.3 Latrina: Exactly. So whichever company that you end up at, they all have that same index one, but you just have to find it.

0:35:19.2 Naseema: Yeah. Just don’t let analysis paralysis get you down. Just take action. If you choose one and the expense ratio is like a point higher… I mean, 0.1 higher, it’s not a big deal. The key is to invest. Even if you have your money in target-date funds, it’s not the end of the world, just keep on putting money in there. Just invest consistently.

0:35:42.7 Latrina: Consistently. I’m also the queen of not taking my money from a different company and rolling it over. I am the worst with that. I’m still getting better, I’ve got one more to do. But really, like she said, if you call them, it’s pretty simple. If you… And they make it even easier now, ’cause the last time I called, they literally were like, Just sign this paper, give us where it was, and we’ll do it for you.

0:36:11.3 Naseema: Exactly.

0:36:13.3 Latrina: It has become so easy. So don’t let your money, like you said, sit there. Take it so that you can invest it and just keep making that money.

0:36:20.5 Naseema: And the thing is is now it’s pooled. So it’s not just like $10,000 over here and $15,000 over here. That $25,000 can work way harder together than it can apart, and you can have more access to better funds, and those companies are charging you to keep your money there because you don’t work for them no more. You don’t have a vested interest with them. So you really need to move your money out.

0:36:45.5 Latrina: Right. Make sure you pool all that money together, ’cause one big amount is much better than two tiny amounts. Okay? You want all of your money together to kind of do that. And then you kind of mentioned the 401k and decreasing the tax liability. If you are not doing the very basic of investing in your 401K or having an IRA or those little… Those things, ’cause you don’t have to max it out to begin with, ’cause sometimes it’s a shock to people. You don’t have to start by maxing it out. You can start small and just doing like a $100 a paycheck. Remember, you guys are not gonna… You’re not gonna notice it, especially if it’s like $10 on your check. You’re not gonna notice it. You should be investing.

0:37:31.8 Naseema: Yeah. And the thing is that you should incrementally increase the two because it may be an initial shock, but what you’ll come to understand is that really it’s not, because it’s this game of taxes versus taxable income. And then you’ll see, Oh, I’m not paying as much as taxes, my take-home pay really isn’t that different for the amount of money that you’re now saving. So play around with it. And I just say incrementally increase. Your goal should be to do… If you’re not maxed out, try to increase it by 10%, 5-10% a year.

0:38:07.3 Latrina: Fantastic. So one other question. If I have four months before I retire, which I… Of course, I believe you are a VA kind of situation. But if I have four months before I retire and I have a 401k and a 403b, What else should I be considering? 

0:38:24.6 Naseema: Basically, you need to be strategizing your… You need to be putting together your exit strategy. Four months, it should already be in place. But obviously you’re… That money is not gonna sit there. So you need to figure out how much you need in retirement, how much should be rolled out, what do you need to live off of? This is where you have to… You should, if you’re not comfortable, sit down with an advisor, and even like I said, if you don’t have somebody at your job, which most places do, that can work that out with you, but they won’t work out any kind of outside accounts that you have… They may, but they may charge you a fee. Like I said, use a service like Blooom where you’re paying less than your Netflix subscription a month, to have somebody actually break that down across the board for you like where should your money be allocated? You need to roll some of that money out. There’s ways that you can roll that money out non-taxably, like as-heck-as-stuff that’s optimized that we typically don’t know about because it’s not talked about very often, but that’s what the wealthy do. So…

0:39:26.6 Naseema: Start thinking like that and get on it. Find somebody who understands your situation and understands what your next steps are, because I don’t think you will be in this course with Latrina if this is the only thing that you’re… You’re just retiring, you’re just doing nothing, you’re doing other things, so you need to have a plan that fits your needs specifically.

0:39:48.1 Latrina: Right, right. And so, like she said, I would talk with someone, ’cause you’re at four months, you should be kind of ready, but the most immediate things you could do, look at your budget, look at your living expenses. Are you living within your means? Will your retirement pay for the house and the things, so if you never had to work again, that it would be okay? If you’re not sure you need to call Blooom, and so they can run the analysis for you and you can figure that out, but that at minimum does your retirement stuff so that if you never worked as an NP another day in your life, does it cover everything that you need it to cover? 

0:40:25.2 Naseema: Exactly.

0:40:26.9 Latrina: Those are kind of the questions that you need to be… ’cause that’s all what we’re thinking, and then you add in the other stuff, so if I wanna go to Italy, can I go? Or do I have to save for two years in order for me to be able to go? That kind of stuff.

0:40:42.5 Naseema: Right.

0:40:43.4 Latrina: So Naseema’s book is found on Amazon, it’s also on your website. No? Yes? 

0:40:50.1 Naseema: Amazon, it’s the Amazon one, so yeah, it’s on Amazon.

0:40:54.2 Latrina: Okay it’s on… So it’s on Amazon. I know we did give a few away for free. We bought a couple and gave some in the group.

0:41:01.6 Naseema: Thank you, thank you.

0:41:02.8 Latrina: I know that folks were reading it, but yes, she can be found on Amazon. We will put all of the links and the… We’ll get a little, kind of a strategy sheet for you based off of her presentation that she gave you today, and we’ll put that together for you guys so that you can have it. But again, I think the biggest part that you all need to take away, especially from the SEMA right now, is that this is not scary, and that you should be doing it now. We all have $50 to spend at minimum, that we need to be investing. If you have children, you’ve probably got another $50, $20, whatever to be getting them ready for their future. It’s not hard, guys. We want you get into the habit of asking those questions, these are the type of conversations that we can have in the group, if you have those questions, and if we need to bring the SEMA back because, hey, I don’t know how to answer that, or I’ll just shoot her a message and ask her, I will. Or, and if she doesn’t know, I know she’s gonna point me in the right direction. So again, just start. Don’t hesitate, ya’ll need to go. If you don’t have a brokerage account, go this weekend. Go ahead and open one right on up. Put your…

0:42:12.6 Naseema: Homework assignment, yes. TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, Vanguard. Pick one. Find one.

0:42:21.0 Latrina: Pick one. Just pick one.

0:42:22.9 Naseema: Yes.

0:42:23.1 Latrina: Just pick one and start doing it and you won’t even notice it. And you’ll be like me, look up and be like, “Oh, what’s that money doing right there?” Okay, but I appreciate it, Naseema, I appreciate that you given us all these tips, and I know that clearly they are excited because they’re asking questions, which they should be, so I appreciate you coming on and spending your time with us.

0:42:44.6 Naseema: I appreciate you sharing your platform with me, I love helping, especially helping other nurses, so I just am honored to be here. Thank you, Latrina.

0:42:54.0 Latrina: Thank you so much. Alright guys. So with that being said, we are gonna get it together for you guys if you haven’t done the pre-work, make sure you do that, but not having done the pre-work does not negate you from still doing your homework of going this weekend or tomorrow or tonight, and opening up that brokerage account and go ahead and start contributing. Then you can do the pre-work and then you can, “Oh, I’ve got an extra $250, let me go ahead and use that to invest.” It’s gonna seem rough in the beginning, it’s really not. Adjust your budget. You’re fine. We ain’t going nowhere anyway. Everybody has delta variant, it’s fine, it’s fine, we’re all staying at home. It’s fine. So, just go ahead and invest and go from there. So we will… Lenena, I think I’m pronouncing it right this time, so there is a question, what are my thoughts on tax-free retirement accounts? Tax free, I’m not sure what you mean. Naseema, do you know what she’s talking about? I’m gonna bring you back.

0:44:01.5 Naseema: Maybe she’s talking about pre-tax retirement accounts? 

0:44:03.9 Latrina: That’s something… You can actually…

0:44:06.2 Naseema: The pre-tax retirement accounts are like the clutch like… That’s the link. I love my pre-tax retirement account. It is the bomb. Saves me on everything. Taxes… Yeah.

0:44:23.9 Latrina: I think that’s what you’re talking about. So if it’s pre-tax, yes, yeah. I don’t even know what else to say.

0:44:29.9 Naseema: Yeah. But you know what though, it depends on your situation though, you really have to look, because like I said, I’m in California, our taxes are hella-high, our wages are high too, but I don’t necessarily wanna give all my money to Uncle Sam, I wanna give my money to myself, so I’m going to reduce my taxable income in a way that benefits me, not somebody else. And so pre-tax retirement accounts, yes. But if you’re in a position where you rather get that tax rate benefit later on, you think you’re gonna be making way more money in retirement at the point of retirement, do some Roth, but the thing is understanding it, and like I said, investments are very personal, personal finance is very personal, but investing is really, really personal because it depends on what your goals are, at retirement, when you wanna retire, and if you’re confused, number one, hit up Blooom, number two, work with an investment advisor, but like I said, you can get one through Blooom for cheaper than your Netflix subscription. So I think it’s a no-brainer.

0:45:32.1 Latrina: Yeah, I… Who does my taxes is a CPA as well, so keep that in mind that they will also have input because they will know your inner workings as well.

0:45:42.9 Naseema: Yes, and then they ask for a tax plan, ’cause there’s the difference between tax preparation and tax planning. They can run a tax plan for you, and that’s usually the best opportunity for you to see how you can optimize and throughout the year, so don’t just wait until it’s time to pay your taxes, do it in advance. That’s what they’re there for.

0:46:03.4 Latrina: Yeah, that’s exactly what I was gonna say. Don’t wait till it’s just “do my own tax” time. Now would be at the time.

0:46:08.5 Naseema: Yeah. Now’s actually a perfect time.

0:46:11.1 Latrina: Yeah, and you can adjust for the rest of the year and try to see if you can break-even and things like that, but use all of the tools given to you. We had a talk with a CPA, she’s coming back this month to show us how to adjust some things so that it is the middle of the year, so that we can adjust for the rest of the year, so again, you guys can kind of break-even and not have these big, huge tax liabilities. So again, normalizing this conversation for you guys and just being able to talk about it. Alright? But I appreciate it, and I… Thanks Naseema, for popping back in.

0:46:46.9 Naseema: Okay.
0:46:47.0 Latrina: And, guys, you know me, respectful of your time. If you have more questions, please feel free to jump in whenever. Ask questions, we will get you answers. If we don’t know them, we will point you in the right direction. But we wanna… Your journey as an NP is not just about you working in a clinic, you’re still a clinician at the heart of this, you still wanna be able to do the fun things of life. All of this takes money, and eventually we will all want to retire at some point, so we’ve got to normalize this whole well-being, and that starts with the money as well as the emotional as well as work, Okay? So, alright guys, I shall talk to you guys later. If you have questions, go ahead and just message me, but we’ll talk soon. Alright, bye.