Jan. 14, 2024

Living the dream with CPA, Author, and financial guru Jodi Carter

Show Notes
Transcript

Send us a text

Join the conversation with Jodi Carter on the 'Living the Dream' podcast as she shares her revolutionary approach to financial well-being. Learn why your budget might be holding you back and how to create a financial plan that reflects your values and aspirations. Whether you're struggling with debt, looking to improve your financial communication with your partner, or simply seeking to understand your money mindset, Jodi's insights are a treasure trove of fiscal wisdom.
www.financialinsighttraining.com

WEBVTT

00:00:00.569 --> 00:00:09.710
> Speaker A>Welcome, um, to the living the Dream podcast with curveball. If you believe you can achieve, cheat, cheat.

00:00:18.690 --> 00:00:41.542
> Speaker A>Welcome to the Live in the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guest that teach, motivate, and inspire. Today we're going to be talking about money, a subject that nobody wants to talk about, as I am joined by CPA author and the founder of, uh, financial insights training, Jody Carter.

00:00:41.685 --> 00:00:53.119
> Speaker A>Jody helps families, individuals, couples, people of all walks of life make better financial decisions. So, Jodi, thank you so much for joining me today.

00:00:53.890 --> 00:00:56.125
> Speaker B>Oh, uh, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

00:00:56.228 --> 00:00:59.280
> Speaker A>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

00:01:00.450 --> 00:01:06.317
> Speaker B>Sure. So, by profession, I am a CPA certified public accountant.

00:01:06.493 --> 00:02:14.199
> Speaker B>I started in my career. Well, even in high school, I was working for small accounting firms, and I was really fascinated by how people were relating to their money. And so over the years in my work, I really started to pay attention to the questions that people were asking, the way they were asking them, and how they were struggling and how they were succeeding. And one of the things that I noticed very early on, like in my early matter, how much money people had, they were still struggling. Their relationship with money was still challenging, and there were people with large sums of money that were really having a hard time, and people with modest amounts of money that were doing just fine. So I realized the quantity of money, having more money, was not the answer, and I got really curious, and that was how I launched into understanding people's relationships with money and wanting to help them with it.

00:02:14.969 --> 00:02:25.370
> Speaker A>Okay, well, I know you say that the solution to money is not, or, uh, money challenges is not more money. What is the solution to money challenges?

00:02:26.750 --> 00:03:29.789
> Speaker B>We need to work on our relationship with money, which goes back to our childhood and our first money memory, and we have to start to understand the things that we took in the lessons around us and how that's impacted how we're dealing with money today. The thing is that no two people with the same amount of money are going to live the same exact life. So we have to know ourselves and know what matters most to us. We also, as you said, right at the top, people are afraid to talk about this. We can't be afraid. We have to be willing to have the conversations, and we need support. We need someone to be able to help us understand the ins and outs of the financial picture that we have. If we can understand our finances well, the actual data, and we know ourselves really well, what matters most to us. You put those two things together, and now you're making really good decisions.

00:03:30.449 --> 00:03:38.753
> Speaker A>Well, let's talk about how important it is for couples to have conversations about money. And I know that's a hard topic and a hard thing for people to do.

00:03:38.792 --> 00:03:43.620
> Speaker A>So give some best practice tips on how couples can talk about money.

00:03:44.710 --> 00:04:28.401
> Speaker B>Sure. Yeah. Well, the first thing I want to say so that people understand how important it is to talk about this is if you don't think that money is important on the way into a relationship, you're going to find out just how important it is on the way out. Because unfortunately, on the way in, we talk about things like, you like dining, I like dining. You like skiing, I like skiing. But we fail to talk about how we're dealing with money and what our big aspirations are in a way that's meaningful. But then on the way out of a relationship, we're only focused on the money and who gets what. So that should be the clearest indication of how important this is.

00:04:28.536 --> 00:05:12.800
> Speaker B>And couples that talk about money routinely and that really make space for each other's wants and needs are the ones that have generally less problems in their relationships because money is at the heart of everything that we do. So it's important to have some structure around it. So the first tip that I would give people, to give couples specifically, is to make sure that you have designated time to sit and have these conversations and to listen to each other. Not just listen and respond, but listen and reflect back what you're hearing, because that's how you know you've really got it. When the person says yes, it sounds like you understand me.

00:05:13.750 --> 00:05:24.930
> Speaker A>Okay, well, debt is another topic that we all have issues with. So give us some best practice tips on how to end a debt cycle forever.

00:05:25.850 --> 00:06:53.699
> Speaker B>Yes, debt cycle ended forever is what we really want. And unfortunately, people get caught up in the turmoil of debt. So what we need to do in order to be able to end debt, uh, is we have to be saving while we're paying off the debt. And if that means that it takes a little bit longer to pay off the debt, that's okay. So you want to gather all of the financial facts related to your debt, which means, particularly if it's credit card debt, it's making a list of every card that you have debt on, including the current balance, the minimum payment, the interest rate, and creating a plan where you pay the minimums on all but just one of those cards, the one with the highest interest rate. And when that one's paid off, you then take that same payment and move it to the next one with the next highest interest rate. So that's the process of the payoff. But you want to be doing this at the same time that you're saving. So if you have, let's say, an extra $200 a month, don't put the whole 200 to the debt. Put 100 to the debt and put 100 in savings. So even though it takes you longer, when you're done paying off the debt, you have built up savings, and you never have to go back to that place of debt again.

00:06:54.629 --> 00:07:04.100
> Speaker A>Well, you talk about financial, uh, insight. Ah, that needs to be a discovery. So tell us what financial insight is and how you discovered it.

00:07:04.709 --> 00:07:24.074
> Speaker B>Yeah. So I had the good fortune of being able to observe the lives of so many people in my accounting practice. And as I said, it was people from all different walks of life, people with large resources and people with more modest amounts, um, of money available.

00:07:24.271 --> 00:08:03.201
> Speaker B>And what I started to see was it was about them getting clarity on, um, what mattered most to them. So when people knew when they weren't dealing with the shoulds of life, as most of us are, and they knew exactly what they wanted, they would buy a home that suited their financial picture well. Rather than perhaps reaching for something that was outside of their means, they would make choices about the things that matter most to them in, uh, their career, in their family, in their lives, and were thoughtful about those choices.

00:08:03.346 --> 00:08:09.206
> Speaker B>That makes all the difference. So, one side of it is knowing yourself and knowing what matters most to you.

00:08:09.228 --> 00:08:14.826
> Speaker B>And I call that your values. M the other side is knowing your data.

00:08:15.007 --> 00:08:20.634
> Speaker B>And a lot of us are afraid to look at the data. And if we do look, we're not doing it the right way.

00:08:20.831 --> 00:08:34.990
> Speaker B>So, setting up a budget, not good. I don't see any reason for it. As a matter of fact, I wrote an entire book about finance and used the word budget only twice to say that you shouldn't have a budget.

00:08:35.149 --> 00:08:46.765
> Speaker B>What you want to do instead is look at your recent history, three to six months, pull that information together, and sort your spending into meaningful categories.

00:08:46.957 --> 00:09:12.250
> Speaker B>So, not big buckets like home, because you want to be able to see what is the cost of the utilities, what is the cost of supplies, what is the cost of your rent or mortgage. You want to be able to see each of the areas, not to the point of tedium where you're separating paper towels from toilet paper, but enough data that you're able to see with clarity where the money is going.

00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:47.639
> Speaker B>And when you compare that month over month for the past three to six months, you'll see things that you say, oh, wow, that's less than I thought it was. And there'll be other things where you say, oh, my gosh, that's way more than I was expecting. And that gives you the knowledge to make changes. And those changes are about, typically, habit change and behaviors. So that brings us into what we do with our financial insight. But the financial insight itself is made up of your values, the things that matter most to you, and those financial facts, your data.

00:09:48.590 --> 00:09:56.539
> Speaker A>Okay, well, speaking of your book, tell us about your book. And also financial, uh, insight training as well.

00:09:57.309 --> 00:10:27.879
> Speaker B>Great. Yeah, I'd love to share about this. So, the book is called Financial Insight. Be the author of your life story. The reason that I named it that is because a lot of people, in their struggles and challenges with money, are thinking about the past and looking at possibly mistakes they made or regrets they have, or they're looking at the future, their wants and dreams that seem out of reach. But financial insight occurs in the present.

00:10:28.649 --> 00:12:03.379
> Speaker B>And writing your life story is because you are, with every single decision you make, telling your story, you're writing the story of your life. And I know for a lot of people, it feels like life is happening to them, but the truth is, you're making all of those choices that are determining your future. And so this book is about really understanding where you are in your story. It gives you space and warmth and love for taking all of the lessons of the past and also encourages you to think about where you want to get to. And then I also talk about how you go about making the decisions and writing your story. So that's what's in the book. And then my program, which is called financial Insight training, is where we go to the next level for those folks who want support. Because you know what? Even with all of this knowledge, the book is going to open your eyes and change your feelings and get you ready to go. And for some folks, that ready to go moment still feels daunting. And so I want to be there to hold their hand. So the programs that I've created, it includes a full online curriculum. And there's coaching with me, private coaching, because no matter how much I want people to talk about their money and be open about it, we all still want that luxury of privacy, especially until we feel more comfortable in our money lives.

00:12:04.309 --> 00:12:09.240
> Speaker A>Tell us about any current or upcoming projects that you're working on that people need to know about.

00:12:10.169 --> 00:12:46.019
> Speaker B>Well, I'm always putting new information out, so I would love for people to follow me on, um, Instagram and TikTok. It's financial insight training and I am, um, working on, um, the next iteration of a book. I also work a lot with creative people, artists, performers, people that do freelance work, even in the areas of real estate, people with that fluctuating and uncertain income, which I call ifcome if comme.

00:12:46.470 --> 00:13:09.605
> Speaker B>And that's because those folks need a little bit more TLC. They need to understand how to deal with that uncertainty and the fluctuations. And a lot of things in the financial arena don't address those concerns. And so that's something that I do in one of my courses inside of financial insight training.

00:13:09.788 --> 00:13:15.610
> Speaker B>And also just generally, I work with a lot of people in the arts to help them with their ifcom.

00:13:16.590 --> 00:13:22.559
> Speaker A>Okay, well, you gave out your instagram. Do you have a website that people can check out to see everything that you're up to?

00:13:23.490 --> 00:13:27.134
> Speaker B>Yes. That's financialinsighttraining.com.

00:13:27.331 --> 00:13:30.298
> Speaker B>And the program is the fit universe.

00:13:30.474 --> 00:14:13.370
> Speaker B>And I know it takes something for people to have the trust. And so I encourage them to take a look at the fit fundamentals course, where I offer the first module for free. Sign up for my email so that they can get more information. And what you're really looking for is a partner and someone that you can trust. We understand when we go into a gym, what fitness training is, and we know that we need some support to figure out what to push and pull and at what weights and what reps. But when it comes to money, we don't necessarily think of it the same way, and it's very similar. We really do need a finance trainer.

00:14:14.289 --> 00:14:24.690
> Speaker A>All right, financialinsighttraining.com. Close us out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to touch on, that you would like to talk about it. Just any final thoughts you have for the listeners?

00:14:25.590 --> 00:15:11.070
> Speaker B>Sure. I think the one thing that I really like to leave people with is that everything that you have done to this point, you did based on the information that you had, the knowledge that you had, and everyone feels challenged. You're not alone, and I don't want you to feel alone. And if you're feeling those typical feelings that fall under the categories of fear, shame, regret, or even in the best of circumstances, most people feel uncertainty. I just want you to know everyone else, even though they're not talking about it, they're feeling the same way. You are exactly where you need to be. And it's today where you get started on making a change in your finances.

00:15:12.129 --> 00:15:25.700
> Speaker A>All right, ladies and gentlemen, check out financialinsighttraining.com. Keep up with everything that Jody's up to. Check out her program follow rate review share this episode to as many people as possible.

00:15:26.789 --> 00:15:37.720
> Speaker A>If you have any guests or suggestion topics, Cjackson 102 at uH, Cox. Net is the place to send them. As always, thank you for listening and Jody, thank you so much for joining me.

00:15:38.409 --> 00:15:39.830
> Speaker B>Thank you, Curtis.

00:15:40.649 --> 00:15:48.597
> Speaker A>For more information on the living the Dream podcast, visit www.djcurveball.com.

00:15:48.764 --> 00:15:53.690
> Speaker A>Until next time, stay focused on living the dream. Dream.