Maggie:
[9:02] I’m sorry I can’t hear you Taylor. I think your mics out right now. And then I’m flying to a different part of the country to hang out with my mom for a few days.

Becca:
[9:09] You’re making her sound like 17.

Maggie:
[9:11] Yeah, let’s be clear. She’s She’s, like, 27. All right? She’s a fully grown adult woman.

Jewels:
[9:18] Which is more than I can say about all of us.

Maggie:
[9:19] And then I’m gonna go hang on my mom for a little bit. So flights were not super cheap and I couldn’t travel hack out of it.

Becca:
[9:31] Yeah. I had, like, pre… I bought this… impulsively bought a trip to New York months ago when it was a $26 round trip and now there’s no change fees with United, so I was gonna, I’m going to end up… I’m going to go the first week weekend of December instead, but now I looked and the tickets are $450 and I was like, oh but I have my $26 credit. I’m gonna have to… I’ll probably have to fly Spirit slash Jet blue.

Taylor:
[10:03] So this week my mom came over on Sunday and we went to Aldi the greatest German grocery store in the world.

Maggie:
[10:12] Fuck yes Aldi.

Taylor:
[10:14] Um, yes, so that was great. But on the way up there, my mom was like, “well, let’s stop at this resale shop and I’m gonna like, look for a thing for my bedroom.” Whatever.
And then while we were there, I was like, oh, we’re really close to a Sam’s Club And they have the softest blankets I’ve ever felt in my life.

Jewels:
[10:36] Is this what you’re cuddling up with on the couch?

Taylor:
[10:37] Yes, right now. It is just you don’t even know. It’s so soft.

Becca:
[10:42] It’s brought her a lot of joy, though.

Taylor:
[10:43] It’s yes. I don’t have a Sam’s Club membership, but I knew about the soft blankets from my friend Sarah, who has who has it and has had it for years and I’m always like this blanket is amazing. It’s softer than anything in the world, so she got me one and I was like, “one is not enough.” I was near A Sam’s and I was like, fuck it. I’m getting a Sam’s membership just so I could go in there and buy more of these blankets. So my mom was totally on board with this insane like fucking side trip to go to Sam’s so that I was like looking on their website is like oh, great, they have a deal if you sign up, they credit your account $40 on your first purchase and the yearly membership is $40. So basically it’s a free year membership. Obviously I signed up and downloaded the app, and I was like, oh, this is a really nice app. Never going to use this again. So then we went to Sam’s and I bought a bunch of blankets and…

Maggie:
[11:40] Turn that auto renewal off. Nice.

Taylor:
[11:40] Yeah, I did. They have it in the app! You can go in and turn off auto renewal. The app is amazing, really. Whoever designed this app like kudos to you because it is beautiful.

Maggie:
[11:53] Now I’m curious I’m goint to check it out. Oh, yeah, that’s true. I’ll be tempted. I’m easily. I’m easily seduced, guys.

Jewels:
[11:55] Don’t do it. Tell us your pro tip about auto renewals.

Maggie:
[12:04] Oh, yeah. Just any time you buy a subscription to something, just turn the auto renewal off. Even if it’s something you know you want to keep that way, you at least have to consciously think about it.

Becca:
[12:15] Did anyone have any goals that they set last time that they want to discuss? Our last meeting was two weeks ago. A few of us, maybe all of us, had set certain goals. I’m not sure, I didn’t write mine down.

Maggie:
[12:29] Mine was just to read Your money or Your Life, and I accomplished that.

Becca:
[12:34] Maggie is at 100%. Batting a 100. Batting 100? Batting 1000? What’s the phrase? She’s batting a million? She has not stopped batting.

Maggie:
[12:40] Yeah. Batting a million. Yeah. I’ve just been batting this whole time.

Taylor:
[12:50] My goal was also to read Your Money or Your Life, and I not only didn’t accomplish that, I read a different book, a summary of a different book.

Maggie:

[12:56] “Read” is a strong word for what you did.

Becca:
[13:04] She read three chapters into the summary of a different book.

Taylor:
[13:09] I had some other things. Um oh, you know what I did? I went to go look at my auto insurance because I was like, this was, this was a win for me today. I went to go look at my auto insurance because I was looking again at all of my monthly spending and just trying to, like, see how much I’m actually spending every month. How much is coming out of my credit card versus how much is coming directly out of my bank account. I realized that I was getting charged monthly for my car payments when I thought I had put it on, like the six month one time payment, which makes your premium lower by like, 80 bucks or so, and they don’t charge you monthly fees. And I get on the app and it’s showing all of these fees that I didn’t know because I don’t look at my spending ever, which I’m going to start doing now. I realized I was paying way more than I should have, and I called them and she was like, “well, I don’t know what we can do.”And I was like, “well, I’m going to send an angry letter.” So I sent it… Well she suggested she’s, like, “get it in writing. We’ll see what we can do.” Yes, she said that! Verbatim Maggie. I suggest you send an angry letter.

Maggie:
[14:18] I suggest you sent an angry letter.

Jewels:
[14:27] To our competitors address.

Taylor:
[14:30] So I emailed them and was like, listen, I told you all to put this on a six month payment. I don’t know what all these $5 fees or for, but that’s bullshit. And they call me back within, like, 20 minutes and they were like, “okay, great. We’ll take it off.” Because they admitted whether it was actually their fault or not, they were like, “so when you signed up, you did ask for it to be the six month full payment instead of the monthly fee so we will take that off and give you a $60 target gift card.” So I was like, Okay, cool.

Becca:
[15:03] That’s awesome. Well, that’s great.

Taylor:
[15:04] So that was a win for me financially is I now have a target gift card coming to my house next week?

Jewels:
[15:11] Steller windfall.

Taylor:
[15:16] In terms of goals? Pay my mortgage.

Becca:

[15:20] And you met it every month so far. Amazing. I find that impressive.

Taylor:
[15:22] And I met that goal. So far. For the six months I’ve owned this house.

Maggie:
[15:31] One of the things that I was doing last month was manually entering all of my expenses into a little budget, a widget on my phone, and that became overwhelming at some point partly because of how much I spend, and secondly, because I was just like, “man, I have other things I need to do right now rather than data entry on my fucking phone.” So I’ve decided I’m not going to be doing that again and instead, just using Mint? And eventually, I think I’ll find something that works for me.

Taylor:
[16:06] If Mint would like to sponsor our podcast that would be great.

Becca:
[16:10] We’re big fans. That’s true.

Taylor:
[16:11] We are maybe big fans. We will not endorse it, though, until we get an official sponsorship.

Maggie:

[16:17] I’m not gonna lie. I’m the outcast in in this Mint situation in that I was avoiding Mint because of paranoia about putting my data into yet another system.

Taylor:
[16:28] It is weird.

Maggie:
[16:29] I gave in. I gave in today, actually, and signed up for Mint this morning.

Becca:
[16:31] Whoa. I mean, they’ve all got access to everything anyway.

Taylor:
[16:35] Well, that’s what’s insane is when I was… so I also have Mint and I have Acorn because, of course, Mint advertised Acorn. I was like, this seems cool. Acorn will take small amounts of money in your bank account and autoinvest it for you. I don’t even know how it works, really. But they were asking me for all of this banking information and, like, do you approve access to all of your bank accounts and your social security number? And it was just like “I guess!” Like, why am I… I did it. I hope it doesn’t fuck up, but I was looking at my account this week and I saw the little acorn you know, $5 transfers and stuff. We’ll see if that works out. I don’t really know what they’re doing. It’s just supposed to, like take small amounts of your money and auto invested into things. Apparently. Who knows how that works? I don’t.

Maggie:
[17:30] None of us do so Acorn if you’re listening…

Taylor:
[17:32] If someone wants to explain what I’m doing on Acorn, please, please let me know.

Becca:
[17:43] For my week. Well, two weeks, I guess. Read Your Money or Your Life, which I just got the audio book. I had the book and then Julie, I need to you give your Kindle back. Julie very generously gave me her kindle which I did not open because I like, and I might have told the story last time. I bought the book and, like, one night, I was like, I’m gonna go to bed early, I’m gonna set up my little lamp, and I got my tea and I like cuddled up into bed with the book, and I literally didn’t even open it. I like, for some reason, just opened my phone instead, and I don’t even know what happened. I blacked out, and then I was just like, okay, I’m gonna go to bed. I got the audiobook and I listen to that and Simple Path to Wealth because I really wanted, I really want to open my investment account. So I wanted to get that under my belt. I started, well, I researched more into Betterment and Vanguard general investing portfolios because I have a 401K I want to keep and I just have this big cash, you know pile, that isn’t doing anything for me. I really want to just move everything into something that’s, like, easily transferrable since I don’t really know how it… Does this make sense? I don’t really know how I want to be spending that in the immediate future and how much I want to put in, like, retirement accounts. I wanna put something just in a general investing account, which will likely be Betterment. That we’ll see, I guess. So I looked into both those things, but I didn’t, actually do it. Which my goal was to open the account or, like, start that platform and I haven’t, so that’s gonna be the next goal.

[19:23] We talked about passive income, and one of my like, mostly joking passive income was to write erotica to sell on Amazon, and I did technically start it. I’ve got about… It’s less than a page, but I have an opening ling if you all want to hear it. Okay, I’m not going to tell the viewers the subject matter of this erotica, but I will tell you it’s a niche market. Opening line is, “very few people know about the president’s sex addiction. I’m honored to be one of them.”

Maggie:
[20:09] I’m into it already. You hooked me.

Becca:
[20:10] Thank you. Thank you. That is copyrighted.

Taylor:
[20:14] By the way this is not an endorsement.

Jewels:
[20:17] Or is this about a fictional female president? Because I could be into that book, too.

Taylor:
[20:21] Oh, fuck, yeah.

Maggie:
[20:21] I would absolutely be in that book too.

Becca:
[20:23] We’ll just see where it goes.

Jewels:
[20:25] Whole presidential erotica series.

Taylor:
[20:27] What if it was, like, a time traveling presidential erotica series. All of the presidents are just the same person.

Becca:
[20:27] I think there’s something in it.

Maggie:
[20:32] In space.

Becca:
[20:33] I just don’t know the science well enough to write it is the issue.

Becca:
[20:41] So I did technically… I really waited till the last minute to work on that, but I’ve been thinking about it all day. Did I have anything else? Oh, my business. I had to find a new location, and I started at my new location this week, so that was really good. That was a big part of it. And like opening up my business checking account, which has been a long time coming. I only became an LLC after three years of existence two weeks ago. How many weeks? Maybe a month ago. I’ve been in LLC. Yeah, it was October 1st. October 1st I became an LLC. With especially, like so the issue with going to massage school, let’s just go on that tangent, everyone’s on board for it, is that you have business classes. I’m doing air quotes. But our business, our business teacher, was a massage therapist who did not own her own business. She was the business teacher. And so she was like, trying to teach us…

Taylor:
[21:35] That is ludicrous.

Becca:
[21:41] There was like, nothing was taught, I guess, is what I’m telling everyone here.

Taylor:

[21:46] That makes me angry.

Becca:
[21:48] Yeah, because I paid for that class that makes me angry too. I left a… I’m a very kind, like I don’t leave bad reviews unless I’m really fired up and I left a very scathing review of that because it was such a gross misuse of our money, but whatever.

Taylor:
[22:01] Well, and also like no man would ever accept that. I feel like if that was like a business… like if they knew that the majority, not to say that it’s not, but if they knew the majority of people in that classroom were like white dudes, they would have been like, “well, where’s your business degree?” You know what I mean? Like, I feel like they just think because like, their, most… I don’t know scratch this from the podcast, but you know, I mean, like, I think because they think like most of them were probably women in that class that they could like, take advantage of you and you wouldn’t say anything like it’s fine she doesn’t know anyway, so let’s just throw some bullshit out there.

Becca:
[22:41] I wouldn’t have thought of this is a particularly gendered thing. I totally know what you mean, though, but it is more that they assume… they underestimate massage therapists, and they kind of assume none of them are Type A people. They assume massage therapists are not business oriented, they’re not math oriented, they’re not budget, whatever, they’re not planners, because we have that kind of, perhaps well earned, stereotype of being kind of airy people. In reality, a lot of massage therapists, whether they’re like airy or not like, own their own businesses because that usually the more lucrative way to do it. Most massage therapist, if you go, if you have a regular massage therapist at a studio, chances are they also have a side private practice that they do to supplement their income. So like we need to know these things, but it wasn’t taught. I don’t know why I’m talking about this, but anyways, I’m gonna LLC now, after three years.

Jewels:
[23:37] You are already more qualified to teach that class. Maybe that’s a side hustle. Maybe this is a side hustle for you.

Becca:
[23:40] I completely agree and that is embarrassing.

Taylor:
[23:44] Yeah, you could teach other massage therapist how to actually run a legitimate business.

Becca:
[23:45] I mean, if I have, once I figure out business taxes, I will absolutely feel more qualified for that, but I’ve just been filing Schedule C’s, and I think that’s gonna have to change. So anyways, um, yeah. Goals goals from the last couple weeks.

Jewels:
[24:06] I think my only goal from last time was to read Your Money or Your Life again, which I did, and it was great.

Jewels:
[24:21] And my end of month finances, which is really an indulgence, so I don’t know if that counts. I don’t know my next schools are either. It is, I think, open enrollment now for health insurance.

Taylor:
[24:36] God, I’m not going to do it.

Becca:
[24:38] We’re going to sit down and do it everybody.

Jewels:
[24:39] So my goal this, this next two weeks or however long before we have this again tomorrow is to spend a day with Taylor making spreadsheets and assessing her finances.

Taylor:
[24:54] Making sure that I have health insurance and get my tetanus shot? Hi, I’m 12.

Jewels:
[24:57] On, then researching health insurance.

Becca:
[24:57] We’re absolutely. We’re absolute getting health. Yeah, we’re doing it.

Jewels:
[25:03] Researching health insurance and scheduling our tetanus shots and figuring out when she got her IUS so we can put that on her calendar for eight years from now.

Maggie:
[25:11] My goal for next time…

Taylor:
[25:15] It was recent.

Maggie:
[25:17] My goal for next time is to make sure all of you got vaccinated.

Jewels:
[25:20] Thanks, Maggie.

Taylor:
[25:23] Um, speaking as someone who didn’t read the book even though I should have, what is y’all’s main take away from the book? Like, what was something that you learned from the book that you think is valuable for someone like me and probably people listening who have not actually read it.

Jewels:
[25:42] I think the hardest hitting for me is the translation of the money you’re spending into how much life energy that was for you. So figuring out your real hourly wage, and then every time you spend money, like $100, figuring out how many hours you had to work for that and then really thinking about whether that was worth it. And that’s particularly like, I don’t know what that is for me because I work for myself. I own my company. I work crazy hours. Some days, I, you know, it just varies a lot. I don’t know my real hourly wage, and I probably need to figure that out, but then every time I think about doing it, I’m also like, well, this is different this season is different than the other seasons. Except they’re all crazy season, so I don’t know. Even just, without knowing the number, still just having that thought in mind, like I have been working my ass off and is this really worth that? That exchange.

Taylor:
[26:40] A $1600 electric bike.

Jewels:
[26:40] Hopefully worth it. Guys, your house is like, so close to mine…

Maggie:
[26:44] You could still get things that matter to you.

Jewels:
[26:50] I could be over here on my electric bike in, like, six minutes without using any human power.

Becca:
[26:53] I would love that.

Taylor:
[26:54] You better. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.

Jewels:
[26:58] Well, they just put all of the, I don’t know what those things are called…

Becca:
[27:03] What are those little things called?

Jewels:
[27:05] We call them something very inappropriate in Canada, so I’m not to say that. They’re like reflector sticks and they’ve put like all the bike lanes and the traffic calming mechanisms.

Becca:
[27:07] I have no idea what they’re called. But that, like, stick straight up from the ground.

Jewels:
[27:18] There’s, like, a whole bike path all the way over here.

Maggie:
[27:19] Bike safety has improved in our neighborhood is what we’re trying to say.

Becca:
[27:22] Yeah, also all four of us grew up together, and now we all live very close to each other.

Jewels:
[27:22] Dramatically. Yeah, it’s a straight path.

Becca:
[27:32] It’s becoming an increasingly co-dependent situation. Well, and we’re in each other’s quarantine pods.

Taylor:
[27:35] I don’t want to say cultish, but…

Maggie:
[27:38] Everybody else says that.

Taylor:
[27:41] We are. We are in a pod.

Maggie:
[27:44] My take away… so that book in particular has quite a bit of homework and that’s why it’s recommended that you read it more than once. I think even the first chapter it’s like, “read this book all the way through once, then come back and do like all the activities you are meant to do.” So it’s kind of hard to get a grasp on the true impact, having not yet done those activities and I think a lot of them will take quite a bit of time, which is a little daunting. But one of the things which is kind of spins off of yours, Julie, is that once you find your whatever hourly income, for life, whatever you’re making in your whole life, and then you are choosing what you want to spend money on at that point, I think the thing that impacted me was, once you do all that math, you might realize that you’re spending a ton of money on something that you actually doesn’t make you happy. Like I… I’m getting out of this habit, but definitely have in the past had that bad habit of being like, “oh, it’s late. I’m tired. I don’t want to cook food. I don’t want the grocery store. I’m just going to order food,” but in those scenarios, doing that actually didn’t make me happy. I get enjoyment out of going out to eat when I’m with friends or doing it for, like, a celebration or something, but when it was just me tired after work that isn’t really making me happy. And so having some kind of visualization of that and being like, look how much you’re spending on things that aren’t actually doing anything for you. I think that would be very beneficial once I actually go through all the procedures of doing that math.

Taylor:
[29:26] So Maggie solved that problem by getting a girlfriend who cooks everything for her.

Maggie:
[29:30] Yeah, that was an easy solve for me actually.

Jewels:
[29:33] Problem solver.

Maggie:
[29:34] She loves it too so it did work out well for me. Maybe that was a bad example for me to use, but you get the point.

Jewels:
[29:41] Creative problem solving.

Maggie:
[29:46] Just date someone new who likes to do that for you… Yeah.

Becca:
[29:51] Just do it. Just find them.

Taylor:
[29:52] Again. Using her most valuable asset to…

Becca:
[29:58] My take away is definitely similar, like, I mean, the real thing and even in that podcast summary that you listened to, like, they just talk about, like, you know, money isn’t this hourly wage it’s the time. You’re very finite resource of time that you’re giving in exchange for this amount of money and when you actually calculate it up of your hourly wage it’s gonna affect, like, how you see money and how you see happiness and all this stuff. And it really, I found it very profound. It it was really profound and also, um, echoes a lot of the ways that I’ve seen money for a while. I’ve always in my head I talked, I like, consider 15 minutes of my time a unit, and I years ago calculated how much money I earned per unit and so whenever I buy something, I calculate, I say how many units that cost me like that’s just how I think about, like, purchases is by units and, you unit means 15 minutes. That’s, like, always, how I think about all purchases and like, that’s interesting. 1.5 units. Is it worth it?

Jewels:
[31:09] This is so sci-fi.

Maggie:
[31:13] I feel like I’ve talked to you guys about this movie before, but I think about it a lot. It’s called In Time with Justin Timberlake, where it’s… So where time is currency. It is a sci-fi futuristic movie, and so, like if you’re buying a cup of coffee, it’s like five minutes of your life.

Taylor:
[31:18] Yes, I love In Time. Yes. And they run out of time. You have to buy time to live. And you literally, the more wealthy you are, the longer you get to live and you always look beautiful. I think about this movie all the time, all the fucking time. All the fucking time. It is. It’s such an interesting way to think about money. It’s exactly the way you think about money. It’s like, what if aging, like, eventually, you know, your time is like you die, and that’s the time you have. But what if aging, like, doesn’t exist anymore? And, like, medically, we’ve gone beyond that? Then how do you pay for things? And it’s, like, literally you’re paying for your time with your time?

Becca:
[32:00] Can we watch this before our next one? Because that is that is so much like Your Money or Your Life. It’s such a, like, literally….

Taylor:
[32:02] Yeah, we should. It’s really good. It’s really good. Yeah. And his mom is Olivia…

Maggie:
[32:10] Vicki Robin. We should have a movie watch podcast with her. You wrote you wrote this movie.

Taylor:
[32:19] Basically, yeah. I wonder if the writer read the book and was like that’d make a good movie.

Maggie:
[32:26] That make a good sci-fi movie? Yeah.

Taylor:
[32:28] I’m gonna put Justin Timberlake in Olivia what’s her name?

Maggie:
[32:34] I don’t remember.

Taylor:
[32:35] The mom is ah, fuck. She’s married to Jason Sudeikis. Olivia Wilde. Olivia Wilde is the mom because they don’t age so they look the same.

Jewels:
[32:46] Oh, I was like because the mother’s are always like 28 years old.

Taylor:
[32:47] That also is true. But yeah, so his mom’s like super young and hot, even though it’s his mom. It’s kind of weird, but I’m into it.

Maggie:
[32:58] Taylor into young hot moms. Write that down, right?

Becca:
[33:03] Yeah, that was my, the life force concept is the take away, and I think, and I just think about it all the time now. It also made me value my job like so much because my job is fucking awesome and like, I love it like, it brings me joy to work. It makes me feel gratified. It makes my body feel tired in a really satisfying way. In the book she talks about, she’s like, “yeah, we have investment bakers who become massage therapists and become yoga instructors,” and I was like, I just skipped that kind of I mean, I did. I guess I did a corporat job for a while, but I guess, like I often feel less than because I’m in the service industry and I keep feeling like, “okay, well, eventually my career has to be something more professional.” Like eventually, I need to do something more lucrative with my time, and eventually, you know, like I want to be more business minded, but then, like listening to this is a reminder of like, no life’s not about, like climbing an arbitrary career ladder. It’s about finding a job that makes you happy, and, yeah, maximizing the money that you can earn and a period of time is great for your financial stability, but, like, this is how you’re spending your life. So it’s It’s important for me because I often feel less than as far as career goes.

Jewels:
[34:20] Well, then, I think what you’ve expressed to us in the past is that that feeling comes from external treatment.

Becca:
[34:27] Right. Totally.

Jewels:
[34:29] That the way people treat you now, knowing that you work in massage is so much different than you were treated working in the corporate world, doing some sort of very fancy international trade negotiating.

Becca:
[34:45] I was just gun running.

Jewels:
[34:46] People treated her really well when she was a gunrunner.

Becca:
[34:48] The last guy like this guy that I was seeing very casually before COVID hit, I was telling him… Oh, shit, what was the conversation? But was such a good example of how people talk to me knowing I’m a massage therapist, but knowing nothing else about my financial situation and he sad… Oh, I just said I’m a rule follower, especially at work like I’m always early. I like It’s just something I’ve always done. And he was like, “yeah, I used to be a rule follower, but really, once you have some money in your savings account, you start to look at things like that differently.” He said that to me as like just assuming I had no money, it was like, it was the our last date.

Taylor:
[35:32] Oh my God. That’s pretty bad.

Maggie:
[35:40] Yeah, that’s cringy.

Becca:
[35:41] And that’s and that’s crazy. That’s like a 30 something, a 35 year old man talking to a 30 year old woman like that. Can you imagine? Made me so angry just saying it.

Maggie:
[35:51] No. It’s hard to picture.

Taylor:
[35:55] Oh my God, he’s just making so many assumptions about who you are without even really get, like trying to figure it out at all. Just like assuming he knows.

Maggie:
[36:06] Yeah. I don’t know how I would react. I have so many different, like scenarios playing out in my head where it’s like, do you like then play dumb and, like, just be really sarcastically stupid until they realize, until they realized the point?

Taylor:
[36:19] That is Becca’s go to, and it’s pretty funny to watch.

Maggie:
[36:22] Be like “money?!?! What? What is that?”

Taylor:
[36:26] Yeah, what’s money?

Becca:
[36:32] Yeah, anyways.

Taylor:
[36:35] That’s crazy. I mean, I guess it’s not. It’s probably pretty common. I would be curious to see, like what other people’s experiences have been with trying to like,
hold their own and some kind of financial space and just being kind of like, you know, looked down on or assumed that they don’t know what they’re talking about or that they don’t have any money just because of their job. That, too, is like just learning more about this and getting into it more, and you know, us being so open about our financial situations.
It’s made me realize that your job doesn’t necessarily equate to your wealth or how much you know your net worth is because you can make a lot of money and a lot of the financial experts talk about this too in the books is that you can make a lot of money and be spending so much more than you’re making. So, you know, you could have a job that pays you $100,000 a year and you’re blowing through that plus some and so you’re actually your network is worth less than someone who is making $30,000 a year and living within their means and only, you know, living off $7000 a year and they actually have more money than you. So like, you can’t really assume that someone’s job or someone’s labor is worth what they’re actually, you know, their net worth is overall based off how how they’re spending their money and their time.

Becca:
[37:57] A part of the reason I think this this whole discussion, these meetings are so dope is it’s because we don’t talk to each other about I think a lot of it, especially when it comes to women in the workplace just historically. Where, like employers want to keep you in the dark. I know this is a little old fashioned. Hopefully, it’s a little better now. They want to keep you in the dark of how much you’re earning versus your coworkers. We just kind of walk through life blind of how much money anyone makes. You feel like maybe you’re earning a fair wage and you like, look on Glassdoor, whatever, but that doesn’t really help, you know, very specifics, especially when it’s at your own company or whatever. If people were just more open about it, and I know it’s very scary to be open about money, it’s very scary to be open about money, but if they were, we all know so much more. We’d like have such a better base level of understanding.

Taylor:
[38:52] And there’s just so much shame around it, too, you know? And how much you know, people think that because they work in the service service industry or some other job that maybe doesn’t make a much, um as Maggie does at her $500,000 job? You know, there’s a lot of… Maggie will be your sugar mama.

Maggie:
[39:08] You need money, you come to me.

Taylor:
[39:13] I’m still banking on that by the way. That is my long term goal, is to convince Maggie to be my sugar mama.

Jewels:
[39:13] She’s taken, we’re all in line.

Taylor:
[39:21] There’s a lot of shame. That’s what I was talking about. Shame, shame, shame. There’s a lot of shame around, uh, money and how much you make and not understanding things like investing and finance and budgeting, you know, and for your lifestyle. So that’s I think part of what we’re trying to accomplish is just break down that kind of shame around that and just talk about and we’re trying to figure it out. We’re literally in the middle of trying to figure out how to get our shit together. And Maggie is making a cool pose right now.

Becca:
[39:56] You look very fucking blasé cool.

Maggie:
[40:00] That’s what I was going for. That’s my podcast vibe.

Becca:
[40:02] I think especially talking about shame is really important, because that’s especially in regards to this, like, podcast idea and why we all started talking. This was this was just friends talking about finance before it was the, uh, massive podcast dynasty that you know, today of Vaginance. Because there’s so much shame, and it’s silly. It’s silly. And I also listened to a Brené Brown thing about shame. Thanks, Brené. And it is like, if you if you assign shame to these things, it’s only gonna weigh you down.

Maggie:
[40:33] This podcast brought to you by….Becca:
[40:42] The fact that we assign shame to money, the things like which spent is how our life it rotates around it, like how we spend our time. Then also and I know I keep pushing this, but also like sex stuff, female anatomy stuff, birth control, stuff like shame is tied to it and it’s dumb. I would love just more open communication. We’d all have better sex if we just talked about sex. We’d all better finances if we talked about finances. I just I’m really Yeah, I’ve been, like spending the last two years trying to eradicate shame from my life, and it’s slow, but it’s helping.

Maggie:
[41:19] I think a relevant comment that I have is something that really impacted my life was this quote, and I’m gonna butcher it, and I don’t know where it’s from, but it’s something along the lines of, remember the person who, like, made you feel safe and comfortable with who you are, and this could apply to your money, to like, made you feel comfortable in talking about your money or made you feel comfortable sexually or talking about sex or just coming out as who you truly want to be and now know that you have that power to be that person for other people.

Becca:
[41:54] I love it.

Maggie:
[41:55] And so I think, like us, making each other comfortable talking about money… we’re giving each other the power to now pass it on and continue the conversation and domino effect it hopefully.

Becca:
[42:09] Totally. I love that.

Taylor:
[42:11] Come to us with your money problems, and we will give you bad advice. Shame free bad advice.

Jewels:
[42:14] But shame free.

Maggie:
[42:16] Shame free terrible advice.

Taylor:
[42:18] Shame free terrible financial fun advice. And needless to say, like I think we all know this, but finance has been such a male dominated area for so long, and I think just so much of that is just culturally like, you know, even though women are traditionally the head of the household, men are still the ones that are considered the financial experts. The ones that go into financial, you know, lucrative type jobs, and are on Wall Street and all these other fucking titles.

Jewels:
[42:52] And control it.

Taylor:
[42:54] And we have been cut off from that for decades. So it’s time that we start learning about this shit and fucking taking over.

Becca:
[43:07] Um, cool. So do we wanna do we talk about goals for? Does everyone did? Everyone talked about the goals they have for next time.

Taylor:
[43:14] I think I mentioned me not accomplishing my goals for this time.

Jewels:
[43:20] My goal was to spend a day with Taylor.

Taylor:
[43:22] My goal is to Google, what’s the word? Index funds.

Maggie:
[43:32] My goal is I tried to do the budgeting thing too intensely last month, and it became discouraging. So trying a different method this month that hopefully works better for me.
And I’ll just keep doing that until I find something that works. But.

Jewels:
[43:50] I have a recommendation. Even though I’m the one that sent you the manual budgeting thing last month, which did not work, but.

Maggie:
[43:59] Well, it was kind of my… It was a joint effort.

Jewels:
[44:01] I have found the other things been helpful for Zach and I when we did start really watching our finances was scheduling a meeting once a week where we just check in. So if you’re gonna be using Mint to automatically track all those things, just having something on the calendar or once a week. You look at the last week.

Maggie:
[44:21] I… daily, but yeah.

Taylor:
[44:24] That would be good for me, because I don’t. I will do literally anything to avoid looking at my finances.

Jewels:
[44:36] It’s my favorite part of Saturday.

Maggie:
[44:38] I also, despite having spent so much time working on automating all my bank accounts, they’re still not fully automated. So it does require me to put have some input in what goes where, so I generally check up on things at that point as well. My goal was pretty vague. I would like to find my next book that I wanna listen to as well.

Becca:
[44:59] That’d be nice. I’m listening to Darving Bravely.

Maggie:
[45:00] I have one downloaded which I’ve been meaning to listen to for a long time and haven’t, but it’s not specifically finance related. I might hit it up. Magic of Thinking Big. You probably read it. You recommend it?

Jewels:
[45:12] Long time. I don’t know if I recommended it. I read it probably like 12 years ago, so I don’t remember.

Maggie:
[45:19] And then I know you recommended to me the Culture Code.Yeah. Yes, I’m 100% that was you.

Jewels:
[45:25] Did I? Don’t know. Are you sure?

Maggie:
[45:29] Um, well, anyway, I have those downloaded? I might pick one of them.

Becca:
[45:34] I’m listening to Daring Greatly by Brené Brown right now.

Taylor:
[45:38] See, this is the thing is, I don’t know where to start, because there’s so many different options and things.

Jewels:
[45:44] Your Money or Your Life. Yeah. It is written for you.

Maggie:
[45:45] We literally handed it to you…. and you still said no!

Taylor:
[45:49] Shut up! Listen, I have a very stressful life.

Taylor:
[46:02] Okay. I’ll read the book. I’ll listen to it. I did get the audio books, so I will listen to it.

Becca:
[46:04] Or just listen to it listen.

Taylor:
[46:09] I also, um I do have that inheritance money coming up this week in my bank account. So I did want to ask you all what you thought I should do with it, because I know I should pay off my credit card blah, blah boring. But I also need to put money aside to pay my taxes next year, so I’m wondering if I should wait to calculate how much I’m gonna owe, and then take out a portion of that from the money that my mom gives me.

Becca:
[46:41] Well, but you won’t have to pay taxes till April. Right?

Jewels:
[46:46] Or later if you file an extension. I think… this is not financial or tax advice.

Taylor:
[46:52] Classic Julie move.

Jewels:
[46:56] I think you will be able to make that decision better if you make a spreadsheet.

Becca:

[47:02] And listen to Your Money or Your Life.

Maggie:
[47:04] They are your finances, but what I would do is I would probably put like half and half. I do like half towards the credit card and then half in cash for your emergency fund if you don’t already have one, then you can use that for taxes if you need to.

Becca:
[47:16] That’s brilliant.

Taylor:
[47:17] My emergency vacation fund.

Maggie:
[47:19] I relate strongly.

Becca:
[47:20] Your Japan fund.

Taylor:
[47:24] It is so fucking hard when you actually have a little bit of money to spend it on boring shit like paying off your credit card debt. We’re putting it in savings, so if anyone else can relate to that.

Jewels:
[47:41] So much of my credit card debt was travel and eating.

Taylor:
[47:44] Yes, that’s true. Technically, that is. I know its’s interesting because, like trying to go and think about in my brain, those things are separate, you know, like, oh, I’m going out and having fun and like going on vacations, and to me, credit card debt feels separate. Oh, shit. It’s going down. Credit card debt feels separate to that… from that I’m like, “what is all this debt? Where did it come from? Why does it never go away?” It’s like, no those… It’s because of all that. I don’t know.

Becca:
[48:18] No regret. No shame. No blame. That’s our official line.

Taylor:
[48:19] No regrets. Get in debt.

[48:31] Don’t get in debt. It’s a terrible, terrible psychological self torture and knowing you did it to yourself is even worse.

Becca:
[48:41] But at least you did it in a bunch of different cool places.

Taylor:
[48:42] That is true. I did do a lot of fun stuff, but that is my main goal overall, is within the next, like, two years… I mean, ideally a year, but yeah. First I need to get rid of all of my debt, and then I can start investing and doing all that fun shit.

Becca:
[48:52] You can definitely do it.

Taylor:
[49:02] Nothing makes you feel more cozy than financial independence and a warm blanket. Cozy up to financial success.

Maggie:
[49:17] Oh. I did have another frivolous spending thing that I did, but I just want to tell you about because it’s fun not really because of money. I know we’re still celebrating, like monthly anniversaries, this was like our nine month anniversary, and so we went and played an escape game, just the two of us, and it was very fun.

Becca:
[49:39] Oh, my gosh! Yeah. Did you get? Holy shit.

Maggie:
[49:39] We did with 45 seconds left.

Taylor:
[49:42] Like I’m honestly very impressed.

Maggie:
[49:44] Yeah, because apparently with two people, it’s pretty hard. But we got out!

Becca:
[49:46] It seems like it would be.

Maggie:
[49:49] And the reason I think we could have done it a lot sooner, but there was like, you start out and there’s like, two very obvious rooms like you’re in one room, we know we have to get into that room. We know there’s gonna be, like, at least two rooms of the puzzles. I stupidly thought that was it and so when we’re in the second room, I was like, “we’re way ahead of schedule. There’s no don’t need to rush this at all. We’ve totally got this. We’re gonna get out with, like, 30 minutes left.” And then another secret door opened and there’s a whole other fucking room, and we only have, like, 20 minutes left. I was like, “oh, shit, we’re not getting out of here.”

Taylor:
[50:22] That’s amazing. Do you think it was because of your communication? Ah, teamwork skills as a couple.

Becca:
[50:23] That is incredible.

Maggie:
[50:24] It was a good time. Yeah, I think we definitely make a good team and I’m a really good at delegating because one I’m lazy and two, I really enjoy seeing people thrive in their strengths. So any time she was like, “oh, man, I got this,” I was like, “get it, babe. Yeah!” And then she was like, “oh, math!” I was like, “I’ll do the math.”

Becca:
[50:58] That sounds amazing. I bet the people watching it in their little securities room really loved it.

Maggie:
[50:59] Yeah, it was fun. They gave us a free, like, sneak peek into some of the other rooms or like, “if you want to come back.”
And I was like, I don’t know, like, if we can handle one that was harder than this because I think that we would have both been actually pretty upset if we didn’t get out.

Taylor:
[51:11] What? That’s amazing. It is really humiliating when you don’t. Especially when you have a team of like 20 and you’re like, “why did none of us get…”

Becca:
[51:20] I’ve only done it twice. Once was for Sarah’s birthday, and we got out in, like, record fucking time. Once was with my old job, which was all engineers, and we didn’t get out because engineers can’t work together it turns out. They all had their own solutions and they all were really sure their solution was right.

Jewels:
[51:49] And they don’t talk to each other. They don’t listen to each other well.

Taylor:
[51:53] I didn’t escape room with Maggie’s friend Bless. Yeah, her and me…

Maggie:
[51:57] What? In New York?

Jewels:
[51:57] Bless I’m sorry I haven’t responded to your latest email. I love you.

Taylor:
[52:04] Last time me… one of the last times me and Bless hung out we did an escape the room. It was us and Monica and this guy Chris that I was dating. We did not get out. It was very sad. I really thought we were going to with Bless on our team.

Becca:
[52:21] What was the theme of the room?

Taylor:
[52:24] Um, it was like a weird spy. It’s kind of dumb. It was like a spy. There was really no strong theme. There’s just, like, spy oriented map on the floor.

Becca:
[52:43] I didn’t really have any frivolous purchases except a little holder for eggs from our chickens. I got a little spiral wire holder so they can be all presented in our kitchen, which I love a lot, but there’s none on there because we keep eating them, which is what you’re supposed to do with eggs, in case you didn’t know.

Taylor:
[53:07] I did. I was proud of myself. I didn’t buy any clothes, which is really hard for me to do. And I started thinking more about like, is this purchase going to benefit me financially or in my job or in some way that isn’t stupid, like just buying clothes? So I bought a 32 inch curved monitor and because I’m just trying to be Julie, so I’m buying all the same shit Julie has.

Jewels:
[53:42] That is a worthy purchase.

Taylor:
[53:43] It is. And I got, like, a stand for my desk, and I got a Bluetooth keyboard, cause I was like, If I’m going to be, like doing shit at my desk all day, I shouldn’t be looking at a 13 inch like tiny fucking computer screen all day.

Jewels:
[54:00] And if you’re not insured, you can’t afford to ruin your back and your eyes that way.

Taylor:
[54:04] Exactly. So I’ve I actually seriously started investing in, like, my work supplies, which I never did before. I was like fuck that. I’m gonna go to old navy dot com and spend 200 more dollars. I need these yoga pants with pockets. Which is still a great purchase, by the way. I actually, like started, you know, trying to think about things like that and when I was thinking about my house and like what I want to spend money on with house I was trying to think about, like what I want to do a long term with the house and if long term, I’m going to build something on the property then you know, like, 10 years from now, if we’re gonna, like, tear this down and build two houses, then there’s no point in spending a lot of money on cosmetic stuff, like getting your house painted cost fucking $4000 and before I was like, yeah, I’m just gonna save up and do it because, like, I want my house look cute as fuck. But now it’s like, Why would I do that? If that’s not going to? If this is just gonna get torn down one day or if it’s not going to ultimately, like add value to the house, then why am I spending $4000 when that same amount of money could be spent on a fucking bomb ass vacation to Thailand with all of my friends? Which I’m holding all of you to.

Jewels:
[55:23] $4000 goes a long way in Thailand.

Taylor:
[55:26] I could live like a fucking god for $4000 in Thailand. All the massage parlors.

Maggie:
[55:31] I agree, though, I think I have the same thoughts about my house, too. I’m like, oh, I’m going to redo this whole kitchen. And I’m, like, too expensive.

Taylor:
[55:37] It’s so tempting, right? Everything’s. Yeah.

Maggie:
[55:39] And who knows if I’m even going to live here that long.

Taylor:
[55:43] It’s not worth it. When you really think about it. It’s so tempting because it’s like that quick fix.

Maggie:
[55:47] I mean, I think there are times when it’s worth it, but, like in our scenarios, it’s not.

Jewels:
[55:51] You need a dishwasher. That would change your life so much in your kitchen. That’s the one thing.

Maggie:
[55:53] I need a dishwasher so bad. Yeah, well, that’s… See. I want a dishwasher so bad that I am ready to buy a different house in order to get a dishwasher.

Jewels:
[56:03] We can find a place for a dishwasher in your kitchen.

Maggie:
[56:09] I know. I got to tell… Julie’s husband is my real estate agent. Tell your husband. I gotta tell your husband that is my only requirement in a new houses. It has a dishwasher.

Jewels:
[56:16] Mine as well.

Taylor:
[56:26] Becca would love of this house at a dishwasher.

Becca:
[56:28] I don’t care about the dishwasher at all. I’m see, I think our house will be improved once we get a garbage disposal, but even that’s not been a big deal at all.

Taylor:
[56:36] We have one. We just got to install it.

Becca:
[56:40] We just got well, but it’s more than that. We have to, like, rewire shit to get electricity down there.

Taylor:
[56:44] Can Zach come over and thank you? See, this is another part of financial…

Becca:
[56:51] Yeah. Which Vicki Robin talks about is harnessing your community! Loneliness is very expensive. She talks about that, and having a community, you save a lot of money because people watch your chickens and your dogs and stuff like that.

Taylor:
[56:53] Harnessing your community. Trash disposers and your sinks.

Taylor:
[57:10] Mostly just Zach. Zach is doing all of that.

Maggie:
[57:13] Yeah Zach’s done a lot of work on my house I’m not going to lie.

Becca:
[57:15] Hey, I’ve watched his dogs a few times.

Taylor:
[57:16] Zach is the manliest man we know.

Jewels:
[57:17] Many, many times. And thank you.

Maggie:
[57:23] I’ve repaid Zach by getting wasted with him in good company many times.

Taylor:
[57:25] We have all given him just like you can’t even put a value on the joy we bring Zach. Okay?

Becca:
[57:39] That’s true. He definitely agrees. I’m sure.

Jewels:
[57:41] And since this is Vaginance he will never be guest.

Becca:
[57:46] I mean, it’s sad, but it’s just the way it is. It’s just the way it is. And your personal financial failures… What’d you do wrong?

Taylor:
[57:56] Tell us how much debt you’re in.

Jewels:
[57:59] Confessional. It’ll be anonymous, so people can just….

Becca:
[58:00] Oh, my God.

Taylor:
[58:02] Yeah, like, what’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever spent money on?

Becca:
[58:05] I bet it would be so cathartic for people to give a financial confessional. And as….

Taylor:
[58:11] Oh, for sure.

Maggie:
[58:12] Trying to think of what mine would be. I’m sure I have some. Probably. I know mine. It’s really embarrassing, though. I kind of don’t even want to say it.

Taylor:
[58:22] Say it. You have to.

Jewels:
[58:22] This one’s not anonymous among us. We can anonymous your voice on the podcast.

Maggie:
[58:25] I know. I. It was a… to be fair…

Taylor:
[58:29] We’ll autotune it.

Maggie:
[58:30] It was a great time. I just spent way too much money on it. Trying to impress a girl and bought some extremely expensive tickets to Beyonce.

Becca:
[58:43] That’s great.

Taylor:
[58:44] Okay. That is not ever a financial mistake.

Maggie:
[58:46] I would not spend as much money as I did again. I would go see Beyonce, for sure, but not in the same seats.

Becca:
[58:52] Oh, shit. That’s awesome. How much was it?

Taylor:
[58:53] Were you, like, front row? Holy shit. Okay. How much was it like, three grand a ticket.

Maggie:
[58:55] It was like fourth row. I know I got them early, like, right when they went on sale and then I had, like, some kind of VIP access from my credit card or something.
And so it was like $1200 a ticket or something like that.

Becca:
[59:13] Wow. And you bought both of them? That was very generous. Did you impress them? Yeah, did you get laid?

Maggie:
[59:19] I don’t think I did that night because we had friends with us, um, sharing a hotel, but I did sleep with that person. Yes.

Taylor:
[59:29] Well, then there you go. Happiness versus….

Maggie:
[59:30] She is happily married to someone else now, so it feels a little weird to talk about it.

Taylor:
[59:37] Yeah. Don’t worry. They will never listen to this.

Becca:
[59:38] It’s okay, people, you often fuck people before they get married.