I’ll admit, I’m a recovering money hoarder. Growing in a household with minimal disposable income will do that to you. Although my exposure to money throughout my childhood was limited, as a young adult I developed a burning desire to both make and understand money. Job titles including swim instructor, babysitter, camp counselor, window washer, and occasional janitor fed my piggy bank throughout my pre-teen and teenage years.

GETTING STARTED

While my family may not have had much in terms of investments, I remember my mom explaining to me that there were options to build my credit score and open a CD (certificate of deposit) to watch my hard-earned money grow. In 2006, my mom and I walked into the local bank and inquired about opening a CD. The idea of tying up $500 for five years felt very restrictive to me as a 14 year old and, while I passed on the CD, I did open my first savings account.

The savings account started small. Babysitting money here, swim instructor money there. It slowly built over time, but was often tapped for gas money, Billabong clothing (I went through a surfer girl phase), and other basic necessities. By the time high school graduation rolled around, I realized that I really needed to get my (limited!) finances together. My parents didn’t have the means to start a 529 plan, but I remember my mom telling me she thought my grandparents may have opened one in my name when I was born. It turns out they had, and in a John Hancock 529 $1,000 was waiting. While this may not seem like much, this amount decorated my entire dorm room and allowed me to purchase my first laptop. It was also the first time I really had to make conscious choices with my money – more money and more expenses meant I had to optimize my purchases.

PRIORITIZING FREEDOM FROM DEBT

With my new laptop in hand, student loans became the next money milestone to work through. Four years and a combination of scholarships, grants, and three jobs left me with just under $30,000 in student loans. I had decided to start my career in sales so that I could make a salary plus commission, with a goal of using any commission to pay off the loans by the time I turned 25. While my colleague’s commission checks were showing up in the form of designer handbags and more bitcoin, mine were slowly eating away at the loans and funding a small emergency savings account. I was determined to be both financially independent and debt-free, and in June 2018, just shy of three years worth of payments, my Sallie Mae balance was $0.

LEARNING TO INVEST

“What do I do with my money?” became a persistent question once the loans were paid off. I thought that simply stashing it in a savings account would be the key to financial wellness, but as the money gods would have it, I met Bridget Jones from Smart Sister Finance right around this time. She explained to me that building wealth doesn’t happen in a savings account, but that a brokerage account would be the vehicle to money success. 

There’s a lot to learn about the stock market, but there are simple ways to get started. For me, working with Bridget and opening a Schwab Intelligent Portfolio (which is an automated investment service called a robo-advisor) were the first steps. To fund an account all you need to do is answer a set of questions related to your risk tolerance. Once I did this and started seeing the money grow, I put myself on an investment schedule to take advantage of dollar cost averaging. The simple act of investing in the stock market gave me a newfound confidence - and mission - in life. Over the last few years I’ve become incredibly passionate about helping other women invest and take control of their financial well-beings too.

EMBRACING MY POWER

My financial journey has been anything but linear. For well over half of my life I told myself that I didn’t know enough to invest, or I didn’t have enough, or that I needed $100,000 in savings before I would ever consider the stock market (yes, I really did think that). It took me a long time to realize that that is not the case. You and I, regardless of where we are on our financial journey, can be debt-free, build wealth, and live comfortably. All you have to do is take the first step.