Ep. 125: Financial Health with Laura D. Adams- Personal Finance Expert, Author, Host of the Money Girl Podcast

On this episode, we are so grateful to be joined by Laura D. Adams to discuss our financial health as we close in on tax season. She is a personal finance expert, author of nine books, and has been the host of the popular “Money Girl Podcast” since 2008. On Health Gig, Laura talks all about her new book, “Money-Smart Solopreneur: A Personal Finance System for Freelancers, Entrepreneurs, and Side-Hustlers”, breaks down retirement savings, investment tips, and advice to younger people looking to manage their finances.

Money-Smart Solopreneur: A Personal Finance System for Freelancers, Entrepreneurs, and Side-Hustlers

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Show Notes

[3:31] I was looking around at a lot of very successful cohorts, people who were C-level executives had multiple masters degrees, very smart, educated people, but they were struggling with their personal finances.
[3:48] You can be really smart, really intelligent, really book smart and suffer when it comes to your personal finances.
[5:04] It's really all about trying to make very complex topics, simple enough for people to feel comfortable kind of diving in and not only taking that information and putting it in their heads, but putting it into action.
[6:02] The idea of money, even just having money, is a little bit intimidating.
[6:17] I view money as a vehicle for freedom. The more that you have, the more you can do for others.
[6:42] It's an area of life that can be very anxiety filled and very worrisome for most people. And I find that if you just give some folks some just clear pointers on prioritizing, let's do this first in what order, that really can clear it up for many people.
[8:22] You do have to be thinking about your future first.
[12:44] I'm OK with debt that can help you grow your wealth.
[14:16] The problem with most types of debt is that it is a downward spiral.
[15:11] Never take out more in student loans than you believe you will reasonably earn the first year after you graduate.
[16:26] You do have to first define what retirement means to you.
[19:48] If you don't know where your money's going, how can you make wise decisions and make changes?
[25:36] For the average person, they really need to be putting their money into stable investments like mutual funds, exchange traded funds, things that mimic the indexes so that as these indexes go up slowly over time, your value of those funds is also going up slowly over time.
[28:42] As you get older, we want to pull back and be a little bit more conservative. We want to preserve the wealth that we have built, not put it at risk as we approach retirement. So the idea is only take enough risk with your money to achieve your goals.
[30:37] The idea is, how can you increase every year? How can I increase my assets or decrease my liabilities or do both at the same time to slowly increase my net worth?
[32:46] Mortgages are so cheap right now, that for most people it's one of the most affordable debts you could ever have.
[35:55] We're not born understanding business or personal finances, right? It is a lifetime of education and curiosity.
Thank you for joining us on Health Gig. We loved having you with us. We hope you'll tune in again next week. In the meantime, be sure to like and subscribe to this podcast, and follow us on healthgigpod.com.

“If you're an adventurous type of person and you've thought about living in a different country, in some cases retirees can find a much higher standard of living [abroad], and they may enjoy that as part of their retirement." - Laura D. Adams
“The idea of money, even just having money, is a little bit intimidating, and some people do think that having money equates to being a bad person. And the reality is I view money as a vehicle for freedom. The more that you have, the more you can do for others." - Laura D. Adams
"Young people don't like to think about [retirement]. But when people see how much growth can be achieved over decades, then they get excited and they say, ‘Wow, you mean if I only put aside a little bit each month, I can actually retire a millionaire?’ And I say, ‘Yes. Very, very easily.’" - Laura D. Adams

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