1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,880 Let me know your name first and last, where you're located and the name of your business, 2 00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:10,240 please. And thank you. Hey, Javanka. I'm Wesley Belden calling in from Nashville, Tennessee. 3 00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:18,560 I am the co-founder and CEO of Raise Financial. Nice. So I went to your site and I loved, 4 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:23,040 there's this glitch where it says financial solutions for today's tinker. 5 00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:31,840 Investor. Is that what it is? Investor and child and so on and so forth. So I, of course, 6 00:00:32,400 --> 00:00:37,120 want to know your vision. So that will be my first question, but I definitely have questions 7 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:45,040 about that. So tell me your vision when you co-founded this business. Yeah. And so I think 8 00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:49,920 kind of what that's getting at is, you know, it doesn't matter really where you are, what you do 9 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:54,560 in this space is if you're of a certain age, saving and investing for the future is a very 10 00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:59,760 different prospect than it was for your parents. Millennials and then coming up Gen Z investors, 11 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:05,520 we frankly have the time in market, but we don't have the money in market. And that's a product of 12 00:01:05,520 --> 00:01:10,240 our wages, not keeping pace with the expenses that we're, you know, we're dealing with. If you 13 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:17,040 look at the decoupling of productivity increases from the 1970s, 1980s on and salaries, not keeping 14 00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:21,360 pace with that. It explains kind of how things have become a lot tighter. And what that means is 15 00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:27,520 we have less money to invest or buy a home or, you know, put it out there to kind of protect 16 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:34,400 ourselves in our old age or even develop generational wealth. So we build a series of products that 17 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:40,000 really kind of look at those very specific generational constraints and helps our customer 18 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:47,280 kind of save and invest around those constraints. Absolutely. And you know, it brings me back to this 19 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:54,720 thought, Wesley, is when my grandmother passed about three years ago, she was 86, rest her soul. 20 00:01:55,600 --> 00:02:01,920 She left and I hate to say this on social media or whatever, but she left with debt. You know what I 21 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:08,320 mean? And so back in that, back in those days, I don't know if finances were spoken about in 22 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:15,040 different areas like it is today. And so it just reminded me like I wish we would have had this 23 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:21,280 discussion and these types of services were available way back when. And then that way she 24 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:27,360 would have had a better way of leaving her children with not debt, but with, you know, things that 25 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:34,560 they can hang on assets per se. So because it is a wide range of individuals that you help, how do 26 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:42,320 you structure that? What's the story like when you actually get someone and who's interested in 27 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:48,720 financial savings? Yeah. So we have different products with different audiences. The one that 28 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:53,760 we're working on now, our newest product is essentially doing for stock ownership what the 29 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:58,720 mortgage did for home ownership. Another way to really look at, you know, something like a mortgage 30 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:04,640 and mortgage basically allows you to buy a house today that would take you 30 years to save to buy. 31 00:03:04,640 --> 00:03:08,560 Right. And so before mortgages, that's how it used to work. People would save up their entire lives 32 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:13,280 and then they would buy this house and they would retire. But we started noticing when people were 33 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:18,640 getting mortgages to buy these houses now to avoid paying rent, they were living in them and they 34 00:03:18,640 --> 00:03:26,720 were also gaining this big equity increase in their net worth. Right. So basically you were owning 35 00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:32,320 that house today instead of 30 years from now, which means you have 30 years of your money growing 36 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:37,680 or your equity growing in the marketplace. My co-founder and I sat down and we decided that 37 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:42,560 we were going to fix the housing crisis. About 10 minutes later, we decided we were in fact not going 38 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:48,160 to be fixing the housing crisis, but looking at that powerful outcome of how homes have really 39 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:52,560 kind of set up an entire generation to have this nest egg. We wanted to figure out how we could 40 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:59,040 replicate that same sort of equity building opportunity, but with an asset that we can 41 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:03,840 control. So essentially the way this works, we invest a large lump sum of our money into the 42 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:11,680 S&P 500 for the benefit of our customer. We choose the S&P 500 because it is a good asset for most 43 00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:16,400 young people to hold and buy early on in their careers. So it's kind of that one size fits all 44 00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:23,200 treatment. Basically our customer pays us a monthly membership payment and that entitles them to the 45 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:28,960 returns that that position makes over its lifetime. And so you have more money in the market 46 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:37,200 compounding and growing in the same way that you can buy that $300,000 house today and it gives you, 47 00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:42,000 when the market improves 10%, you make 10% on 300,000, not on your down payment. 48 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:49,200 Absolutely. So you're speaking my language because I am a real estate agent. So with that being said, 49 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:57,360 I'm like, hey, that's actually how it is done. And you, with us, of course, we're now in this stage of 50 00:04:57,360 --> 00:05:03,920 having multiple, right, to continue to invest. So you buy one, you build on that equity, rent it out. 51 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:10,240 And so when, yeah, and it keeps going and going and going. So I love that you took that piece 52 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:16,400 and made it more about the financial side because everybody's doing it, right? And I actually just 53 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:21,520 took a class about investment and it's investing in homes so that you can build that up. And so 54 00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:27,360 when you are able to have this discussion, as I do with individuals, it comes, it seems so much easier 55 00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:33,200 to connect with, right? Because you can use that same analogy. So kudos to you guys. That was, 56 00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:38,080 that was super smart. I mean, it's a big part of kind of the American dream is being able to do 57 00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:42,960 those things. And, you know, a lot of our customers are looking at this as, you know, their long term 58 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:47,280 investing thing, their network, their nest egg, so on and so forth. Some customers are actually 59 00:05:47,280 --> 00:05:52,160 looking at this as a way to kind of accelerate the growth of a down payment to then be able to 60 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:57,360 get into that home, which is we all know, actually, I think the Fed is cutting rates today. So that 61 00:05:57,360 --> 00:06:02,160 might make those payments a little bit easier, but we'll see what happens there. But, you know, 62 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:05,840 as we all know, down payments have been getting, you know, as a percentage, because homes have been 63 00:06:05,840 --> 00:06:11,120 going up in value, they're becoming a lot larger and a lot more out of reach or out of reach for 64 00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:16,880 more of us. So this is potentially a tool to really kind of help somebody really get that, 65 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:21,280 you know, that down payment together faster than they normally would have. Because you're kind of 66 00:06:21,280 --> 00:06:24,560 running, you're kind of running against that, when it comes to real estate, you're running against 67 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:29,920 that, you know, that timeline, right? So you go to your bank and like, hey, you know, you need to 68 00:06:29,920 --> 00:06:35,600 save like 40,000 for a down payment. It takes you like, you know, two years to do that, or however 69 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:39,520 long it takes you and you go back to the hey, I saved 40,000. He's like, well, actually, it's like 70 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:46,000 80 now. I feel like those goal posts are being moved on us all the time. And so this is kind of 71 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:52,640 a way to really, really kind of leap or jumper. And the creative part or the thought process of 72 00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:58,880 what I feel like you guys are doing is doing it now, right? Let's not wait till everything 73 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:04,880 increases. And now you don't really have the money or even the thought or the want or the desire to 74 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:11,600 actually investing yourself financially. And so doing it now making it so much easier would 75 00:07:11,600 --> 00:07:19,360 would definitely be something that people could actually buy in on, right? So when with this 76 00:07:20,240 --> 00:07:24,880 new process that you guys have, or the things that you guys are discussing, is it something that they 77 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:31,280 can actually take out of or they want to you want to keep it in for a time period? So it is designed 78 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:37,760 for the money to be in there long term, right? It is designed for, you know, 510 1520 30 or 40 years, 79 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:42,320 right? And that's where it really starts yielding those fruits. It's like anything with, you know, 80 00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:47,680 we're not doing anything supernatural. We're not like buying anything crazy. It is just buying the 81 00:07:47,680 --> 00:07:52,400 market and it takes time for it to do it. But what we're really helping with, you know, our customers 82 00:07:52,400 --> 00:07:56,480 young, they have lots of time in market, what we're helping with is the other component. Those are 83 00:07:56,480 --> 00:08:03,120 the two kind of requirements for compounding growth and return is you have to have that capital in the 84 00:08:03,120 --> 00:08:07,200 market and you have to have that time in market. It's been kind of put that thing together, basically 85 00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:12,640 putting the capital together with our customers time in market. That being said, because we are 86 00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:19,120 buying the S&P 500 and there is a downside protection on it. So essentially, it never drops 87 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:22,800 below that initial amount. So you're never going to find yourself in a situation in which you, 88 00:08:22,800 --> 00:08:26,400 you know, owe more money than you could have. Basically, it can never go below zero. 89 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:34,080 So because of that, we do have that flexibility to roll that customer out as they need be 90 00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:42,160 because it is a liquid asset. So it takes T plus two days now to close, you know, a sale position. 91 00:08:42,160 --> 00:08:48,160 So yeah, we do have the flexibility. However, it's important that our customer knows that 92 00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:54,080 they're not really going to be receiving that much benefit if they do roll out early. This is 93 00:08:54,080 --> 00:08:58,720 really meant to be a long term thing. But we have that, you know, life happens, right, specifically 94 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:04,880 for, you know, our young demographic, things change, shops change, families change. So we do 95 00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:08,880 have that flexibility. That was really important to us to build that into our products while serving 96 00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:16,560 this audience. Absolutely. So how do you, what do you do to intrigue the younger generation to buy 97 00:09:16,560 --> 00:09:24,000 into this and not necessarily by like, co-hears or, you know, tell them that they should. But how, 98 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:29,600 how do you attract that age and you know, that age range, because I think it's a lot harder for 99 00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:35,680 them than it would be for those that are a little bit older. So I think the really interesting 100 00:09:35,680 --> 00:09:39,840 demographic shifts that we're seeing now is you start skewing younger, you're seeing higher 101 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:44,720 percentages of people investing than, you know, previous generations of that same age. So it 102 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:52,800 really is, you know, encouraging more millennials were, you know, investing at 25, then, you know, 103 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:59,680 was that Gen X were at that, at that same or Gen Y, Gen X. Yeah, then Gen X were at that same age, 104 00:09:59,680 --> 00:10:06,240 way more, way more Gen Z'ers are investing at 25, the millennials were at 25. And so we're seeing 105 00:10:06,240 --> 00:10:10,560 this kind of shift and that's maybe the proliferation of opportunities to invest. You know, 106 00:10:10,560 --> 00:10:14,720 you've got Robinhood, E-Trade before that, all these different things really got people online. 107 00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:19,600 What we're seeing when we talk with our customers, kind of the focus on it, they're aware of this 108 00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:24,720 problem. They've seen the horror stories, they've read the newspaper articles, they see it on TV, 109 00:10:24,720 --> 00:10:28,640 they have student loans and they see how that's really changing where they can go and what they 110 00:10:28,640 --> 00:10:34,800 can do. So our customer is aware of this problem, acknowledging it and really looking for ways to 111 00:10:34,800 --> 00:10:40,400 solve it. Some of the real big triggers that get somebody to us is maybe they went to their bank 112 00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:46,480 trying to get a mortgage and they weren't able to make it. Or maybe they've been putting 300 bucks 113 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:50,960 a month into a Wealthfront or Betterment Retirement account. And when they track that out to when 114 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:56,000 they're 70 years old, they're not going to have as much money as they need. So they've identified 115 00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:00,480 this as a problem and they're out there looking for a solution that understands those constraints 116 00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:07,040 and helps them into it. Yes. What makes you different from any other financial institution? 117 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:12,880 So I think for me, the ease is the ease of our business model. It shows you exactly who 118 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:17,600 compensates us. That's you. How much you compensate us, you know, and it's always going to be that. 119 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:22,080 I like that simplicity. But really, it's that lump sum of money that we invest on your behalf. 120 00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:27,280 We become this partner in this investment with you. And that's what makes the big difference, right? 121 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:32,960 You know, you can think about it from just using round numbers. Investing $100 today makes more 122 00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:38,320 money in 10 years than investing $10 a year for that same time period, right? It's the same money 123 00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:42,480 in, but it's how you put it in makes a big difference. That's what we basically help you do. 124 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:49,360 We help you be that $100 investor, but on today's $10 budget. Yeah. And that makes all the sense in 125 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:54,720 the world. And interesting enough, you talk about this with ease and passion. And I have to know, 126 00:11:55,760 --> 00:11:56,640 what's your why? 127 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:05,680 This is where I live. I live in this world. I move through this world. I meet so many people. 128 00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:13,600 And I enjoy this more when people are doing well. You can see it. You talk to somebody at the DMV 129 00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:20,080 servicing you or someone sitting next to you on the airplane or someone at your kid's PTA parent. 130 00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:26,320 People deserve to have access to planning. They deserve to be able to take care of themselves. 131 00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:30,640 If you're working a full-time job, there is no reason in this country, the richest country in 132 00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:35,040 the world, that you should have trouble paying for basic necessities, that you should have trouble 133 00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:42,400 doing family planning or saving for retirement. I believe that firmly. And I want to do what I can 134 00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:47,440 to give these tools to these people to do for themselves. And I think that's part of the promise, 135 00:12:47,440 --> 00:12:50,480 at least the promise that was told to me when I was young. And I think the promise that was 136 00:12:50,480 --> 00:12:54,640 told to my parents, my grandparents. And I think that's a promise that we should continue telling 137 00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:59,120 people because that's an aspiration that we should really adhere to. I think it's incredibly 138 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:06,160 important. I think it's what makes us so special and unique is that we give opportunity to everyone. 139 00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:10,960 We give opportunity to the entire populace, give you the tools that you need to do for yourself, 140 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:14,320 plan for yourself, have that resilience and that dignity of being able to plan. 141 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:14,880 Absolutely. 142 00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:22,880 And achieve life's goals. I think the actual investing is less exciting than understanding 143 00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:26,320 the things that people are going to be able to do with their lives, the choices they're going to be 144 00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:30,080 able to make and how that's going to make them feel, how that's going to make their family feel, 145 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:35,760 how that changes the view of the world, the expansiveness of what's possible and what you 146 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:41,600 can do. And I think seeing all these things is, that's my why. I love it. 147 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:48,320 I love it. I love it. I know sometimes it comes as a shock. And you being the co-founder and 148 00:13:49,040 --> 00:13:55,040 the partner you came in with this on, it wasn't just something that happened overnight. 149 00:13:56,880 --> 00:14:00,960 How did you get started to focus strictly on finances? 150 00:14:00,960 --> 00:14:10,320 So I ran a company that was doing social media or brand management, content management, 151 00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:15,200 and then content publishing. And so for about six years I built this company and we were at the 152 00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:21,040 intersection of social media and consumerism. So basically selling people through social media. 153 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:25,440 And this is like, as this really started to take off, I'm looking at this and I'm like, 154 00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:30,640 I absolutely hate social media and I think people buy too much stuff. And I'm right at the intersection 155 00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:35,520 of this. I got to start doing something that I can feel proud of. I got to start doing something that 156 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:40,960 I can feel good about. My friends were starting to have their first round of kids. We kept getting 157 00:14:40,960 --> 00:14:46,560 a bunch of different questions about, what should I be doing? What are some kid specific investments? 158 00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:52,320 So I started a passion project to help parents, first time parents, create 529 college savings 159 00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:57,280 plans and invite their friends and family to contribute. So getting back to that same thing 160 00:14:57,280 --> 00:15:03,120 about how those budgets are a lot tighter, right? Your focus as a new parent, paying off your student 161 00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:08,000 loan, saving for a down payment, getting that emergency fund, that really there's no place in 162 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:12,000 your budget to invest for your child's college savings, but you're paying off your student loans 163 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:16,240 and you don't want them to be doing it. So getting back from that consumerism perspective, 164 00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:20,000 our idea was we're going to make it really easy for you to create these plans and even easier to 165 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:24,160 get your friends and family to contribute. So you can think about your college roommate on the way 166 00:15:24,160 --> 00:15:29,200 to your kid's second birthday, instead of going by target to get them a toy, they put $25 into your 167 00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:33,760 kid's college savings fund. That gets invested 18 years later, it's real money. So kind of 168 00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:38,160 repurposing that consumerism to investing and planning for the future. And now you have this 169 00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:43,360 whole network involved and interested in what your kid's doing. One of my favorite stories is early 170 00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:48,560 on, we had a parent call and he's like, hey, would it be okay if my son put money in his own college 171 00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:53,360 savings fund? I'm like, absolutely. His son wanted to know what his dad wanted for father's day. And 172 00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:57,680 he's like, why don't you put some of your allowance into your college savings fund? And what's 173 00:15:57,680 --> 00:16:02,480 beautiful about this is now this kid knows that his parents are planning on him going to college, 174 00:16:02,480 --> 00:16:07,520 they have a plan for him to go to college. And now he's asking questions about what it's invested in, 175 00:16:07,520 --> 00:16:13,040 how it's going, what the returns are. And so it starts this whole conversation and shows just how 176 00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:18,560 involved this child's family is, friends, and how they're all really focused on this goal and how 177 00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:22,640 we're all planning for it and how finances work. And I don't know, there's a lot of really good 178 00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:25,680 opportunities or a lot of really good things happening there. 179 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:32,560 Yeah. And it's not just about finances. I know that that word, just enough can sometimes bore an 180 00:16:32,560 --> 00:16:38,640 individual, but the way that you're mentioning it and having everyone become involved in that, 181 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:43,600 because truth be told, yes, usually we're often going to Target and I'm not buying a toy, I'm 182 00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:50,560 buying a gift certificate, a gift card, because I don't want to do that. But wow, I mean, you just 183 00:16:50,560 --> 00:16:56,560 taught me something. And then that story, even better that, you know, the child wanted to get 184 00:16:56,560 --> 00:17:04,480 involved. And now I think a lot of us, so I'm just going to say it, I'm 45. In our discussion, I 185 00:17:04,480 --> 00:17:11,840 cannot remember the discussion back when I was a child about how to fund anything. You get what 186 00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:18,240 I'm saying? Like how to fund anything. And to get them started right now, that's a no-brainer, 187 00:17:18,240 --> 00:17:22,560 right? It interests them in getting into college and it says, well, why should I go to college? 188 00:17:22,560 --> 00:17:28,720 It brings up a whole plethora of questions that now the family dynamics can have instead of the 189 00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:32,640 world having. So I love that story. It starts that conversation. 190 00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:37,200 I don't know how that got started in America that we don't talk about money or that we don't share. 191 00:17:37,200 --> 00:17:42,000 It's such an important thing, you know. We talk so much about the virtues of hard work and really 192 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:47,280 working towards these things. You work so hard to make this money, you need to work hard, a little 193 00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:50,880 bit, you spend a little bit of time on how to make that money work for you. I think it's a really 194 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:56,720 important concept and maybe one that we should have spent, I think, a lot more time in society 195 00:17:56,720 --> 00:18:01,200 teaching people about this. Absolutely. And just a little bit of information, 196 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:06,080 and just a little bit in how I can share and relate to this story is I was just speaking with 197 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:12,480 my husband and I was talking about my student loans. And unbeknownst to me, they just came out 198 00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:17,920 of nowhere and now I'm delinquent. And this was many, many, many years ago. And they started taking 199 00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:25,600 my taxes every year for three years to pay off my student loans. And I was like, wow. But if this 200 00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:32,960 conversation would have happened later or earlier on in my life, I think that it would have been so 201 00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:37,280 much easier to eat. If I'm going to get the student loans, figure out how to pay it, right? 202 00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:42,640 I can come out of that fund. Or like you said, I believe on your website, it talks about crowd 203 00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:47,760 funding. And I want to ask you a little bit about that. Is the crowd funding and actually people 204 00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:53,920 having input into your education, and not only that, just like you said, they want houses, they 205 00:18:53,920 --> 00:19:01,200 want things. But when the world begins to change and money starts, you need more of it, we're not 206 00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:07,440 going to have that same amount of money then that we have right now. So when it comes to crowd funding, 207 00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:12,400 is that how, what's the idea of crowd funding and having your family be a part of that? 208 00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:18,560 So that's what we really focus on for the college savings plans. We want our young parents to be 209 00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:25,440 focusing on their financial needs, but basically giving permission to their friends and family 210 00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:31,760 to be investing in their child's college savings fund. Because you look at the stack of priorities 211 00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:37,440 that, just like a basic rule of thumb, your first priority is you've got to have that emergency fund. 212 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:42,960 Then you've got to start thinking about your retirement account, or if you have high interest 213 00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:47,760 bearing debt, really paying that down, getting that retirement thing organized. Then you have maybe 214 00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:53,920 your down payment for a house if you're doing that, or investing something basic like the S&P 500. 215 00:19:53,920 --> 00:19:58,640 And then the bottom of that stack, if you have kids, is saving for college. And that's where it 216 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:04,320 should belong. You've got to handle these more immediate things. It behooves you to really focus 217 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:10,800 on those rather than investing for an expense you may or may not have in 18 years. And an expense 218 00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:18,960 that there actually is, albeit flawed in some ways, there is this whole financial vehicle called the 219 00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:24,880 student loan to solve this problem. There's no loan like that for retirement. And so that is the 220 00:20:24,880 --> 00:20:29,600 right way of thinking about it. But as we all know, if you don't have money in there growing, 221 00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:33,920 you're going to miss out on that growth opportunity. And so essentially what we're saying is 222 00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:39,280 you do what you're doing, get your stuff in order, but give permission to your friends and family to 223 00:20:39,280 --> 00:20:45,440 refocus their support and effort and money from buying something from Target or whatever. Set up 224 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:52,560 a recurring contribution. Every year on my kid's birthday, my grandma puts money into that account. 225 00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:58,000 That money gets invested and that happens for 18 years. And 18 years later, that's real money. 226 00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:03,120 Meanwhile, all of my college friends across the entire country, that's what they do. 227 00:21:03,120 --> 00:21:09,280 And so it's a really cool way to celebrate. It's a really cool way to have this community. When my 228 00:21:09,280 --> 00:21:14,640 kids go to college, a portion of that will be paid for by my friends and family. I mean, 229 00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:22,800 think about that. That's the very virtue of how it takes a village to raise a group. And honestly, 230 00:21:23,760 --> 00:21:26,320 it's so much easier than having to go to Target. 231 00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:31,440 I'm telling you, Wesley, I'm telling you, I'll go into Target, end up buying myself something before 232 00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:37,520 I want to buy a kid something. And I have four of them. So I know what it feels like. So I'm just 233 00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:44,960 like, yeah, and I'm with you. I see the passion, but I first see the knowledge that you have behind 234 00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:49,680 it and then the passion in it. And I tell you, I have a whole discussion for my own husband when 235 00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:55,440 I get off like, hey, babe, this is what's going to happen. So I'm like, hey, babe, this is what's 236 00:21:55,440 --> 00:22:01,920 going to happen. So I do want to be aware of your time. If you wouldn't mind leaving me with just 237 00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:07,520 two tips for someone who will begin their financial journey. 238 00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:15,120 Absolute number one paramount is just begin, get started, start learning about things, you know, 239 00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:21,440 listen to some podcasts, educate, start playing around with things, start taking action. You can 240 00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:26,400 do it in a small way to see how you feel about it, how to be comfortable. But really, you just 241 00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:32,160 got to get started. And I promise you, this is really, really simple stuff. There's a lot of 242 00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:37,600 vocabulary that's going to make it seem like it isn't. These are all basic concepts. I think 243 00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:42,880 everybody can get a handle on their finances. And, you know, maybe it's a little boring, but 244 00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:48,800 we can all do this. And it's an important thing, you know, just get started, make sure that, you 245 00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:52,400 know, you're working hard as you're working to make that money. You're spending a little bit of time 246 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:57,440 figuring out how to make that money work for you. Absolutely. And I thank you so much, Wesley, for 247 00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:01,840 choosing to be with me today. Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to 248 00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:07,440 Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move 249 00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:11,600 forward. This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll 250 00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:15,680 invite people to participate in the show. And thank you for giving us your time and attention. 251 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:20,960 Time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.