In our first episode, host Paula Christine sits down with producer Jon Gay to talk about her background and why she started this podcast.
Paula Christine has been a financial coach for 20 years, and she brings a wealth of real-life experience to her work. She's lived paycheck to paycheck, been through divorce twice, and has had to start over. It's one thing for a financial coach to preach concepts. It's another to sit across the table from someone who's been in your shoes.
We often pick up bad financial habits when we are younger. Money has become a taboo topic, and we aren't teaching or learning good financial habits. It's Paula's goal to talk to listeners in all stages of life, from starting your first job to entering retirement.
Jon: Welcome to the Beyond The Paycheck podcast. I am Jon Gay, producer of the show and I'm with our host Paula christine. It's great to be with you.
Paula: Thanks, Jon.
Jon: Let's start from the top. For our listeners who are getting to know you as we get to know the podcast and get it launched, who is Paula Christine?
Paula: Well, the simple answer to that is I'm a financial coach and have been for the last two decades.
Jon: That is going to be very useful as we get through the meat and the content of this podcast, we bring on various guests. So you're a financial coach. Why the podcast, why do this?
Paula: I've struggled for a lot of my life. My parents struggled. They lived paycheck to paycheck. And now that I've been coaching for the last, 20 years, I've noticed some things that if you could just change some of the things in the beginning of your life, how much easier life could potentially be.
So, if you think back, listen, I've been a mother, I'm a grandmother, I've divorced, I've struggled with money. I've had to get out of debt myself. At sometimes I was working two jobs just to make ends meet and I've lived that paycheck to paycheck. But if I knew then what I know now today, my life would be totally different and I would love to be able to make somebody's life totally different and give them the tools.
Even if it's just one person who listens and takes those. tools, and changes their life, or just start saving and gets to where life becomes easier for them because they have money and they understand how money works.
Jon: I love your point about going back to somebody early in life. If I had a time machine, I would send you back to 2002 when I was a senior in college. And have you say, hey, Jon, please, don't rack up a bar tab on your credit card three nights a week. You're going to pay for it in your twenties and your thirties and so on. And so forth.
Paula: I know, I agree. I did the same thing. You get that first credit card and you think, oh gee, it's, like cash, but then the bill comes in and you can't pay it off.
Jon: It's like free money. Hey, sign up for the credit card. We'll give you a free t-shirt. Those guys were all these all over campus when we were there.
And I think your backstory gives you a certain kind of credibility as a coach, because there are financial coaches out there that have read a bunch of books and can say, Hey, here's what you do to maximize the amount of money you're going to have in your retirement. But if somebody comes into your office and talks to you and. Jeez, you know what? I'm really struggling with credit card debt. Or to your point earlier, I'm going through a divorce. I'm really on shaky financial ground lately. How might I take care of my kids, my grandkids? Whatever it is you have literally walked the walk so that you can talk the talk.
Paula: Yes, I have. I have walked that walk. Personally, I would love to say that, Hey, I'm a millionaire, but I'm not, because I've had to start over several times. I've been divorced twice. I've raised children on my own and things have happened into my life. You're right.
And we all wish we could go back, but we can't. And you think about it. Your parents probably said to you, hey Jon, you need to be saving money. Don't get into debt. Or maybe they didn't. My parents didn't talk to me about money. They didn't understand money.
Jon: Mine either, no. And I think that's another important topic that we'll probably get into in future episodes too, which is you learn whether it's consciously or subconsciously from your parents.
Unfortunately, I picked up some bad habits growing up and that can really set the stage for the rest of your life. If you're not careful.
Paula: That's true. So you picked up some bad habits and my parents, they weren't, we weren't poor, but we didn't have a lot. Right. And they lived paycheck to paycheck.
So I had that scarcity mentality. Where, I was always afraid that I wasn't going to have any money. You would think that would have made me a great saver, but it didn't. When you live in fear, it hurts you more than it helps.
Jon: That is interesting because I know how the opposite of that, an abundance mindset can hurt you.
"Oh, I got enough money out to take care of these bills. I'm not worried about it. I'm not worried about it. I'm sure the money is going to pop up somewhere." But I want to dig into that a little bit deeper than that. You mentioned it. How does that scarcity mindset, that fear of not having enough money? Like you said, you would think it would mean, okay.
I'm just going to save it. I'm not going to spend it. I'm going to have money when I need it. How does that scarcity mindset hurt someone?
Paula: Well, it's the same with the abundance. It's almost like you're not living in reality and you're not using your money properly. So let's say that somebody is afraid of losing their money.
So they keep it all in their savings account. And so they don't invest it. Well, the money doesn't grow.
Jon: And with inflation it shrinks.
Paula: So they're hurting themselves by not allowing their money to grow or the person that puts it all under the mattress, because they're afraid. You can't be afraid. If you are afraid, then you need to figure out why you're afraid and deal with that issue. And then the same thing with the abundancy issue. You can't just go in, oh, everything's just going to happen. It's not just going to happen. You have to, in both of those, you have to have some sort of a plan.
Jon: I think that's so true. And your point about keeping your money just in savings or under the mattress, as we're recording this here in April of 2022, we're seeing big numbers when it comes to inflation. So if you're not investing that money, you're losing it because it's eroding because of inflation, right?
Paula: Yeah. it's eroding because of inflation. You got to keep up with inflation and taxation. Those are the two things that you need to keep up with and you can't do that in a savings account.
Jon: So who is the ideal audience for this podcast, Paula Christine? Who should be listening?
Paula: I think everybody, it doesn't matter what phase you are in your life. If you're getting ready to retire or you're an 18 year old that just graduated from high school, and you want to get some ideas, gather knowledge about how I'm supposed to be handling my money going forward.
I'd like to give that knowledge to you so that you can maybe take just one or two things from the podcast and implement that into your life. So you don't end up making some of the same mistakes that I've made in my life.
Jon: I heard somewhere that the fiercest non-smokers are former smokers, that people who have smoked. The idea of cigarettes drives them crazy. And the same thing with weight loss, people who have had problems with weight and have managed to get that weight off are more harsh and more stringent when it comes to diet and exercise. I got to imagine the same psychological principle is in play here because you've been through what you've been through.
That makes you more.. almost your antenna goes up more... to really be tuned into these issues to help people.
Paula: Yes, it does. And the sad thing is that nobody talks about money. If we just sat around the kitchen table and talked about money, how much more we can learn because I've made mistakes. I'm sure you've made mistakes, Jon.
I'm sure everybody listening to this podcast has made a mistake, but we can learn from other people's mistakes. So that we don't make them ourselves.
Jon: I always say that I wish I could go back to ninth grade. And instead of taking a wood shop class, I wish it had been a financial literacy class. I can't still make a bird house to this day, but if you had sat down and said, here's how to save, here's how to invest.
That would have served me so much better over the last 30 years.
Paula: Oh, okay. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What'd you have listened? People say that all the time. I wish my parents would have taught me this, or I wish they would've taught it in school. But would you have listened? Think back when you were 17, 18 years old, you didn't listen to what your parents said? I mean they didn't know anything. Okay. That's fair. Yeah. So you wouldn't have listened just like I didn't listen. And I don't know that my kids listen. I think as they're getting older and having children, they're starting to listen to me more, but we just don't and you don't really have any money to play with.
And you don't, you're not out there on your own, you just don't understand it. There are kids that do, and those kids do very well in life, but most of us, we just didn't know. And then the first time we ever have to come into an investing situation? Or do we get a credit card? Do I invest my 401k?
How do I put a budget together? There's really nobody to ask. And you're embarrassed. Most people are so embarrassed that they don't even reach out for help.
Jon: I don't know when and why money became such a taboo topic, but it really is. And it's unfortunate because to your point, if we talked about it more, it would be a much easier conversation.
People will be more educated. Paula, do you have any specific stories you want to mention quickly here in our first episode that have informed where you are now?
Paula: Oh, yes, there's quite a few. One of the reasons that I became a financial coach is that I was standing in CVS picking up a prescription, and then there was this older woman standing there and she was having to make the decision if she was going to get medication for herself or cat food to feed her cat.
Jon: Ugh,
Paula: I just watched her and I thought, oh my God, how did she end up here? Is there one decision that she could have changed that would have changed her life? And I don't want anybody to ever be in that situation. So if I can help you not become that person, that's a horrible story. And there are people who do very well with their money.
I worked with a client in their sixties. It was a couple and they earned $70,000 a year, which really isn't a lot of money. And they raised two children. They put both of their kids through college. And when I met with them, they had accumulated over a million dollars. Okay. You may think that's a lot or you may not think that's much, but the thing is, they raised two children.
They earned $70,000 a year and they accumulated a million dollars. Now those people you're like, you want to put them on the platform and everybody model these guys. Right. And then I've met with people who have made, $250,000, $300,000 a year and they're in their sixties and they have $300,000 and they're like, you made all of this money and you have nothing.
How did you get there? And the difference between the two is one paid themselves first. And then lived on the rest and the other ones lived on it and forgot to pay themselves. They did the opposite. So if I can help people become like the first couple, that would be great.
Jon: Paying yourself is a really interesting point.
I think a lot of people, when they make a budget for themselves, they outline, okay, I have the electric bill, I have the gas bill. I have the car payment, I have the mortgage, I have all my bills and then whatever's left, I can spend. And a good tip that I've heard is too often, like you said, pay yourself. What are you saving? What are you putting away for your future? Make that a line item in your budget before that discretionary income to go out to eat, go out to the movies, whatever it is every month.
Paula: Yeah. That's the perfect world. And that's what we would have to get people to do. But if we face facts, when you're a, young person or a young couple starting out and getting your first place and trying to do all of that becomes difficult.
But what happened is if you can just even start to save, something as simple as $10 a week, it adds up over time.
Jon: Oh, sure.
Paula: And then as you earn more money, you start to save more. The nice thing about 401K's, it does allow you to save pre-tax and automatically out of your paycheck.
So that's a good way to pay yourself first in some situations, if that's the right situation for you. But yeah, it would be nice and everybody lived in the perfect world, but we don't.
Jon: That's fair.
Paula: But there are ways. You just have to learn and everybody's situation is different. There isn't one simple answer for everybody.
Jon: As we wrap up here, Paula, there's a number of topics that we've covered here in the first episode, but give me a quick teaser, a taste of what are some of the topics we're going to cover as we get further into the show of Beyond The Paycheck.
Paula: One of the first things that we're going to be looking at is, you've decided to buy a home.
What does that look like? How do you do that? How much is too much to spend on a house payment? We're going to look at, you're starting to work and you'd have a 401k. Somebody from HR drops the 401k packet on your desk. Well, what do you do with it?. Yeah. Nobody's there to answer those questions.
How much do you put it in there? And we're going to talk about that. We're going to look at, estate planning. It's really key to have the proper documents in place. As soon as you turn 18, you need to have power of attorney and patient advocate on file. There's a lot of things that people aren't aware of that they need to be aware of.
Jon: It is the Beyond The Paycheck podcast. For more, you can follow our show in Apple, Spotify, or wherever you're listening right now. So much to get into. I know we've only scratched the surface here in our first episode, Paula. Thanks for being here and looking forward to getting started.
Paula: Thanks Chan.