The Get Ready Money Podcast
The Get Ready! Money Podcast with Tony Steuer features insightful conversations with financial experts who are changing the way we think about money. Listen each week to catch up on the latest financial trends and hear practical advice from Tony and his expert guests aimed at demystifying the complexities of finance, so you can build healthy habits that ACTUALLY work.
Each episode will leave you with tips for implementing small changes that can have a big impact on your financial future. Tony’s podcast is perfect for listeners seeking to get ready, be prepared, and transform their financial future.
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The Get Ready Money Podcast
The Get Ready Money Podcast with Charlene Cong: Why Simplicity Wins With Money
On the latest episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, I spoke with Charlene Cong, CFA, investment coach and founder of FinFit about changing the way we think about money and democratizing financial literacy.
In this episode we discussed:
- Simplicity wins with money.
- Why a long term mindset and consistency are critical for success.
- Investing is for everyone, not just for the rich.
- What is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)?
- The relationship between fitness and finances.
- Start investing as early as possible - invest for your kids (it’s the power of compound interest).
Charlene H. Cong, CFA, is the founder of FinFit GmbH, a finance and investment educator, podcaster, and YouTuber. With over 10 years of experience in the banking industry, including a tenure at JPMorgan Asset Management, she is a Chartered Financial Analyst based in both Hong Kong and Switzerland. Charlene is an Executive Board Member of the Swiss Capital Market Forum.
Connect with Charlene Cong:
Website (website) www.charlenecong.com
FinFit GmbH Website: www.finfitsolution.com
LinkedIn (LinkedIn) https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlenecong/
Instagram (Instagram)
Resources:
Budgeting and Spending Template (free): (here)
Investment Masterclass: (here)
Youtube (here) https://www.youtube.com/@CharleneCong
Podcast:
Charlene’s Podcast (YouTube)
Mentioned on this episode:
The Get Ready Money Podcast: The Power of Compound Interest with Mac Gardner, Derrick Wesley, Chris Mouzon & Thomas Kopelman (here).
Warren Buffett’s Annual Letter to Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders (here).
The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing by Benjamin Graham (Amazon).
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy by Thomas Stanley and William Danko (here)
The Four Money Bears by Mac Gardner (Amazon)
The Monster Job by Faith Teope (Amazon)
Sammy Rabbit's Money School (here)
The Get Ready Money Podcast and its guests do not provide investment advice. All content is for educational purposes. Guest opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Get Ready Money Podcast and Tony Steuer.
Are you looking to get ready, be prepared and transform your financial future? Then you've come to the right place. This is the Get Ready Money Podcast with Tony Stewart, where Tony has insightful conversations with financial experts who are changing the way we think about money. Catch up on the latest financial trends and hear practical advice from Tony and his expert guests so you can build healthy habits that work, Be empowered with tips for implementing small changes that can have a big impact on your financial future. So sit back and get ready to hear from today's guest. So sit back and get ready to hear from today's guest.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast changing the way we think about money. I'm pleased to be joined today by Charlene Kahn. Charlene is an investment coach, charter financial analyst, founder of FinFit and YouTube creator. In this episode, we'll be discussing Charlene's insights on how we change the way we think about money and democratizing financial literacy. Charlene, welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast. Thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Hello Tony, it's so nice to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, looking forward to this conversation. So you know, let's get started. Tell us a little bit about yourself. What is your origin story?
Speaker 3:Yes, you know, my name is Shardy Shardy Kohn. Currently I live in Zurich, Switzerland. So actually I originally from China, north part of China actually two hours If you drive from my hometown to North Korea, actually if you drive from my hometown to North Korea actually. So I grew up in a really ordinary Chinese family. My mom and dad both are just ordinary Chinese, I would say. They put a lot of effort or put a lot of investment in. They invest a lot in my education when I was younger and I did a bachelor's degree in literature in Beijing and then a master's degree in journalism in Hong Kong.
Speaker 3:So finance or investments was nowhere on my radar, you know, till I was 20. And then I just got really fascinated, you know, by finance, by investments, and then I wanted to be an investor at at some point, you know, like when you were. I don't know if you have been to Hong Kong, but basically I felt like 80, 90 percent of people or most people that I knew back then in Hong Kong they work in finance. If you don't know about finance or investments, you're basically left out, I feel.
Speaker 3:And then I self-learned finance or investments by myself by learning the CFA Childholder Program and later on I started my career as a journalist and then moved to JP Morgan Asset Management in Hong Kong and working after I was 10 years in corporate and also I moved to Zurich, switzerland later on as well and I just feel like, oh yes, I'm a little bit done from the corporate world. So actually I am kind of retired from my corporate world last year and currently I live on my investments and, on the other hand, I also become an entrepreneur, become a founder, and currently my mission is to empower 100,000 people without a finance degree, without a finance investment background, to be a confident, successful investor, finance investment background to be a confident, successful investor. So me myself, I personally benefit a lot from learning how to make money, save money and, most importantly, invest money from a young age. I mean it can be even younger, but I started when I was about 20 years old.
Speaker 2:Well, that's awesome. That's quite the story and yeah, as I understand, hong Kong Kong is definitely a center for international finance. I was wondering if you could just tell us a little bit more about the CFA designation, because I don't think people are aware of it and how you know I don't quite know the word to describe it, but you know how powerful of a designation it is.
Speaker 3:I mean it is said by the industry that it is, I would say, the most difficult exam. If you ever wanted to work in finance, to become a professional investor that is probably you know especially when you're younger, when you don't have a lot of experience is a very good, I would say, starting point and it's pretty much you know. It's like I don't know if you have heard of CPA, for example, chartered Public Accountant is like the most difficult certificate If you want to do account, you want to be accountant and for investor for investments. I was a cfa, chartered financial analyst, that program. I would say, overall speaking, you need three years and for level one, level two, level three and you need four years working experience.
Speaker 3:Um, currently I just saw the news like over the past past 30 years the passing rate has dropped from probably 80 percent to currently 40, 45 percent. So the passing rate is really low. So it was you know the industry you just said is the most important, most difficult exam ever in the investments industry and, um, I would say, overall speaking, I don't want to say, oh, once you pass it, you can do what but overall speaking is really well recognized, I would say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, thanks for defining it. I think, you know, for the consumers out there listening, they definitely have no idea what all these initials mean that are after all of our names, and even for other professionals within the industry, I think there's still confusion about, well, you know, how do I progress, what designation do I get if I want to succeed in certain things? And so I think it's important for those who are working in investments to think about, well, you know, if I really want to get the most challenging exam in my field, in the investment field, that the CFA is something to pursue, but if you're not doing investments, you know, and you're just doing general financial planning, it's probably not the right destination.
Speaker 3:Exactly. Yeah, I just want you to clarify. It's not for everyone. It's mainly for those people who want you to work in finance, who want you to prove's not for everyone. It's mainly for those people who want you to work in finance, who want you to prove you know. Become a professional investor working in a, for example, like um, you know, an asset management firm like jp morgan asset management, black rock or any hedge firm. You want to manage, for example, billions of money.
Speaker 3:You know it's mainly for professionals, but it doesn't mean you know every successful investors that you have to take. Cfa is just like it's really a misconception, you know, for a lot of young, young people or for a lot of working professionals. So that is actually the program I'm later on, I will introduce. You don't need to know a lot, as investments itself can be really really simple, can be really really straightforward. You just need to know the basics how money works and how the market works, the stock market works. So at the end of day, you don't really have to. You know or even need. You don't even need to know what is CFA in order to be a good investor as a non-finance background for example, entrepreneur or working professional.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's great and I think to you know, make an analogy for people is like you don't need to be a neurosurgeon to do first aid.
Speaker 3:You can learn, I love it. Yeah, I love.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can so you can learn, uh, cpr, but you don't need to learn how to do surgery, and I think that's a misconception about the money. World is, like you said is you can do some very basic things without becoming an expert that's why they're experts you don't have.
Speaker 3:You don't need to have a computer science degree to fix some of my microsoft word problem.
Speaker 2:Let's put it this way yeah, you just have to restart your computer. A lot, yeah. So you know, let's move on to uh, some of the questions. You know the uh about financial literacy, because you know it's so important in the work that you're doing. Why is it important to democratize financial literacy, to make it available to everyone?
Speaker 3:yeah, let's just like use me myself as um as an example. So I I'm always very open to I mean at the very beginning, to my friends and family and friends, and now to everyone like how much I make, how much I earn, how much I save, how much I invest, for example, right, and then you know, over the past 10 years, I would say I'm, I was lucky enough. I would say in terms of, you know, in terms of salary or income, I would say, over the past 10 years probably I make a million USD, and then now I still have pretty much, maybe not a million, but almost a million. And then people ask me, charlene, but you don't, you don't spend money, right, I don't know, I spend a lot as well. I mean not a lot, a lot, a lot. I spend money, of course, right, you need to eat, you need to have a place to live, but that's why you know, I didn't, you know why now I still have almost that much is because of investments.
Speaker 3:So, for example, some really, really simple strategy, or not strategy. Simple principle, for example, like you know, in mathematics, you may learn it, but the school didn't really teach you how to use compound interest, for example, to invest. School didn't teach you how to you know, manage your own finances. So I think everyone at the very beginning I thought it's only Chinese, it's only China. We didn't teach our students how to manage money.
Speaker 3:But when, I you know, moved from mainland China to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to Europe currently I live in Zurich, switzerland I feel it's across the board money topic, the money topic, the finance, it was not really taught in school so we didn't learn it and there are just a lot of misunderstanding in this world about money, about financial freedom.
Speaker 3:You know this is a word that's overused by a lot of people. We can talk about it later on as well. So the misconception, the misunderstanding is you study hard, you work hard, you can achieve financial success in the end. But actually it's not true. You don't work for money, you make money, work for you. So, overall speaking, I would say in this society, the schools across the board, like I said, it's not only in Asia, in Europe, in US, everywhere Money wasn't taught properly in school and there are just a lot of misunderstanding, misconceptions around money topic, about work hard, you will achieve your financial freedom, this kind of thing. So it becomes even more important to really democratize financial literacy, to democratize the money topic to everyday people, not only to those finance professionals, but really to everyone.
Speaker 2:Well, that's fantastic and you know I'm so glad you talk about compound interest For people who watch and listen to this podcast. You've probably heard half of the guests mention the magic of compound interest in one way or another. It is a very simple principle and we did do an episode just about compound interest and I'll link that in the show notes. But that's how important of a principle it is, and I love what you said to make money work for you, not to work for your money. That's, that's so important.
Speaker 3:Actually, you know, when you mentioned that, it reminds me of a story that I just recently I had with my previous colleague in Zurich, switzerland. That colleague, she has a PhD degree in water management, in engineer, I think. The sub sub, uh sub subject is, uh, water management. And one day I was, you know, we talk about money, and then she was like, oh, she doesn't know what is what is an etf, what is the stock. So what I wanted to say, yeah, I mean, for these kind of basic things it's just like it doesn't. It's not like, oh, I have a master degree, bachelor degree, or even, like her, phd degree, this kind of basic things it's just not taught in school. It's not because, like you're smarter or she is less intelligent.
Speaker 3:You know those intelligent people, a lot of them, although you know, in Zurich, switzerland, I would say the minimum salary is already, I guess, for a full time worker is already like 60k per year, 50, 60k per year hourly pay. The minimum is like 29,. I think 29 francs, like it's around 30 USD per hour. So I believe a lot of people, you know, they do have some savings, you know there, but most of them, like the friend I just mentioned, no matter how intelligent you are, how educated you are, this topic money topic, finance topic, investment topic is really not democratized enough. So it's really needed in this society to really normalize money, talk to normalize the basic principles like compound interest. I think a lot of people they may hear about it, but really there's a limited number of people who really put it into action.
Speaker 2:That is powerful. You have to put this stuff into action, as you mentioned. Where are people going to learn this? We get paid and then we're expected to know all these things and to find good information. I want to give a shout out to your YouTube channel, which we'll talk about a little bit later, but you know you are putting out great content for people to learn some of these concepts. So you know that's it is. I think people also need to make their choice that they want to learn, because, with the internet, all this information is out there. I think the biggest challenge for learning about money is deciphering what's good and what's bad, which is something that I hope this show. People who are watching and listening to the show will listen, so my guests will go. Okay, these are people who do know what they're talking about and listen to them over some of these other self-proclaimed personal finance gurus who may not have the qualifications to discuss with me. So that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's very interesting. Actually, you mentioned that. Actually, there are a lot of good information online. There are a lot of good or even free education online, but people don't learn.
Speaker 3:I think, to be very honest, from my perspective, there are mainly two reasons. The first one is, yes, there are a lot of good information, responsible content online, but there are also there's also a lot of scams, a lot of misconceptions. A lot of you know people. There are a lot of scams, a lot of misconceptions, a lot of you know people. There are a lot of people who try to mislead you, try to, you know, scam you into something. Okay, you know, through day trading, crypto trading. You know this kind of thing even on, you know, on youtube, on instagram, every day, almost. You know, every week I received, you know I was dragged into a group. I make 500K in one night. Learn from this kind of thing is really everywhere. So back to the question, I think, why people need to to have the basic knowledge to identify which is the real good information and what are these scams. But for a person who doesn't really is not yet empowered by financial literacy, it's really hard to distinguish what is good and bad. And then, secondly, why people, there are a lot of information online and people don't everyone know, don't you know?
Speaker 3:Everyone wants to make money, right, I believe a lot of people want to become a millionaire, or a lot of people want to want to want to. They tend to um, maybe we didn't really um, connect us with people's real desire and uh and um and fears. I would say. So why there's a lot of get rich quick scheme. You know they. Usually they um, they sell really well, you know once you, you know, because they, they are really in line with those everyday people's psychology.
Speaker 3:Everyone wants to get rich quick, everyone wants to, not to put a lot of time and effort, just want to have some quick wins. But instead, for those responsible content creators or responsible finance educators, you always say, oh, we need long term, 10 years, be consistent, discipline and this kind of thing. When people, uh, when everything, people come, uh, you know, come in front of it, oh, I need to do this, this, this, this, this, this, that, that, that. Oh, such a hustle, I don't want to do it. So I think, at the end of the day, that's the I mean from my perspective. That's two reasons that why there are a lot. There's a lot of information online, but people still don't learn it at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I agree with you, and actually that makes me think of the medical field as well, because I think it's just like dieting there are some quick ways to lose weight but they're not effective long term. But people you know are attracted to that, like here's a shortcut to lose weight. You know when really the best way to lose weight is to be disciplined with your diet and take a long-term impact, which probably, um, you know, segues to our next question. Because you are into fitness, you know your company is named finfit, so what is the relationship between fitness and finances?
Speaker 3:that's a great, great question. I named my company FinFit, like you mentioned. So, in short, it means fitness and finance, or fitness in finance. So me personally, I'm a fitness lover. I just got my certified fitness trainer. You know this kind of stage this year year.
Speaker 3:So I would say there are a lot of similarities between the two and there's a key difference between the two as well. So when it comes to similarity, so for sure, for both fitness and finance, you need a long-term, you need a long-term mindset. You cannot get six packs in a week. I know a lot of uh, instagram, instagram, um. Instagram influencers are a lot of people. Let me tell you okay, join my program challenge. Um 10 days you'll get blah, blah, blah, um, six packs. It's just not going to happen, right. Right, you need a combination of cardio, resistance, training, nutrition, your lifestyle, your enough sleep, water. You know all this kind of thing. You cannot just like do one single exercise and then you expect yourself to have six packs in a week, and finance as well.
Speaker 3:Can you really become rich? So, for example, I share my personal story how I grew my 500 USD stock portfolio, my first investment when I was 20 and a half, 21 years old until now, I manage a seven-figure investment portfolio and people will ask me okay, how can you turn 500 into seven figure, like one million? It's not, uh, one year or two years. You need, like I mentioned, you need to make money, save money, invest money, make money, work for you at the end of day. So, both fitness and finance, you need a long-term mindset and, secondly, you need consistency. But there's also a key difference between the fitness and finance. I would say fitness you really need to, at least for me. You really need a lot of hard work. You know, when I, for example, I used to hit the gym at least like four or five days a week, currently I reduced to three and uh.
Speaker 3:But for finance, you, you don't, you don't need to. You know trade. You don't need to buy and sell every single day or even every um every week or month. You know, for me personally, I can very I can really openly share my own strategy. So whenever I get paid, when, when I was doing corporate, you know I immediately, when I was earning a little like a bit less, I put 20% of my monthly saving into my investment strategy. And when I earn more, like, for example, 2023, when I was earned almost 200k per year. I put more than half of my salary just like salary I earned from the corporate into my investment portfolio.
Speaker 3:But I didn't do much. I didn't buy and sell every. I just like keep buying, keep buying. When the market goes down, more I keep buying more. So it is really, really simple strategy. So, just like, in conclusion, there are similarities between fitness and finance, especially when it comes to a long-term mindset, when it comes to consistency, discipline, but there's a key difference between the two. Fitness, I believe, you need a lot of hard work, but for finance, you can. Usually simplicity wins everything else.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Simplicity wins with money, but even with finance, I mean with fitness. As you point out, though it is simple to some degree, is because it does come back to the long-term mindset and consistency and having a plan and a goal. But I think the biggest connection between the two is there are no shortcuts. Um to it. I mean, does that make sense?
Speaker 3:yeah, no shortcuts yeah, there's no shortcut, as in my view, there's really no shortcut, exactly.
Speaker 2:So I think that there's really no shortcut. Exactly so. I think that's you know, and that gets back to what we were talking about. You know, with the people you know proclaiming. You know, hey, you can make a million dollars in two weeks if you buy crypto.
Speaker 3:No, you can't. It can be like I mentioned, it can be really, really simple. For example, my advice or I don't call it advice because you need to be compliant. I see myself as an educator, we are educators, so there's no shortcut for investments, for successful investors, but there is a really simple strategy that everyone can use. So it's not hard, but it's not a shortcut, so I just want you to clarify it.
Speaker 2:No, no, that's super helpful. Thanks for clarifying. So you know. Let's run through some of the get ready questions. The first one is what basic money concept do you wish people knew?
Speaker 3:Basic money concept. I think we just talked about compound interest. I think that is definitely one of the most important basic money concept. But apart from that, something related to that, which is time in the market, is way, way, way, way more important than timing the market. What does it mean? So it's also very related to compound interest, right?
Speaker 3:So at the end of day, a lot of people the misconception is if I want to be a successful investor, I need to get the timing correct. I need to get the timing right when I enter the market, when I take profit, when I sell my stock, when I buy my stock. You know this needs to be correct. It needs to be. You know I need to get it right in order to be successful. But it is not true at all. You just need to be in the market. You just need to be in the market. You just need to think long term. You just need to give yourself enough time.
Speaker 3:You know, for example, um research has done. You know, for example, 1 000 1 000 people as group a and another 1 000 people, as you know, group b and one is like okay, you keep trading. You believe one is they are really intelligent people for group b. So they keep, you know, trying to find a perfect time to enter the market, trying to find a high point to sell the stock. Fine, to try trying to find a low point to enter the market to buy the stock. Right, everyone wants to buy low, sell high. And then the other group is just like no matter, whenever it is, I just want to enter the market, buy the market, buy the stock. And then I wait for five years, 10 years, and then you can see when they compare the two groups, like no matter, you put 1,000 people there or 20,000, you know, at the end of the day, the group A, believe me, always outweighing the group B, because the time is way, way, way more important than timing the market.
Speaker 3:And why people cannot time the market? Just because no one knows, no one has a crystal ball, no one. Even those, really those, I would say, highly educated hedge fund manager, mutual fund manager, active managers, who spent 20, 30, 40 years as a professional investor, they cannot time the money right. They can probably, you know, outperforming a little bit of the market, but they cannot. They don't do day trading, they don't buy and sell, often as well. So at the end of the day. I mean, if you ask me, what basic money concept do I wish people know, I would say always believe in time, believe in compound interest, believe in that time is just way more important than time in the market.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's wonderful advice and I think you dropped a couple of super important pieces of knowledge there is. One is that when you look at professional managers and investors, that over the long term, most of them don't really beat the market on a consistent basis. But I think the other thing that you talk about is a long holding period. For people who watch and listen to the show, they know I talk about Warren Buffett a long time, who often says that his anticipated holding period is forever, and I think we can all agree that Warren Buffett has been fairly successful in his investing. And to learn more about Warren Buffett and I'll drop this in the show notes is he puts out an annual letter available on the Berkshire Hathaway website, where that's all you need to read. It's free to get an idea of how to think about investing, and the one thing he does say is to not do what he does but to listen to how he approaches the market.
Speaker 2:And the other thing is Warren Buffett's mentor was a fellow named Benjamin Graham. I'll also link to his book because if you really want to understand, go deeper into why you really can't time the market from somebody who knows and is known as a guru in the investing world is. You can't go wrong with understanding Benjamin Graham and his principles of the investing world. So sorry taking a little bit of a detour there, but those are some resources for people to further what Charlene's saying. So the next question is what is one simple thing that people can do each year to set themselves up for financial success?
Speaker 3:I would say you need to conduct an annual financial review and go setting every single year. That's what I have been doing over the past few years. So before I got married and now I'm married, when ham has a married person, I do it for our, you know, for my family as well. So you really I I don't think a lot of people do it, but I highly highly suggest you do it Review the past year first. You know look over your income, your expenses, your savings, your investments, and you know where your money went and whether it aligned with your goals. And then you update your budget.
Speaker 3:You can adjust your budget to reflect changes in your lifestyle priorities and financial situation, to reflect changes in your lifestyle priorities and financial situation. And then you set your goal for this year, how much you want to make, or I mean you pretty much know how much you can probably make right roughly, and how much you can save paying off debt. You know starting an investment portfolio, saving for a major purchase. You know setting your goals for this year and then you will know, okay, how you can increase your savings rate or investment contributions in order to achieve your goals. So actually I have I personally I use budgeting template. You know that budgeting template that I personally use, so if any of our audience today you know, if you visit my website, charlenekongcom, you can find my template, the budgeting template that I personally use. You can download it for free as well.
Speaker 2:Great. Well, that's awesome advice and I will link to the budgeting template and show notes so people will be able to easily find it on your website the budgeting template and show notes, so people will be able to easily find it on your website. But what I think you're saying about annual reviews, I think people so often forget that with their financial service and products, you know they set it and forget it.
Speaker 3:You know why? Because by the end of the year people have great meals, alcohol, all of that. We really need to normalize it at the beginning of the year. Up at the end of the year, you know, do a review, do an update, set your goals set. You know a lot of people do resolutions right. New year resolutions please always include your financial goals as well.
Speaker 2:As my suggestion yeah, well, that's awesome. And I think you said one other thing there too, that people uh, you know I just want to reinforce this to align your money goals, but for everybody watching and listening who are members of the Get Ready Money Club, that's the whole point. It's free. But what I do is, each week, I send out a weekly action item to review a different area of your financial life, because this is, I think, the biggest Achilles heel in the financial services industry. The products are sold on a set it and forget it basis. You know, like life insurance policies, and nobody goes back and reviews their things, reviews the beneficiaries on their 401k plans. You know all these things. I can't tell you how many life insurance policies are reviewed, that there's an ex-spouse as a beneficiary, which is never a planning goal. So you know it's important to do these things. So I'm so glad you brought that up because I think that's such an important point.
Speaker 3:So I would say only five people, 5% of people, do it probably.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and that's why I set up the system. So all you have to do is sign up for the get ready money clip. It's completely free, and you'll get a weekly review item. Um so, shirley, let's talk about habits. What is one habit that people can change when it comes to their money?
Speaker 3:I don't know if our audience heard, um, you know, a term called pay yourself first. I think, if I have to pick just one habit that people can change when it comes to their money, it is to pay yourself first. What does it mean? Like whenever? I believe, I think, in America we receive our salary twice per month, right?
Speaker 3:I think in Asia and Europe it's on a monthly basis. So my suggestion, or what I do by myself, is always whenever I receive my salary for example when I was working in corporate I would firstly no matter. Before I do anything else, I put 20%, 30% or later on, like I mentioned, when I earn more, I put 50% or more than 50% into my investment portfolio or investment strategy. So a lot of people, once they receive their salary, they say let's go and party, let's go have drinks, let's celebrate. Yes, it's like you pay your stomach, you pay the fun things. You know it's not like pay yourself first, get 20%. You know at the very beginning it can be only 5%, 10%, but you need to develop that habit. That's something that I would say can hugely, significantly change your financial situation when it comes to your money. Pay yourself first, pay your investment portfolio first, and then you can use the money, the remaining money. Okay, I want to buy a nice, for example, watch, I want to buy a nice camera.
Speaker 2:But always remember pay yourself first watch, I want to buy an S camera, but always remember, pay yourself first. That is awesome advice and, again, that's something that other guests have shared, and I think, because it's such an important way to look at the flow of your money and it's an easy adjustment to make, is because, as you point out, you know, if first you know you, yeah, I mean obviously you pay your mandatory expenses housing, clothing, whatever, uh, food, uh, shelter. And then I mentioned clothing clothing is not a mandatory expense, that is, a discretionary expense.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was joking about the clothing. You know, me and husband, our favorite brand is Uniqlo. The Japanese one, although we can afford a lot better brands, but it's comfy, unless we really need to meet clients or have some events. Otherwise we're just like or for a podcast like this. Probably I don't wear Uniqlo, but if you see our clothes, most probably I don't wear Uniqlo, but if you see our clothes, most of our clothes are from Uniqlo.
Speaker 2:Well, that's awesome, and I think that's something else that you know we talk about and other guests have talked about. Is you know that the millionaire next door, if people are familiar with that book, is that? Know, the wealthy people, a lot of wealthy people are not driving fancy cars, they're driving 10 year old cars. They're not living in mansions, you know. They're living in just regular houses, like warren buffett even has. He's still living in the five same five bedroom house that he purchased in 1953, and warn buff could definitely afford an upgrade if he so chose at some point.
Speaker 3:You don't need to have those luxury things to impress others, right? You want to be comfy, that's all you need. You want to be happy, you want to be comfortable and what can brings you comfort? You know comfort and happiness. And you yourself, right? You have the choice to buy more luxury things, but you don't need it. You don't need to impress anyone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and, as you point out, is to take care of your savings, first meeting your goals and then spend it. You know, if you want to go on party, if you want to go to a concert, if you want to go out to nice din, want to go to a concert, if you want to go out to nice dinners, you know. But if you do those things first, then oftentimes, I know a lot of us come to the end of the month and go. I don't really have any money to put in savings because I spent it all. But you know it's a great concert. So you have to balance out those experiences, which is super popular, and especially if you're on like Instagram and you see people in their experiences all the time, you know it's really hard to go. Oh, you know, they're going out to eat, they're going on this fancy vacation, but you have to have the discipline and you have to keep in mind what's right for you, not what's right for everybody and what's right for Instagram.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, I'm not asking anyone to live extremely frugal, you know, like don't drink. You know, I think in terms of food I really go for quality, but in terms of some other things, like discretionary kind of things, I will say, oh, it's good to have it, but I don't really need it. So it's like you said keep a balance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, balance is key. So, Charlene, what money myth are you trying to break?
Speaker 3:So, charlene, what money myth are you trying to break?
Speaker 2:There are a lot of money myths. I would say in this world.
Speaker 3:First of all, investing is only for the rich. A lot of people still today, people think that when I, when I comes to when I mentioned you know, people ask me oh, charlene, you quit corporate world and now how can you survive? I've been working so hard over the past 10 years. I make a lot, not a lot of. I make enough money and then I keep saving, I keep investing. Now I can really live on investments income and people are shocked. They go oh, it's only for millionaires. No, it's not only investing, it it's only for millionaires. No, it's not only investing, it's not only for millionaires. You can actually become a, you can actually become just an investor. Just with 500 100, you can start really small. Like I mentioned, I started um my first investing, um, my first investment as um, you know, in the in ETF BOO. I can be very transparent. You know. I only invested about 500 USD back then I invested in Hong Kong dollars, so that was my first investment. And then I keep, you know, putting more and more money so you don't need to be rich in order to get started with investing.
Speaker 3:And then another myth I would say a lot of people thought investing or money overall. This kind of topic is only for smart, intelligent people is you have to have 10 screens. You can imagine those movies and wall street, you know those kind of movies, big shot, you know they have. You know 10, 20 screens in a room and you have to be really, really intelligent buy, sell, you know like, fight the triggers, those signals. No, you don't have to be like that. Investing can be super, super simple, you know. You can just have like two investments and you keep in, you know, as a you as your core portfolio and you keep investing into it. It can be super, super straightforward. So I would say, if you ask me about the top two myths, I would say one is about money. It's only for the rich, which is true. It's just just so wrong. And secondly, it's how you have to be intelligent. So so intelligent, smart, good at math in order to be a good investor. That's just so wrong as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I think that's such a compelling point and you were talking about this earlier is you know that people who have the 10 screens are professionals who do it all day and that's their living is? You don't need to do that. You know. There are some very simple ways to invest, as you point out. Um, so you know, let's get out the time machine real quick. Is, what advice would you give your younger self if you could go back in time knowing what you know now about money?
Speaker 3:I think I was quite lucky. I already started quite young, started quite young as an investor, like little investor, when I had only 500 usd and it's all my life savings, I would say. But if you ask me, you know, if I could, uh could go back in time, I think I will start. Even I was want to start even earlier, when I had some pocket money from my relatives. You know, in China we every every Chinese New Year, your family relatives, they give you red packets. You know it's like 500 RMV, you know 1000 sometimes if you're lucky. So I accumulated quite a. Yes, I mean, back then it was quite a big amount for me already, but I just like save it in a bank, so I didn't touch it. But I mean back then it was quite a big amount for me already, but I just like stay in the bank, so I didn't touch it. But I mean, when I look back I would say I wanted to even start even earlier as an investor. And the main reason is that you definitely you will make mistakes Everyone makes mistakes right when the market goes down, you definitely you will panic everyone panics.
Speaker 3:But when you only have little money, you put money in, you make money work for you and then you get panicked. Probably, yes, you pull the money out, you take profits, you sell the stocks when you shouldn't sell, but you earlier. You start with little less money instead of now. You know, for example, now if I have 1 million only in cash, I want to make the money work for me as a really young or new investor. Now I have 1 million. If I take money out, if I sell stocks when I shouldn't sell, I will. It's such a bigger failure than I, you know, than what it could be you know, 10, 20 years ago. So start earlier, start small. So if you ask me, I would say I will start even earlier. So I will learn from those mistakes, learn from those panics and be even stronger later on.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, and a couple of great resources. That's wonderful. Advice to help your kids learn about money is the Poor Money Bears and Sammy Rabbit. Links to those will also be in the show notes. These show notes are going to be very long but I think, help your kids understand about money. You know, as I mentioned pre-show, wife is chinese, so we have chinese new year as a family and my son gets lazy and I had him put yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:In canadian we call it lazy, yeah and, uh, you know, put 50 of his money. He's got a brokerage fund, uh, you know where. We've also talked about the fundamentals of investing and aboard him with Benjamin Graham and.
Speaker 1:Warren Buffett, but he knows who they are and how they work.
Speaker 2:So hopefully that will help him as he's a young adult, but you know we put his money aside and that's something that all parents can do. You know, when your kids get gifts with money is put some of it aside, put 50% of it aside. They can still go to Target and get Pokemon cards and save money at the same time.
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:So, to wrap up, what is your number one tip on changing the way we think about money?
Speaker 3:I think, view money as energy instead of something like related sins. A lot of people think, yeah, which is also true. Money cannot buy you happiness, right, a lot of people say it, which is true. But money, you know, see money as an energy. For example, money cannot buy you happiness directly, but money can buy you security. Money can more or less, to some extent, buy a nice, you know, good education, invest in yourself. Money can, you know, offer you freedom, opportunities, right, travel around the world, you know, be more open-minded to experience different culture. So money is a great tool, can be used. Money can be a great energy, you know, source of energy as well. So I would say, if you ask me the number one tip on changing the way we think about money, I'm not, I'm not saying you know, money can buy you everything, but money can do you a lot, can help you a lot as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, and I think that's such a powerful point it's, you know, is sometimes there's very wealthy people who are just not happy and that all they can think about is getting more money instead of enjoying themselves. So that's powerful advice. So, charlene, where can people learn more about you, what you're up to? You have a course coming out which may change by the time this gets published.
Speaker 3:Yes. So actually I'm preparing on 25th of September I'm going to launch my free webinar, free masterclass on how I turned 500 USD into a 1 million seven figure stock portfolio. So in that webinar I will share a step by step approach how I approach the market, how I really started to invest in the stock market and bond market, overall financial market, and how I really make money work for me. It's a really step byby-step guide, you know during that webinar and it's totally free. So, where you can see it, you can actually check my website, charlenecohncom slash webinar. So, tony, maybe you can do me a favor to put a link there to benefit more people as well.
Speaker 2:Definitely, definitely, I sure will there to benefit more people as well. Definitely, definitely, I sure will. And you know, when this episode is published, the show uh, her mouth, charlene's masterclass should be live, so you'll be able to check it out. Um, and also a shout out to your youtube channel, charlene. You also have an amazing youtube channel, uh, where people have over 50 video published already on that channel.
Speaker 3:We just started last year, but every week we have one video out. So on that channel, sharding Kong, comma CFA that's my channel's name, so where you can find how you know what you do, what you need to do before you get started, and you know you start to invest and what, how you start, how you, how should you get started with investing, and how to make more money, save more, save more money and invest money. So you can find everything on my youtube channel as well fantastic and for everybody watching and listening.
Speaker 2:As always, there will be links also to uh charlene's the YouTube channel and everything else. So, charlene, thanks very much for joining us today on the Get Ready Money podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me, tony, such a pleasure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is a great conversation and thank you everyone for tuning into this episode of the Get Ready Money podcast. If you learned something today to change the way you think about money, please be sure to subscribe and to tell a friend. Until next time let's change the way we think about money. Thank you.
