“Wants & Needs: Looking Beyond The Numbers When Investing” with Jennifer Sahady of Master Money

Jennifer (10s):
Thank you so much, Jonathan. It’s a pleasure to meet you.

Jonathan (12s):
Excellent. Jennifer is the CEO of Master Money. Tell us a little bit about your organization or refresh our listeners minds as to what you do. And let’s talk about what it is that you do in basis.

Jennifer (22s):
Thank you so much. So my company is a consulting company that focuses on what I think is missing in the financial world. We have some amazing financial advisors that will manage money for you. There are very few people who will teach you how to do it yourself, or help fill some of the gaps in knowledge that we’re slowly, beginning to see come into our schools, but definitely we’re in schools when you and I went to school.

Jonathan (46s):
Well, when I went to school, we had to have something called an Abacus, which you probably don’t remember. There you go. So tell us a little bit, when you talk about managing your money, you’re talking about personal investing, you’re talking about personal finance, give us sort of the picture of what the breadth of the services you offer are.

Jennifer (1m 5s):
Yeah, absolutely. It’s talking about personal finance and it goes well beyond the numbers, because number one, the enormous can be a little dry and boring. And number two, there’s so much more to it than numbers because we are humans. We have feelings and emotions. We are logical sometimes, but other times we act on what we want, our desires, our impulses, and much of finance and investing. Doesn’t take that into account. It cheats us all like we’re computers and a Comicons and we’re simply not for real human beings. And that to me is a huge difference in my approach from many others.

Jonathan (1m 40s):
Wow. That’s fascinating because you sound like my mantra in my family, which is wants and needs separating between the two, but, you know, sort of taking the emotional piece of investment and purchase decisions and trying to see 20 somethings that, you know, the money has to go to the end of the month. Therefore you have to separate between wants and needs. So, so tell us a little bit about your clients that you work with. I know that you work extensively with women, but not exclusively, is that correct? So tell us what you see sometimes between the genders. And, you know, I know that people in general are getting married later in life. And so they probably have to navigate much of their twenties and often their thirties on their own make decisions.

Jonathan (2m 22s):
So, so tell us what you say.

Jennifer (2m 24s):
Absolutely. So one of the things I wanted to mention, it was funny because it was something you had said was that this isn’t just for 20 year olds and this isn’t just for women, it’s for everyone. So I’ve helped people all the way into their eighties because the sooner you learn this the better, but generally whatever day you learn, it is a good day because you know something now that you didn’t know before. And one of those things with wants and needs is understanding. It’s okay to want things, right? I’m not part of the fire movement. I’m not going to tell you that you should live in a cardboard box and save all your pennies. Like you should life, you should want things, but you should be really intentional. We’re intentional about how we spend our time.

Jennifer (3m 5s):
We’re not as intentional about how we spend our money. So that’s where I focus. I hope individuals of every age I help couples. And yeah, I do often focus on women because many times, and this is something I’m so excited to share with you today. Women think I’m not good at this, or men are better at this, or maybe secretly, this is the one thing that I know I can just outsource and not have to think about, but really women benefit a lot when they come to the table and think about money and think about financial planning and spending plans and really figuring out how to align their money with their goals and their dreams.

Jonathan (3m 43s):
It’s really interesting because so few people I think are sort of oriented around this notion of getting comfortable around finances. And I think you mentioned it earlier. There’s so few opportunities from an educational perspective, you know, I can remember one of my kids, I think taking a personal finance class in high school, but it wasn’t mandatory. And how many people end up becoming adults and have zero basis for, you know, an understanding, oh, my parents may have taught me or my grandmother taught me. And it seems so in this country. And I, you know, I’d be curious if you have insight into globally, whether we, as, as Americans really have this sort of like taboo against talking about finances and really learning about it.

Jonathan (4m 25s):
And you know, most people I think are thrust into it and, and the culture in this country is so pervasive around the spending culture. You know, you’re inundated, as soon as you graduate high school with credit card offers and most people don’t know how to manage a personal debt. And so it’s almost like we’re starting off at a disadvantage because you know, it’s very easy to fall off that cliff really early on. People are often your credit. Most people don’t even know what credit means, you know, and I think today’s, at least this generation has been oriented around debit cards. You know, it was just like this call it fast satisfaction. So I wonder how all that plays into sort of your learning, your teachings and, and people have how challenging it is to break those cycles that are often ingrained from such an early age to be consumer oriented.

Jennifer (5m 16s):
You touched on so many relevant and valuable topics there. Jonathan, I’m going to try to, to speak to as many of them as I can remember, because when I was listening to you, I thought, wow, this conversation could last all day. I am here. I will have to move inside eventually. So I don’t Mel, but yes, I’m in. So one of the things you mentioned is yes, in high schools, they are finally starting to have this. It’s optional being a consumer. Isn’t optional. Like you need to buy, you need to consume credit cards are part of daily life. So to me, as, as the schools begin to make this essential, that’s going to be a huge help, but it only help the coming generations and not the bulk of the population who has already graduated and has made some mistakes, has made some decisions and needs to unlearn and relearn, which is a lot harder.

Jennifer (6m 9s):
But simultaneously I am pushing to help get more of this in schools, working with schools and summer programs, Rhode Island just passed mandatory financial education as a law and oh,

Jonathan (6m 21s):
Wow. Really progressive, very progressive. Wow. That’s incredible.

Jennifer (6m 24s):
Most progressive, the six most progressive states in the country. So they just, they were behind Massachusetts until recently. And then they scooted ahead. And that brings you to the global perspective. And you’re right. We have a different perspective here. We are very much based on capitalism and buying things. And that is great for our economy, keeps us as a really strong company as a really strong country individually. That could be difficult. I’m guessing people like you and definitely people like me. We’re not good customers for credit card companies. I, the ideal customer doesn’t pay their balance and fallen yet. That is what I recommend each. And every one of you do, right by things with the money, you already have use the credit card points and all the benefits and try not to be one of those people paying extra by paying interest every month.

Jennifer (7m 15s):
But you’re right. That requires unlearning a little bit and practicing things a little bit differently. And that takes work. Especially if, as you mentioned, people getting married later, you’re married and you have different philosophies from your spouse or other people in your household when it comes to those things. And the family unit is really important right? Now, many people say personal finance that should be taught in the home, which is really sneaky because that limits you to the knowledge of your immediate circle. And doesn’t allow you to really grow beyond that. And I think every parent I’ve ever spoke to says, I want better for my children, right? And that’s the beauty of having children and raising the next generation is that you want them to have a better life than you have, which requires maybe some experiences you didn’t have, which is why education is so essential.

Jonathan (8m 6s):
Yeah. It’s critical and you know, overlay a pandemic and, and, and probably you you’ve been charged with telling people it’s not a great idea to take four weeks of your pay. One 12th of yearnings and invested in toilet paper. That’s probably, you know, nothing that no offense to P and G, but they don’t need your cashflow that badly. And I think that’s where we, we’ve sort of, you know, the default mechanism is panic and, you know, purchase, purchase purchase. And I think, you know, the interesting exercise, if you had all of your clients, go through their houses and find out what exists in your house that you really don’t need, you know, and you add it all up and you go, wow. You know, I could have been a year closer to retirement or whatever that goal is.

Jonathan (8m 46s):
And I think that’s a, I would imagine for you too, again, you said your clients are all over the spectrum, but you know, in your twenties, retirement seems so far. And you know, most people don’t really start it. And you know, I’ve looked at studies thinking about retirement until they get beyond the child rearing and growing years. And so we’ve got these people that are starting off at a real disadvantage, not investing until their forties and fifties for retirement. And it’s almost impossible to catch up those 20 years. Whereas that message of start early, be consistent and put stuff away for that rainy day, because you’re gonna want it at some point. And, and it’s amazing how quickly the power of compounding interest or calm planting returns grows over time.

Jonathan (9m 33s):
So really fascinating. Tell us a little bit about how people typically engage with you. How do your clients work with you? Is it a program basis? Is it ad hoc? All of the above?

Jennifer (9m 44s):
Absolutely. So as a consulting agency, I have the ability to be flexible. I was nodding my head a lot on your discussion about retirement planning. I came from that field and that’s what, why I did what I did and started this consultancy. Because oftentimes you have people saying, you have to focus on retirement, but if you don’t have financial stability today, if you don’t have a plan for this year, the next three years, the next five years, retirement will always be that distant dream. So really you need something in between the two to figure out, yes, you have to save for retirement, but also you need to save an emergency fund and you need to save an accounts that are more flexible than a 401k because that money is set for after 60.

Jennifer (10m 27s):
And that’s good because you will need money after 60, you will likely need 20 or 30 years of income after 60, which is amazing, but something you need to plan for. So people engage with me in one of two ways, either their company or their school works with me. So they bring me in as a speaker to do workshops and to work with people where we do a general lesson, it could be on spending plans. It could be on the hidden costs of home ownership. It could be on why women are amazing investors, right? And then I can work with all of those people as a group, and then individually to really begin to apply the information that they have, because it’s not just about learning.

Jennifer (11m 7s):
It’s about using what we’ve learned. That is really, really critical. And I do work with individuals, people who say, you know what? I spend money on vacations. I spend money on college. It’s about time to spend money on something that will actually make me money and improve my standard of living.

Jonathan (11m 24s):
Good stuff. Jennifer of master money. I apologize. People want to get in touch with you want to learn more about how to work with you. What’s the best way for them to reach you?

Jennifer (11m 35s):
Absolutely. So my name is Jennifer Hattie. The last name is spelled S a H a D Y. And if you can spell that, you can find me anywhere. My website is Jennifer’s Jennifer hattie.com. My email is Jennifer at Jennifer’s to hattie.com and you can find me on LinkedIn as well. I respond all of those daily

Jonathan (11m 55s):
Jennifer Sahady CEO of Master Money. It’s been a pleasure having you on Radio Entrepreneurs again, and maybe next time we’ll have you actually walk us through a lesson plan and, and give us a tutorial on how things work. So it’s been a real pleasure having you on Radio Entrepreneurs again, and enjoy the beautiful summer weather out there.

Jennifer (12m 13s):
Thank you so much. Have a great day.

Jonathan (12m 15s):
And we’ll be right back with another segment on Radio Entrepreneurs.