078: In Case of Emergency with Chloé Daniels

Hello! Welcome to episode 78 of I’d Rather Stay In. This week, we’re joined by our friend and financial blogger Chloé Daniels to learn all about emergency funds.

Episode transcript

Megan
Welcome to I’d rather stay in with your hosts Megan Myers and Stephie Predmore. This week we welcome back our guests Chloe Daniels as we chat all about emergency funds. Stay tuned.

Stephie
Do you love listening to I’d rather stay in and want to support the podcast? Well, now you can visit our website or the link in our Instagram profile and click Buy me a coffee or visit buymeacoffee.com/irsipodcast. For the price of a cup of coffee, you can help us cover the costs of creating this podcast. There are no monthly memberships and you could support us at whatever level you’d like whenever you like, whether you buy us one coffee, many coffees or simply continue listening as always, we’re so grateful for your support.

Hello,

Megan
good evening, Stephanie.

Stephie
I have a story for you. I love storytime. So. Taylor, Eden’s birth mom texted the CIF name. And she said that Avery, who is Eden’s older sister, she’s two came in and requested a cheese salad. And she said, since I just had to figure out what it was. Now you have to figure out what it is. I did not figure out what it was she had to tell me what it was. Would you like to take some guesses as to what a two year old thinks is a cheese salad.

Megan
I mean, I would think for various kinds of cheeses piled into a bowl.

Stephie
I mean, I forget I would love that kind of that’s the kind of salad I would really enjoy. I had Alex and I had numerous guesses, including mac and cheese. Pizza, we guessed No, no. It’s just and I quote from Taylor, a slice of fucking cheese. And apparently, she kept trying to be like Avery it’s a slice of cheese. But she couldn’t say that. So she just kept calling it cheese salad.

Megan
That actually kind of makes sense. Now that I think about it. Because if she’s trying to say slice, but slice is too hard.

Stephie
Salad does make sense. When she just walks up and says I want cheese salad. Her mother had to figure out what the fuck she was talking. And you know, with a toddler that age, you don’t want to give them the wrong thing. But it

Megan
could really be anything though.

Stephie
It could have been literally anything. So I did have to I did have to ask I made we made a few guesses. And then I like pulled out 20 questions and I was like, okay, does it actually have cheese in it? Like that will help also like, what course does it blog to? Is it like dinner or aside or dessert? She’s like, it’s a topic.

Megan
Is that actually chocolate pudding? Right?

Stephie
I was like, what are we working with here? So cheese salad, aka a slice of cheese.

Megan
Sure. I like the creativity.

Stephie
God bless toddler minds. How are you?

Megan
This morning, I got my bloodwork test results. back last week, I had some blood taken as routine because I’m old and you’re supposed to get that done every once in a while. And everything was negative, which is great. Yeah. But on the other hand,

Stephie
how did dry blood go?

Megan
Well, dried blood was fine because they let me lay down. I told him I was gonna sane. I think I pass out when people take too much blood from my body. My past doctor nurses, I guess, did not believe me and I have fainted and they were not pleased about it.

Stephie
Which I find while but you literally said I’m gonna pass out and then you passed out and they were like mad at you for passing out. They weren’t mad at me for passing out.

Megan
They were mad at me for the inconvenience because then they had to find me a room to lay down in. And it was a very busy clinic. And so like it’s messed up the whole schedule, basically who busy. Yeah, so this place though I said I’m probably going to faint because that’s what I do. And she said, Oh, do you want to lay down and I was like, What? That’s an option. You could just take the blood while I lay down. And it was fine. Um, so mega bonus points to my new doctor’s office. I love that. But I was kind of disappointed that the results are fine.

Stephie
Did you like want to secretly have some like, I don’t like want to have anything wrong with me. But

Megan
on the other hand, I feel like it would answer some questions. Oh, do you have something wrong with me?

Stephie
You know? Yes, I have been there. I have absolutely been in that. That place where you’re like, I just like, don’t feel like I feel 100% the way I was supposed to but I can’t figure it out. What it is, and so if they were like you’re anemic or your vitamin D is low, or literally any other number of very easily fixable things. Yeah. Oh, look, I can do this thing.

Megan
Exactly. Yeah. So I’m always very concerned that my thyroid is gonna be crazy. And then they’re always just like, it’s fine. Like,

Stephie
thyroid is great. And you’re like,

Megan
Is it just me being lazy then? Okay, cool.

Stephie
Yeah, well, I am glad that your blood work was good, but also not. Question mark. I don’t know how to respond to that. But other than I understand where you’re coming from,

Megan
right? I just want some questions answered. I’m a five. I need some questions answered.

Stephie
She’s gone down the research rabbit hole she had, I don’t need theories.

Megan
I don’t need 1500 tests done on me for them to be like, Oh,

Stephie
I don’t know. You’re old and tired. Great thing, go for more walks? No, thank you. I know that I live somewhere where the weather sucks 50% of the year? No, thank you. It’s fine. So if you’ve been listening to the podcast a while you know that we are big fans of getting our finances in order, or at least the theory of doing that some of us, me are still working on it. But

Megan
our guests forever work in progress

Stephie
forever work in progress. And our guest this week has absolutely helped me in that regard.

Megan
We’ve invited back our friend and financial blogger, Chloe Daniels to talk about the first step on that path emergency funds because what could be more comforting and cozy than having a fully funded emergency fund? Right? Like obviously nothing. So welcome back, Chloe. Hey, I’m super happy to be here.

Stephie
So I it’s hard to believe I looked it up to see when we last had you on and it’s been almost a year for some reason. I thought we had you on this calendar year. But no, it wasn’t 2020. So it’s been a little while. It’s been a long year. It’s been it’s been a wild journey for all of us. And we had you want to talk to us about investing. But what’s new with you since we last talked what’s new in your business and your life? Tell us all the things?

Chloé
Yeah, I mean, a lot has definitely changed. I feel like last time that we spoke, it was pretty early on in my financial coaching career. And since we last spoke, it kind of exploded, which is really exciting and good. And now I’m looking at Okay, how soon can I quit my nine to five job and do this full time? That’s so exciting. Yeah. Which is amazing. And I actually it’s funny that we’re talking about emergency funds. I didn’t even plan on wrapping it into this. But I’m actually now focused on building a year’s emergency fund so that I can do that. You know, I definitely like the idea of knowing that if I’m going out into my own business, and I’m no longer dependent or relying on that nine to five income, I want to at least have a years emergency fund to because should

Stephie
happen. So right? It totally does. It totally does. So I know that. And this isn’t necessarily This is not necessarily relate to emergency funds. But we so this episode is airing on the 26th or no I’m sorry, the 27th of July as you guys are listening to it, if you’re listening to it the day it comes out. It’s the 27th of July. On the 28th you have an investing one on one masterclass that you’re doing. Can you talk a little bit about that? Oh, yeah.

Chloé
So I actually in my very first investing 101 masterclass where or workshop was last month, and that went so well. And it was my first time I’ve ever doing a investing course or an investing class that I decided to do another one because, you know, I keep pulling my audience to see okay, what do you guys actually want from me? and over and over again, people want information on how to invest. And so yeah, that class on the 28th is focusing on just really the basics of investing and how to get started. So it takes folks from the very beginning of, you know, learning basic terms to figuring out what kind of investor you are to then learning. Okay, how do I analyze some of these funds? How do I know what kind of investments are right for me and doing all of that stuff as well as talking about different retirement accounts and things like that. So we cover a crap ton of stuff in two hours. But a lot of the feedback that I got was okay, this is good. I feel like I can go and invest in my own accounts now. And I was really, you know, feeling uncomfortable about doing that before. So it’s exciting. But yeah, that’ll be on the 28th. It is recorded too. So I can always give you guys a link to put into the show notes if you’d like.

Stephie
Yeah, that would be great. Yeah, we’ll link to in the show notes. And I know if you sign up, you’re able to get the recording later so you don’t have to join live because I did that with the last Last class, I definitely still need to watch the recording. But I have it and I can watch it anytime. So that’s that’s the nice thing about that. So I did want to kind of go ahead and plug that before we got too deep into the topic at hand. Yeah, for sure. Thank you so much. Hopefully, I’ll see you Sunday guys there.

Megan
So Chloe, what is an emergency fund?

Chloé
It’s so easy to say when an emergency fund is my thing when an emergency fund is not, I feel. For me, when I first started on my financial journey, I really thought that my emergency fund was my credit cards, I thought like, okay, I don’t really need an emergency fund because I have a really solid job. So you know, if something happens, I’ll just have my credit card, and then I’ll pay off my credit card with my fancy income that’s coming every month. But when COVID hit, I realized, okay, an emergency fund actually needs to be cashed that I have on hand that I can use if I lost my job, every all of these people who think that their jobs are secure, had never dreamed of something like a pandemic. And so I think it really made us all question what secure really is I’m doing like air quotes on what security is because ultimately, if you have one source of income, that’s not that secure, you need a diverse array of incomes coming in. And so what an emergency fund essentially is, is money that is available to you in a moment’s notice. So if it’s if something were to happen, if if you lost your job, if you had a big expense come up, you need cash available to you in order to cover your expenses for however long that you feel comfortable with. For some people, that’s three months for people that some people that six months for some people that’s a year.

Stephie
And I know that this is something that you and other financial experts recommend, like this is the very first thing that you should be doing. Like when you’re you know, figuring out your finances, getting your finances in order on your path to financial freedom, however you want to word that, like, I’ve heard you I’ve heard I’ve been listening to financial feminist podcast, she talks a lot about the fact that like your first step is an emergency fund. Why let’s just like spell it out, like kindergarten style. Why is that the very first thing that you need to do?

Chloé
Yeah, well, I think the the reason it’s so important is because the best way to stay out of high interest debt is to not get into high interest debt in the first place. And high interest debt is one of those things that really bring somebody down, it’s really difficult to get out of and some credit cards. When we’re using them for emergency situations. Sometimes they’re you know, I’ve had clients who have credit cards that are at almost 30% interest rates. And when you’re using your credit cards to deal with emergencies, it’s really hard to get out of that cycle. And so an emergency fund really prevents us from having to go into high interest credit card debt when an emergency arrives. And so, for me, I think it’s the number one priority, because it’s connected to really everything. And it’s really connected to that getting out of the paycheck to paycheck lifestyle, which so many of us are in why we recommend it is just because it’s it not only is it kind of take that anxiety away of knowing that if something happens, you’re covered. But it’s also that we’re going to prevent you from having to go into that high interest credit card debt that we want to avoid at all costs. And then not only that, it’s going to help us stay out of that paycheck to paycheck lifestyle. Because the thing is, there’s always going to be shit that happens is just guaranteed. And when you don’t have the money to cover it, then you’re just constantly in the cycle of trying to keep up and make up for Oh, well. Last month, my tire went out and I had to pay for that. And I didn’t have the cash. So I had to put it on my credit card. And now the money that I had dedicated for savings I have to use for this anyway. So it’s just you’re in this constant cycle of never having enough. And once you that, once you get out of that cycle, you there’s this, this little anxiety that disappears, that’s a worry that disappears that allows you to focus on other things like investing, budgeting, etc. And even though most financial experts, myself included, recommend having an emergency fund first. That doesn’t mean you can’t prioritize other things too. It just means that if you only have $1,000 a month or $200 a month to dedicate to your emergency fund extra payments on debt or savings, well, we’re just going to make sure that your highest priority is that emergency fund. So if we only have 200 extra dollars a month, let’s put $100 in that emergency fund and then 50 extra on debt and 50 into to you know, investing or whatever else.

Stephie
Yeah, I mean like so i right now, I just switched from run one job to a new job. And even though like my new salary is gonna be higher, ultimately All those things I’m like, in this weird period of time where, like, I just got my last paycheck from my previous job, but it’s gonna be like a hot minute before I get my first paycheck for my next job, but because I have that emergency fund money, I’m not like, Oh my god, what are we gonna do for the month of July? I’m like, Okay, I’ve got that is why I have that emergency fund. So I, I feel way less stressed about that little like gap period of getting settled into the new job.

Chloé
Yeah, exactly. And I mean, just even when we’re thinking about entrepreneurs, or people who are going out on their own, or deciding to do their side, hustle full, full time, when it comes to business, you never want to be forced to make bad decisions because of money. You know, you never want to start making your content all really salesy, because all of a sudden, you’re strapped for cash, you’re panicking, and you’re like, my emergency fund is just dripping away, it’s just slowly disappearing. And we don’t want to have to make bad decisions, just because we’re panicked for money. So even in the entrepreneur space, I feel like it’s even more important, because it’s going to really help you not make those really irrational fear based decisions. And in personal finance, too. You don’t want to have to make decisions based off of fear. And the emergency fund kind of takes that fear away.

Megan
You mentioned earlier that some people do four months, some people do six months, how do you recommend people figure out their like target range for that?

Chloé
Yeah. So I mean, it really just depends on your risk preference. So your risk preferences, basically taking into consideration all of the different things you have going on in life. So for you guys, you both have kids, you both have homes, you both have responsibilities outside of yourself. So you may want to have a higher emergency fund. Whereas I’m single, I’ve got no kids, I just have a dog to support. So maybe I’m more comfortable with three months while I’m working my current nine to five. So it really depends, you have to really look at Okay, who am I responsible for? How do I feel just having a three month emergency fund? Does that feel like enough? And really question what you’re weighing as secure. So for a lot of people, they think, Oh, my job is so secure. I only need a three month emergency fund. Well, what if that Job’s not actually as secure as you think it is? I think the pandemic pandemic did a really good job of showing us that things we thought we’re secure, actually not as secure as we thought. And so if you lost your income, and it took you six months to get your job back, what’s your plan? So I think it’s really taking a deep dive, if you’re not sure, start with three months and see how that feels. And when we’re talking about how much you should have saved. And those three months of six months, that’s based off of your emergency expenses. So it’s not looking at your expenses of when you’re making $130,000 a year you have no cares in the world, you’re not you know, you’re doing whatever you want with your money. It’s not that money. It’s the Okay, I’ve lost my job or something happened where I can’t work, or I’m not getting an income or whatever. What are the essential expenses that I have to take care of that are non negotiable, and multiplying that monthly number by however many months you want to save. So for me, even though I probably spend about three to $4,000 on everything a month, my essentials list is more like 20 $600 a month. So that’s where I calculate my emergency fund. I take that and multiply it by three or six, or however many months I plan to have an emergency fund. Does that make sense?

Yes. So once you know how much you want to save, where do you put it? Yeah, so for most people, I recommend a high yield savings account. And so high yield savings accounts are pretty much the same thing as a regular savings account. The only differences is that it offers a lot more interest on your standard savings account. So like your standard savings account with Bank of America or Chase is usually at like point 01 percent interest or something really, really low like that. high yield savings accounts are usually offering you about point 5% or at least right now it ebbs and flows with the Federal Interest rate. So when the Federal Interest rates start going up these high yield savings, interest rates will go up as well. Because when I first started my high yield savings account, I think it was at like 2%. And then last year as those interest rates went down, so did the interest rate of my Ally Bank Account slowly would surely just was like 5% now. So you have to Oh, go ahead.

Megan
I’m old enough to remember when my high yield savings account interest rate was 5%

Stephie
percent holy,

Megan
it’s so high. It’s like a downward spiral.

Chloé
Now it’s like a kind of laughable but at the same time I get that those comments every time that I post something about a high yield savings account. everybody’s like, those don’t exist anymore. It’s like you Are they they’re not as good as they typically do. But they’re still Yeah, they’re still 50 times more than what you’re gonna get in your chase account. And I don’t know about you, but I’ll take the extra 20 bucks or the extra 30 bucks that I’m gonna get for, like, you know, the pennies on $1. So no, should you be keeping all of your money in a high yield savings account? Absolutely not. But for those emergency funds, the things that you need quick access to and your short term savings goals, high yield savings accounts are great. But what like I was saying the only difference between a high yield savings account and a regular savings account is that usually high yield savings accounts are online. They’re not brick and mortar stores. There are some that are brick and mortar. But the reason that they’re able to offer folks higher interest rates is because they’re saving on not having physical locations. Besides that, it’s pretty much the same, you do need to keep your regular savings account around or your regular checking account around to because these online big accounts don’t usually have like debit cards or withdrawal cards, you have to transfer in and out of your standard bank in order to access the money. And another thing to think about is in when you transfer it, it’ll take like one to two business days to hit your bank account. So it’s kind of a little like if you had an emergency in the same day, generally, what I recommend people is if they’re comfortable with credit cards, you pay with your credit card, you do the transfer. And then when you get that money in your bank account, you pay your credit card off.

Megan
We actually have our emergency fund in Capital One, but we also have our checking account through Capital One. So for that bank, at least you can get it the same day. So there are some options. There’s definitely some options. I

Chloé
know chime is another one where it’s you can connect it to a savings account or a checking account where it makes it super easy, but I do really like that about Capital One.

Stephie
Yeah, I have the same I use Capital One. I think actually from Meghan’s recommendation years ago, um,

Megan
back when it was i n g or something? I

Stephie
don’t know. Um, and yeah, cuz we got our checking, and we’ve got like a couple just like regular savings accounts. And then we have our emergency fund in our in our high yield. So I know someone is going to be itching to invest their emergency fund, and in the past that someone has been Megan’s husband. Why do you not want to do this?

Chloé
Yeah, so I mean, I’ll give you two scenarios, there’s one scenario where maybe Okay, and but most of the time, you shouldn’t be investing your emergency fund, because this is money that you’re going to need, theoretically, and it’s going to be in the short term, when you invest for a short period of time, you’re way more likely to lose money. Whereas if you’re invested for the long term, after 15 years of being invested, you have a 0% chance of losing money. And that’s based on if you’re invested in the s&p 500. So the reason we don’t want to be investing our s or our emergency fund, is because let’s say something happens when the markets are down, and you have to pull that money out, you could lose like 30% of your emergency fund, just because you’re pulling it out when the markets down. So we really don’t want to have to, we don’t want any risk with that money. You know, the only situation where I could see potentially investing your emergency fund is if you have a huge emergency fund. So the only scenario where I would think it would be okay, potentially. And again, it depends on your risk preference, if you don’t mind that you’re risking part of your emergency fund, then go for it. But I would say the only time it makes sense is if you have like a huge emergency fund, let’s say you feel comfortable with having a year emergency fund, but you want to invest half of that I’m okay with that, you know, you could be investing it in low cost index funds that are relatively not risky, and have a good hedge with bonds. But knowing that, if you’re going to need that money, then you could potentially lose it because you’re or not lose all of it, but lose a chunk of it when the markets not doing well. But again, most of the time, if we have a year savings, we’re not going to need all of that money right at once Knock Knock on wood, even if an emergency were going to happen. So that’s the only scenario where I’d be like, Man, it’s okay, you can do that you just have to be smart about and you have to know the risks of investing your emergency fund.

Megan
So what are some instances where you might need to add money to your emergency fund and say like you’ve already gotten whatever your monthly amount that you had already decided on? And you’ve you decide now that you might need to add money, what kind of situations would lead to that?

Chloé
Yeah, I mean, it’s basically any life changes. So if you move somewhere that has higher rent or higher mortgage, you’re going to need to add to your emergency fund, likely you’re going to have to recalculate like, okay, now my emergency expenses are this amount of money, it used to be 2500. Now it’s $3,000. So I need to think by X amount of dollars, you know, having a baby having kids kids going to, you know, kids driving or, you know, any any kind of major life changes where your monthly expenses go up, that’s when you need to reevaluate.

Stephie
Once you you know, you’ve set this set this up, you’ve got it in your high yield account, like you’re, you’re feeling good, you’re feeling confident. What are your next saving steps?

Chloé
Yeah, I mean, it really depends on you. But I would say, for most people, it’s upping their investments, upping their retirement investments. I think a lot of people when they’re saving for their emergency fund, they’re prioritizing that over saving for their retirement or they’re doing just more money in their emergency fund and less than near retirement, I would say, focus on investing in your retirement accounts, whether it’s your Roth IRA, your IRA or your 401k. But also, if you have high interest debt, or any other kind of debt, that’s over maybe 5% interest rate, I would recommend paying that off. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do either, or where I’m a huge supporter of pay off debt at the same time that you’re investing. Because when you’re investing time is one of the biggest values of investing, you know, the longer you’re invested, the more your money is going to grow, and the more compound interest is going to do the work for you. So even if you have high interest debt, or even if you have medium interest debt, I still think it’s really important to be investing for your future. So I would say those two things would probably be the first next steps. But then it’s looking at Okay, what are my other short term goals? So yes, obviously, saving for retirement is important. But what else do I need to save for in the near future? Maybe in five years, I want to purchase a home or in five years, I wanna have kids. So I want to have a big nest egg. Or maybe I want to just have a vacation fund where every year I have $5,000 to go on vacation or go travel. And I want to start doing that. So it’s really looking at what are your goals, but I would say the first two things is look at paying off your high interest debt and look at increasing your retirement allocations, your retirement investments, and then when you have leftover money it’s looking at Okay, what else can I be saving? For?

Stephie
Yeah, and I’m gonna I’m gonna plug what you do here for a second. Chloe doesn’t didn’t know that I was going to do this. So I actually did Chloe’s which session did I do? I did the discovery session. Is that right? Yeah. So I did a two hour discovery call with her. Where we went over my finances. I mean, mine and Alex’s, but, um, went over our finances. And, you know, she really, we dug into what our spending has looked like over the last couple of months where we want it to be, where we want our emergency fund to be, you know, where, you know, what we’re looking at in terms of retirement, what some of our other savings priorities and goals are. And she, I like felt, so I felt like a fuckin boss asked bitch, after that session, I was like, Oh, my God, like, for the first time, I really feel like I have my budget under control. And I have savings goals. And I like don’t just have money floating around in a random account anymore, where I’m like, I don’t really know what’s happening with this money, what’s it doing, it doesn’t have a job. And so I highly recommend if you are trying to get your finances in order, like hit Chloe up, I mean, follow her on social, we’ll link all of her social accounts and stuff in her YouTube and all of that in the show notes. But also, like, potentially look into working with her for some of her financial coaching sessions, because I feel like having a third party, it was sort of like talking to a therapist, where you have a third party who’s not invested in your emotions, like helping you work through them, like you were my money therapist, and you are able to, from a like, unbiased standpoint, be able to say like, you’re actually doing a lot better here than you thought or here’s an area where you could do something a little different and probably see XYZ change. And it just helped me so much so

Chloé
hey, I’m so good. I’m just sitting here smiling at my screen. I’m like this. This is why I do it. Because it makes me so happy to hear when people feel like okay, I got this like I can do this like it’s actually something that is achievable. So I’m so glad to hear that thank

Stephie
you not to mention that when you do that you get a really baller spreadsheet template and you guys watch I love I really good spreadsheet it’s ever really fucking cool spreadsheet. So if if the financial security doesn’t lower you in the spreadsheet really should spread the seeds for the wind? Absolutely.

Megan
So one of the things that I know is kind of a stumbling block for people when it comes to emergency funds is that they just feel like they don’t have the extra money to be putting into an emergency fund savings account. So do you have some tips or strategies for the people out there? So they can get their own emergency fund started?

Chloé
Yeah, so I definitely have a pretty extensive blog post on you know, how to get started kind of step by step what to do, how to even look at, okay, where can I find money in my spending to start dedicating to this, I mean, essentially, if you look at your spending, you realize there’s nothing left over at the end of the month, there’s only two things you can do, you can either cut back, or you can increase your income. That’s it. And so in my blog post, and I also have a video about it, I kind of walk you through all those steps, but I also have tons of resources in terms of like, how to actually look at your budget, how to actually look at your spending, and then decide, okay, how do I prioritize this? How do I rearrange my spending so that I actually can meet some of these goals that I want, and, you know, not also, like, hate the process. So I’ve got a ton of information on clover calm. But besides that, I mean, I think it’s just, I think we talked about this last time too. But if you’re on Instagram, if you’re on tik tok, if you’re on YouTube, start paying attention to some personal finance creators, there’s so much good information out there, there’s a lot of bad information out there too. But there’s a lot of good information on those platforms to kind of help you think about money differently and think about spending and kind of normalize getting your money together. Because I feel like it’s I feel like there’s this big movement to normalizing being like being good with money, and definitely capitalize on and take advantage of the people who are out there creating free education, there’s so much of it out there. And once you change your feed to be following people who are thinking about money and giving tips and and talking about it every single day, it starts to just become this no brainer thing. Whereas like, when I first started, I wasn’t following anybody in the personal finance space. I wasn’t, I didn’t know anything I all I had ever heard of was Dave Ramsey, who I can’t stand anymore. But I, I was I was lost. And so I started looking at blogs and things like that slowly but surely, and I just kind of got immersed into it where now I forget that people don’t even know certain things because it’s like, my whole feed my whole world is like personal finance, this personal finance that and it really helps motivate you and like, stay accountable and be excited about Okay, getting my personal finances is gonna make me feel like an empowered boss bitch. That’s what I would say is definitely do a little bit of education and change your change your feed, you know, pay attention to other stuff. What I’ve noticed too is once you start following, especially in Instagram, and Tiktok, if you’re following one creator that focuses on personal finance, it’s just gonna the algorithms just gonna start recommending you person after person who’s focused on personal finance.

Megan
Yeah, for sure. And I think definitely, I think in the past couple of years, I’ve really noticed a shift toward, like you were saying, like, personal finance is cool. Now. There’s just a lot more people talking about it. And especially because of the pandemic, I think, like, people suddenly feel comfortable talking about money and talking about the salaries and talking about what they should be doing with money in general. And it’s as an old person in the room. It’s very refreshing. And I wish that it had happened for me 10 years ago.

Stephie
And it’s not just middle aged white dudes in the space. Yes.

Megan
Stephanie and I have both been to fincon in previous years, and it was previously all

Stephie
white, it was a sausage fest. I I messaged Chloe, because Chloe is actually going to be speaking at fin con. Which is so exciting. And I messaged her and I was like, I’m so excited to see that you’re going to be speaking I’ve been before and in the past it was just a total sausage fest and so I’m I’m just ecstatic that you’re going to be speaking there that’s such a great opportunity for you and your business and

Unknown Speaker
yeah, I’m definitely stoked about it’s cool because like some of my friends in the personal finance space are also speaking at it so it’s it’s gonna be so exciting to get to meet some of these people in person. But like you know, Delyanne speaking, we bravely go speaking shoot who’s also female and a woman of color. And it’s nice to see there’s a lot more diversity I haven’t been before. But I think based off of what I was looking at, I mean, their keynote speaker is minority mindset. And so they’ve already got I definitely See a movement towards trying to be more inclusive. And I think the reason is is because they’re not just focusing on like bloggers and podcasters and youtubers anymore. It’s also like, Instagram creators Tick Tock creators, a little bit of everybody who’s in the finance space. And like you guys said, I feel like in 2020, it just exploded. So many people just started accounts and started talking about it. I don’t know if you guys follow like Delhi, in Delhi and the money coach. She’s one of those who started in January 2020. Now she’s quit her job. And she’s made almost a million dollars in the last year from selling her course. And so she’ll be a speaker there speaker there as well. But again, another huge presence in the space that’s not a white man, not a white woman either. So it’s very exciting.

Stephie
Yeah, I love that. So speaking of, you know, other other bloggers, other content creators, other resources, who are some folks that you really like that have additional information, whether it is specific to emergency funds, or that you just really like in general and you think, are giving really good advice? There are so many, Oh, my gosh, tell us tell us your top five,

Chloé
five, okay, so I absolutely love deli and the money coach. She’s become a friend of mine. And she’s just got some amazing content out there. Her first 100k who’s that she’s the one who’s doing that financial feminist podcast. She’s got some great information out there, too. And she’s got the podcast. In terms of YouTube, I do have to shout out one white guy. I do love Graham Steffen, his YouTube channel, it’s just very easy to understand, approachable, enjoyable, and he’s just like somebody you enjoy watching. Or I enjoy watching. Let’s see who else I love female and finance. She’s another Instagram person who’s creating content. Who would be my fit, I gotta say, I really loved the blog, quit like a million, or I’m sorry, their book is quick, like a millionaire. But their blog is millennial revolution. And I learned a ton about investing from their website when I was first getting started, and they’re actually Canadian. So you know any of my, any of your people who are in Canada and need specific recommendations for you know, investing in Canada, they’re a great, great blog, but they also have that book quit like a millionaire. So love them again, not not white guys. So it’s nice to get some diversity in there. But yeah, I would say those are probably some of my favorite content creators right now. I really haven’t read millennial revolution since I first got started just because it’s a lot of stuff that you know, I obviously already know now, but sure. But you’ve graduated, graduated. But I will say they helped me out a lot when I was trying to understand, you know, how do you allocate your portfolio? What is allocations? What should I be investing in all of those things, and they’re funny, and they’re interesting, but I will I okay, I’m going to do six. But I also really love the jL Collins stock series, I recommend it to pretty much everyone who wants to get started in investing, I learned a crap ton from that. It’s a free blog series. Online. It’s a little bit it’s it’s from 2014. So it’s old, but it still holds up. And he’s made a lot of updates since then. But if you just Google jL Collins stock series, it’ll come right up and it’s really, really great information for free. Awesome, awesome. Love it. We

What’s bringing us joy?

Stephie
will link to all of that in the show notes for you guys. Chloe, thank you so much for coming back and talking to us all about emergency funds. This This was really great and really informative. So let’s wrap up our week. Let’s talk about joy. What’s bringing you joy this week Chloe?

Chloé
Um, so this is a weird one because I it’s like joy, but it’s also a little bit of like, oh, how am I gonna do this, um, I started my CFP course today. So I am in the process of becoming a certified financial planner. Not that I want to practice being a certified financial planner, I just want to further my education so that I can provide more value to folks who work with me. But I literally had my first class right before those from five to seven. And I’m like, man, it feels weird to be back in class, but I’m also very excited about it and also Loki pretty stressed about it. But mostly, I would say and I get it is bringing me joy because it’s just kind of like this is cool. Like I’m doing school again, but it’s doing it in a way that like I’m actually excited about what I’m learning and that’s a good feeling.

Megan
Is it like an online class where you like see other people or is it like self taught?

Chloé
No, it’s an online class through Northwestern and it’s like a certification program. I don’t get to like see people’s faces but it is live in And then it’s like, you know, you have access to all the archive stuff if I miss a class or things like that, so it is kind of structured, but I could also go at my own pace if I need to.

Stephie
Cool. That’s awesome.

Megan
Stephie What is bringing you joy?

Stephie
i? I’m not gonna lie. I know there’s there many opinions about them this year. But I am excited that the Olympics start on Friday. I’m excited for the Olympics. You guys don’t take away that joy.

Chloé
I didn’t even realize that was happening.

Stephie
We Well, one of our friends at a friend of the pod on a is Loki obsessed with the Olympics. And so she’s had, she’s had a countdown on her personal Instagram. And then on her skincare account, she’s been posting all of these like, Olympics like memes and reels and stuff. And she’ll be like, me when I get new skincare in the mail. And it’s like sceetos person like jumping away in the air, like whatever it is. Like, we have like a constant like three more days until the Olympics countdown going on. But yeah, I’m excited. So I just I love. I don’t do sports ball. But I love the Olympics. I

Megan
will admit that I do. I do enjoy the Olympics. But also if I was not friends with it, I probably would have forgotten that they existed this year.

Stephie
I mean, it’s been a weird year for them. I mean,

Megan
they weren’t supposed to be this year anyway.

Stephie
But it’s very atypical. And I feel like with with the pandemic, and just everything happening, I feel like there hasn’t been as much like, like, lead up to them. But I am still excited to see them. I love watching. My favorite thing is in the opening ceremonies, when you see the countries that like only have one athlete, and they’re just so proudly carrying their flag, I burst into tears every time every I remember, Alex and I had not been like together super long. The first like year, the first time there was an Olympics. I think there was like, I think it was like when maybe a winter Olympics, and we’d only been living together like a few months at that point. And I he like looks over at me and I’m crying during the opening ceremonies and he’s like, are you crying? Just to be there. You’re not gonna win anything, but they’re just so proud to be there. He’s like, Oh, my God, you’re a

Unknown Speaker
dork adorable.

Stephie
So I’m excited for the Olympics.

Megan
I was explained to my children how the Olympics work, because they have experienced the Olympics before but they don’t remember it because they’re kids. Sure. And they don’t pay attention anything. But I was explaining how because they’re in Tokyo, everything is going to be delayed. And if you don’t have cable, you can’t watch like anything live basically. Right. And then NBC spends at least half of their broadcast doing like human interest stories about how Todd had a really rough growing up in the six. But he really wanted to be a

Stephie
water polo player. And it’ll show him back in his trailer park grew up and kicking the dirt and talking. I’m just like, you know what,

Megan
I just, I just want to watch the sports. I

Stephie
I know I sort of love I also sort of love the human interest stories too, though, because again, I’m a sucker for that like emotional. heartstrings

Megan
of all of these guys just want the sports.

Stephie
wagon is all about the business because the emotions, those pesky emotions.

Megan
The problem is in the Olympics, there are so many sports. There are a lot there’s so so many sports that you never ever see on TV. Yes. And I would like to watch them. I would love to see equestrian

Stephie
Yeah, I guess not on TV. I would watch underwater basket weaving if it’s on the Olympics, like right. Am I gonna watch it ever outside of the Olympics every four years? Absolutely not.

Megan
But the Olympics, I want to watch every sport all of it.

Stephie
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. beggin what’s bringing you joy this week.

Megan
My garden which I have now dubbed the jungle garden, because it is out of control. My mind typical, I will tell you that my typical stance on gardening is that I will play it in a bunch of things with the best intentions and then kind of just let it do whatever it wants, um, which is not really recommended most of the time. And all my tomatoes are like they’re kind of like growing into each other. I don’t know if I will be able to get to some of the tomatoes. When they do eventually ripen. I had to cut off a bunch of branches today in hopes that they would ripen, get satisfied. But I have harvested a few tomatoes and then I have harvested a couple zucchini and a couple of cucumber. But those are also all like they’re all growing together in one big area where it’s like these gigantic zucchini plants that the leaves are bigger than my head. Yeah. And then the cucumber is like growing into the zucchini around the peppers also into the tomato that was over on the other side. It’s just like a whole mat. I

Stephie
was at your house like a week and a half ago and I looked out the window and I was like Meghan, what is that enormous plant like? Is that is that a zucchini plant? Like? The literally the leaves are the size of dinner plate,

Megan
sir cute.

Stephie
I was like holy bananas. What?

Megan
I have never grown zucchini before. This is my first year growing zucchini. So I don’t really know what is right and what is wrong. But I have gotten zucchini off of it. And that has made me very happy. So

Stephie
you know what you are 100% more successful this year than any other zucchini growing year. So that’s right. Yes.

Megan
That’s right.

Stephie
Whether you get another one it doesn’t matter. You had a successful zucchini growing season.

Megan
Yes. And I’m sure in about three weeks I will be dropping off a bag of cucumber cucumbers to your house.

Stephie
That’s fine. We’re good with it. We’ve got a shitload of hot peppers, like Alex has three hot pepper plants and pots on the patio, which also in the hot pepper plant pots. There’s like a volunteer basil that sprouted nice. I am a little afraid of it because I don’t know if it’s spicy. Spicy basil. Also, because we’ve got a jalapeno, and then a habanero. And then a mystery hot pepper plant like literally he picked it up like Ace or something. And it literally just says hot peppers. And the picture had like a plant with a bunch of different types of peppers on it, which I was like, I don’t think that’s how plants work. Look like banana peppers, but we’re not really sure so and Alex with his hot peppers, he really likes to just leave them for a really long time until they all get read. And then he harvest them and then he makes hot sauce out of them. So it’s gonna be a while before we’re gonna know. But I have a feeling we’re gonna have a lot of hot sauce by the end of the season. So

Megan
that’s exciting because I have pepper plants and they have been choked out. They’re still alive, but they are getting no sun because they are covered up by zucchini and cucumber leaves.

Stephie
Those damn vines. Goodness. Well, I’m

Megan
excited. The first year is always touch and go.

Stephie
Yeah, got it. You got to figure out your system. Yeah, you’re good next year, you know? Yeah.

Next week’s episode

Megan
Well, you guys know that at least once a year we have to have an episode that smashes the patriarchy. So next week, we’re gonna talk all about bras

Stephie
because we hate them. Yeah, we hate them. So, come back here next week. If you want to hear us bitch about how much we hate bras. In the meantime, leave us a review on Apple podcasts and listen to us on your favorite platform. You can also follow us on social media at irsipodcast or send us an email at idratherstayinpodcast@gmail.com we’d love to hear from you. Bye

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078: In Case of Emergency with Chloé Daniels

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