73. Holly Morphew Makes A Financial Impact

This week I speak to Holly Morphew, award-winning financial coach and founder of Financial Impact, the company helping people create wealth and feel confident when it comes to money.

Holly and I discuss the fear around money and how to change this, building wealth by plugging spending leaks and maximising your income, and how behaviour around money is far more significant than strategy. She also offers some great advice to younger generations about not being afraid to live frugally while you build some solid foundations for your future.

Holly has such a lovely, vibrant and positive way about her and I really enjoyed speaking to her.

Listen now by click on your preferred podcast platform above.

Episode Transcript

0:05
Hello, and welcome to the real money stories podcast. I'm Jason Butler. And I invite you to join me as I have intimate money conversations with people from all walks of life. Whether you're just starting out on your money journey, or well down the track, there's bound to be something you can learn from these stories about taking more control of your money, so you worry less and enjoy life more. Real Money stories is sponsored by Vanguard, bringing value to 30 million investors worldwide. Visit Vanguard investor.co.uk for more details. And remember, the value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest in. Hello, and welcome to this week's real money stories podcast. This week, I've got an action packed episode for you. Because I talk about international Woman's Day and the issue of wealth inequality. I highlight the unsung hero of controlling your day to day spending my answer listeners money question on ISIS. And we have a fabulous interview with us financial coach, author and speaker, Holly morphew. So International Women's Day is on Monday, the eighth of March, which is the day I'm recording this podcast. Now there been several reports out to coincide with international Woman's Day highlighting the fact that many women will accumulate a lot less wealth than men. Now, there are lots of reasons for this. Obviously timeout having and raising children that reduces your ability to earn falling behind on experience and skills. If you are having time out caring for children or elderly relatives. Often being less prepared to ask for what they're worth, I've certainly experienced that when, over the years when I've worked with women who don't seem to be all of them seem to be as vocal as their male counterparts of asking for a pay rise or asking for a bonus or asking for better conditions. And often much less represented in in leadership positions. And of course, leadership positions is where most of the higher incomes are. But as well as many women, this wealth inequality, this income inequality applies to lots of other groups, you got white working class boys, you've got certain ethnic minorities, but not all, and those with mental or physical disabilities. So it's a problem for different groups. But in relation to women, it's a subject close to my heart, because I've got two daughters, 17 and 22. And I've always said a man is not a plan, I've always been very keen for them to be financially independent. So I've done what I can to teach them good money skills, I've given them a great education. And I've saved money to give them a start in life so that they can be debt free. But for most people getting ahead financially is is a mixture of things. And so if you are someone who if you're a woman, or you're in a group where you're feeling, you know, perhaps you are going to potentially be disadvantaged, just think about this. These are the ways that you can get away, get ahead financially, so you need to maximize income and diversify income sources.

Minimize life costs. Obviously, lifestyle cost is very important if you can live lean for a while, avoid debt at all costs, unless perhaps is to buy a house, saving and investing at least 15% of the household income. That's what we teach in the money, milestones, and sensible exposure to global equities, probably via a low cost index fund, and owning direct physical property, making use of all available tax breaks and getting free money, like government bonuses and employer pension contributions. But more importantly, taking a very long term view and being very patient. I tell the story all the time of Sarah and anneal. Sarah saved two and a half 1000 pounds every year and invested it from the age of 20 to 30 and then stopped and never invested any more money. And Neil never invested or saved any money until he was 30. He then saved two and a half 1000 pounds from the age of 30 to the age of 70. So that's 100,000. So he say four times as much as Sarah, but he ended up with 19,000 pounds less than Sarah, assuming they got the same investment return. So it's pretty straightforward. Those early investments that you can make will make the biggest difference. So check out the eight money milestones on my website, which is Jason hyphen Butler comm you can download that and that will just give you that framework. Okay, let's talk about the unsung hero of controlling your spending now. My 30 years of study and money and my own real life experience has taught me that it doesn't matter how much money you earn. It matters only what you keep and what you do with it. So that's why I developed and I teach people the smart spending system. And part of this system is to use what I call the smoothing account. Now this is where you park money each month to meet irregular but inevitable expenses like your car service holidays, home maintenance. Now, don't confuse the smoothing account. With the emergency fund, the emergency fund is solely for unexpected costs, or a sudden dropping income. So you know, you get made redundant or you're ill, or the boiler breaks down. So the way the smoothing account works is like this, let's say you spend 2400 pounds on your annual summer holiday, you therefore need to include in your spending plan, a monthly allowance of 200 pounds under the fun new category, right, so you don't have to spend it, but it's what you want to spend, because it makes life interesting. And each month basically, starting 12 months before you need the money, you'd therefore have to put 200 pounds into the smoothing account, so you'd have that money to pay for the holiday next year. The same thing applies for something like a car servicing and rotax. So if that costs you say 480 pound per annum every June, you'd may need to make 40 pounds a month allowance in your spending plan and put that 40 pounds in the smoothing account each month starting in July for the next 12 months. So the smoothing account in your smart spending plan enables you to really get to grips with your spending by storing or what we call aging your money. So they always have the money that you need. And you never have to take on that or interact regular savings, or pull on long term investments, possibly when markets might be down. So you can download the smart spending system from our website, Jason hyphen, butler.com. And that will help you get ahead. So the smoothing account well worth looking at, and understanding smoothing out those irregular, but inevitable spending that you need to take on. Okay, now, money question I receive a lot of questions from readers and listeners about money. And I thought this week's one about ISIS was very interesting. So I'll share it with you. This is the actual question. This is from Karen. I'm looking at whether I should go for lifetime eisah or restart savings into my Help to Buy eisah in which I have very little saved. The purpose of the account will be to save toward buying my first property in the next couple of years. I know you can save a larger amount into the Lysa lifetime I say each year and get a higher faster bonus from this. So I wanted to know if you had any suggestions on why I should consider otherwise. And that's a good question. This is obviously for people in the UK. lifetime. ICER is where you can save up to 4000 pounds, and the government gives you a bonus of 25% of that or up to 1000 pounds. And as long as you use it either to provide you with retirement benefits from the age of 60. Or you use the monies to buy your first property and the property's valued at less than 450,000 pounds, then you can keep all that

the Help to Buy ICER is no longer available since 2019. But existing accounts can be opened. And with the help to buy eisah you don't get a bonus added as you invest. But you can take your money out at any time. And what happens is if you use that money to buy your first home, then basically the government allowed a bonus of 25%. So you get the bonus when you come to use it. So this is my answer. I said if you can save more than 200 pounds per month, which is the maximum you can save into a Help to Buy ICER. And you're pretty sure that you will use the amount save to buy a house of less than 450,000 pounds, then the lifetime ICER makes more sense than the Help to Buy ICER. But if you can only save 200 pounds per month, or there is a high chance that you might need to use the money for something other than a house purchase in the next three to five years, then it might be better to save into the Help to Buy ICER and then the access into a cash ICER or a non ICER savings account if the interest rate is higher. And that's because from the sixth of April this year, the lifetime ICER imposes a withdrawal penalty of 25% of the amount withdrawn. So that means you'd lose money, assuming you disregarded any investment returns. For example, say you invested the maximum of 4000 pounds into a lifetime eisah. And you've got the government bonus of 1000 pounds that would make your life so worth 5000 pounds. So put aside any investment returns because we're going to assume you hold this in cash. If you cashed it in and didn't use it to buy a house with a mortgage, then the 25% withdrawal penalty would mean you'd only get back 3750 pounds because 25% of 5000 is 1250. That's a loss of 6.25%. That does not make sense. If you do use our Leiser put the money into a cash type account because you can't take the risk of stock markets falling. Given the very short timeframe. It's well worth remembering that he took over 10 years for stock markets to recover from the crash in 1973 74. in real terms, in nominal terms, they fell about 60% over two years, so bear that in mind. But also just as important as building up a decent deposit is making sure that you minimize your lifestyle costs as that will affect your ability to get a competitive mortgage and also do your homework well before You decide to buy so that you know what properties are actually selling for. And you can do that. And you can find that information out on all the main property portals. And when you do come to buy, make offers or 15%. Below the selling, not the asking price on plenty of properties until you find a motivated seller. Anyone can pay top dollar, your job is to be patient prepared, and unemotional about the deal. I've written a blog a few weeks ago about that about the the truth of renting versus buying on my website at Jason knife and Butler calm which will give you a bit more of a framework there. Okay, that's enough for me. Now, let's get on to this week's interview. This week, I speak to an amazing lady who is a money coach, author and speaker who wants money to serve you well, so you can live your best life. Let's welcome Holly Morphew.

Hello, Holly.

10:58
Hello.

11:00
Now you're in Colorado right now. Is that right? Yes. And it's cold there as well. And it's cold, cold.

11:06
It's cold and snowy?

11:07
Good stuff. But we got sun shone on our hearts. That's what you would say right when it's cold. So that's my saying of the world. Holly, thanks for joining us. Now, I know obviously, I really, really want to hear about, you've got a new book out, which is really interesting, simple wealth, which is called Simple. Yeah, sounds good. But we forget today, can you just tell us kind of basically what you do now overall, as well as write books? Yeah, yes.

11:33
Thank you. So good to be here, Jason. I am a financial coach and accredited financial counselor. And I'm the CEO and founder of a company called financial impact. And we help professionals and entrepreneurs create personal wealth and financial independence.

11:50
What's not to like? Love it already. So. Okay, and that's interesting. I know you're a sought after speaker? And is the book out now, when's that coming out? How can people get hold of that?

11:59
Yes, the book was published last week. And it debuted at number one and nine out of 10 categories.

12:06
Unbelievable, you're doing something right? I've got to get a copy.

12:09
It's amazing. And it just tells me that we need a new way to talk about money. I mean, some of the categories were money management, personal finance, wealth management, retirement, but also women in business, personal transformation, credit repair. So there are so many different categories around money. And it is really exciting because it's not just a, you know, step one, save your money. Step two, invest your money. There's so much more I always say building wealth is 20% strategy, and 80% psychological

12:45
behavior. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Gonna be. Let's go back a little bit, because I'm really interested to know how you ended up where you are now. So what Where did you grow up? And you know, what was it like growing up with money? And what sort of family situation did you have?

13:00
Yeah, so I grew up in Texas, until I was 13. And then my family moved to Colorado. And I come from a family of entrepreneurs and real estate investors. So talking about money was was common for us, we would sit around the dinner table and talk about properties my parents were looking at, and you know, my my father's business. And it wasn't until I got to I had just graduated from college. I bought a house when I was 25 years old. And I thought, wow, this is really amazing. For me, I had a friend who came and lived with me, I didn't charge her a lot for rent, it was good for her. It was good for me because she was helping me pay my mortgage. And I thought, you know, why aren't more of my friends buying houses. And so as I started to really dive into that, what I discovered is, we don't teach money management in school, we don't teach new workers how to build wealth with their paycheck. And so I thought everyone wasn't as informed as I was when it came to money. And so at that time, you know, I was just starting my career, and I didn't plan to become a financial coach, I just sort of I love talking about money and abundance. And I really believe that, that wealth is simple. Money is simple. It's just a matter of getting the framework for it. So I pitched this idea to my Rotary Club Rotary International, which is a service organization. I said, Hey, why don't I go to local high schools, and teach kids who are getting ready to graduate, how to manage their money because it's so much easier when you get started on the right foot. And so I started doing this workshop and it was just a complete success. I had parents of my kids and teachers coming to sit in on these money workshops.

Yeah,

and I thought, Man, okay, so it's not just, you know, kids, young adults that need this information. Everyone wants to Know how to empower themselves around this very taboo topic of money. And so, you know, I just I turned it into a business and started teaching these workshops to everyone and I kind of did it alongside my full time job. And then in 2016, I decided to make it a career and really start a business. And and here I am today doing this full time. And and it's it's really exciting. It's really exciting because money can be fun, money can feel good. It's just a matter of having the right framework.

15:36
Well, interesting. Sounds interesting. But let's just go back, I'm not gonna let you look that quickly, though, I want to go right back to that family situation. We were a family of entrepreneurs, we were real estate, Mom and Dad, everyone we spoke about it was no big problem. How important? Do you think that just talking about it? And more importantly, doing positive things to improve your law? How important do you think that was to your healthy relationship with money that you developed?

16:00
Well, I think it takes the fear out of it. You know, we are living in a world where we are sort of fed a lot of messages that make us think that we need things that we don't necessarily need. And it what I think the thing that I learned most of all, from my parents was to have an agenda for myself, to know where it is that I want to go, because my definition of financial success is probably very different than yours, Jason's probably very different than, than the listeners that that are that are hearing this message right now, we, some people might want to live on a beach. And you know, spending isn't a big thing for them. It's just about the peace and the quality of life and other people like myself, I want to travel the world. And you know, financial independence for me, is going to cost way more money than that person who just wants to live a simple life on the beach, or retire and read books and garden versus retire. And again, you know, travel all over. So knowing where we want to go. And what it is that we truly value. Because on the other side of money and personal wealth, is this life that we want to live is the potential that we're all trying to realize. And I think when we can filter out all of that noise in the world that saying you need this, be afraid of this and really just put our core values at the forefront of our mind, it makes the money piece a lot easier. Because every day we're out there making spending decisions. And when we can kind of align those decisions with our personal life vision where it is that we want to go, it makes the process of creating personal wealth a lot easier.

17:49
Yeah. And I like the idea that we are talking about there really is all different ways that people can describe that you said having no agenda. Other people might say no, your why other people might say I understand your values, or what matters to you. Others might say, what, what, how you envisage or rather what you do want, and also what you don't want in your life. And I think you're absolutely right there is that because people have a hazy idea of what good looks like, or they think it's so far away that it's not really important now that they get crowded out by marketing messages, feelings of insecurity, and haziness, that then they end up somewhere else, because they didn't know where they wanted to go.

18:27
Yes, and I have a friend who the other day she was telling me I'm you know, I'm on a savings plan, because I want to go to Milan. And I think I had invited her for coffee or something like that. And I know that we always go back to the $5 a day cup of coffee, but it really is a great example of how we do have leaks in our spending. And when we shore up those leaks, we have a lot more power and confidence when it comes to our money. And she said, You know what, Holly, I'd rather have a latte in Milan. And I was like, Oh, that's smart. I like that idea. So I you know, I think it's it's about perspective, and when we can connect the the future that we want for ourselves, in the present moment when we are challenged, you know, we're hungry at 5pm when we're coming home from work, and we hear that ad for, you know, a hamburger, or whatever it is. That's where we're gonna go toward and so when we can kind of like reel that in and say, No, no, no, I'm going to go home and make the dinner that I had planned for myself so that I can take the vacation with my family that we plan to do at the beginning of the year.

19:31
Now I'm interested to know, was there a time in your life when you you made a decision, or you did something that turns out not to have been the right thing in the end and you had to recover from it? And secondly, if you did, what did you do to get back on track and repair your sort of sense of self worth and feelings of confidence?

19:51
Yeah, you know, I am so far from perfect when it comes from money and I actually started on this path. You Yes, because I was passionate and excited about helping others understand money. But I also had my own journey with debt. In fact, when I was in my 20s, as I said earlier, I was just so focused on achievement and, you know, becoming successful. And I, I reached a point where I had the house and I had the car and I had, you know, the lifestyle. But I was working 70 hours a week, and I was a commission only employee. And so I started to feel this, this squeeze in this pinch with my money, like I had an idea of what was flowing into my accounts. And I had an idea of what was leaving my accounts, but I never actually wrote it down. And so one day, I realized, if I don't get a paycheck, I'm not going to be able to pay my mortgage. And then as I thought that forward, I thought, Oh, I'm actually living in a in the metaphorical House of Cards, like I could lose my house, I could lose my car if I don't get paid. And we had this giant snowstorm in Colorado. And, and I was driving this front wheel drive Honda Accord, and my job was 40 miles away, and I knew it was a risk to get on the highway. And so I called my boss and she said, If you don't come in, you're fired. And I said, Okay, well, so I, I drove to work. And thank goodness, I made it. Of course, I didn't have any prospects to sell to. And so it was, it was really disheartening that day, as I sat in my office for, you know, eight or nine hours thinking about what am I going to do? And I realized a, I had risked my life for my job. And B, I needed to really look at my money and figure out like, what is it that I'm striving so hard to achieve in life? And so I went home, and I got out my credit card statements. And I actually wrote down all of my balances. And it turned out I had $67,000. in credit card debt.

22:05
Yes. Well, that just crept up on you like a sort of like, seriously? Well,

22:09
yeah, it did. It did creep up and debt does creep up, you know. But I will say that the the beginning of my credit card debt happened because I was diagnosed with a chronic illness when I was only 20 years old. And I was like many young people in complete denial. And I just thought, you know what, I can deal with this, I don't need to worry. And so I graduated from college, I moved to the east coast with my friends got a great job, and really just sort of ignored my health. And then when I got really, really sick, I learned that my health insurance didn't cover my medication, which was $5,000 a month, you're choking. And here I was an entry level employee, just trying to pay my bills. And I just had a mountain of debt that was just growing and growing. And I actually remember handing my credit card to a cashier one night as I was walking home from my office. And, and she said to me, honey, you know, this isn't covered by your health insurance, right? And I just looked at her and I just I felt a tear. Slide down my cheek. And I was like, Yeah, I know, but it's my life, or it's the prescriptions. And so on the one hand, I'm very thankful that I had the credit, you know, because I do believe debt is a tool just like money is a tool. It's all about how you look at it and how you use it. And so I decided to move home and live with my parents after that, because I needed to be nurtured. And I wanted to find a different way. And so that was in really my mid 20s. And this moment, the day of the snowstorms, wasn't until my late 20s. And that's when I really started to question things. You know, like I call the day after I found out found out that I had this massive debt, I called my financial advisor. And I asked him, What do I do? How do I get out of this situation? And he asked me how much more money I wanted to invest. And I understand that that's where his mind would go as a financial advisor, but that that didn't solve my problem, because I didn't have any money to invest. I was living paycheck to paycheck. And so I started to study personal finance and how to eliminate debt fast. And I created a system and that's what's in my book, the financial impact system. And it's just you know, it's three steps of you know, how to identify what I call your impact factor, and it's the money that you have leftover after you pay your bills. And when you start to put that little, it can just be a little bit of money. You know, even if it's 100 bucks, you know, maybe it's $1,000, I don't know. But once you put it to its highest and best use, you can start to dig yourself out of the hole. And that's how I did it. So three years later, I was debt free. And then the rest is sort of history, I became financially independent in my 30s.

25:21
So So, so your situation crept up on you for a mixture of things. A large part was in relation to the health deducts at Nandita, you know, deductibles that you couldn't claim that could have happened to anyone. And and some possibly some, if I can use this term, perhaps some slightly myopic or delusional living, where you didn't sort of you didn't attend to the other things, because you because I'm worth it. Because I'm having this pain over here. I've got these problems. Okay. So your epiphany was what just when you you realize that I'm not, you know, I'm not prepared to put up with this any longer. There's too much pain in my life. And I'm worth more than this. Why do you think some people never get out of that cycle of problems? What do you think holds back? Some people bear in mind all the experience and work you've done now over the years? What is it you think that stops people from having that epiphany and more importantly, doing something about it like you did?

26:13
Well, I think it's hard to be human. You know, I think, you know, I mean, it is hard to look at ourselves. And again, we because we are, we know how to train the brain, for better or for worse, we know how to make ourselves say yes. And we know how to make ourselves say no, and it does come down to a practice, it's very much a practice. And so if, for me, it was a life or death situation, I was either going to get healthy, or I wasn't. And when it came to the debt, I mean, for for those who are facing debt, it can be really scary, because you can get to a point where you get cut off. And for me, I was charging my gas and groceries on a credit card. And that's like, I knew at that time that that was not sustainable. And so, you know, I think that if, if you can look at yourself, and just go a little bit deeper, I mean, what is on the other side of discomfort is everything that you ever wanted. And we we learn that being I say, warm, safe and dry, is the the point of life, but it's not really I mean, having a lot of money isn't the point of life, living in alignment with what you value, in my opinion, is the point of life. So I think if you can, if you can be willing to be uncomfortable just for a little while, like as an example, I am living in a house right now, that is huge. And it's way too big for me, I'm on the house for 15 years. But I have this dream of like, I want a brick house in a historic area of Denver. And it's expensive. What I want is expensive. And so right now I'm living in the basement of my house, it's temporary. Every month I get to because I rent out the top two floors, I get to save money, which is going to go toward my dream. And the first eight months that I lived in this the basement of this house, I didn't have a shower. So when I didn't have guests, I would shower upstairs, but then my house got so busy. So I have a friend who lives two doors down. And literally I would walk to her house just like in a college dorm. And I would shower at her house. And that was Yes, it was uncomfortable. But the payoff in the future is just so much greater than those, you know, that short little walk back and forth every day,

29:01
you're making the point there. It's not just about knowing what you want. And also I would say knowing what you don't want in your life. And being prepared to put put up do something for it. But it's also what are you prepared to sacrifice and this is the bit that people don't like to really focus on, isn't it? And this is not to judge anyone or lecture anyone. But if you're not prepared to sacrifice something here, classic example would be my daughter, who says to me, she doesn't like my digital stuff. She says what if we're going to do that? I can't do that. Which one is more important? And it is that classic trade off of if we want to buy that so we just built a house right? We built a house in our grounds, like you do, you know, like a holiday home, you know, for for my wife to business. And but that that cost quarter million pound of money, right? Well, we don't we don't have that in our life. We don't get involved in that. And so that if I spend a quarter million pounds there, I can't invest that courtroom and empowering some other business over here. Okay, but the point here is that for us, it wasn't just a return It was one I would enjoy doing it and learning a new skill of building a house from scratch, not me physically doing it. But also, it's something my wife wants to do, because she wants to run, she's, you know, do the holiday let's and meet the people and stuff, you know, after COVID. And more importantly, it makes sense financially. So I'm just thinking, from your point of view, do you want to just touch on this issue of sacrifice, and because no one really wants to talk about the pain you have to go through, to get to the other side?

30:26
Yes, and I love how you talk so often about learning Jason, it is learn to me to learn is to live, because when, like discovering who we are, and how we can navigate relationships, and life is so empowering. And it is it is because we live in this physical world, there are sacrifices we make, and you know, just just having a physical body means that we have to take care of it. And, you know, we're, I always say you can have everything that you want, just not all at the same time. And, you know, sacrifice is a part of life. And but it doesn't have to be negative, it can be more of something where, you know, you feel really good about the decisions that you're making today. Because your tomorrow is going to be even better than today. And so I think there can be joy in the like, every night before I go to bed, I always say, you know, the personal practice piece of creating wealth is really important. Every night before I go to bed. And this is only something I've started to do in the past few years, I have a self acknowledgement practice, where I actually acknowledge all of the things that I did well that day, and it doesn't have to be like, you know, I closed a deal or, you know, I made a bunch of money, it can be like, instead of having a Diet Coke, I had a green juice, or I opened the door for someone who couldn't do it for themselves, whatever it is, because that starts to build up our, our confidence. And not only that, it makes you feel good about yourself and acknowledging yourself and, and seeing yourself grow into that person that you want to become. That feels really good. And so the sacrifices, it's like being an athlete, you know, it's like you go to you go to practice, and you work your butt off, and you know, you run sprints, or you lift weights, and it hurts, but then your muscles grow, and you get faster and you start to win games. And it's like, okay, so anything that's worth achieving and working really hard for does require some level of sacrifice, but that doesn't mean that it's negative.

32:51
Yeah, absolutely. And don't losing the shackles or decluttering, or selling off stuff you don't need or reducing. That's all great as well. That's actually a wonderful thing when you start living your life in your own value set and in your own sense of what good looks like, rather than what other people think. Or you're desperately seeking reception. And that comes really down to that kind of how secure you feel as a person. I suppose that's always an issue, isn't it? Now, I just want to sort of just just touch on this idea, because I know you believe that when someone's had a financial trauma or a really bad time in their life, that they can get back on track. And you've got a little tip for how to do that, haven't you? You've got to sort of help people can segue out of what the weeds into the sunny uplands.

33:31
Yeah, yes, the

33:33
sunny uplands. I love that. You know, wealth is it's a spectrum. Because whether you're in a mountain of debt like I was, or you're trying to turn a six figure income into a seven figure income, there's always somewhere to go. And so and just remember that because you're you're the carrot is always going to be moved ahead

33:57
with comfort zones today, no one grows in their comfort zone.

34:01
Right, exactly, exactly. Expansion expansion is really a beautiful thing. And so for anyone who you know, has been through a financial trauma, or even some kind of trauma in life, you know, there's just really two things, just two little things that you can do to get your finances back on track or your life back on track. And the first one I'm going to say and this is not a strategic part of building wealth, but this is the 80% psychology. This is where that whole law of attraction money is infinite abundance is all around us just waiting for us to claim it, which is you know, this is true. I'm practicing this thing is to just return to gratitude.

34:42
Yeah.

34:43
Just remind yourself of what it is that you have that you can be thankful for in this moment, because it's not only that you have these beautiful thoughts that make you feel better, there is actual an actual vibration increase in your body. That starts to attract more of that into your life. So whatever you're facing, just returning to what and knowing what it is you have right now and being thankful for what you have will create more of what you want. So that's number one. And then number two, and this is a strategy piece of building personal wealth is to create awareness, you know, if I hadn't created that awareness when I had the debt, who knows what, what would have happened? And so I say, you know, to anyone just take an hour out of the month, you know, if you only just did this once a month to figure out what is your impact factor, you know, that that money that you have leftover and just look at? What do I have coming in, in the next 30 days? What do I have going out in the next 30 days, and whatever I have leftover, I'm going to put that to its highest and best use, and that's either going to be eliminating debt saving or investing. It's as simple as that.

36:06
And if you think about, if we think, because I've got quite a few listeners who are in their 20s, so they're starting out, and a lot of young people and I understand why they feel like things are stacked against them houses are expensive, jobs are a bit difficult to get earning a good living is harder than it perhaps was many years ago, there aren't the final salary pensions, you know, that etc, etc. But of course, there's also all the wonderfulness of the internet, we can start digital businesses, we can create passive income streams from nothing, you can create intellectual property, how do you how would you help? Or how would you suggest younger people who you know earlier on in their careers, who might be just feeling a little bit overwhelmed that that is out of reach abundance? What would you say to them,

36:50
I would say, first of all, I totally understand where you are, and how you feel. And there, there is a way out of that feeling. And the first thing I would say is, don't be afraid to live lean for a little while, you know, I know that we all want our own apartment, and we want the lifestyle, and you can have all of that you can just maybe not right now. So, you know, get some roommates Don't you know, move in with mom and dad. For some people, that's totally out of the question. And I get that, I get that, but find ways that you can reduce your expenses just for a period of time. And then just like you said, Jason, like money is infinite, we are living in an amazing time. Where if if you have a passion, if you if you have a skill, or if you have some resources to share with other people or the world, there is a way to monetize it. And you do not have to spend a lot of money to start a second income stream. And you can absolutely create more money in your life. By focus like a laser beam focusing for five hours a week, treat it like it's a second job, just give it five hours a week to get started. And and you can create more money in your life, it just takes time. And if it's something that you love doing, and I highly recommend that anything you do for a second, a second stream of income or another stream of income is something that's closely connected to your heart and to your value so that so that you will enjoy the process because making money does require work.

38:36
Well as we say, we're learning all the time. We're always learning we're always adapting one of the things I say to people I teach the smart spending system which is just a mindful way of deciding where your money goes. There's lots of different ways people to talk about it. I called a smart spending because it's what took me from being a complete train wreck in my 20s to being financially independent in my 40s and I will say to people, you will never stop training. You will never stop learning you will never stop that you could call it budgeting I call it smart spending you will never stop being a mindful spender because the day you stop learning the day you stop doing that this the day that you're sunk because something will come along and throw you off course. So look, what do you want to leave us with? Then Holly, um, you've got this amazing book simple wealth. Obviously, everyone should go and buy it. There's no question about that. It's going to go on my list. You know, I have to put stuff on because I'm a book fanatic. I have to buy stuff and put it on my wish list. little tip here for anyone listening. When you are feeling impulsive, I I'm straightaway going to put this on my wish list on my Amazon book list. And then when I'm allowed to buy four more books at the end of the month, this clearly I have to choose out of all the 1516 books I've got and Holly's is going to be one of them, obviously. So what do you want to leave us with is the final kind of little piece of wisdom or financial nugget to send everyone off on their way? Oh yes,

39:50
I would say every day. You are either building wealth or you're not. It doesn't matter how much money you Make, what matters is how much you keep and what you do with it.

40:04
Absolutely. What a superstar. Holly, thank you ever so much for your time. I know you're super, super busy. That book sounds to me like it's gonna change a lot of people's lives. I appreciate you hanging out with me today for the short period of time. And I hope it does really well the book and I hope when I'm next over in the States, I get a chance to come and see you in that lovely Colorado.

40:23
Jason, thank you so much.

40:30
What a lovely lady. I really enjoyed speaking to Holly, she's got such a lovely, vibrant and positive way about her. And she made some great points about money, didn't she? Talking about it and learning about it reduces the fear of money. Plugging spending leaks and putting your income to its highest and best use is the first step to building wealth. She said Didn't she. And she made the point that money is 20% strategy and 80% psychology in other words, behavior. And practicing the right behavior is key to building wealth. But it does take effort and work. And I love her advice to younger people. Don't be afraid to live lean for a while so that you can build good foundations. And she said the Vinci that you can have all that you want in life, just not all at once. And those two simple steps anyone can take to be better with money returned to gratitude for what you have right now. And create awareness about where you spend your money right now. A wonderful lady and I are highly recommend that you buy her new book, simple wealth. So that's another episode in the can. Thanks for joining me. I'll see you again next week. Thanks for listening to real money stories with me Jason Butler. If you like what you hear, please do tell your friends. And more importantly, please rate us on your preferred podcast app, because it really does help us get the message out there. So until next time, good luck with your money journey. Real Money stories is sponsored by Vanguard bringing value to 30 million investors worldwide. Visit Vanguard investor.co.uk for more details. The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invested

Transcribed by https://otter.ai