Money Mom Podcast
Welcome to The Money Mom Podcast—the ultimate guide for moms who want to take control of their finances, crush debt, and create a life of financial freedom and abundance. Hosted by Rachel Coons, a budgeting expert and mom of three, this podcast is your go-to resource for practical tips, mindset shifts, and empowering strategies to help you manage your money with confidence.
Whether you’re navigating grocery budgets, tackling debt, or dreaming of building wealth for your family, each episode offers bite-sized, actionable advice to make money management simple, stress-free, and even enjoyable. With relatable stories, expert insights, and a dose of mom-to-mom encouragement, you'll learn how to transform your finances—one small step at a time.
Tune in every week to discover how to save more, spend smarter, and feel empowered to create the financial life you deserve. Because when moms thrive financially, families flourish.
Money Mom Podcast
46: You Can't Budget Your Way to Wealth--Here's What to Do Instead
Unlock the secrets to financial empowerment and discover how investing can radically transform your long-term wealth strategy. Have you ever wondered why budgeting alone won't secure your financial future? In this episode of the Money Mom podcast, I tackle the often intimidating world of investing, specifically aimed at moms and women who are ready to make their money work for them. I promise to simplify the process, guiding you on setting up an investment account and addressing the common fear of losing money. Think of budgeting as plugging leaks, while investing is the faucet that keeps your financial bucket overflowing with new opportunities.
xoxo,
Rachel
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Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Money Mom podcast. I'm here, I'm alive. We did not put out an episode last week because I was literally on my deathbed all week long. I got the flu that has been going around and I kept telling myself I'll record the podcast when I feel better, and I just never felt better. Honestly, I got sick on Monday, tuesday, I started feeling terrible and then Wednesday I was like down and out and I could not even talk because I was so sick for the rest of the week, and so I emailed my podcast editor and was like, hey, listen, we're not getting a podcast out this week. Life is happening and there's nothing I can do about it. So I'm here back. I am feeling 80% better. It's crazy. I mean, if you know anybody that has had the flu this winter, it's like at least a full week before people are really starting to feel better, and I'm on day eight right now and I'm still just not 100%. If you know me, you know I hate not being able to do the things that I want to do. I love I teach fitness classes. I haven't been able to teach any of my classes. I have had to take multiple naps throughout the day. It's just been the craziest experience ever. But I am excited about recording this podcast today because we are in the Money Mom Club.
Speaker 1:This month we're talking about all of the different pillars and keys to financial success, and each month we're kind of tackling one of those pillars, and this month is the one pillar that gets left out of the equation, I think, a lot when it comes to moms and women, because it is a very intimidating part of finances. We tend to be really good at budgeting and saving money where we can, but when we start to think about how we can increase the money that we already have, this can be a really hard area because it is so complicated and people tend to overcomplicate it. But the truth is, budgeting alone will never lead you to long-term wealth. We cannot save our way to wealth, and I know, coming from me, somebody who preaches budgeting and loves budgeting so much, and I believe everyone should be budgeting. But on the flip side of that, you also need to have a plan for your money, because budgeting is not just focusing on budgeting is not enough for long term financial security. So if you are wanting to be able to retire at some point, if you want to be able to get out of debt, if you want to be able to have that freedom that we talk about, that where you have more in life you have to be able to have that freedom that we talk about, that where you have more in life you have to be investing. You have to be putting your money away into investment accounts so that money can then grow and make more money for the long term. And we're going to talk about why and how the power of investing is so powerful.
Speaker 1:But when we start to talk about investing in general, a lot of the feedback that I get and this is from my members again, because we're talking a lot about investing in the Money Mom Club this month is that investing is confusing. It feels really stressful because what if I lose money or I don't even have extra money to invest? If we're just trying to get by every single month we're living paycheck to paycheck I don't have money to invest, so it's just something that we push off in on the back burner and we don't think about. But today I want to really simplify this process for you. I want to make it so that it doesn't feel confusing, and so by the end of this episode, you know exactly why investing matters so much, how it actually works and how you can get started for free, because what we've done with our members this month is taking them through the process to simply set up a basic investment account. It takes five minutes. There are so many wonderful online softwares that you can use to make it really simple, and just by doing that, just by setting up an investment account, you can then unlock wealth that isn't available just by budgeting alone.
Speaker 1:Now I want to separate the two, budgeting versus investing. And what is the difference? Budgeting is about managing the money that you have. It's about making sure that every dollar has a purpose and doing the most with the money coming in. But investing is looking towards the future. With your money, it helps build what you don't have yet. So think of it like this Budgeting is like patching the holes that are in your financial bucket, so your money doesn't leak out of that budget. But investing is like turning on the faucet and letting way more water flow into that bucket, so letting new money flow in.
Speaker 1:And if you only are budgeting, you're just rearranging your money, but you're not actually growing it. We're not actually increasing that dollar amount and we want your money to work for you, not just sitting there waiting to be spent. If you took all the money that you have that you're saving from budgeting and you put it in your bank account, you're actually losing money over time. Because the truth is, your bank account doesn't help your money grow and when we look at standard rates of inflation throughout the years rates of inflation throughout the years your bank account is not building money faster than inflation is devaluing your money. So we have to do something more. We can't just stockpile all our money into a bank account. We have to make that money work for you. So let me ask you a question Would you rather work for every dollar you make, or would you rather be making money while you literally don't even have to do anything with it? And that's what investing does. It allows your money to grow over time, even when you're not actively working for it.
Speaker 1:And when I say it's as simple as making money while you sleep, a lot of people are like it's not that simple, it is complicated. I have to figure out what investment accounts to put money into and I'm going to tell you as a feminine voice in a very masculine area of money, people are overcomplicating it so that you are intimidated by it. There are so many financial advisors and people who help other people invest that are making money by over complicating it. And if we can just go back to the basics and keep it really simple, you don't need thousands of dollars to invest. You don't need to open up five different accounts and know which account to put your money into and how to do it. There are really basic ways that we can start investing today even if you just have 10 bucks a month.
Speaker 1:And I remember learning about investing when I was a freshman in college. I just randomly signed up for a personal finance class. I don't know why, what got me to do that? But I just thought. You know, I've never learned about personal finance, I've never learned about budgeting, and in that in personal finance class, the professor spent a long time teaching us about time, value of money, compounding interest and setting up some retirement accounts. And I remember leaving that class one day and my dad was in finance. He was an accountant for an investment company and he was in this world, but he had never taught me to set up retirement accounts. And I remember calling him and saying dad. I think I need to start a Roth IRA and I think I need to do it, like now. And he, you know, was elated that I had come to him and wanted to do this, and so he helped me set up a Roth IRA, which was so basic and I I had no, I honestly had no idea what I was doing, but I knew I could max out at $5,500 a year into this Roth IRA and so I started doing that.
Speaker 1:Every year I would put in in $5,500 and I think I would start where it was, just like a hundred bucks here and there, and then I would, you know, whenever I had extra money I would put it into this investment account. And I was really excited because I had learned about compounding interest and how your money makes more money over time. And if you start young you know I was only 18 years old If you start young, that value increases by so much over, you know, 30 to 40 years before you retire, and I saw the value in that. So I maxed out that Roth IRA and I was the type of investor I'm kind of a lazy investor. I'm not somebody that likes to check my accounts, because I know this is long-term? It's not. I'm not going to touch these accounts until I'm 65 or we're retired, and so I would just put the money away.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't until a couple of years ago that Brad and I were really just getting trying to create a game plan for our finances and what we were looking at as far as retirement. And I remembered this account that I had that I had maxed out this Roth IRA, and I was like, oh, we need to go check out that account and see how much money is in that account. And the principal money that I'd put in this account was probably $30,000. I don't I know exactly what the amount was, but I had put in, let's say, $20,000 to $30,000 in this Roth IRA. It is now worth almost $100,000, not even 10 years later. That account has been making money and it is going to continue making money. If I don't even touch it for the next 20 years, it's going to continue making money. So that is the power that we're talking about when we're investing. That's why it needs to be a non-negotiable in your financial situation.
Speaker 1:Even if you have zero experience, even if you feel like it's super complicated, it doesn't have to be and you can open up accounts for free, where you put the money in, you forget about it, you don't think about it. I actually don't even recommend checking your retirement accounts. Just put the money in and don't even think about it. There are really simple websites that you can go to do this. My favorite, and the one that we use now, is with Fidelity. I love their customer service, I love their user interface, but there's so many different places. You can go to Charles Schwab, betterment, m1, finance, wealthfront I mean Google, an investment account site. You just want to make sure that they're not charging you money to invest with them. But you can get started with as little as $1 a day. You basically create a portfolio, you create an account, you sync up your bank account so you can direct deposit from your bank account and then you don't even have to think about where the money's going. You're just putting the money in.
Speaker 1:And one of the best places that you can start if you're not a, if you haven't started any retirement accounts, is setting up a 401k through you or your partner's job. Most companies offer some type of 401k match, which is basically again free money. If you invest $1,000, they match that with another $1,000, which is literally free money and it's usually banked in with your income contributions from that company. So if you're not creating a 401k and you have access to it, that is the number one place you need to start. And again, your company or your spouse's company. They have HR people willing and ready to get you started with that. You just have to reach out to them. So don't let that money sit on the table, especially if you have access to it.
Speaker 1:I want to leave you with a crazy stat that completely blew my mind when I first learned it. If you invest just $200 a month and if you're like I don't know where I'm going to find $200 a month, we'll start with your groceries. That's the easiest place to find and keep money back in your pocket. But if you invest $200 a month, starting at age 25, now it doesn't matter if you're older than age 25, this number can still it's still important and you earn an average rate of about 8% return. That's like average for the stock market. Over time, by the time you are 65, you will have over $700,000 in an account Now.
Speaker 1:They always say the best time to start investing was 10 years ago, but the next best time to start investing is now. So if you haven't started, today is next best time to start investing is now. So if you haven't started, today is the best time to start. You haven't lost anything. You just need to put money into an investment account, whether that's a Roth IRA, whether that's a 401k. It doesn't have to be complicated, it's simple as you setting up your bank account with an investment account and transferring money over.
Speaker 1:Now some people say to me well, I'm worried, I'm going to lose money. You will not lose money if you keep money in that account until you retire. Over time, the stock market averages better than most other investments. So just setting it, forgetting it, not thinking about it, will help you reach that financial freedom that you're looking for. And maybe you're thinking to yourself I'm a stay-at-home mom, I don't make money, so investing doesn't apply to me. That's not true. It's not true at all.
Speaker 1:You need to give yourself the empowerment to sit down at the table, because you manage your household finances, you are managing the budget, you are deciding where the money goes and you also have the power to build wealth for your family.
Speaker 1:This is not just something where husbands should be in charge of. You can 100% get yourself in this conversation, even small steps, like talking to your partner about where the money is and if you're investing, how you can help get this started. You don't have to be an expert, you just have to get started. So I hope I've fired you up and getting you excited about starting making your money work for you. And if you want more information, we do have a bunch of masterclasses in the Money Mom Club where we're helping run through this process for you and getting you started, because it is the key to having financial freedom in retirement and beyond. You need a plan to manage your money and you need a way to grow it, so it's time to make that happen. Okay, I hope this episode was helpful for you. I hope it got you started on this investing journey and I'll see you next week.
