The Get Ready Money Podcast

Get Ready with Kerry Hannon: Career Transitions and Women Taking Charge of Their Financial Planning (E11)

January 17, 2020 Tony Steuer Episode 11
The Get Ready Money Podcast
Get Ready with Kerry Hannon: Career Transitions and Women Taking Charge of Their Financial Planning (E11)
Show Notes Transcript

It’s easy when you meet new people, when you’re at a conference or something, to start feeling like you need to be marketing yourself, telling them who you are. Instead, ask questions and learn who they are. If you listen, you make the other person feel great and so you’ve made a connection. And you’ll learn something.” -Kerry Hannon

A key thing is to always pay yourself first. It’s really easy, you’re paying bills and you forget to save, to invest, to put money aside for you - you’re not saving for retirement, you’re saving for life.” - Kerry Hannon

In this episode of Get Ready!, I spoke with Kerry Hannon, Author, Speaker and Career Strategist about mid-life career transitions. We also discussed Kerry’s “She Leads Workshops”, that facilitates women having conversations with other women to raise awareness of issues and challenges they face in securing, protecting and growing their wealth. Lastly, we covered Kerry’s advocacy work and testimony to Congress on older workers and the changing workscape, as well as the importance of women taking charge of their own financial planning.

Connect with Kerry Hannon:
LinkedIn: Kerry Hannon - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerryhannon/
Website: https://kerryhannon.com/

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Buzzsprout - http://www.buzzsprout.com/530449 


Bio: Kerry Hannon is a nationally recognized strategist on career transitions, entrepreneurship, personal finance and retirement. She is a frequent keynote speaker,  and TV and radio commentator. Kerry is the author of 13 books, including Never Too Old To Get Rich: The Entrepreneurs Guide To Starting a Business Mid-Life, Great Jobs for Everyone 50+, Money Confidence, Getting the Job You Want After 50 and Love Your Job: The New Rules for Career Happiness. She is an expert columnist and regular contributor to The New York Times, PBS website Next Avenue.org, Forbes and MarketWatch. 

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the get ready podcast

Speaker 2:

Partnership with insurance nerds today, I'm pleased to be joined by Kerry Hannon. In this episode, we'll be discussing career transitions and what women should consider about financial preparedness, Carrie. Good morning. Welcome.

Speaker 3:

Good morning. Thank you. I love being here with you.

Speaker 2:

Fantastic. So before we dive in, I'm going to, uh, tell our audience a little bit about you. Uh, Carrie is a nationally recognized strategist on career transitions, entrepreneurship, personal finance, and retirement. The key passion for Carrie is helping and advising women on how to take charge of their own financial planning at all stages of their lives to prepare themselves for a financially secure future curious, a frequent keynote speaker TV and radio commentator. Carrie is the author of 13 books, including never too old to get rich, the entrepreneur's guide to starting a business midlife and money confidence. Carrie is also an expert columnist and regular contributor to the New York times, PBS website, next avenue.org, Forbes and MarketWatch. Uh, so Carrie H how do you do all that?

Speaker 3:

I know it's exhausting, isn't it? I think I like words, you know, so yeah, it's a lot of fun. I I've been very fortunate.

Speaker 2:

Well, great. So, you know, kind of, um, how do you do what's your day? Like?

Speaker 3:

Uh, well, I start very early, um, and I'm a morning girl, so I'm up around five. I get as much done as I can in the morning, you know, between, uh, since I'm a one woman show here, I work for myself, run my own business. So I do my social media in the morning. I return emails. I read the newspapers, a couple of them, as you can imagine, I'm sure you do as well. And, uh, and just sort of do that and get that to-do list down and start checking the things off. So, you know, each week is very different. Every day is very different, but I juggle a lot of different columns and speaking engagements and things like this, even talking to wonderful experts like yourself. And, um, so it's just fun and I'm just, I just love what I do because every day is different and every day I'm learning something new.

Speaker 2:

Definitely. You know, that's, that's amazing. It sounds a little bit like my day as well. And I think it's so true of, uh, so many people out there, um, that a lot of us don't have the traditional day. And even if we do have a traditional job, it's, um, you know, we all have busy schedules and different projects we're working on. Uh, let's go back. How did you get started, uh, with these projects and everything?

Speaker 3:

Well, I'm like in my early career, I worked for, I kind of cut my teeth at Forbes magazine. I was in my twenties. I was living in New York. Malcolm Forbes was alive in those days. We had, he was go go days of the eighties and it was so much fun. I mean, you could come up with a story idea and they'd say, get on an airplane and go. And for a young person, it was really exciting. And I was interviewing CEOs of huge companies and little companies and learning about marketing and business and really great time. And I went from there to working for, um, uh, money magazine, which so I shifted to writing about personal finance and you know, what Tony, I, all of a sudden, I, I was never going to run a billion dollar company, but I understood personal finance because I had gotten in credit card trouble. I had, you know, I was li I knew a lot of things in my twenties to tell people not to do, and it resonated with me. So I moved, you know, I looked into doing that and, and writing a national column for USA today on retirement and taxes. That was a lot of fun. But one day I said, you know what? I really, and I started writing books, uh, books about women at that point, suddenly single money skills for divorce days of widow, a 10 minute guide to retirement for women. And I said, one day I just woke up and said, you know what? I don't want to go to an office anymore. I want to just do my own thing. And luckily as I would advise anyone who is changing jobs, don't burn any bridges. And a lot of my old employers, uh, said, Hey, you know, keep writing for us, keep, keep coming out and doing books, doing columns. And I built that into speaking engagements and, you know, it just rolled on. So it's been a really, really great, uh, sort of trajectory for me. Uh, and I, I enjoy all of my platforms.

Speaker 2:

Well, fantastic. Yeah. I think that's a really valuable lesson. No matter where you are in the career spectrum is to keep your relationships and honor them because things, things change. And we transitioned to many things in our lives. Um, you know, and speaking of which, uh, you know, obviously you're an expert and you've written extensively about midlife career transitions. Uh, can you share some tips about what people should be thinking about?

Speaker 3:

You know, I love the idea of midlife transitions because you know, like this is short make every day count, go do stuff you really love. I just a bit talking to people who are unhappy in their jobs or in their work, because you know what, this is what we do. So I tell people, you know, this was a great, you know, when you start to make a midlife career change, you know, there are great opportunities out there, but you need to go slow. This is a process. It doesn't just click your heels and you shipped off into a different direction. You really have to, you know, all of the people that I've counseled and I've profiled, I've spent time with, they took their time. They did their homework. They talked to people who were in those fields, people who were doing those jobs, they weren't asking for a job. They just wanted to do the reconnaissance, so to speak, what is it, what is, what is it in? You know, some of them get job shadowing, they volunteered, or they moonlighted, uh, to see if this was something that they truly wanted to do, because sometimes it's really not that dreamy once you're actually doing it as a job. So, uh, they went back to school and added skills, uh, and, and certificates often you might need a new certificate to move to a different direction, and they got their finances in shape. And we can talk a little bit about my fitness program if you'd like to at some point, but being financially fit, because debt is really the biggest dream killer when it comes to shipping, because you'll probably start at a lower salary than you were initially in your prayer career. Um, and, and that can ramp back up. But if you're starting your own business, certainly you may not be able to pay yourself initially. So all of those things come together to say, let's take our time, you know? So it could be a process start thinking about what you want to do, maybe a year or two in advance. And sometimes it takes three years or so to really do it. But the bottom line is vices. Everyone gets kind of, Oh, it's so daunting and reinventing myself, you know? No, no, no, no, no. You're redeploying the skills that you've built your whole lifetime to this point. You're redeploying them in a new direction. Yeah. You're going to add some new stuff. Thankfully. That's terrific. That's exciting. That's scary. Um, but you're also taking what you already know.

Speaker 2:

Well, that's great. Yeah. As somebody put it to me, um, I I'm in the middle of a transition, like with the launch of this podcast and they phrased it as turning the page is not necessarily doing something drastically different. You're just moving on to another chapter. And

Speaker 3:

I love that. Yeah. You're just shifting into a side and the other, the other beautiful thing is nothing is forever. You know, our primary, our original career, we have this linear idea that, you know, you go to school, ah, you get your degrees off. You go, whatever your career path is, and it's linear, you move up the chain, but at this stage of life, you might do something for five years and shift, even in another direction, you might do a couple of different things at the same time, which I suspect you do. And I do. And so you kind of have a little hot going on or, you know, it's, it's all an evolution. So it's not something that, so you just need to get started. You don't make that one phone call, do the baby steps.

Speaker 2:

That's, that's great. And I think that's so important is, you know, there are a lot of younger professionals in the insurance industry who are part of the insurance nerds audience. And, you know, I think for those people that's especially true is that they, they need to start realizing. And so many of them I've talked to people who are doing one thing. They might work for the traditional insurance company, but then the insurance company has little technology company that they're starting on the side. And so people have their hands in a lot of different activities. Um, you know, so it's, it's definitely like that is they're making the transitions while they're working the traditional job.

Speaker 3:

Yep, yep. Starting it kind of on the side, that's a really prudent thing to do. And I just think any time we start a new venture, uh, as part of our, our day, um, it just sort of, uh, ramps up the adrenaline. It makes it all, you know, you, you start firing and once you start learning, learning new things, your, your brain shifts in the world around you shifts and everything gets, um, it's, it's optimistic, right. You're looking to the right. It's a great way to live your life.

Speaker 2:

Definitely. And you know, the insurance industry has been a little bit late, uh, to the changing technology world, but the insurance industry is definitely starting to take it on in the financial services industry. And I think, you know, the people in the financial services community, I mean, what you're very much in touch with are starting to learn that, Hey, we, we don't need to be scared of this, that this is a great opportunity for people and for companies and ultimately will lead to better results for consumers.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Embracing the change, you know,

Speaker 2:

Not always easy. So, you know, I actually, one of the areas of focus for you and I, I think it's so important is, um, you know, women still make up a small minority of C-suite executives of financial representatives. Um, w what do you think are the special takeaways for women with these transitions and, uh, their careers?

Speaker 3:

I say, let's go girl, I'll see, you know, you definitely, you know, I always, you know, you've just got to step up to the plate and not be intimidated by the fact that, you know, it may be a male network, still not, this is changing this, we're starting to see opportunities, but it needs to be more, we need to be out there. You need to start, you know, encouraging the younger women coming, put the ladder down for those behind us and say, come on. It's okay. Um, and encourage, you know, daughters, nieces, whatever it is it, depending on what your age is to get involved in some of the financial areas, because, you know, it's not that women, aren't fantastic. And in fact, when you, if you were just going to go to the investment, women are really great investors, and they're really a terrifically, a student, all of this. So it's not a matter of education. It's a matter of confidence and being comfortable in this world that for many years, was something that women kind of, uh, were not encouraged necessarily from a very young age to, uh, get involved in and then, you know, even money itself or financial topics. I mean, certainly talking about insurance and things. I mean, it's kind of taboo subjects. It's not like talking about what the latest sale at Lord and Taylor is. I mean, this is like a whole different ball game. And so we're not, you know, we're not, we're kind of talking about money as impolite in some way, or we're talking about those core things. It shouldn't be that way and it doesn't need to be there. So you need to start encouraging those conversations with younger women and among your own peers.

Speaker 2:

But I think those are really important points. And one of the observations I had in my career is that quite often in, um, married couples or other couples, domestic partnerships, is that it's the women who quite often, uh, run the finances in a family home. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yo are the hassle, no doubt about it. And when you do like studies have shown that everything women are confident about when it comes to budgeting household finances, it's just that tricky word investing. Then they go low. You know, I don't, I that's yours. You can take that over. But the fact is, women are the primary breadwinner in a growing number of families. And, um, it's not a negotiable. I mean, this is something, and most women are going to be single at some point in their life, whether through it's divorce or widowhood, uh, particularly those last decades of our lives. You're bringing a good chance. They're going to be managing on your own. And so you really need to be up to speed on all of those things and be comfortable with it because no, one's going to manage your money. And you know, everything from deciding what your insurance needs are or what your investment needs are. Nobody does it better than you do. So, uh, it's really critical not to hand that off to somebody else, because this is a football you need to carry.

Speaker 2:

Definitely, definitely. So, you know, that brings me to your new book, money, confidence, really smart financial moves, uh, for newly single women. Um, what are some of the key takeaways from that book about how women can be more financially prepared?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, no kidding. I mean, I, Tony, this happened in even in my own family and I'm like younger brother passed away two years ago and suddenly, and shockingly, his wife of 30 years knew she didn't know where anything was. She didn't have a credit card in her own name. She didn't have a bank account in her own name. She, uh, really 100% had deferred everything to my brother. And I'm thinking in my own family, you know, looking at me, you know, I talk about this,

Speaker 2:

Coach her

Speaker 3:

And guided her back. She's doing fine and she's taken over things, but it was really so scary and daunting for her. And I just had no clue. And this is not an anomaly. This happens today that women still don't have credit in their own names. They don't have bank accounts with just their name on it. These are things simple steps that, that we need to put into place when we're in a partnership and things are going swimmingly because they're, the divorce rate is still quite high. And women do come out usually on the, on the short end of the stick in those situations. And, and widowhood is extremely difficult, hard on women. And, um, so the fact is we, you need to, at the very least know where everything is. Uh, nowhere, all the bank accounts are know where the passwords are, no share this information. Marriage is the ultimate business partnership, and you need to be on equal footing. It's okay if you each take different roles and step up and you know it, okay, you don't have to do everything, but you have to know where everything is. And I think those are just very basic steps is making sure that you have that blueprint in front of you.

Speaker 2:

Definitely. So you, you would recommend, um, one of the things I talk about as well as, um, a family financial meeting where you meet with your spouse slash family, or whomever is appropriate and talk about, uh, your finances and just those issues. I, I think that's so important and it's, you know, it's great to spread that word because like you said, is it surprising somebody you think may know, but they don't actually know. Um,

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's true. And it's just like, Oh my gosh. I mean, I, you know, even myself, I, I, one day, you know what my husband was ill and he's fine, but he had this little health crisis and I thought, do I really know where everything is? Like, do I actually know his passwords? And so even, even someone who's in this field, I had to question myself again and like, okay, yeah, I got it. You know, I know where stuff is, but what often it's, it's you wait until that crisis point before you do that, that check and you, you can't do that. Now, your point, your family conversations really, really important and incredibly hard to do. I mean, I personally even get a little stomachache thinking about this, mean honest about money can be tricky, you know, but that's what builds a solid plan and a solid relationship. And it's usually harder when you have it all inside your head. Then when you finally come out and say, I really want to do this with, you know, with this amount of money, what do you think? You know, and it's not actually always asking for permission, it's asking for support, uh, for something like when I wanted to go off on my own, I, you know, my husband had to buy into that and say, okay, you know, you're not going to have health benefits anymore from a company, all those things. So, um, but in what you work on Tony, I think is interesting too. Like, uh, you know, one, you know, one of your, your books of course, about preparing for disasters and natural disasters and stuff like that. I mean, you can elaborate more, obviously your audience knows that, but this is a key part of it, right? I mean, everyone needs to be on board, where are things

Speaker 2:

Definitely. And, and that's really the crux of why I, uh, wrote get ready is because that was the one thing I noticed in working with, uh, consumers and through financial advisors. And I'm sure you've heard this, uh, from people in the financial services community is that people don't know where their things are and know how all the pieces fit together. Um, you know, they may have the financial plan, but they don't know those details. Like what's my bank account number, you know, like, uh, how many times have you seen or heard of somebody who's applying for a mortgage loan and they can't get all their paperwork together because you don't even know what the documents are.

Speaker 3:

So

Speaker 2:

It's really amazing. And I think you mentioned it before is part of it is, um, money is taboo and a big part of our society and talking about finances is not something that we're brought up is in a lot of families. It's like, it's a closed subject.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. It, it really is. And one thing I encouraged for women to do, and this is so simple, women love book clubs. Okay. So in your book club, every once in a while throwing a money book, you know, you put in your book or one of my books and just say, how would that be the reading? And then you, everyone sits around and you have those discussions about finance in, in that setting. Um, or you have sort of, you know, a money group where you meet and you maybe once a month and you have a dinner or whatever it is and your lunch and you talk, it doesn't have to be about investing or about buying insurance or whatever it might be, but it could be just anything related to money like, and just so you make it part of your conversations. So you're comfortable talking about it.

Speaker 2:

Definitely. Well, that, that's so interesting. I don't want to take away from what we're talking about, but I'm actually launching, um, a program to help people put together a financial preparedness groups where they,

Speaker 3:

It that's perfect. That's perfect.

Speaker 2:

That's what I've heard in. Um, you know, working with women that found that, uh, women have been the majority of, uh, the people who are most interested about the topic of financial organization. Uh, and so it, it, it is different how everybody processes, uh, these topics, uh, it's fascinating. So

Speaker 3:

We're very collaborative. So we like to share, we like to, to talk about things. So it's just making, giving the tools to make that happen, you know, uh, and making it okay to do that. I think some study I saw recently said women would rather talk about their own death and about embezzle money. So, you know, let's get over that. That's just not a good way to approach the world. Definitely. And where does,

Speaker 2:

Uh, the fear of public speaking come in there? I know that's something people don't like to do. So I think that leads us to, um, you know, what I think is a really fascinating, uh, program you're launching, um, the, she leads workshops. Um, can you share a little bit about the program?

Speaker 3:

Oh, I can. I am thrilled about these. We just launched them, uh, this year and they're rolling out around the country and what is sort of a one day or a part of a day workshop where we go into a community now, Georgia, the state of Georgia has been our pilot program and, you know, the secretary of state there has been right on board, promoting women. Let's do education, let's empower women in our state to do things. So that's our template, but we're moving out to other States, New Mexico and Michigan and Iowa and so forth. And in 2020 and hopefully more States. And what it is is we, I do a keynote keynote speech kind of laying out the scene, what what's going on? Why do women get, why do we care? Why are we all here? And it's for women of all ages, diversity, whatever it is, every stage of life. And, you know, our first one in Atlanta, we had the three free events as well. We had 350 women. I mean, come on. It was amazing. And so then we do panels. We do, and it's all local people. It's grassroots. It's, it's your local experts or our, um, business owners. And so I put together two panels. One is often entrepreneurship. And so because that's near and dear to my heart, but women are starting businesses at a faster clip than any, uh, cohort. So, uh, and, and so that's a really important thing to get out there, even if they're starting these businesses on the side. So I do that. So I bring, but the key is to get the local element, the local financial advisors, the wealth advisors that are local, the people who they tell their stories, and even the professionals say, Hey, this is where I screwed up in my life. And people can, it resonates, they share stories. They network, we give them financial education. It's all about education. Nobody's selling anything. There's nothing, there's no one touting whatever service they have or whatever. It's truly about sharing stories about money with one another. And, um, and I find it really exciting. We've been doing interactive exercises where people, you know, draw their relationship with money and kind of, you know, kind of groovy stuff. But, you know, that's not, I don't lead those discussions have somebody who's, who's really an expert in that, but, um, but it's really great fun. So I moderate the panels and I do the keynote, but it's really about the local community from little towns to big cities.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, definitely any, and I think you hit on something that is so key that people in the financial services community often miss, and that it's really more about education. And once people feel like they're educated, uh, they're more apt to, uh, take advantage of financial services that better fit their needs. They may, uh, remain as customers for a longer period. Uh, the insurance industry has definitely been one industry or especially in the life insurance industry where the old saying was, life insurance is not bought. It's sold where I think the transition is finally happening is that it's, it's about education and it's about finding the right tool. Um, and I think the shields workshop is so important is to get out that conversation where it's about stories, it's about sharing it's about what works and what doesn't work, rather than just here's the tool we're going to make it fit for you.

Speaker 3:

Right. Because from that base of education and feeling like connection with, Oh yeah, this person went down this path too. They, they understand my vulnerabilities, you build trust and loyalty and, you know, if, if someone's educated, then they, they can make a wise decision and they don't feel like they're being sold something they're, they're really engaged in it. And they're like, Oh, I understand it. Okay. This makes sense for me, because, so it, but it's coming to that decision yourself and not somebody helping, making that decision for you.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. Uh, you know, and that just leads to happier people, uh, happier clients and, uh, you know, and allowing people to do that. Um, you know, and one of the things is, you know, you've, you've done so much and, you know, we could talk for probably all day. Uh, you've also testified before Congress about the needs of older workers and the changing workscape as well as the importance of women taking charge of financial planning. Um, what was that like?

Speaker 3:

Oh my gosh. I was so honored. I had to, it was really exciting and curiously enough, I was not the least bit nervous. I was really surprised. The only thing that was hard as you had to boil, you could write a long statement that would go on the public record, but for your actual testimony, it has to be quite short. And I'm, as you can tell, I get passionate about this stuff and I like to talk, so I'm like, Oh gosh, and I'm timing myself to try to make sure I get it down to the right time. But I got my message across. And it was really interesting because there was this curiosity and truly an interest in, in particularly, uh, with the aging workforce. And how do we keep experienced workers on the job and how do we get employers to pay attention and to make this a reality, because this is not something that's going away. And in fact, as poppy, as you know, the population has shifted, we employers need to keep older workers. And for financial reasons, many workers, 65 is not a retirement anymore for many people because they haven't, perhaps they haven't saved appropriately for retirement and they need the money or they want to continue to contribute to those retirement accounts and so forth because we have longevity now we're living longer, presumably healthier lives than any generation. So like, goodness, I mean, how you need to find, if you retire at 65, you're financing quite a number of years on those savings. So people want to stay in the game, but I think there's a need because there's not as many younger workers coming up, either that employers have to say, okay, what can I do to retain this workforce? Whether it's arrogant, you know, making the office place more adaptable or flexible schedules, a phased retirement's different, helping out. This is my favorite. And I talked to the senators about this is this training piece. I mean, you've got to help people keep their skills to date, or they can't stay in the workplace. And so employers, how do we do that? How do we retrain workers as they get older so they can stay on the job? And these are big, big questions and there are big challenges, but they do have solutions.

Speaker 2:

That's great. Um, D do you feel this whole situation is exacerbated by technology? Or how does, how do you see technology fitting into this conversation?

Speaker 3:

I it's definitely it's. I mean, you can't ignore it. It's, it's, it's a big piece of it, but that the human element is not going away in any of our jobs. And I think the, the more experienced worker, you know, when I say that, I mean, somebody over the age of 50, perhaps who hasn't grown up with technology as they're, you know, uh, you know, sort of ingrained in them, they do need to have a little more time to do some of that as some of the technology comes on board, but that doesn't mean they don't do a great, and they can't get up to speed. They just need to, to be given the opportunity to learn that the tools and given the time. Um, but as we move forward, yes, technology will continue to move into all of our different industries, but that, but there will always be new jobs coming up that we never even thought of before, uh, as the, as our culture in our society changes. So it's not static. So is that comes in, there's other things I write in one of my books, uh, great jobs for everyone, 50 plus, um, about jobs to ride the age wave because there's jobs being created and mostly healthcare education and so forth. But for people in their, you know, with longevity jobs that people in their fifties and sixties can do for people in their seventies, in their eighties, you know, or services. And we knew some of these things we never even had before. So it's, you never know there's new ones out there, but we need to be nimble. And I think lifelong learning is the key and employers need to get on board.

Speaker 2:

Definitely. I think nimble is definitely the key word into integrate technology. Um, it's coincidental is, uh, on another insurance Hertz podcast and the insurance nerdery is they focused on that insurance versus technology has now become insurance plus technology. I like that, but there's no longer the dimension of, you know, will the insurance industry be replaced by technology company? It's more, how, how do we meld them together?

Speaker 3:

I mean, that's great.

Speaker 2:

So I think that's such an exciting topic. Uh, so, you know, um, you know, I, you know, so with the T just to get back to the sh the leads workshops, do you also talk about, um, the implementation of technology for women in financial planning and

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we do. We do. I'm mostly in, in this scene, I talked to them a lot about where to go online, to educate themselves. There's so many great resources out now that it's not that you need to, you know, we, of course, I like them to read books, but you don't, you can meet those on your computer too, but there's a lot of free resources available to educate yourself a lot of the mutual fund companies. A lot of the financial services companies in general have wonderful education pieces on their sites that aren't selling you products, and they really are giving you tutorials. And, uh, and so I encourage people that wiser, which is a great group here in Washington, has a good website. It's it's for women, uh, and their, uh, secure retirements. And w I S E R dot Oregon. There's some great tutorials there about how to get started with investing or the investor protection trust here in Washington. It's a nonprofit, they've got wonderful booklets and everything, but it's online. So that's how I use technology is now, of course, we know the robo advisors, there's all kinds of other ways they can get started investing, but I like to use it in my talks that she leads about the education and what, how technology is enabling us to learn theory easily, carve out a little time each night to just take, take some time and learn something

Speaker 2:

That's great. Um, and, uh, I'll do a follow up so we can put it in the show notes to some of these websites, uh, that our listeners can, um, go to to learn more, because I think it's so important to be able to show people the resources that are available to them. So one of the other things is that you've received numerous awards for your books and honors such as being a fellow of the national press foundation, Columbia journalism school, and the Robert and Butler Columbia aging centers, age room Academy, and the gerontology goals, society of America journey and the journalists and aging fellows program. So, you know, I was curious about that, you know, especially for some of the younger people out there, what do you feel has made you stand out over the years?

Speaker 3:

Cool. Networking, networking is one letter away from not working. I like to say. Um, and so here's the thing. I, I, I'm out there. I talk to people I'm, you know, I'm meeting people in my field, I'm interviewing people who are leading, you know, leaders in my field all the time. And so I think, because I've been able to develop this voice in these contexts, I've heard about, you know, people have heard about me and come to me and offered me some of these opportunities to continue educating myself. And there's fellowships very much carved out time to give me exposure to people who are even, you know, being experts in my field that like the aging field. Oh my gosh. I didn't know that much about the aging field. I was, you know, kind of, you know, cut my teeth on investing in financial stuff and personal finance and, and so forth and maybe even jobs. But then when I started this whole aging field, Oh my goodness. So that, you know, was quite exciting for me to start to hone in on who's there. And, and it's not that I was going to actually necessarily start speaking and writing about what they do, but my goodness, they enrich my life by being exposed to them.

Speaker 2:

That's great. So, you know, I mean, and I think that's such an important takeaway is that it's all about our network and the people you stay in touch with, but that the important thing is not only to network, but to learn from these people is that we can all learn.

Speaker 3:

That'd be a sponge.

Speaker 2:

I don't remember the old saying, but you know, there's something to learn from every person you meet. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

That's the truth, that's the truth. And that, and you know, the key to that is listening. It's really easy when you meet new people, when you're in a conference or something to start feeling like you need to be marketing yourself and telling everybody who you are, but really ask questions and learn about who they are. And if you listen, it's incredible that first of all, you make the other person feel great. And so you've made a connection there, but secondly, you learned something

Speaker 2:

That's great. You know, that's such valuable advice. Um, you know, so I, I think we talked about it at the beginning, you know, but just to, you know, kind of start wrapping up is, you know, we've talked about all the different things that you do is how do you find balance and organization and keep moving forward?

Speaker 3:

Oh, that's a good one. Um, you know, I don't know if every day I have the proper balance, but I do have balance because I have a dog and it, and if you have a dog, you get out, she's a Labrador retriever. She's my road manager. She keeps me honest. I get, you know, I get out, I pushed back, I'm out there walking her. I walked a couple miles a day with her, you know, so I have that and I have hobbies, uh, passions in my life for me. Uh, in addition to my fantastic dog, I love horses. And so that, so that's my incentive because I know I want to have time to spend with my animals. I work really hard intensely, and then I won't, I take a break and I back away, and that's why I get up so early in the morning, so that I have that little time, most days, not every day that I can, I can do those things. And it's incredible how it refreshes me. And I'm not in front of a screen.

Speaker 2:

That's so important. And especially in these times, it's so hard to break away from a screen. And I think you hit on something that's super important, especially for younger people, you know, that, that you do need to still take a break and take time for yourself. Um, I don't know, are you familiar with that? Uh, Microsoft study that they just released, that they did a trial four week, uh, four day, excuse me, four day workweek, uh, in Japan. And it w it increased productivity by 40%. Oh, bingo.

Speaker 3:

Nice.

Speaker 2:

So I think it hits on that theme. That's not necessarily about, you know, a hundred hour work weeks that it's about doing the right work and, and finding that balance

Speaker 3:

It's being efficient. You know, I find that when I get emails, so I returned them right away because if I don't, I forget about them and then it all snowballs. So I try to act quickly and that all theory don't, you know, only touch paper, you know, only touch something once, keep it moving and stop don't stop pile stuff, because that becomes very claustrophobic and very enveloping. So I try to stay lean, you know, from my, the things that I work with and in my communications, I try to make them, you know, really as condensed as I can.

Speaker 2:

That's great. Um, so, you know, uh, what's your number one tip for people on, uh, financial preparedness,

Speaker 3:

You know, gosh, Tony, there's so many things that are important, but a key thing is to always pay yourself first. So, uh, and, and I mean that going out to people who are contractors or work for themselves in particular, because it's really easy to you're paying bills and you, you forget that you need to save, you need to invest, you need to put some money aside for you and your wish fund. And it doesn't ha I don't tell people you're not saving for retirement. You're saving for life, right. So re re switch it because especially when you're younger, and I know I, did you think retirement, are you kidding me? I need that money today, but if you can somehow reframe it, that this is okay. And so just even if it's$200, have it automatically automat automate everything you can when it comes to your finances, because that really relieves a lot of stress. And when it comes to saving you don't miss it. You do not miss it.

Speaker 2:

That's great. That's such a valuable tip. Um, so Carrie, where can people learn more about you and all the great projects that you're working on?

Speaker 3:

Well, I thank you. They can go to my website, which is Kerry hannan.com. So that's K E R R Y H a N N O n.com or I'm on Twitter at, at Kerry Hannon. Uh, you can check me out on LinkedIn or on Facebook too, but, um, you know, I just, I love to hear from, from listeners readers, anyone who has questions, I'm always available. I, I, I, again, as we just talked about, I learned from other people, so at any, you know, come at me, I mean, I enjoy it

Speaker 2:

Well, fantastic. And, you know, for our listeners, all those links will be in the show notes. So you can just click on a link to follow Carrie on Twitter or check her out, um, at our website. Um, Carrie, thank you so much for joining me today. Uh, it's been a pleasure to have you on the get ready podcast.

Speaker 3:

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed it next time. I'm coming to California.

Speaker 2:

All right, fantastic. We can do it live. And so thank you everybody for tuning into another episode of the get ready, uh, with Tony Stewart podcast. And please remember

Speaker 4:

To subscribe. Thank you.