On the latest episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, I spoke with Romy Pickron, founder of Asset Achievers and co-founder of Reducify about changing the way we think about money and making it accessible to everyone.
In this episode we discussed:
Romy Pickron, CFP®, is the founder of Asset Achievers, a virtual financial management platform and the Co-founder of Reducify, a budding fintech app designed to accelerate student debt payoff. She’s on a mission to empower first generation wealth builders to achieve financial freedom. Romy is an active member of the Association of African American Financial Advisors (AAAA) and was recently awarded 50 under 50. She previously served as a panelist and mentor for the Thurgood Marshall College Institute and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). She’s also been featured in NerdWallet and Feminist Magazine.
Connect with Romy Pickron:
Website: https://assetachievers.com/
Website: www.reducifyapp.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romy-pickron/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AssetAchiever
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/assetachievers/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AssetAchievers/
On the latest episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, I spoke with Romy Pickron, founder of Asset Achievers and co-founder of Reducify about changing the way we think about money and making it accessible to everyone.
In this episode we discussed:
Romy Pickron, CFP®, is the founder of Asset Achievers, a virtual financial management platform and the Co-founder of Reducify, a budding fintech app designed to accelerate student debt payoff. She’s on a mission to empower first generation wealth builders to achieve financial freedom. Romy is an active member of the Association of African American Financial Advisors (AAAA) and was recently awarded 50 under 50. She previously served as a panelist and mentor for the Thurgood Marshall College Institute and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). She’s also been featured in NerdWallet and Feminist Magazine.
Connect with Romy Pickron:
Website: https://assetachievers.com/
Website: www.reducifyapp.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romy-pickron/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AssetAchiever
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/assetachievers/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AssetAchievers/
Are you looking to get ready, be prepared and transform your financial future? Then you've come to the right place. This is the Get Ready Money Podcast with Tony Stewart, where Tony has insightful conversations with financial experts who are changing the way we think about money. Watch up on the latest financial trends and hear practical advice from Tony and his expert guests so you can build healthy habits that work. Be empowered with tips for implementing small changes that can have a big impact on your financial future. So sit back and get ready to hear from today's guest.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Get Ready Money Podcast changing the way we think about money with Tony Stewart. I'm pleased to be joined today by Romy Pickrum. Romy is a co-founder of Reducify, as well as the founder and chief executive officer of Asset Achievers. In this episode, we'll be discussing Romy's thoughts on how we change the way we think about money and how we make real wealth accessible to everyone. Romy, welcome to the Get Ready Money Podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Tony. It is a pleasure to be here with you and your guests today. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, we're excited to have you. Thanks again for joining us. So you know to jump in. This is a question I always ask everyone is what is your origin story?
Speaker 3:Woo, it goes back, Tony.
Speaker 3:It's pretty deep and it's complex, and I say that it's complex because it is a combination of student loan debt, credit card debt and then the ultimate triumph of paying off everything and becoming financially free.
Speaker 3:But I will share with you, tony, that my foundation of my financial principles go all the way back to my mother being a good steward and providing me with an allowance, and that one thing changed my entire life because with that allowance I was able to grasp the foundation of finances and with that I was able to establish a budget and just sort of learn the introduction to finances.
Speaker 3:So it started with me receiving an allowance from my mother and being able to balance that out to me and ending up in credit card debt because I didn't have a good understanding of credit and interest rates to ultimately being in student loan debt. And my partner and I are the founder of, co founder of reducify and I we developed a plan to pay off $130,000 of student loan debt together within two and a half years, crushing the average timeframe of student loan debt pay off of 20 years on the low end and 40 years on the high end, and so that led to my ultimate financial success and triumph of being completely debt free and going from a negative net worth to now having a positive net worth into attaining financial freedom.
Speaker 2:Well, that's a great story and that can identify as I struggled with credit card debt in college and coming out of college is, you know, not really understanding the long term ramifications, as you think of the minimum payments and the low interest rates and like, well, the interest rates were that low, but the interest rate payments, and I was like, oh, I can make these minimum payments, not knowing that that would be for the rest of my life if I made just a minimum payment.
Speaker 2:So that's interesting. But I think one thing you said about your mother and I think this is so important is that this is overlooked Is your mother being a positive role model which helped you be financially successful, and I think we don't talk about that enough. You know we weren't really planning on talking about generational poverty and generational wealth, but I think that's such an important factor. Is that if we want to break the cycle of generational poverty and help everyone have generational wealth, is that they need to think about that and have a role model for that. And that's what I think is so important, and I think that's such an important factor. Have you seen that in your work? Is that the parents that help their money help their money. Help their kids with their money be more financially successful.
Speaker 3:And, tony, that is the biggest issue is that society, american society is not financially literate, so the parents don't have this information and therefore the children don't have this information, and it's just a perpetuous cycle of us not having this financial information that is so important within our lives, and so it definitely starts at home. And another point that I want to bring up, tony, is that to this day, there is about 25 states that require some sort of financial literacy course in high school, so the other states and other students are missing out on this crucial information. And, as I mentioned, since parents don't have this information, if students don't have this information, and then it's just a continuous cycle of generational poverty, because this information is so crucial and so embedded to all the components of our lives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no 100%. And you know it just boggles my mind that financial literacy isn't a part of the everyday curriculum, but I think you know part of it traces back to is people, just in general, are familiar with their money, so they don't look at it as a priority to teach in school. You know, as we focus on so many other things where it's like, well, this is a basic life skill, is that if we want our kids to have skills that they can use in our life, this would be one of them. So one of the things you talk about is making wealth accessible to everyone. So you know, how do we make real wealth accessible to everyone?
Speaker 3:Well, we do that by having these conversations and also making financial literacy a requirement throughout all high schools, in every single state, because it starts there. Once you leave high school, at the age of 18, you're able to open a credit card. Many individuals do not understand the components of a credit card. They don't understand the components of credit in general Interest rates, how to make calculations, even how to make payments on time to ensure that you are not being charged fees and extra interest because you don't understand the components of credit. So I believe it starts there, within our curriculum in school, so that way you get ahead of the issue and you take a proactive approach to instill in financial literacy in the population before individuals go out into the real world and have to start making these financial decisions that could and often impact them for the rest of their lives.
Speaker 2:Yeah you, romy, you just said something that really struck me that I'm not sure I'd really thought about. But when you said the word calculations and school is, I thought about how many Americans struggle with math and how low math scores. So you know, I'm just curious, you know, do you think that when people struggle with math, that that's also having an impact on their financial literacy?
Speaker 3:Absolutely, absolutely, because with credit cards, with car payments, with student loans, with mortgages, while you're renting, all of these things, budgeting all of those things require calculations, and this is not, you know, 100 years ago. So you know, I no longer have to make a calculation on your hands or pencil and paper.
Speaker 3:You know you can actually use your smartphone. There are all sorts of calculators, even available on the internet, for you to make these calculations that are inclusive of things like your interest rate or things of components, such as compound interest or additional fees that you may receive. So I definitely think that that is is a component, and it makes a difference in whether you are financially literate or not, depending on your level of math and the ability to even address math, because some people believe that it's so difficult to do math that they don't even attempt to make the calculations, although we have those tools that make it readily available and pretty easy for you to do these days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I could probably spend the whole rest of this episode talking to you about math and the impact of math on financial literacy, because I think that's such a valuable conversation we can have. But I want to switch up to make sure we talk about the Reducify app, and what you're doing is what inspired you to launch the Reducify app.
Speaker 3:Well, it goes back to the story of my personal student loan debt.
Speaker 3:So the average American graduates with about 35 to $39,000 of student loan debt if you attend the public university and if you attend a private university, the average student graduates with about three times that amount of student loan debt, so about between 80 and $90,000 of student loan debt.
Speaker 3:So, fortunately for me, I graduated with about $30 something thousand dollars of student loan debt the average student loan debt but I knew family members, friends, colleagues who had much more student loan debt than I had and still, to this day, I know many people who have so much student loan debt.
Speaker 3:We're talking about six figures or more in student loan debt and it's something that's holding them back from achieving other wealth generating milestones. But regarding my personal story, so my partner and I the co founder of the app we decided to partner together to strategically pay off our student loan debt, and so we paid off the $130,000 of student loan debt within two and a half years, as I mentioned, crushing the average timeframe of 20 to 40 years. So after we done the research on the statistics of how student loan debt impacts the overall population and then the breakdown of the disparities between women, people of color and African Americans. We decided that this is a solution that we could utilize to help others get out of student loan debt and break the cycle of bad financial management, or to achieve financial freedom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's really interesting. I think one of the things you said to his partner is you had an accountability partner does reduce if I also sort of act as an accountability partner for people.
Speaker 3:Yes, it does. That's actually the one of the premises of our app is to join people together so that you do have an accountability partner to assist you along the journey Of student loan debt, because it is something that people do not understand Rightfully so, because it's convoluted behind so many different factors. So people need assistance along the way, they need education, they need empowerment, they need the right tools to help them to overcome student loan debt.
Speaker 2:That's great, that's really exciting and unfortunately, it's very necessary. So you know, let's talk about college debt for a minute is why is college debt higher for women and people of color?
Speaker 3:That's the million dollar question, Tony All right. Why is student loan debt higher for women and people of color? Really, it all boils down to the racial and gender wealth gap within the United States. So disparities in student loan debt strongly correlate with the disparities in the gender and ethnicity wealth gap within the United States. So that's really what it boils down to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I think you know. So, for people who aren't super familiar with that is you know where do you think I mean what's an easy way for people to understand the racial and gender gap? Do you think? How would you sum it up?
Speaker 3:Looking at the figures, looking at the numbers, numbers don't lie. To this day, in 2023, black women earn 60 cents. It's 66 cents. It may have gone up a cent or two, but the fact of the matter is that we earn 60 something cents in comparison to a white male earning that same. You know 100%. So if we're earning 60 something cents on the dollar, research shows that we miss out over a million dollars over a 30 year career span. So that's what the racial wealth gap is it's a million dollars that we're missing out on over a 30 year career span.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you know. Just to put it in perspective, you know 50% isn't the same thing as 60%, but it's pretty close that black women are missing out on half the earnings of a white male and I think that's important when we talk about all these other things in the world of money and generational wealth. And you know, retirement is, you know, if you're earning half of what somebody else is one, it's not fair. If you're doing the same work, everybody doing the same work should have the same bay. But it's really hard to tell somebody hey, you're not achieving the goals when you have half the resources that somebody else has. So you know, it's something I think that people should really be aware of and reflect on and do your own research on it.
Speaker 2:But I'm just glad that you're bringing it to light and that you're creating tools to help equalize this. But the simple thing and people who listen to my podcast have heard me say this over and over again If you have women who are not making the same as the men in your company, or if you have people of color who are not making the same as white people in your organization, the simple solution pay them the same amount of money. You don't need to have a committee to study it, you just need to pay them the same amount of money. Anyway, sorry, romy, that's my little soapbox and for everybody listening.
Speaker 2:That's my very simple solution for solving the pay gap, although nobody takes it into account. But I keep throwing it out.
Speaker 3:I like that, tony, that's right. Simple pay us our money, exactly Pay everybody the same.
Speaker 2:There's nothing to talk about, you know. Anyway, we go on that topic as well. So let's get into the Get Ready Questions. And here is Romy. What is one simple thing you can do each year to set yourself up for financial success?
Speaker 3:One thing that a person can do each year to set themselves up for financial success is to automate your savings. I feel like that is such a simple concept that oftentimes goes above our head, but when you automate your savings, it's something that you don't have to think about. You're paying yourself first, and so when you automate your savings, that money is compounding over time. It's continuously building and you don't have to think about it and it's just growing there in the background. It'll be readily available or whenever you need it. So that's the one that I'll go with, because I think that it makes a big difference. You can do that personally for your personal money. You can also do that for your retirement money, and it builds up and it makes a difference over time, and the good thing about it is that you can adjust it anytime that you get raises or when you change jobs and you're earning more money. If you start out with a certain percentage, you can continuously increase it as your salary or your additional income increases.
Speaker 2:Fantastic, yeah, and that's something I hear from a lot of guests. So just to break down a little bit, what does that actually mean? To automate your savings?
Speaker 3:So automate your savings. It means that you are setting up a program where your money automatically goes from either your paycheck or check-in account. It goes from one of those directly into a savings account, and it may also go into an investment account, so that way you have the potential to earn even more money. But the entire ideal is to pay yourself first and to have this money growing and working for you in the background without you having to think too much about it and without you having to do much work concerning it.
Speaker 2:Fantastic and that's a great advice. And so, for people who are working for companies, if you have your 401k that's a perfect example of what Romy is talking about Make sure you're participating in your company's 401k. Definitely participate up until your employer match, because you're just leaving free money on the table. If you don't do that, and if you're privately employed, you can still set up something. If you have, like, a Schwab count or a Fidelity account, you know, whatever you can do the same thing. So it's wonderful advice. So, yeah, so what is one habit that people can change when it comes to their money?
Speaker 3:One habit that people can change when it comes to their money. Let me think about that, because typically we have many habits.
Speaker 2:We can give us more than one.
Speaker 3:When it comes to our money, but I feel like one of the biggest ones, that I have found to be the most helpful, is set up a schedule to review your money. I feel like this is something that is overlooked. People tend to review their money when there is an issue, like, oh, this bank took $300 out of my account when it should have only been $100, or I received a fee, and you notice the fee because maybe you have an alert or something set up. So we tend to review our money when there is an issue. If we don't have enough money to cover an expense or so forth, that's when we review it.
Speaker 3:But I like to have a schedule in which I review my money and that looks like it being Saturday morning around 1030, after I've had my hot cup tea, and I'm relaxed and I'm like, okay, let me take a look at the transactions that I've made for the week and, because we live in the age of technology, let me just make sure that hasn't been any fraudulent activity on my account and to ensure that I'm staying within my budget, because oftentimes, when you take too much time in between reviewing your accounts, reviewing your transactions, you find that you've gone way out of your budget.
Speaker 3:You spent way more money than you planned to and you may find problems that you could have found sooner had you taken a more proactive approach and set some sort of consistent schedule for you to review your account. So I would say, setting up some sort of consistent schedule to review your accounts and your transactions, whether that's weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly but ensure that you're keeping eyes on your money because, at the end of the day, you work so hard for your money, so it really does need to be accounted for and you should keep a close eye on it and have a good idea of what's happening with your accounts and your money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that advice and for people who follow my own particular work, you know that's what my new book is about Weekly action item. You know that you check in and your review I think that's the most powerful advice is because I think people tend to think a lot of their financial life is set in and forget it and they don't go back, they don't review it and, like you said, it's check in. It doesn't have to be a big deal every week. You don't have to make a production out of it.
Speaker 2:You know, spend 20 minutes. How long do you spend each week on your review? Usually?
Speaker 3:It's usually about 30 minutes, but it really also depends on what all I am reviewing, because my finances are a bit more complex than, I would say, the average individual. It could take a little bit longer depending on what all I'm reviewing, especially being a certified financial planner, like sometimes I can get a bit deep looking at like my investments, the performance things that I want to consider getting out of my portfolio.
Speaker 3:So mine can take a bit longer sometimes, but when I'm only reviewing, like my bank statements, those don't take that long. They can take 30 minutes or less, and for me I feel like that's worth it, for peace of mind, knowing exactly you know where my money went, how I could have done better, or if I did okay, just like okay, I'm on track for my goals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think that's great. You know that you're spending half hour or an hour, and I think for people to put that in perspective is think about it. You know, takes you one hour to run a load of laundry. You know you cook a meal. Takes you half hour to an hour, you know I mean, but this is something that you can do when you have that time, you know. So set it aside. That's wonderful advice.
Speaker 3:So I was about to say I also find it empowering because a lot of times I feel like what people clients have shared with me that they don't want to look at their finances often because it can be scary seeing the damage you've done many years overspending that you've done for the week or for that time period but I also find it empowering because you know exactly what you've done, you know areas where you need to make changes and then that allows you to keep better a track of your budget and to align yourself more closely with your financial goals that you've set.
Speaker 2:I think you said two things there that are incredibly powerful and important is one is to help you make changes, that there's no good decisions or bad decisions. It's really the changes that you make, going forward and the adjustments and aligning yourself with your goals and your values. I think people tend to forget about that. You know is are you doing this? Is it going to help you achieve your goals or is it keeping you from achieving your goals? So the change is so important.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it. So, romy, what money myth are you trying to break?
Speaker 3:Personally, none because I feel like they have been broken, but for my clients and people who work with me, my followers on social media. The myth that I would money myth that I would like them to break is that wealth building is only available to the wealthy. That's completely a myth. It's false. It's just not true. Wealth building is for every single person that's willing to go out there and try and achieve it, and I truly do believe that, because you can start with a negative net worth, like I did. You can start with a zero balance, like I did and many others have done, and you can work your way to wealth. You certainly can work your way to wealth with diligence and strategy and discipline. It could be done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think what you said there is very important for people to understand is that you know you can't do it, but it does take a little bit of time. It takes a little bit of thought that it's not just something you can fall into but anybody can do it. And for people who've been watching and listening to this podcast is you'll notice that a lot of my guests you know they may be financially successful now, but they also did as Romy did, you know, as they built it up and so that's, you can do it. You can be empowered. Find people like Romy and connect with her, follow her journey, check out her app and see. You know, because I know you share your journey and I think that's important is for people to find somebody they identify with and share the journey. So you know, romy, let's get out the time machine for a minute. What advice would you give your younger self if you could go back in time knowing what you know now about money?
Speaker 3:Tony, one of my biggest financial threats is not investing in Facebook when it first hit the stock market.
Speaker 3:Let me tell you that story and I say that yes, it is very particular and I say that because you know, we have these opportunities throughout our lifetimes, and this one, specifically regarding finances, I remember so vividly because Facebook was had just hit the market, stock market trading at $22 a share and if you're keeping up with Facebook or Metta, like I do today, it's around 300 and something dollars a share. And so during this time, when Facebook hit the stock market, I had just began my career as a stock trader with fidelity investments, so I had a good understanding of the stock market, of my finances, and I was at the beginning stages of my finances. So I was still working on, like my credit card debt, but on the opposite end of the spectrum, I was also building up my retirement assets and a small brokerage account. So I was learning. I was still new to it, but I was learning, and so that's.
Speaker 3:My biggest financial regret is that I didn't buy Facebook at the time, and I'll tell you why, tony.
Speaker 3:It's because I had a great understanding of Facebook as a millennial.
Speaker 3:We were the first users of Facebook, so I knew that this was going to be something that would be around for a very long time by how it was already so much so then incorporated into our lives, and so that's one of my biggest financial regrets is not investing in Facebook but, to make it more general, by not investing in more assets at the time, because I was in my early 20s.
Speaker 3:During that time, and for me because I didn't have the best financial understanding or I wasn't as financially literate as I am today, I invested in more debt than more assets, and what I mean by that is that I went out and bought a new car, so that was like a $25,000 decision and just thinking back on that time, my car note was about $400 a month, so I could have got a car for half that amount and maybe put $200 towards the car and then $200 towards a Facebook investment every month, and I wouldn't have been a millionaire by this time right now if I would have kept up a schedule. So the in general, it's more so. I wish I would have taken the approach to invest more in assets instead of debt.
Speaker 2:That's really powerful and I think for people listening to this is the important. Takeaway is from both Romy and I, as Romy and I both have experience with money. Clearly we're both financial professionals. We both talked about early days in our careers, where Romy worked at Fidelity Investments. I was a finance major in college, so I knew things about money in college and we both have opportunities to learn about our money. So anybody can learn and you can't. Don't be hard on yourself if you haven't learned everything. I mean, would you agree? That's a little bit of a takeaway here is to not be hard on yourself.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, you're going to make mistakes. I mean, considering that financial literacy is not something that's just taught, unless you have a parent or you are at a school district where it's taught in the system, but it's not something that people automatically know. So, of course, you're going to make mistakes. But because we are in the day and age of technology, financial literacy is readily available through so many avenues YouTube, podcasts like the one we're speaking on today, instagram, facebook, twitter we're across all channels. So I feel like there is no excuse. It really boils down to you and you making the effort to become financially literate, because the information is out there. The professionals like myself and Tony we're out there. We're ready to assist and empower you to achieve your financial goals and to ultimately achieve financial freedom, if that's what you desire.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's great and I think that's important. Advice for people is to you know you can find the information out there and then find the information that resonates with you from people who know what they're talking about. You know, not just somebody who's making a random TikTok video because they decide to talk about money is you know, you have people like Romy, who have an experience, who have a qualification, like being a CFP. You know been there and you know learn. You know keep learning, as you've been talking about. So, romy, to close out, is, what is your number one tip on changing the way we think about money?
Speaker 3:Your number one, the number one tip for changing the way that we think about money. This is going to sound cliche, but I feel like you have to reprogram your thoughts, especially if you come from a negative financial environment, meaning where you may have always heard stories of people not having enough finances or having financial struggles. Change that narrative by empowering yourself with financial I guess positive affirmations. And so for me I have a few of them written down to where, even to this day, where I have transitioned my finances going from a negative net worth to a positive net worth a lot of times, your thoughts and the way that you think. That's a pattern and it can get the worst of you.
Speaker 3:Even though I have more than enough, sometimes I find myself saying I don't have enough or I can't afford certain things, or I feel like I am without when it comes to finances, and that's completely untrue and it's just based on my thought process from the time that I was in debt or had a negative net worth. So you have to reprogram your thoughts, and the way to do that is either to read positive financial affirmations, to say them out loud and to see them yourself, and to counter those thoughts when you have those thoughts of oh man, I don't have enough, or I'm not smart enough to have the real wealth that I want, or I don't have enough to, you know, to ultimately get to where I'm going in life financially. Reprogram yourself with positive affirmations I do have enough, I have more than enough. In fact, I am wealthy, I am financially abundant. Try and use, utilize those positive affirmations to reprogram. Encounter those negative financial thoughts that you may have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great advice and I think you know for everybody is that you know we have our money stories. You know how we've experienced money through our lives maybe we saw our parents fight about money or our parents go through a tough time, or you know we had a tough time ourselves at one point with money is that that mindset really won't pack the decisions that we make, and so what you're talking about is being positive about it but not just paying lip service to it is. But you know, really being conscious with those negative thoughts and then trying to change them is so critical because you know you can talk about all these other things we've been talking about, you know, investing, automating your savings, but if you have a really negative mindset, you're gonna have a really hard time achieving your goals. So I think that's powerful advice. Thank you for sharing it.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. It really does start in your mind at the time that I had a negative net worth. Something that really helped me is that I knew was temporary. I knew that me having a negative net worth was temporary and I knew that my future, my financial future, was bright, and I knew that I would be on the other side with the positive net worth, and so I just kept telling myself that along the way, and so, as Tony mentioned, it is extremely important that you reprogram those negative thoughts with positive financial thoughts, along with you working towards and taking action towards your financial goals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, 100%. So, roamy, if people want to find out about you, they want to find out about the Reducify app. Where can they find you? Where can they find out about the Reducify app?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you can find me on all social media channels, starting with LinkedIn, facebook, instagram and Twitter, and so on LinkedIn, I'm under my first and last name, roamy Pickron, and I'm also at asset achievers on LinkedIn, facebook, instagram, and then, lastly, I am at Reducify app on LinkedIn, facebook and Instagram.
Speaker 2:Fantastic and, of course, for everybody watching and listening. Post links to Roamy's website and social media profiles and the show notes. So, roamy, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your insights.
Speaker 3:My pleasure, tony. Thank you again so much for having me and thank you to the audience tuning in and listening to us.
Speaker 2:We appreciate you, yeah no, thank you and thanks everyone, as Roamy said, for tuning in today to the Get Ready Money podcast. Remember to change the way you think about money, and you know? Please like this video and subscribe, and you know all the stuff to do Until next time.