“Every single woman needs a little bit of money of her own”

–Tess Waresmith

61% of women would rather talk about death than money. Are you one of them? Let’s change that! Money is regularly on my growth edge, so I’m learning along with you about something I feel like I should know more about — investing.

I’m excited to talk with financial educator and investor Tess Waresmith. It feels like women are playing catch up when it comes to money, and Tess wants to reduce the gender wealth gap. Even if you feel like you are living paycheck to paycheck, this applies to you. And if you’ve heard that the younger the start the better, there are still benefits to starting if you are 50 or older.

I always say planning is deciding in advance, and you ask for your future self. Investing is another way of taking care of your future self. And Tess explains why you need to know the basics—even if you decide to outsource your investing.

We talk about: 

• Why you don’t need a dollar for dollar budget and what you need instead
• How to invest money if your income varies from month to month
• How to actually invest without having to time things right and pick the right stocks
• Multiple benefits of making small investments regularly
• Whether you should invest or pay off debt first
• Age and whether it’s too late (it’s not!)

ABOUT TESS

Tess is a speaker, financial educator, and the founder of Wealth with Tess, a financial education community that helps women learn how to grow their money using simple investing strategies so that they can retire comfortably and live life on their terms.

After losing thousands in investing mistakes in her 20’s, Tess learned everything she could about wealth building and built her net worth from 0 to 1 million as a single 35 year old woman. Tess has recently been featured as a financial expert on Business Insider, Fox 5, and has over 70,000 followers across social channels.

Now she’s on a mission to reduce the gender wealth gap and help more women reach financial independence through simple investing education. Thousands of women have attended her free investing workshops and hundreds of women have joined her small group coaching programs to learn how to take control of their money. Tess believes that more money in the hands of women is magic.

LINKS

• https://www.instagram.com/wealthwithtess/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/tesswaresmith/
• https://www.moneyconfidentclub.com/founders

DOABLE CHANGES

At the end of every episode, we share three doable changes, so you can take what you've heard and put it into action. Action is how change happens.

Often we feel like our actions have to be huge to match the bigness of our desires, but we have seen over and over and over again that the little things add up. By stacking up a series of Doable Changes, you will create that big change that you crave. Choose the one that really resonates with you this week and really make it part of your life. 

Here are Three Doable Changes from this conversation:

• GET INTENTIONAL ABOUT SPENDING. You don’t need to have a complicated spreadsheet for a budget. Start paying attention to where your money goes. Identify the key buckets your spending fits into. How much income is going to necessary expenses? How much is extra? Where does that money go? Is what you are spending on important to you? Could you move some of it to the future you bucket?
• START AN ACCOUNT. Set up a regular investing account or a retirement account with a brokerage, such as Vanguard or Fidelity.
• SET UP WEEKLY INVESTMENTS. Set up a weekly investment, even if it’s small. You can set it up to come out of your bank account automatically. Set a time to review your revenue and spending and see if you can increase the amount of money you give to your future self.