7 Scorching Money Hot Takes That Will Make Your Financial Advisor Cringe
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Personal finance is personal for a reason. Everyone is going to approach spending and saving and investing differently. So how are you supposed to navigate through the millions of different opinions online and in books and even on podcasts?

Hello, to know what the actual right answer is when IT comes to your finance, well, today we're going to be taking out the guest work and sharing some of the most controversial financial opinions out there. And what hot takes are right wrong and how they could be impacting you as you are working towards your financial future. Hello, hello, hello. And welcome to the bigger pocket money packets. My name is mdi Johnson, and with me today is the sheet of wall street, AManda wall.

Hello, hello. I'm excited to be here mondy.

AManda is a personal finance educator, and i'm always excited to have her on. I am so to have her join me today to help debunk some of these seemingly absurd financial hot teaches. Okay, AManda, to started off before we into these controversial financial opinions, I went to hear from you, did you ever believe something about finances that I have been completely wrong?

I feel like I could probably have a whole show dedicated to just all of the wrong things that I thought about money growing up. But I would say one for me that sticks out like really at the forefront of my mind was that investing is only for rich people like I when I was Younger, and especially you right after college, I always thought, don't invest in the stock market. It's very, very risky.

You could lose all of your money. And of course, now I know, and hopefully most people out there, no, but if not, you can lose all of your money if you buy the wrong things. But once you have a little bit of like, basic financial literacy education under your belt, you realized, know the way people get wealthy is by investing in the stock market. So I think for me that was like one of the big oh moments um as IT relates to money lessons in my life, what about humanity?

What of the biggest ones I think that has has really shaped my life once I debunked IT was you work until you're sixty five. You early retirement is age fifty five maybe, but that's if you've like hit the lottery or your A C E O or something, that's not for regular people. And then my husband found that, uh, super simple math to early retake whatever that mr.

Money must ash blog post is. And IT turns out that you can retire early. You don't have to work until you're sixty five. And that was quite eye opening when we when we discovered that that article that was just changed our lives.

Remember the first time I learned what five was? Financial independence, retire early, the fire movement and being like, well, I who don't want to retire early, i'm going to be bored. I like working and jokes on me. I was like twenty four or like two years into the corporate world, and i've learned about this, but I realized that it's so much more than that is just the freedom to decide. And I think that's what money does for us, right? Money is power and gives us the ability to make these types of decisions and leave situations that we don't want to be and all of that good stuff.

So yeah, that is, if you love your job, that's awesome. I love my job. I don't need to leave. I'm not going to leave anytime soon, but I have the option should things change. All right, let's get up to these controversial financial opinions.

What's the first one you wanted bring up? AManda OK, the first one that I wanted bring up that I found was around sabbaticals and temporary breaks. So this one says verticals and temporary breaks from work are just as financially irresponsible as purchasing a ferri and can easily be more expensive when you consider the full opportunity cost of cost earning and contributions. So for me, I could not disagree with that morandi.

I think that we are allowed to take breaks, and I feel like a lot of us, it's spending grain in our head that we need to like work as hard as possible all the time for our whole life until we hit fifty five or sixty five or sixty nine or you know whatever that age is that um you know relates to your industry that you work in. But I think if it's done right, if you have the means to live off of your savings, it's not like I wouldn't recommend taking this article and just loading up your credit card by any means. But if you have the savings in place and you have a good plan in place, I think that a saba, al and a temporary break is an amazing idea for your mental health.

For you, like your physical health, there's only so many years you can go hike moche peach you or climb out. Ever said that what you want to do? Or rose school by diving? And I think if you have an opportunity in your Younger years, in your prime healthy years to go do something like that, I say go for IT. I don't think it's financially irresponsible .

if you have a plan. I agree with you with an asterisk. K, you didn't say I want to make sure that you can afford this samad. Al, so twenty four year old AManda, who just discovered the financial dependence movement and it's two years under her corporate career, probably is not set up to take a sabbatical. First of all, how burned out are you after two years in corporate? Although I take that back because I spent to many years in corporate, and I can see how that would be really easy to get burned out. But if you don't have the money to cover your entire expenses during the sabbatical and for a little bit afterwards, if your company isn't going to keep your job for you and you want IT, you have a difficult time getting a job, you're in a specialized feeling like that, then maybe a sebastian isn't the best choice for you right now. But if you can afford IT, if your companies willing to hold your job for you, if you have a job or a career that easy to replace, then absolutely one hundred percent agree .

with everything you said. Yeah like I so I I think, of course, you know like I was saying, don't go add IT like throw at on a credit card and just hope for the best. But I don't think that there is like a right age.

I think for a twenty four year old, if they have been living at home and they saved up some money and they go working the corporate amErica and realized, oh, this isn't that fun that I guy thought I was going to be and they wanted take a break, I think they should be able to. Especially because I remember for me, one of the hardest things about going from college to corporate amErica was that there was never an ending. And for me, that was like really hard for me to wrap my head around because it's like in school you had for all these years, or in school you have assignments.

You have delinski know these things are done where, as in corporate america, like you're never done when you're done with that project, there is one hundred more that you can do. Now go help your teammate. You're never done.

And if you don't know how to like set boundaries when you get home from work, like you could easily be on that hamster real. We're especially working from home. Where are is working all the time. So I think you could get burned out at twenty four, but if you've been doing a job saving, you have the means to go do IT.

And you know at that age, you might be fine, sleep in in hostels and like, you know, riding the train and you know, need fancy things, you could probably do IT a lot more cheaply than as well. Like, I don't want to sleep on the ground at this age, but I might not have. I did then.

you know, okay, I will amend that, take the sabbatical that aligns with your current financial situation.

Are you saving enough for retirement? Will cover that in more after a quick break .

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Welcome back. I am so excited to be joined today by a vanda wall.

Okay, Mandy, so now IT is your turn. What is a controversial financial opinion that you want to highlight?

So I was browsing redit, and I found this thread called what's your opinion and personal finance. And in that threat, the very first comment was, I do not budget. Money goes in a fix, percentage goes to savings.

And I spent the rest on whatever I want. And when I read that, I was like, wow, that is so anti all of the advice that you see in the personal finance space. You need a budget.

I mean, there's a literally a company called you need a budget. You need a budget so you know what you're spending on. And this is a very controversial take. I don't budget, but also I know a lot of personal finance, uh, blogger and pod casters and youtube ers and this is actually a really common thread among them. They don't budget.

With a formal budget where they're saying i'm gonna spend seven hundred dollars on groceries and three hundred dollars on gas this this month, they just prioritize putting money into savings. I am going to save thirty five percent. I am going to invest fifty percent whatever IT is.

They take that off the top and then they spent whatever left with little regard to where it's going. I do think that they have some idea of where it's going. Um you know just loosely, they're not buying ten thousand dollar person.

I actually don't budget either. I have an amount that goes into our investments, but i'm also financially independent. So I would say that just because I don't budget doesn't mean that the people that I am talking to shouldn't budget.

If you're struggling with your expenses, if you're struggling with your spending, if you like, why do I not have any more money? I think i'm only spending this then I think you absolutely should budget. But I also think that there's a time in the place for people who need a budget and people who can get by with not budgeting a man.

a deal of a budget. Before I answer that, I want to say that I kind of like disagree what you're saying because I think that you are budgeting here does not like neurogen ally budgeting to the penny, just like the person in this redit thread. right? Money goes in a fixed percentage, goes to savings, hopefully investments.

And then I spent whatever else I want. So you are doing what is called paying yourself first. So you've already decided how much you want to save and invest, and then you spend. The rest of you are 把 i think that not budgeting is when you get a paycheck， you then decide what to do with that. It's like all maybe I want a broken bag and that's my whole paycheck plus more I going I don't know how much a broken bag is either.

If you are like getting paid, you know fifty grand every two weeks, you do you bo if that's what you want, but like I think that the you are you are budgeting, you're just not budgeting line by line by line to the penny. So to answer your question, I do budget, but I also do not neurotically ally budget in the spread ed sheet lined by line by line. But there was a time in a place in my life where I did need to do that, where I had some debt.

And it's like, no, I need today where all the pennies are coming from and where they're going right now. And then once I really had a good grasp on that, then I went to what I I like to say, like it's the no budget budget. You know, you save and invest what you want in advance.

And if you have like a quarterly bonus or you get a chunk of money, then you know you get to decide what to do with that at that point too, but then you spend the rest. And IT doesn't matter if you decided want to go to nobo one night and then you're going to eat ramma noodles with the rest of the cashless in your account. Again, whatever works for you, I don't think you need neurotically ally track IT if if you have a good graph.

So like do you see what I mean? Like I could think you are budgeting monday. You're just not budgeting the way that some people think of budgeting.

okay. I think that's a great way to look at IT. So I do budget just not formally mini .

IT was a budgeter. But also I agree, like if you are financially independent, that is different. But also I think it's a good idea to check in, make sure lifestyle inflation, lifestyle represent seeped into your life too much and that you're gonna potentially run out of money one day, right? Because you got a lot more free time when you're independent.

A lot of times, speaking of running out of money, AManda, what's your next controversial take?

okay. So this was a good red thread. So the one I found was around savings. And IT says, I believe we are all over estimate our needed savings for retirement, and I disagree with that. I think that most people are not saving nearly enough for retirement.

At least I would say, you know, the millennial group whom I interact with the most, I would say, is not saving nearly enough money. We have grown up in a yolo culture where we are not doing the budget or no budget budget like we just talked about, where we're just saving and investing whatever is leftover versus making that decision up front. So I don't think that I do not think that a lot and that most people have nearly enough .

saved for retirement. okay. I read this comment and I took IT a little differently. I thought I was more like the people in the financial independence community are saving too much. We are over estimating our needed savings for retirement.

Um in in which case I would tend to agree because just because of the people that I interact with on a daily basis, on a weekly monthly basis, are people in the financial independence unity who decided that based on the four percent rule, my financial independence number is x. They reach that, they quit their jobs, they stop working, they stop generating meaningful income. A few dollars here and there, though, worry about, but they stop generating meaningful income.

They start withdrawing from their retirement accounts. And their retirement accounts continue to go up even as they continue to withdraw their funds. So a perfect example of this is Christ embraced ed from millennial revolution.

We had Christie on the fire show a few months ago, and he said that SHE embrace have been withdrawing four percent from their portfolio. Of they any money that they generate outside of that， they've written a book, they've got a blog, any money they generate outside of that goes into a different account. So they're just living off of the four percent rule, and they have more money now than they did when they retire ten years ago, but they're still pulling four percent out every single year.

So I agree that the financial independence community is probably saving too much for retirement or rather not spending enough during the course of their life. I'm not saying look for ways to spend, but i'm saying, you know, get the get the helicopter ride when you're in hawaii because it's amazing and don't look at the fact that it's fifty hundred dollars per person um or however matter is I don't remember um but you do the things that will bring joy or add richness to your experiences while you're in the moment. Don't be so.

chip. So okay, I could I could see where you're coming from there. But also that is assuming that our most recent performance will continue, right, that the S M P. Five hundred in the stock market in general has like really been on a run. It's been in a really good place is like over the last ten years.

And I don't know how long you've been tracking yours, but and I don't know what that person is off the top of my head, I would probably have to go google out, but that is a swimming that things continue the same. So I would say that you guys are like county lucky stars. Some of IT has just luck, right? You you got in at a good time.

You saved a lot of money at a really good time. But we always hear past performance doesn't equal future performance. And so I think that's something that you have to also remember.

Yes, and that is a really great point. Um I just quickly looked up the historic stock turns the average annual return to the s MPI finit over the last one hundred and fifty years is nine point three five two percent, assuming dividends are reinvested okay, uh, adJusting for inflation, the average return is six point nine nine percent.

So this is taking into account all the up and doubts the ten year return is twelve percent um the thirty year return is nine percent again, the fifty year return is eight percent. And you are absolutely right. Past performance is not indicative of future gains, but it's still .

there's .

this hundred and fifty year history that says if the stock market goes down, IT will recover. And if I can guarantee that, I will always recover. But I do have faith in the economy of the united states so that, and I mean, I I can't predict the future.

Oh, I wish I could do, you know, how much? How much money could I make? Ala bf, ten, in in, back to the future, two or three, if I just had that book that told me the stock market returns.

you have a Christal ball email both of us because we're both interested in in .

that what is the next hat static? But you're right, uh, we can predict the future. We can only go by what's you know, the historic information that we have.

But again, I still think that we might be saving too much. Did that saw me? no. Is IT stopping me when i'm talking to other people from saying you, oh, hundred fifty dollars, you're good. Quit like i'm not going to safety there.

One more thing, though, that we have to take into account is if you hopefully this other show is coming up before, tell me, if not. But if you remember the show that we did with the coil one, yeah, if you remember the show that we did with kyle and Scott, we were talking about inflation. And I think that inflation has also been on the rise over recent years.

And again, we don't have this. We don't have a Crystal ball, at least I don't. And that sounds like you don't either, mindy.

But what is that going to look like? I think that I would rather have more money than less money. I've never in my life been like I wish I had less money. So I think that we have to also remember inflation has been a little craft gray and is probably going to continue. Yes.

I I can't argue with that because you're completely correct. There is no prediction about where inflation going except up the prediction is up inflation. It's going to go up um and might come down and then it's going to go back up again. Uh but there's this concept called coast fy where you reach the the level in investments that will allow you to have a comfortable retirement at age sixty five. And I think that's a great first goal.

I'm gona get to my coast fy number and then i'm going to take stock if i'm gonna be coast fy and I working a job that I hate, maybe I start looking for a new job while continuing to invest and continuing to save. And but i'm not gonna just go with any job that I come across. I'm going to find a job that's a really good fit for me and then kind of regardless of what the income is, i'm not saying go from you one hundred and fifty thousand and twenty thousand.

But if you're going from one hundred fifty thousand, you know one hundred and thirty thousand, but your quality of life is so much Better, I would absolutely get behind that. Because I have worked jobs where I hated everything about IT, and I have worked out where I love everything about IT. And let me tell you, I love everything .

about IT is way Better snap from mini. I completely agree. I think we started.

We disagreed. I think we've come around. I totally agree with everything that you just there. Um so why don't you tell me then, what is your next one? What is your next controversial take?

Sort of different from what we are just talking about, frugality is kind of overrated, income matters more. And eighty percent of your efforts should be dedicated towards getting higher paying jobs, change fields, get a new degree, move companies to these countries, whatever. IT takes its way more effective once you at a reasonable level of frugality.

I think that I spent too much time being cheap and being frugal just for the sake of putting more money away. And I didn't take time. What is what is that very stop and smell the roses. I didn't take time to stop and smell the roses. So I agree at this with this, although again, that's not just cart lunch to spend on everything, but your income does matter.

And if you're in a low paying job right now, how can you get more money? How can you what you know, kid, you take a class or get another degree and increase your income in that same field? Or can you change fields and significantly increase your income? We had two episodes almost back to back, episode ninety eight with financial mechanic and episode one hundred and ten with a purple life.

Both of them talked about how they uh systematically job hot to much higher incomes. And the reason they were able to live that is because the hiring budget is much larger than the retention budget. So if you're in a job where they don't appreciate you, they're not paying you.

Well, maybe it's time to look at what you can do differently. But if you are in a low paying job, frugality is gonna be a Better choice than, you know, spending everything we have. Take one final break, but stick around for more after this.

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All right, let's jump back in. So you are saying that you do think regality is overrated.

I do. Just based on all of my personal years of experience of being super frugal and really worrying and stressing over the money that I was spending when I didn't really have to be like, does not matter if I have a ninety five percent savings rate or a ninety percent savings, right? I mean, we were really saving so much money IT doesn't really matter, right?

But then I think you also made a really good point in the beginning when you were talking about the difference between being frugal and cheap. And will you tell me what you think those to think, how those who are different .

big frugal is making smarter choices with your money? Um you know you compare the cost of wandering detergent and oh, this off brand is less expensive than the main bryan and I know that they're going to be similar inequality. Cheap is i'm buying the off brand even though I know I have to use twice much or IT doesn't get my clothes clean because it's cheaper.

You make decisions based solely on Price and have nothing to do with anything else. Oh, sorry, a case in point. I once bought a gallon of fifteen dollar paint, and I was painting my wall.

And I like, well, I can see all the pain behind that. So I painted a second code, and I could still see IT took five coats of paint to cover up that wall, and I had to go back and get another gallons. So that thirty dollars, well, okay, the good quality paint is fit like twenty five or thirty dollars and IT covers in one coat.

So I did five times the work for and spent the same amount of money. I think that was just a waste. But because I was fifteen dollars, I went with the the Price. Like, maybe frugality is an overrated cheapness is overrated, but it's difficult to change the tie totally .

well because I I wondering what your definition is because when I think of frugality, I think of um a cost analysis, like you said, but also um doing things that like sometimes don't make sense, like going to a different grocery store to buy your blueberries because you know there are dollar cheaper to me. I'm like that is that worth your time? I guess that's the equivalent of your five five codes of paint.

Like when I think of like the super frugal people, I think of that whereas I think me comparing two laundry detergents and if I know they are the same thing and one is just the private label brand. And like, I think that's just being smart with your money. I don't think that's even being for go.

I think it's just caring what you spend your money on. And then when I think of cheap I think of cheap being like I am, i'm depriving other people or hurting other people along the way. So you know um or or I guess maybe even myself.

So like I think I need caffeine in the morning but i'm gonna the crappy soldiers. You guys don't have a partnership with fully ers, right? Hopefully I got going to get the crappy soldiers even though IT doesn't taste good.

Um and I don't like IT to me that's being cheap or you know not tipping your waiter or waitress like that cheap, going out with your friends and having them all by around and then you don't that's cheap. So I think like for me that's how I think of cheap and frugality I think of as like go and out your way like I said, the blueberry example. But then I also think it's OK that to compare Prices.

So I think frugality is overrated to a degree. I think if IT deprives you of life's experiences or your hurting other people along the way, no way know not for me. But I think if IT helps you cut a couple of things along the way to get you closer .

your goals for IT, that's a great way to say IT. Alright, AManda, what's your next controversial take?

okay. The next one that I found is around hassle culture. So IT says hassle culture is mostly spinning your wheels and wasting your time. Focus on your primary income first, once you level up your career trying new things or spinning up profitable side projects, it's infinitely easier. Yeah so for that one, I don't think hustle culture is mostly spinning wheels are wasting your time, but I do think there is a time and a place for IT.

I think that while you're Younger and you have more time and energy, you don't have a family, your kids, that is the time to go hustle, baby, like go get a side job and go learn new skill, make some extra money because we know how compound interest works. The more time IT has, the Better. So I think do that in your Younger years.

I don't think I feel like hustle culture was like super popular with the boss bee movement. And then I was like, we don't like the boss bee movement. Everybody's tired and wants to take an APP.

And I think that there is a happy medium in there somewhere where I don't think it's just spinning your wheels. I think it's. Let IT leveling up your finances. And I would much rather see somebody do that for a few years in their twenties or thirties, then have to do that in their fifties or sixties because they don't have enough. So you know, while I do think hustle culture can get a get a bad wrap, I don't think .

it's all bad. I will agree to a point. I think that what this guy is saying is, uh, a hustle culture is mostly spending your wheel and wasting your time.

If you are working in corporate america, you have a decent income. Going out and driving for uber for you know three dollars a ride or whatever uber driver gets is going to be wasting your type. You should be focusing on your income, your primary income, more than that kind of side house.

So Scott is actually, Scott is a perfect example of this. When he was Younger and he wasn't married, he wasn't working a bigger pocket, he would do all of these these hustly things. And he quickly learned that he's not really making any money off of IT.

He's putting where and tear on his car, driving for uber or you know doing door dh or things like that. And he's not increasing his savings, his networks, his ability to invest and he stopped that. And I think that, that is you know, if that's what this guy is talking about them, great.

But you're a perfect example of side hustle being a really great idea. A man that has this tiny little side has a project called the SHE wolf of walls. And SHE is teaching people how to get their finances in order teaching them the basic, teaching them you know, things that they don't know all while happening to make income that is more than three dollars of uber ride. right?

Bright, definitely, definitely. And but i'll say like I did drive for lift at some point at one point as well. I did not know Scott did that. So that is a fun fact um but like I made decent money but of course once you find something you're passion about doing, like if you hate driving a car, don't go drive for lifter uber.

If you hate social media and IT makes you sad every time you go on instagram, don't start an instagram, right? But I think it's like being aligned with what you what do you like doing for me? You lived out of time in a place in my life.

I made a few hundred books a week. I got to do IT in my free time. Then I started showoff of wall story and I made no money at first.

I didn't make a single dollar for six months and I spent an enormous amount time. So it's like sometimes you have to put some some time into something like that um with no return and just hope this works out. So I think that a lot of people probably in the beginning would have been like you're spinning your wheels with this side hustle.

But if you are passionate enough about IT, you have a long term vision. If IT especially for something like that, I say go for IT. I think that there are like H I think that so many people don't understand, like nobody can see inside your head, right? So nobody really understands what it's like to take a risk like that. And I think that I think if it's something your passion about, you should go for IT. If it's just to make a few extra box, do whatever is easiest and you don't hate, especially if it's a second job.

I know I think that's awesome. I think that's a really great way to look at IT. And uh, how long did they take you when you were doing your SHE wolf of wall street? How long did they take you before you clicked, before you started making money and feeling like, you know, this really has some teeth?

Like I said before, I started IT in what was IT at july, and I I think I did my first say, so I guess was about seven months later, I did my first brand partnership for a thousand dollars.

And to tell you that I was the most exciting thousand dollars I have ever made is an understatement because I don't think a lot of people understand how much work goes behind content creation and engaging with your community and answering questions and dms that there's so much work behind the scene. So you know, being on instagram constantly for seven months, finally making a thousand dollars, super exciting. And that's when I was like, oh, okay, I hadn't actually really initially even expected or plan to make money.

IT was just something I was passions about. Then I saw things growing, and I realized that there was a need for a financial literacy. Then I started doing some like some coaching on the side so I think know after that first year that I that I made money IT was probably, I don't know maybe like twenty five thousand dollars so not enough to live on at all obvious not enough to live on um but IT wasn't nothing.

And as your audience continues to grow and your brand partnerships can get bigger than you know you you gain a little more legitimacy. So then things really, I would say, kind of snowball all from there. But yeah seven months of six and a half, seven months of daily nonstop work before I made a thousand dollars .

and then that something to to consider the the husband culture can feel like spinning your wheel. So do something that you're not hating doing. I mean, otherwise you're just creating an unpaid job exactly well.

And I think that's also when we think of hustle culture, like are you just looking for a little side job to make money? Or are you looking to own your own business and become an entrepreneur one day and do your own thing? Like those are two different goals, right? So I think that leaning I think that, that really depends on your view of IT as well. So okay, maybe what is your next, uh, controversial finance take?

Well, since this is bigger pockets money. Bigger pockets is all about owning rental real estate. This one says I prefer to rent and invest the difference between an apartment and a mortgage in a high cost of living area.

In retirement, i'd expect to buy in cash a lower cost of living area where rent verses, by comparison, makes more sense, or pay for rent from all the proceeds from investing. I get bizarre looks from friends when I meant to my total lack of interest in owning a home. So all of my landlords out there from bigger pockets, who are listening to this, who is gone to rent your house if everybody's buying.

I think that in, especially in the high cost of living area, but in any cost of living area, if you don't want to own a home, that's the best time to not own a home. So i've love owning a house, but there are times when I am, you know, shovelling water out of the basement and thinking to myself, ban, I wish I could just call a land lord and have somebody else care of this too. So if you don't want to a rent, then don't rent, buy a house. If you don't want to buy a house, then rent. And anybody telling you that you are wrong is themselves wrong?

I I completely agree with you. One million percent. I think that society puts a lot on us and makes us think that we want things we don't want. And to be able to break free from that mold and think independently as huge, like the american dream, is you have a house with a White picket fence and two point four kids are you, whatever that is, and it's like you're allow to want different things. If the idea of maintaining a home or staying in one place.

If the idea of maintaining a home or staying in one place sounds like zero out of five star is, until then, don't do IT ignore the noise. And if somebody gives you, you know, crap for that, you said, people look at you crazy because you you don't want to own a home with. People look at you like that and just say we're allowed to want different things.

And I think that's what IT comes down to at the end of the day. But don't get bullied and debug. Something is especially as expensive as a house. It's not like a dinner. exactly.

Don't get bullet into buying something like a house if you don't wanna do IT don't do IT. I love that. All right, a man that I think we have time for one more, what is your last controversial .

financial take? So my last one says having a six to twelve month emergency fund is totally unnecessary. Once you have a decent nest g and a high credit limit, i've enough for about a month and a half.

Anything bigger than that is covered by my credit limit. Or I can wait a couple of days in cell stock wamp. Mom, I so disagree with this.

Um I know several people even in the fine the veronal finance space who say I don't have an emergency fund because I have a big enough broker account or you know I have enough investments. And I think that, that is very short sited. I think it's really optimistic of you.

Like you, we love a glass half full queen out there. But we got to be realistic sometimes, and I think that we have to remember that sometimes things happen. Anybody remember cover where you could lose your job, your stocks could tank all in a frequent day, and then cash is king again.

Like, I think that is so short cited to think that you only need one and a half months worth of cash. I think IT also probably depends on a few different situations where you are in your life. If you're financially responsible for anybody else, I don't think any. Everybody needs six to twelve months worth, but I think one and a half months is not nearly enough. What do you think.

when do I agree with you? And will extrapolate even more if you have one, have months of security or emergency fun? What's gonna happen at the end of the second month if you still haven't got in the job? I mean, cover, we were shut down for what? Five or six months, you said IT, does anybody remember cover? Yeah, I do.

But I don't remember how long the the country was shut down, but essentially the country was shut down. You weren't working. You and you went from you have a job today to you don't have a job tomorrow.

IT was in a snap in a hoppy so even having a six to twelve months emergency fund during coffee would have maybe gotten you through okay. Um I think this is even more important when you are self employed. We spoke with finance to ruby, who said that in terms of monthly spending, SHE keeps around eighteen months of spending in her account.

I believe she's the either the primary breadwinner or the main breadwinner of her family. And if something goes wrong, like your content creator, AManda, if the internet went out for seven months, doesn't matter how many videos you're making, nobody is seeing them. You're not making any money when nobody is seeing your video. So I don't think the and that's gonna out. But I also didn't think a pandemic was gonna happen four years ago, so that god IT would be awesome to have a Christmas.

Yes, we'll end IT to your point. You know the the amount of time like a code. I just I just did a quick little a google search while we were chatting.

And the stock market the stock market has always recovered. We know that. But IT took about four months to get back to where I was. So if you've been sitting on one and a half months worth of cash, you're lost your job overnight. You're going to be taking a loss on your investments.

That's why we want to only invest money that we don't need in the short term and for the long term because you would have had had to dip into your investments and taken a loss if you could not wait four months. And uh, the two thousand eight financial crisis, I graduated college in two thousand nine, and I remember I was real hard to get a job. So I was like struggling to make any money at that point. And if you had just planned to sell your investments, I think you would have been sorely disappointed if you didn't have a little bit of cash to tide over because you're going to have to take a loss on that money.

Let's look at the two thousand eight financial crisis. If you have a month and a half of emergency fund, and this guy says anything bigger than that is covered by my credit limit or can wait a couple of days for me to sell stocks, so your stocks are down. You've got a month and a half.

You can find another job for six months. You're gonna cash flow on your credit card for six months. I mean, how much interest you racking up, how much are you able to pay that, that like nothing because you just use up your your emergency fun and your stocks are way, way, way down.

You don't really want to sell. I wasn't keeping track of our network prior to, I think, twenty thirteen. So i'm not sure what our uh, stock portfolio dropt by in two thousand eight, something i'm going to do that homework and and see what we lost on paper.

Uh, you're only losing IT on paper until you sell, but IT once you sell, that loss is now semmens. So I just I think that six, twelve months is a really great start. And again, this is determined on your your job until to twenty twenty. I have historically said, oh, if I lost my job, i'll just go get a way resting job. How many restaurants were open in April of twenty.

twenty? Not a whole lot or they were, but there weren't any waitresses to be a line cook.

Yeah, you could be a line cook. Waiting tables is a great way to generate some pretty instant cash. If you ve got anybody to wait tables on when you kiss at rest, you don't have in the tables that are waiting on. And it's just it's A I think it's short cited to not be conversant of the fact that you need access to cash easily.

absolutely more than a month. Like again, I don't think twelve months is necessary. I mean, I think it's necessary for some people. I don't think it's nessy for me. I don't have twelve month worth, but I think one and a half months is like you are living risky out there. Anything could happen in a flip of a switch, things that we never saw coming because again, we're going to bring back to that Crystal ball. None of us have a first of all, but my Christ of all tells me and you and need .

more than one and a hf months for sure. absolutely. All right. This was really fun. Amman, to thank you so much for join me today what is going on over at SHE wolf of wall street?

What is going on over IT SHE will for wall street? We are as usual, talk in money. So we're talking about how to budget and no budget budget that is might might go to like we chat about earlier um how to invest in the stock market. We're talking about how to take care of you regardless of what is happening in the world around you.

okay. And where can people find the SHE wall wall street.

so you can find me on instagram SHE wolf of wall street and that is wolf with an e or SHE was a wall street dot com is my website if you are social media high us and I have lots of good freebie newsletters and all that good jazz um over on my own site .

I am abend again thank you for your time. It's always great to talk .

to you yeah thanks again for .

having me all that raps up the bigger pocket money podcast SHE of course is the a meter wolf that he was a wall street and I am amy jennen saying goodbye little fly.