My sister Jenna is doing amazing in her career so far. She just finished a few rotations as a traveling nurse and is currently working on her Nurse Practitioner license. She just got back from a 2 week trip to Europe and has saved a ton of money. I'm such a proud big bro. She visited our family in Sarasota, FL this February when we were escaping the cold Northeast winter along with my mom and step-dad. It was a great visit where we checked out multiple Gulf Coast beaches, sunsets, kayaking in the mangroves, and Jake's amazing ice cream (shout out to Jake in Siesta Key)!

Jenna asked me an awesome question one night after all the kids were sleeping. "I want to start my Roth IRA, but I'm leery of hiring a financial advisor. They cost a lot, right... and I'd have to pay them a commission out of my investments?" She was asking a great question that was a 25 mile per hour, high-arcing softball pitch that I had a wide-barreled aluminum bat ready for!

I pulled up a quick Google search to teach her with an example from real estate. "Jenna, there are many homeowners that ask the same question. Why should I hire a realtor? I can sell it myself and keep more of the money. Yes, this is true. You do keep a higher percentage of the sale price when you do a 'For-Sale By Owner' or FSBO. However, FSBO stats online show that only 11% of FSBO sellers actually succeed at selling their home. And to make it worse, the 11% sell their homes for 26% less than their professional realtor counterparts." I let this sink in. Jenna is very sharp. I continued. "These stats suck! Let's say you own a $300,000 home. Let's say you actually figure out how to sell it and that's a BIG IF! This is an example. You sell it for $300k! Yay... and you save 3% on realtor fees. You saved $9,000 and walk away with potentially $292k. That's amazing. What if you sold through a professional, marketing machine realtor like my friend John Schuchman (host of the Real Estate Survival Guide)? Using the 26% upsell average, John sells your house for $378,000! John splits the $22,700 commission with the buying agent. John makes $11,350. He is motivated to sell your home! You pay the same closing cost plus the realtor commission. You keep $357k! That's $65,000 more when you hired the professional."

That pretty much put the whole topic to bed. Jenna simply said. "Okay, I'll hire a financial advisor." Now, I want to talk to you, listeners of the Smart Cleaning School Podcast. What are you skimping on, trying to save money on and do yourself? Jenna had a SPENDING MINDSET, which literally cost her $65,000! My big-brotherly talk changed her thinking to an INVESTING MINDSET. It's so ironic too. Jenna is highly educated. She has invested over $100,000 in her overall college education to soon become a Nurse Practitioner. This investment allowed her to make serious bank as a traveling nurse, go to Europe for 2 weeks, and have the cash in the bank to even ask me the Roth IRA question. Mic drop for Jenna! I'm so proud and love my baby sister. By the way, I was 14 when she was born so I've been a big brother and fatherly role to her.


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