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 Therese Faessler: Find Balance With Your Financial Health
Discover the transformative power of rethinking wealth as we welcome Tess Fessler, the brilliant mind behind Equetica, to our podcast. Tess takes us on a journey from the turbulent 60s and 70s of New Jersey to the intricacies of modern economic systems. We promise you'll walk away with a fresh perspective on how economic opportunities shape wealth distribution, echoing age-old societal structures. Tess's insights peel back the layers of inequality, revealing how today's economies are not far removed from the medieval power dynamics.
We take a nuanced look at the intersection of health and wealth, shedding light on the importance of mindful financial habits. Together, we explore the delicate balance between immediate happiness and long-term financial stability, questioning whether small indulgences, like your daily coffee, are worth the cost. The conversation dives into the pitfalls of extreme frugality and the joy that can coexist with financial goals. Get ready to challenge your financial habits and embrace a mindset that fuels both your happiness and your wallet.
The episode doesn't stop there—prepare to arm yourself with practical tools for building financial security. Inspired by the wisdom of Warren Buffett, we lay out strategies for long-term investing, emphasizing the value of S&P 500 index funds and automated savings. Tess passionately advocates for financial literacy and equality, encouraging us to rethink traditional money narratives. The stakes are high, but with the right knowledge and planning, a more equitable financial future is within reach. Don't miss this eye-opening conversation with Tess Fessler, and make sure to share these insights for a financially empowered community.
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 Tess Fessler. Tess is the founder of Equetica. In this episode, we'll be discussing Tess's insights on how we change the way we think about money and our financial health. Tess, welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast. Thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Tony, thank you so much for inviting me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I'm glad to be here. You and I have talked about this. You know these topics for quite a while, so I think this is going to be a really awesome conversation. So, you know, let's jump in. You know, tell us a little bit about yourself. What is your origin story?
Speaker 3:Okay. So I grew up in the 60s and the 70s in New Jersey, so pretty much during the whole social unrest, racial, gender, Vietnam war. That's where I, that's where my ideas were formed, and I was there until 19,. In New Jersey, I went to the Rutgers University and I studied economics and that's where my worldviews were really formed, because it's there that I learned that most inequality in this world is not based on racial inequality or gender inequality or national inequality. It's all a matter of economics, it's all a matter of wealth and, if we can figure that out, like the people who are causing noise crime, it's not a race, it's an economic environment where they are and they're not given the same opportunities, and so that persists over time. So that's where I come from.
Speaker 3:I came from there and I took a short break between my undergraduate and graduate studies. I came to Switzerland, met my husband and I've been here for 40 years and here I went back to. Finally, after 20 years, I went back to school and I always had this from this teacher that I had at Rutgers I always had this idea of this problem with this wealth gap. And why is that existent? It's not because, if it's not because of it's because of opportunity. And how can we solve that problem? And so I went back to the university here and got a master's in quantitative economics and finance, because I had the idea that the reason that there's a wealth gap in modern economies is because some people own the economy and the other people drive the economy. And the people who are driving the economy the people who are making a living wage, they're contributing to the prosperity of the shareholders of those companies.
Speaker 3:So we're kind of living in this medieval society where the landowners in medieval times are the shareholders of today and the people who are making their living wages are the serfs of middle ages.
Speaker 3:And so I wanted to be at the university, where I had access to data and computers and the education to be able to test that hypothesis and it was right. So in most modern economies there's less than 2% of the population own most of the wealth in the country. And that's in United States and Canada and Switzerland and Germany and England. It's all over the place. And that's in the United States and Canada and Switzerland and Germany and in England it's all over the place.
Speaker 1:And it makes sense because you know you're working at Nestle and you're making.
Speaker 3:Nespresso capsules and you're going to a store and you're buying those Nespresso capsules. But every time you buy one of those capsules or a chocolate bar, the shareholders of Nestle are profiting off that, and they haven't done anything. You were making them and somebody who is a shareholder is profiting off your work, and that's just how it goes. That's how the system works. So that's how I got into it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's how I got here. Yeah, well, that that's fascinating. I mean, you know, just to back up um for a minute before we really jump into everything else is you know, people hear the term economics, but I think a lot of people don't know what economics actually means. Could you give us just a quick description of what economics is?
Speaker 3:okay. Economics is is the study of um, of well-being, study of well-being in financial terms. It's the study. There's macroeconomics and microeconomics. So it's the study of how firms work individual firms and employees and and business administration, how those things work. And then you have macroeconomics, which is where I'm more interested is and how does it work for society? How does money work in society? What is the job of central banks? What does Jerome Powell do? That's macroeconomics and that's where my concentration is, because I want to see the broader picture of why is the economic environment, the financial environment, the companies, how they all work and how society profits from that work. So it's a matter of GDP, it's a matter of how production costs and production and how society grows over time. How does society grow over time? That's my interest. Did that make any sense?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense because I think people hear that all the time Jerome Powell is doing this and the Federal know the Federal Reserve is doing that, and you know that's moving the markets. And then you know, I think for most people they're like what does that even mean? So you know, I think to break it down, you know, just to start to understand I mean we could have a whole show about what is economics but just to give people a sense that it's the greater picture of how things integrate I think is super helpful, although personally I struggled with economics in college when I took it, so I may not be the best person to talk about it.
Speaker 3:Well, economics is about financial well-being of the individual and of society as a whole. And if I could just I'd love to say this about Jerome Powell. I'd love to say this about central banks Central banks have one job, they have two jobs and that is the employment rate and the inflation rate. And the only tool they have, or the tool they have, is interest rates, and they lower interest rates to trigger growth. So when there's more unemployment, they want people to have higher, they want companies to hire more people, they lower interest rates. People borrow, companies borrow more money, more people get to work and when inflation is very high, they have to lower the interest rate. They have to increase the interest rate when inflation is very high to get people off of borrowing and off of because it's getting. When the inflation rate gets high, that's when things get overheated and that's what we're seeing right now. Right now, in September, jerome Powell will probably decrease the interest rate in order to get inflation under control.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so essentially you know they drive behavior and I think that's a great definition, you know, to give people a sense because, like you said, it influences what people are doing. They're trying to adjust it for the good of society because the economy overall, to try to make everything work. It's a difficult job, right?
Speaker 3:I want to make sure that I said that correctly. He's going to decrease probably decrease the interest rates in September, probably because the economy is slowing down, inflation is slowing down and if he decreases the interest rates it'll trigger growth again and he can form that. So it's a fine line that he's walking in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not an easy job. So you know, let's switch up and get into some of our questions. Why should consumers be mindful with their money?
Speaker 3:Okay, for me, there's two main reasons they should be mindful of their money. On the one hand, they should be mindful of their money as they are mindful of their health. You want enough health to last a lifetime, so you should be careful of your consumption and of your exercise, and so you want your body to last for a lifetime. And the same way, you want your money to last for a lifetime, because you're only going to be actually earning money during your working years, and after your working years you don't, you're not going to be earning any money, and you want to have enough money to live for the whole life by using the money that you earned during your life. So that's the idea of being mindful of your money is to be able to save enough to live a whole lifetime.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's great, and you know there's different ways to look at it is you know, some people talk about retirement. I like to talk about it more as financial independence, because that's really you know. What you know I think that you're talking about is having enough money to last life. The rest of your lifetime means you don't need to have any other income, you're financially independent and you can go forward. So I think that is important, you know, and like you talked about with your health is you know, if you take care of your health when you're younger, it'll pay off when you're older, hopefully, exactly.
Speaker 1:Not always.
Speaker 2:But so one of the things you know, we talked about habits and habits are so important. How should people think about changing our habits?
Speaker 3:I love this question. So a habit is just something that you got accustomed to, whether it's always having dessert after dinner or always going to Starbucks or a coffee shop for a coffee, whatever it is, it's just something that you always do and it's okay. It's part of your routine and I think that's important to change your habit. It's not easy. It's not easy to change a habit, but it's important to change your habit to see what the opportunity costs Now I'm going to use another economic word to see what you could have been doing had you not done what you always did, because there's unlimited possibilities of what you could be doing, and that's the idea of changing habits. What else could I be doing?
Speaker 2:instead of that. Well and I think that's a good way to look at it, because you know, when we're thinking about our money, that's what we're really thinking about is you know, what else could we have done? What else could we do moving forward? Because if we don't change our habits, we always end up in the same place. So we have to change our habits to have different results. So that's that's really super helpful. So you know, one of the things we've talked about are, you know, health and wealth. You know, when you and I first started talking about doing the show is we talked about that. So you know that. The first question there is why should health and wealth debts be justifiable, the debts we take on, why should we be able to justify them?
Speaker 3:Okay, so, first of all, health and wealth converge with age right. The older you get, the more wealth you'll need in order to compensate for whatever health issues you may have. So they converge with weight. And what is important to think about is, when we're talking about health and wealth and debts, we're talking about long-term versus short-term.
Speaker 3:And so the question is why is it okay to have some health and wealth debts? Well, you know what Ice cream tastes good, you know, for goodness sakes, or maybe I, I want to go on that vacation. It makes me happy, it makes me, it really, really makes me happy, even though I may not be able to afford it. It's a debt that I'm taking on, but the question is, is debt worth it, whether it's the ice cream or the trip, and so are they justifiable? Yes, sometimes. Yes, sometimes. If it makes you happy, sure, but you have. But the point there is, I would say the point of happiness is how happy does it make you? Is it worth it?
Speaker 2:You know that is something I've had on guests. You know who you know did the FIRE movement. You know financial independence, retire early and they really, you know, saved every penny and you know, reduced all their expenses for 10 years and at the end of the time they were miserable. You know they didn't have much of a life, their housing wasn't what they wanted, they didn't go on vacations and all those things. They were successful in achieving, maybe financial independence or being really far in that road, but they missed out on so many things that you have to find joy, because in my mind, you never know what's going to happen. You know, so you also can't deny yourself some joy as well for that. So I love that answer. You know, is it worth it in the grand scheme of things and, as you point out, I think, the most important things, does it bring you joy, does it make you happy?
Speaker 3:I mean you have to think about it in a health way, you know. Think about a cigarette smoker. Right, they're smoking cigarettes and if they, really really love cigarettes. I mean, then you have to ask them was it worth it? Or, you know, after time, was it worth it? Did it make you happy enough to compensate for all the health issues that you might have when you're 60 or 70? Was it worth it? And that's a question I mean, not a question I can answer for everyone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's great. And you know we hear so much about give up your daily coffee and it's like, well, you know one you know if you really like your daily coffee, like I had a cappuccino from Starbucks this morning.
Speaker 2:I like that, you know, and it's yeah, it's not the smartest financial move, but you know, a $5 coffee once or twice a week is not going to make or break your financial life. Saving 1% in expense ratios on your mutual funds is going to possibly make or break your financial life. So that's I think that's. Another dimension to this, too is what is that debt that you're taking on? Something like smoking that's going to have a huge impact on your health.
Speaker 3:So that's a much bigger debt. And your finances as well. Today.
Speaker 2:That's true, huh Smoking is expensive yeah. Well, I go back to an age where you may go back as well. You know where they even had, you know, smoking in high school and there was a smoking area in all high schools.
Speaker 3:You remember that Sure, sure, sure.
Speaker 2:Which is crazy to think about nowadays, you know, so let's move on. You know, actually we started talking about this. You mentioned this. Why is it so important to consider that these things bring you satisfaction? Why, you know to you and I know you started to talk about that, but why is that such an important part of the conversation?
Speaker 3:The question is are things worth it? No, it's always. It's not about. It's not so much about things bring you joy, lots of things bring me joy. I mean, I would be lying if I didn't say, like there's lots of things that make me happy, but the things that. The question is is it worth it? Is it worth it? Is the sacrifice worth it, or Is the sacrifice worth it? Or is the consumption worth it?
Speaker 2:It's both sides right.
Speaker 3:So, as you were talking about the people that go for the financial independence, retire early. Is the sacrifice worth it or is the consumption worth it? It's exactly on that road, on that path, and so your question was exactly what was your question that I should have answered.
Speaker 2:Why is it important to consider if these things bring you satisfaction, and I think you address that.
Speaker 3:It's a balance.
Speaker 2:I love that Because I think that's what's missed is that you can, you can't have some of the things. I think you know somebody said it well is, you can have some of what you want, but you just can't have everything that you want. I think it's a good no, I I.
Speaker 3:What I really like is um. Scott galloway said you can have it all. You can't just have. You just can't have it all right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's a good way to look at it. Yeah, no, that's, that's an awesome perspective. So, you know, one of the things we also, you know, want to talk about is risks. So how can people protect themselves with the right health and wealth risks, you know? Recognize those health and wealth risks.
Speaker 3:Okay, so for a normal I mean a normal person, I worked at an insurance company for a long time and we had those people who had snakes at home and who did crazy skydiving without a parachute and crazy things. We had all those things and those are risks that are kind of out of the limits for a normal person. But so the risks, the health and wealth risks that you take on, have to have in a long--term perspective. It has to be there. You have to say is the balance is worth it? So risky, let me think. For example, not saving, for example, not saving for your retirement, not saving for, not saving for whatever it is that you want in the future.
Speaker 3:There you go, a risk of disappointment, of not being able to have what you want in the future, and a risk of actually not being able to have anything by having not thought about the future With regard to your health, consuming everything that comes into your mind and without exercise. That may be, that may be really fun right now, but is it worth it in the long term to be over overweight and and unhealthy and high blood pressure and all the things that come with with not having let led a healthy lifestyle? So that's from again. It's always a matter of balancing this. Is it worth it? Is it worth it to me right now, and will it be worth it to me tomorrow, and will it be worth it to me in 20 years? I?
Speaker 2:love that. Is it worth it in the short term as well as the long term? Because, like you know, we talked about with cigarette smoking, is that may not present itself for 20 or 30 years to health issues, and then all of a sudden it's like, wow, this probably wasn't, so that's an awesome answer. So you know, as we talked about here and I think you started to answer this is why does risk protection go beyond insurance? Why do we need to think about it as just an insurance policy? What else is risk protection?
Speaker 3:emergency or rainy, rainy day fund. That's my first layer of protection, because my I'm not. There's no insurance company that's going to cover my risk of of, um, getting pregnant and wanting a baby and wanting to have a baby like there's no insurance company that's going to say, like, no worries, we, we got you covered for that, you you're. It's going to change your life and when you lose your job, you get some unemployment insurance, but it's not enough to to to live the way you've lived before. Most accidents is cars or in your house or something. You do have insurance for that, but for the immediate protection of things that happen in your life, something happens to your child, they went on a trip and they have to come home immediately and you have to fly them back to wherever you are. Those are things that you're going to have to cover yourself and so those are. You need an emergency fund in order to cover your immediate risks.
Speaker 2:In my opinion, yeah, no, I agree. And even if you have insurance, you know you might have a $1,000 deductible or a $2,500 deductible. So even with insurance you still need some liquidity. You know for that. So I love that and you know to me. You know financial independence and retirement. You know what you were talking about earlier. That's risk protection, you know is having money for the rest of your life is you know that's. You know that's a plan that you're building up to have enough money. You're protecting against that risk.
Speaker 2:Even without retiring early? Yeah, and you can transfer that risk to the insurance company by buying an annuity. You know of running out of money. Of course, you may not get money from the annuity and there's other issues, but that's, that's it. So you know. I mean, you know, let's skip. There were a couple of questions there that I think we can skip because you've addressed them really well, but one of them, you know that I definitely like to jump into, is what do you consider financial independence? What is financial independence to you?
Speaker 3:Financial independence is living without financial stress. That means knowing that I'm able to pay all my bills today and in the future. So financial independence is a worthy goal. It's kind of hard to calculate when you're 20. What is financial independence is because when you're 20, it's all about liquidity and it's about surviving and it's about paying your bills now. And when you get to be in your 40s and 50s and 60s, that's when you have to start thinking about okay, and what happens if I don't have an income in the future? And that's when financial independence is important to build that nest egg. And some people can do it really really well, and some people can do it don't do it well, and I would say and.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry, but I'm turning back into this that it's the education of building that nest egg, of building that money that I need for my longevity. That's information that most people don't have, and that's about financial literacy. That's what financial literacy is all about. How can I save wisely by investing seriously? And why do some people in our society do it well and others don't? And why aren't there? I'm asking a lot of questions. You should be asking me questions, but why aren't there family offices for people who have no money? Why do you have to have money to go to a family office? Because if you have money, you're already like in that select you know that select category of people who have money. But what about the people who are living paycheck to paycheck?
Speaker 2:How come there's no family offices for?
Speaker 3:them Because they can't afford to pay in a family office or a financial planner, and that's the people I'm trying to talk to.
Speaker 2:Yeah I'm trying to talk to. Yeah, well, and that's you know, that's why I'm doing the work I'm doing and why I do this podcast is to help people, you know, create their own family office. You know, and to have a plan is because most people can't afford a financial planner and you know, financial planners have, you know, minimum for you know how much assets you need to have or they charge so much per hour, you know, and there's only so many financial planners anyway that you know, I think you know, to do anything, you have to become educated yourself, even if you have a financial planner. The more educated you become, the more wisely you can work with your financial planner. So you know, you and I both feel the financial literacy is at the core of all these things. So you know, as part of this, you know and you talked about this earlier, and this is, you know, the work you do is, you know some people are stockholders and some people are services. How can people transition to become owners?
Speaker 3:Hey, thank you for the question. Thank you, I like that question a lot because that's where I am. So I was always into you know, know what you own, find what you own and know what you own and know what you own and own what you know. I was always kind of in that mindset, you know, I thought everybody should be profiting off of the things that they're consuming. So if you have an iPhone, how cool it is to have an iPhone, how cool it would be to say I own Apple. I was kind of like always in that mindset. But now I've changed. And now I've changed because I realized that it's A, it takes a lot of time. People don't have a lot of time, then time is worth a lot.
Speaker 3:And B, there are very, very good index funds S&P 500. It's been performing really really well for the last 20 years, performing really. It's been performing really, really well for the last 20 years. And that would be a place to put every month, have an automatic deposit in an S&P ETF To have an S&P 500 are the 500 biggest companies I think it's 499, because I think Google is in there twice, but it's one of the biggest 499 companies in the. I think it's four hundred ninety nine, because I think Google is in there twice, but it's for the biggest four hundred ninety nine companies in the United States and in Switzerland we also have the SMI it's kind of the same in the top 20 companies in Switzerland and the idea would be to take some money and every month, automatically depositing that and buying some piece, some fractional share, of that ETF. That would be the way to save wisely, by investing seriously.
Speaker 3:Save wisely meaning don't put your money in a bank account. Do not put your money, do not save for the future, in a bank account. Your bank account is for the liquidity, the money that you need to live, and also your emergency fund. That has to be there too, because you have to have quickly access to that, the quick assets, to that money. But the money that you're saving for your future, that should be invested in stocks, and the reason is is that you're a shareholder, then you're you're, probably you are um participating in the prosperity of the economy that you are driving as a consumer I love that you're participating in the economy and that goes back to what you were talking about earlier with economics and the wealth gap, and I think that's something you know, for most people is accessible.
Speaker 2:You know, if you're working for a decent sized company in the United States, you're going to have a 401k plan. I know there's different retirement plans, or sometimes known as schemes, which is an interesting word to me in other countries I think in England they call it a scheme. So you know there are different opportunities, no matter where you live, to do these things. And, as you point out when you mentioned the word fractional, that means that you can buy a small amount, that you don't have to spend $100,000 to get into an ETF is now, with these online apps, you can invest with $50 or $100. So you can get started.
Speaker 3:In preparation for meeting you right now. I looked it up and there's like nine. There's nine, there's probably much more, but I found nine banks, banks in the United States that you can actually have your, your, your, your, your paycheck to put in that account and you can automatically put in like sub accounts. So you can say this much is for don't know for for taxes, and this much is for vacation and this much is and this much is for automatically investing every month, and I don't have to think about that and I and we talked about that, and for me that's the ozempic of finance, of financial well-being.
Speaker 2:Definitely, definitely. So a couple of things about choosing an online financial institution is one is you want to make sure that they are actually a bank and that you are FDIC protected in the United States or whatever the equivalent is in your country. The other thing, if you are in the US, I was a judge for the Finder Banking and Innovation Awards, so Finder has you know which online banks have the best programs. They have really lengthy reviews so you can read the pros and cons on each institution. So I'd recommend, if you're in the US, to check out Binders Banking and Innovation Awards see which ones that we felt were the best online banks, which offered the most consumer friendly services. So sorry, jumping in with that.
Speaker 3:No, no, no. That's good. That's good of automatically funneling your money into those places where you know that you're going to need them, whether it's vacation fund or food or rent or car or whatever it is that you can automatically budget your, save your money in different sub accounts, and one of those subs accounts, automatically, every month, invests in the stock market. Because nobody can time the market and you're not a financial advisor, and neither am I, and I'm not a trader, and so just by doing monthly installments in the stock market over time, you'll be fine in the stock market.
Speaker 2:Over time you'll be fine, definitely. And, as you point out is, some of those banks do have the separate sub-accounts which go towards your separate goals. So you wanna start out with your goals. As you point out, is like are you saving for a car? Are you saving for a house down payment? Are you saving for financial independence and saving for a house down payment? Are you saving for financial independence? And you know? Then start your sub accounts, choose your sub accounts based on those goals, and those institutions do have some already set up that are goal oriented and they'll help you choose the right financial products and services to meet that goal. Because, as you point out is, you want something different for each goal, or a different mix and towards the market.
Speaker 2:I would urge people to go out. You know it might not be the easiest. Well, here's the free thing that you can read is you go to the Berkshire Hathaway website and you read the annual letter from Warren Buffett. It's free, it's a very easy read and it tells you about. You know how Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, known as an investment guru, thinks about investing in the market and he has other resources available to people. So you know there are incredible free resources. Again, you know. You know the Warren Buffett annual letter to me is, you know, real template to continue to learn about the markets. So I don't know, do you read the Berkshire Hathaway annual letter?
Speaker 3:Yes, but there's a thing here it's not everybody's interest, right? And Warren Buffett said that he would tell his wife when he dies his wife she just put in the S&P 500 because he would never bet against the United States, he would always bet for the United States.
Speaker 3:And that's what I would say to anybody because really the thing is that most people aren't interested in this and you have to meet people where they are and you have to make it easy for them. People would rather take an Ozempic, a shot of Ozempic, than to eat less and exercise more. So we have to meet people where they are and this is an easy way to do it and you really don't have to spend much time. And then you know, maybe it's only 50. All right, you know it's $50 a month for 48 years.
Speaker 3:I looked this up because I thought I was going to tell you this it's $50 a month for 40 years. You have $260,000 in the S&P. If you invested in this S&P 500, based on the past what was it? 1920?, whatever it was but if you did that for 40 years, you'd have 50 bucks a month. You'd have $24,000 in your savings account Interest, inflation kind of canceling each other out. And if you had invested in the S&P 500, you'd have about $260,000, quarter million. So can everyone invest $50 a month? I don't know.
Speaker 2:But if you could, I would. Yeah, definitely. Well, to what Warren Buffett's advice is for his wife is something that he's also very clear about every year in his letter to not do what he does, although so many people in the US not do what he does, although so many people in the US do exactly what he does, and that's the first thing he says in his letter is don't do what I do, because you know he's got access to more resources. He gets more favorable terms. You know he's and you know when he invests it's 50 million, a hundred million, a billion dollars. You know it's. He's investing in a very different way than we are, but it's principles but he's looking at the resumes of the managers who run the company.
Speaker 3:I, who has time for that? I mean, it's kind of interesting, but who has time to look what kind of resumes the managers have and what kind? What their cash flow interest? A discounted cash flow model they're thinking you know, is. You know it's hard, it's hard, that's it. He's because he is who he is, because he does what he does, and most people are just working and most people are working for a living wage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's just it. That gets back to index funds and again, neither Tess or I are investment advisors. This does not constitute investment advice. So please do your own research. But you know, this is just our personal opinions.
Speaker 2:But yeah, you know, if you, you know, this is the way I explained it to my 19 year old son is you know, he's a professional, he's got a huge staff that does this research, he does this all day and he's been doing it for 50, 60, 70 years I guess probably 70 plus years now he's been doing this. So you know it's like trying to play basketball against a professional. You're going to have a really hard time. You know scoring a point if you're playing an NBA professional in basketball, just because that's what they do and they're the best at what they do. So you can't compare yourselves to them because you don't have the resources or the training or the experience or you know whatever you know. So, to start to wrap up, what is a good way for someone to balance their short term choices with their long-term goals? We've talked about that, but how do they actually balance it? Do you have any tips there?
Speaker 3:I mean, the thing that I would do is I would put money for the long-term, whatever it is. It's $5, it's $1. I would take that away from my paycheck before I even see it Like taxes in the United States. You put that money as if you never had it, and so it doesn't hurt you less. You get used to it and you don't realize it it doesn't hurt. So that's what I would do. That, so it's balancing the short term to long term. If I take something away from myself, I get used to what I don't have and I have something for the future, so that's for.
Speaker 2:That's how I would think of balancing just I think that's great advice and I've heard that from other uh guests on the show is to put that money aside for your goals before you do other things, rather than doing all your other things and then saving with whatever you have left over. It's a change of mindset in your workflow with your money, I think is key.
Speaker 3:Warren Buffett has a word for that. He says it's pay your future self first.
Speaker 2:I love that. Pay your future self first, yeah, and that's about the best thing you can do. You know it's hard to top that advice, so you know, to wrap up, tess is what is your number one tip on changing the way we think about money?
Speaker 3:It'd probably be to pay your future self first I mean I got that. I stole it from him, but I use it all the time because it hurts the least.
Speaker 2:I love that and I think that's something that we need to think about with both our health and wealth. Is, you know, what can we do? That's not going to be overwhelming. It's like, you know, I like having dessert every once in a while, you know. So you know some diets. You know I went on this diet and it was like you can only eat these prepared meals and it was so hard to keep up with because you know there are some things that bring you joy and you know, once you deny yourself everything, you know, you tend to sort of bounce back in my experience, sort of bounce back in my experience, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3:That's why, as I said, before paying yourself first, putting that money aside before you even saw it. Practically, you know you get your paycheck, it goes to your bank and in your bank account you just see that there's so much money you don't really even know what you're paid because it was already taken away right from the beginning. And that to me is kind of like the ozempic shot. Like you, you're kind of cheating yourself. You're telling yourself the ozempic. You're telling yourself that you're not hungry. Right, you are hungry, but you're just telling yourself you're not hungry. And with this putting your money paying yourself first and putting that money aside before you even get it, it's like you're kind of cheating yourself, thinking yourself all right, this is how much money I have, this is really how much money, net money I have to spend, and it just is a. It's a, it's a quick way of I don't want to say cheating yourself, but it's a quick way of. How can I say that? Because cheating sounds bad, but it's a quick way of limiting yourself without really feeling the limits.
Speaker 2:Well, it's changing your habits and that's what's really key to any thing that you want to achieve in life. You know if you want to look, you know you have to change your habits in order to get a positive change. So you know this has been an awesome conversation test. So where can people learn more about you and Aquatica and the work that you're doing?
Speaker 3:Okay, before I go there, can I just say one thing about the S&P 500? Oh sure S&P 500.
Speaker 1:ETF a.
Speaker 3:I'm not a financial advisor I have no idea and like, if anybody's listening to this, in switzerland there's a currency risk. So so you know, I it's not, it's not risk-free, it's. There's always a risk to anything you do, and so, and I'm not a financial please talk to somebody who knows more than me.
Speaker 3:That's the first thing so you can get. You can follow me on LinkedIn I'm quite a little following there and you can also EQUITICA, e-q-u-i-t-i-k-a, and that's all about equity and inclusivity and education and collaboration and we're trying to build a community. It's about communities where people can help each other if they have any questions, but you can also see with whom you're communicating, so that you you it's all about trust and transparency and authenticity, which equals integrity. So that you can find me there. You can find me on LinkedIn most easily but Equitica is up and coming.
Speaker 2:Is Equitica for people around?
Speaker 3:the world or is?
Speaker 2:it for people on the Swiss Okay.
Speaker 3:No, around the world, because we really want to make this movement where everyone is profiting, participating in the prosperity of economies worldwide.
Speaker 2:Fantastic, fantastic and for everybody watching and listening. As always, there will be links to Tess's LinkedIn profile and to the Aquitica website in the show notes so you can also go there, so you don't have to go back and replay it three times to go. How did how? Is that spelled again? That is awesome. So, Tess, thank you so much for joining us today on the Get Ready Money podcast.
Speaker 3:Tony, it was such a pleasure. I'm so happy that you invited me to be on your platform. Thank you so much. The more we spread the word, the more equality and equity there will be in society. Right, that's the goal.
Speaker 2:Definitely yeah, and you know that this, hopefully, is something that people will learn from and give them some good ideas on what to do next. So I appreciate your time and your insights and thank you everyone, as always for tuning in to this episode of the Get Ready Money podcast, always 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 tell a friend. Until next time let's change the way we think about money. Thank you.
