Bola Sokunbi: Getting in the Right Mindset to Attract Money | E9

[00:00:00] Hala Taha: Young and Profiting Podcast is brought to you by Audible. Get a free audiobook download and a 30 day free trial at audibletrial.com/yap. Hi everyone. You are listening to YAP, Young and Profiting podcast, a place where you can listen, learn, and grow. Today's episode is, All about getting you in the right mindset for building wealth.

[00:00:21] To do that, I've invited Bola Sokunbi on the show. She runs one of the top finance websites for women clevergirlfinance.com, and helps women achieve their financial goals through online courses, a blog, a podcast, and, super popular YouTube and Instagram channels. Although Bola focuses on women, this episode won't stay tuned to learn more about the emotions related to money and how we can overcome them.

[00:00:46] Tips to shift your mindset to attract money and execute on your goals and practical steps to get you started. And just really quickly before we get into the interview, I wanna ask a favor to everyone who enjoys listening to this show on [00:01:00] Apple Podcasts. Take a minute and write us a review. We've got thousands of listeners, and if just 10% of you wrote a review, it would go a really long way for us.

[00:01:09] All right. Let's get into the right mindset for attracting money onto the interview. Hi Bola, thanks for joining. YAP. 

[00:01:16] Bola Sokunbi: Thanks for having. 

[00:01:17] Hala Taha: Would you be able to tell our listeners who might not be familiar with you about yourself and your brand Clever Girl Finance? 

[00:01:25] Bola Sokunbi: Yeah, so my name is Bola. I'm the founder and CEO of Clever Girl Finance and Clever Girl Finance is a financial education platform for women to help them start to achieve their financial goals and get to the point where they're able to live life on their own terms.

[00:01:41] So we're all about female empowerment, promoting women to be financially successful because I firmly believe that women have every right and capacity to do well with their finances, and there's no reason why they shouldn't . 

[00:01:53] Hala Taha: That's very cool. So we actually have a bit in common. Back in the day, a few years ago, I ran a hip [00:02:00] hop entertainment news website. We were 50 girls strong. We had a radio show. We hosted parties and through concerts. So why did you focus on a female audience? 

[00:02:10] Bola Sokunbi: First of all, that sounded like it was a lot of fun . 

[00:02:13] Hala Taha: It was. 

[00:02:14] Bola Sokunbi: But clever finance specifically focuses on women for a number of different reasons. A lot of us come from backgrounds where if we look at our parents' generation, you know the father was typically the breadwinner.

[00:02:25] The mom was not necessarily always involved in the finances. But if you fast forward to this generation, there's a lot of single mothers, there's a lot of soul household earners, and a lot of women are breadwinners, which means that we need to be able to leverage our finances to build good lives for ourselves.

[00:02:40] In addition, there is the gender pay gap, which we hear being talked about all the time, which means that on average we're making less money than men, but we also live longer than men. And so we need to have strategic plans in place to support ourselves in our older age because given the state of things now, you can't expect social security to be there to bail you out, [00:03:00] and you also want to have a good quality of life after working so hard all these years to take care of your family, to take care of your kids.

[00:03:06] And we also take time off of work to have children, whether it's temporarily or even permanently, for the mothers who just are not able to return back to work at all or immediately. Some women take years off to raise their children. Even in situations where you're taking a few months of maternity leave, you will be told that, Oh, your maternity leave is not going to impact your performance, but that's three or four months that you're not there to actually perform.

[00:03:31] That can potentially impact your opportunity for raises and opportunity to get promoted, et cetera. So that's really why Clever Wealth Finance focuses on women. 

[00:03:40] Hala Taha: That's awesome. I am so interested to understand your perspective on managing finances and all of that, and I'm really looking to get some practical advice for our listeners because based off your YouTube videos and your podcasts, you seem so knowledgeable and so responsible about all of this stuff.

[00:03:57] Super excited. Something that peaked my [00:04:00] interest when reviewing your work was your focus on emotional attachment to money and the need to detach and just use money as a tool. And I know that usually when people talk about money, they focus on actions, budgeting, saving, investing. But you also include managing emotion in your scope of topics.

[00:04:18] Can you talk about some of these emotions that we have when it comes to our finances and why we need to get in control of them?

[00:04:24] Bola Sokunbi: Yeah, so the emotional aspect of personal finance is super, super important. Obviously there is the importance stuff, which is the core concepts and things you need to learn and the actions.

[00:04:35] Consistency you need to build, but the emotions are just basically how you feel about it. And depending on where you are on your financial journey or your journey to improve your finances, you can feel a variety of different emotions. And it's important that you're able to control your emotions so that you don't let your emotions get the best of you as you make decisions about money.

[00:04:53] And that's usually what drives a lot of financial mistakes. So there are a number of different emotions that people feel. It could be [00:05:00] emotions of jealousy because you feel your friends are doing better than you are. It could be emotions of feeling less than or inadequate because you've made mistakes or not earning enough money.

[00:05:10] It could be emotions of resentment or self-judgment because you've made these mistakes and you feel bad about them, or you're resenting where you are. There's a whole flurry of emotions that come into you could feel sad, you could feel angry. And so it's how do you take how you're feeling and channel them into positive so that you can make right decisions.

[00:05:29] So for example, if you're feeling angry with yourself from making financial mistakes, you wanna flip it and think about, Okay, I've made these mistakes, but what are the lessons I can take away from this so that I never make these mistakes again? And as opposed to being angry at myself, I'm gonna get angry at the debt.

[00:05:46] I'm gonna get angry at this large balance, I need to pay off and channel my energy that way to actually put that anger to good use and take the lessons I've learned and do something about it. So [00:06:00] the emotions are natural. We're all gonna feel them. You're gonna feel all kinds of emotions. You feel them your day to day life, even independent of your finances.

[00:06:06] But it's the difference between managing it well so that you can keep moving on with towards your goals or letting them overwhelm you and keep you in a rut. And the last thing you wanna do is have your emotions keep you in a rut. So your mental state, the things that you tell yourself, how quickly you recover from the feeling is really important.

[00:06:24] Those are things that you have to constantly be reminding yourself about and not gonna be angry about this. We all feel jealousy for people sometimes. And if you feel jealousy for someone, then you wanna think about why are you jealous of this person, and if it's because of something that they have that you really want to have too, then what are the things that you're doing today that can move you closer to be able to accomplish having that thing as well?

[00:06:46] So it's all about really managing your emotions and your mindset and taking into consideration every time you feel something, how do you behave? How do you act, how do you feel? And then addressing it in that moment. 

[00:06:59] Hala Taha: I love that. [00:07:00] I think that's such great advice. Something else that has been brought up on my podcast a few times is the need to make clear decisions and how change really doesn't happen until you actually decide to do something and truly believe that it will happen.

[00:07:15] I'm just wondering if this is the same first step. Do we need to decide that we will be wealthy or debt free or whatever goals that we have? Is that the first step in all of this. 

[00:07:24] Bola Sokunbi: Yeah, absolutely. That is super important. You have to, I would say you have to set the intent of what you want to accomplish, because if you don't think you can do something, if you don't, and you don't have to know how you're gonna do it.

[00:07:35] That's one thing to keep in mind when you're setting intentions. It's not about knowing how every step you're gonna take. You don't have to know that, but you have to set the intent of being successful and setting intent drives everything in the sense that once you've set the intent, , you're going to take the actions to actually accomplish things.

[00:07:54] You're going to be self-motivated. You're going to have it in the back of your mind all the time that I'm gonna pay off my debt, I'm gonna [00:08:00] save this money. So setting that intention and getting clear on the intention is super important. It's basically a cornerstone. It's foundational to your financial success and just success in any aspect of your life.

[00:08:11] And we set intentions every single day, right? And keeping ourselves on top of those intentions is what allows us to make progress to the goal. So people set intentions around I wanna lose 10 pounds, or I'm gonna take a vacation next summer. And when you set those intentions, no matter how major or minor they are, because you've actually set the intention, you start to make progress toward those things because they're priority. 

[00:08:36] You start to work out, you start to try to eat better, and even when you slip up, you're like, Okay, you know what? That was just a bad day or a bad weekend. I'm gonna get back on it. Cuz your intent is to lose the weight. Or you start putting money in a savings account, or you start actually going to look on TripAdvisor to look at reviews of the hotel you wanna stay at for your vacation because you have the intention of what you want to accomplish.

[00:08:54] The same applies to your finances. You have to set the intention and you, it has to be intention around something that you [00:09:00] truly want for. 

[00:09:01] Hala Taha: Got it. That makes complete sense. So going back to mindset, I recently watched one of your videos specifically on mindset, and you talk about the different steps you need to take to get in the right mindset.

[00:09:13] You mentioned your why setting goals, being grateful. Can you talk about those three things and explain that to our listeners? 

[00:09:20] Bola Sokunbi: Sure. Mindset in the sense ties into setting intentions, but before you set your intention, Your why. Why do you want to save money? Why do you want to be debt free?

[00:09:31] Why do you want to accomplish this big financial goal? What is a thing that's compelling you and your why? Has to be something similar to your intention, something that matters to you. It can't be because the documents or the world or the, my parents say that I should own my first house by age 30 .

[00:09:49] Is that really why you want to do this? Cause again, you have to be compelled to want to accomplish this. It has to be something that means something to you. So your why has to be something that is. Valuable [00:10:00] to you. It has to be tied into a desire that makes you feel whole or happy, whatever it might be.

[00:10:06] So your why could be, I wanna be able to travel around the world, I wanna be able to retire early. I want to be able to start my own business. I want whatever your why is, I want to be able to go to the Eiffel Tower and throw that on a thousand dollars. Whatever your why is, it has to be something that you really want.

[00:10:20] Once you determine your why, then you have to start thinking about, okay, what is it that I can do to get me closer to this? Why? So your why not become the instigator? I want to save $10,000. So that's a goal. And what can I do to get me closer to that goal knowing that I'm saving this $10,000 because of my why?

[00:10:40] When you think about it broadly, like saving $10,000 or $20,000, whatever, that amount might initially be a dream, right? There's nothing attached to it, is just this idea you have in the back of your head and you're like, Oh, I really wish I could save $10,000. And when you sit down and say, , I'm gonna take that $10,000 and give myself actions to take around being able to [00:11:00] save that every week, every month, every quarter.

[00:11:02] That idea in your head goes from being a dream to being an actual goal. It now becomes a tangible thing because you're gonna be taking specific steps and actions to get closer to it. So setting goals is really important because basically bottom line is that your goals, once you set them the right way and they're measurable and they're tangible, your goals are no longer dreams.

[00:11:23] And I think there's a lot of confusion between goals and dreams. Like people say, I wanna retire with a million dollars. That's a goal. But if you don't have a plan around being able to accomplish that goal, then it's just a dream. And then the third thing you said was gratitude. 

[00:11:37] Hala Taha: Yes. 

[00:11:37] Bola Sokunbi: And that's, ties into contentment.

[00:11:40] It's when you're grateful for what you have and when you really sit down and gain perspective that, okay, my finances might not be where I want them to be right now. But a lot of people, especially if you're living in the United States, you're in a far better position than most of the world. First of all, that's one thing to be grateful for.

[00:11:57] The second thing to be grateful for is the fact that you [00:12:00] are alive and you're healthy, and you actually have the strength and the good health to be able to work towards accomplishing your goals. We can be grateful for the wisdom that you now have to be able to take the steps and the actions. You can be grateful because yesterday you put a dollar in your savings account, or yesterday you paid $25 to your credit card and it's not a lot of money, but it was $25 more towards her debt than you had paid the day before. So when you start to practice constant gratitude every day in the morning when you wake up, before you go to bed, or even keeping a gratitude journal, you'll find that you are more content. And a lot of your emotions are also better managed because you're more grateful, you're less jealous, you're less angry, you're less, All of these different emotions start to dissipate because now you are practicing gratitude, you're becoming content, and you're making progress as you do that.

[00:12:48] So those are all really important things around mindset, and it's important to keep in mind that mindset is not just to get it done once and it's set and you know you're gonna blaze through your goals and it's gonna be [00:13:00] amazing. Your mindset is like a muscle that you have to continuously train and stay on top of as you make progress in your life, because there are gonna be days where you fault her.

[00:13:08] There are gonna be days when it's really difficult, and the less time you spend cultivating your mindset, the less likely you are to be able to have the willpower and the mental strength to be able to accomplish your goals. 

[00:13:23] Hala Taha: Something that I appreciated that you do is you don't say that there's a right or wrong way to do this or right or wrong reason for wanting to get your finances in order.

[00:13:34] I heard you say before, you know it's okay if your goal is to get a whole new wardrobe. It doesn't matter what your why is, it just matters what drives you.

[00:13:43] Bola Sokunbi: Exactly. Like your why is really personal to you. And I feel like so many people allow themselves to get sucked into this whole idea of, I have to do this by this time because this is what the whole world is doing.

[00:13:54] I need to be married, I need to have kids. I need to buy my first home. I need to floss on Instagram. [00:14:00] I need to be 25 and have an amazing rap career because Cardi B has that , is that what you really want? Those are things that really matter to you. Because if they don't, then what's the point?

[00:14:08] And you'll find that you're less inclined to even take the actions to do those things because you don't really care. You're just trying to keep up appearances and please other people. You want to focus on pleasing yourself, and it's not about being shallow. Cause people will say, Oh if you're saving money for a new handbag, or your focus is getting a new handbag or going on that vacation, then you're being shallow.

[00:14:29] There is more to life than those things. But at the end of the day, when you think about your finances, money is a tool, right? It's there to help you create a life for yourself. It's there in the sense that if you're able to accumulate a lot of money, you can help a lot of people, you can have a lot of impact, and you're also not just here to save money and then die with a full bank account of millions of dollars that you never use for anything, right?

[00:14:54] You want to be able to reward yourself. You wanna be able to help people, you wanna be able to make a difference, and you wanna be able to [00:15:00] use all this money that you're working so hard for to give you the life that you desire. You have to pick things that matter to you. Doesn't matter what it is, and if people are judging you, I mean at some point when you think about what you're trying to accomplish, you know if it really makes sense to you or not.

[00:15:18] Hala Taha: Yeah, I think that's a great perspective, and I think it's really just about what motivates you to take the right actions and whatever it is. It doesn't matter. So I'm totally on the same page with you on that. Back to gratitude. One of the ways that I personally feel more positive about any topic is affirmations.

[00:15:35] I tend to say affirmations all the time, and when it comes to money, I personally like to say things like, money is abundant, money comes easily to me, and expected and unexpected ways, money is attracted to me. I'm a magnet for money. Do you have any affirm? For money that you like. 

[00:15:52] Bola Sokunbi: So that's great. My , my affirmations are pretty similar in the sense that I tell myself, I deserve this.

[00:15:58] I deserve to be wealthy. [00:16:00] Similar things like money, the trackers in my bank account, or I'm highly favored and blessed and that's the reason why I'm financially successful. So I tell myself all these things that are in present. Present tense that are positive, that are reassuring, and whatever they might be.

[00:16:13] They may be sentences you make up. They may be quotes from the Bible or from the Quran, or if you're a religious person, one of those types of things. The bottom line with affirmations is giving yourself this boost is giving yourself this pep talk basically, and resetting your brain because it doesn't matter how amazing you are, everybody has little glimmers of self doubt, right?

[00:16:34] And it can vary based on your confidence level, based on your financial savviness. But everybody, Especially when you're pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, and if you're trying to change your finances and save money or pay off debt, you are definitely outside of your comfort zone because you're gonna have to do something differently than you've been doing that got you to this space.

[00:16:53] And so your affirmations are basically your counter attack to the glimmers in your head of self debt that will say, [00:17:00] There's no reason why you should be successful. You're meant to be in debt. It's gonna take you forever to pay off this debt. And it's just you countering that and pushing those thoughts to the bottom and not letting them change the way you feel about being able to accomplish your goals. 

[00:17:14] Hala Taha: Totally. One last question on emotions and mindset, and then we'll move into some more practical advice. A lot of my listeners are millennials, and as millennials are pretty much addicted to social media, and I think that can get us in a lot of trouble when it comes to our finances.

[00:17:30] There's these Instagram stars they show off and they seem like they have such an amazing, elaborate life, when in reality, and I know this personally from being in the music industry, it's really a lot of smoke and mirrors. And I think people don't really grasp that. What's the best way for us to stop being jealous of others and comparing ourselves to the Joneses.

[00:17:54] Bola Sokunbi: I think it's important to remember that when you look at the Jones's or the Insa [00:18:00] Jones's or the YouTube Jones's 

[00:18:01] Hala Taha: or the Kardashians .

[00:18:03] Bola Sokunbi: Yeah, exactly. It may not always be what it seems, right? The grass is not always greener on the other side. And some people are like it is from what I see, but you don't know what you don't know.

[00:18:14] And I would just focus on self. I would focus on what I want to accomplish. Cause at the end of the day, when you watch Kim Kardashian or you watch, I don't know, whoever's on Instagram these days, that's like how and popping. They're just showing you stuff. They're not giving you anything. You're not getting any of their million dollars, you're not getting any of their limelight like just spectating. And what does that do for you? You just waste your time. And so let's say you even want to compare yourself to the Joneses. What are you gonna do to get yourself to that level of the Jones? Watching them does not help you get any closer to where they are, if that's what you want. So it's important to keep in mind that your time is your most valuable asset in your life.

[00:18:50] Because with everything, you can get more money, you can get more clothes, you can get more of everything, but you don't get more time. The second most important [00:19:00] thing is your health, right? When you're healthy, you can do anything, but if you're not healthy, it's hard to do anything. Knowing that you have those two things, Your time and your health.

[00:19:09] How are you going to capitalize on these things to actually get you closer to what you're trying to, what you're seeing on those Joneses. Keeping in mind that, like I said, everything is not always what it is. Some people have a ton of money and they're depressed, focus on you. Focus on your why.

[00:19:25] Why are you doing this? You should never have a goal that is, I wanna save money cuz I wanna be like Kim Kardashian. That's not a goal. You don't know what's happening with Kim Kardashian. You have no idea. You don't want to be like Kim Kardashian. And not that there's anything wrong with her, but you just don't know what's happening.

[00:19:41] You don't know what kind of emotions she experiences. You don't know what pressure she feels to do what she does. You don't know anything about the life she lives. Do you really want a life that you don't know about? You just see from the outside. So build what you want for yourself. It's nice to look at socialites and look at people who seem to have it all.

[00:19:58] The other thing keep in mind is that a lot of people that [00:20:00] you're looking at actually don't have this money. I've seen Stories all the time of so and so declaring bankruptcy. So they have all these things, but they're not necessarily good stewards of their money, and that's what has led them to the bankruptcy declarations.

[00:20:11] Is that what you want? So again, perspective, focus on yourself. It's nice to look at their nice clothes. Maybe you can get some style inspiration or some hair and makeup inspiration. Once you've done all that, come back to your own why 

[00:20:25] Hala Taha: Quick thanks to Audible and then we'll be right back with the show.

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[00:21:29] Okay, so assuming we can take control of our emotions and get in the right mindset, the next step is really taking action, getting into more practical stuff. I was thinking we could start with accounts. What are the types of accounts that every millennial should have?

[00:21:44] Bola Sokunbi: So definitely a checking account to pay your bills for your day to day transactions. And I'll just paraphrase by saying that there isn't a rule on the number of accounts you should have. It's based on personal preference, but a checking account at the basic. You need to have that to get paid for direct [00:22:00] deposit, to transfer money to other accounts to pay your bills.

[00:22:03] For your day-to-day transactions, et cetera. A checking account, you also wanna have a savings account and a savings account specifically for emergency savings. Really important, your emergency savings is not an account for vacations or for shopping. This is strictly the account that you keep in the event that life happens to you.

[00:22:19] You have to take an unexpected trip. Your car breaks down, you lose your job. This is basically you putting money aside. So ideally about six months of your core needs. Expenses tied to food, transportation, and housing should be put in there. And the way you build this account up is by building those amounts into your budget.

[00:22:38] So how much is six months of your rent or six months of your mortgage, and how much can you afford to save each month to get you to six months of your mortgage? And basically, if something happens and you have to spend that money, then your goal is to replenish it. the very minimum, you wanna make sure that you get to a thousand dollars in that emergency account because a thousand dollars can cover most basic emergencies.

[00:22:59] You can [00:23:00] change your tires, you can change a flat tire, you can fix your car, it can help you buy a plane ticket somewhere, et cetera. So a thousand dollars. And then give yourself time to build up the rest people hear emergency savings. And they get overwhelmed because it sounds like a lot of money.

[00:23:12] But again, it's building it into your budget and contributing the small amounts. And over time you'll see it grow. So emergency fund account is really key. And then other savings accounts you wanna have are savings accounts that are tied to your short term goals. So any goals that you want to accomplish in the next year or two are accounts that you need to have, and I'm a huge fan of separating these accounts so that you can have a clear view of exactly what is you're trying to accomplish, and you prioritize them. So if you're saving for a vacation, you're saving for a car, you're saving for college, you're saving for a handbag, I would separate them. And lots of online banks allow you to have separate accounts under one master account, so it's really easy to set up. So separating these and then prioritizing them. So what is your number one priority Savings? Emergency savings might be number one, your trip might be number two. And then you can say, Okay, in [00:24:00] my budget I'm gonna put 70% of the cash I have available to save to my emergency savings and 30% to my trip.

[00:24:06] And then once my emergency saving, is fully funded, then I'll readjust my priorities and put more to my trip and then more to my car. Like you basically plan it out. So those are like your baseline checking account, savings account. And then you definitely want to think about saving for retirement. Super important.

[00:24:22] A lot of millennials are like I have a lot of time before I get to retirement. I'm 25. I'm 35. This is not a priority. But when you think about the fact that retirement on average lasts about 20 to 30 years, you need a lot of time to save a lot of money, right? Especially depending on the type of retirement you wanna have.

[00:24:39] Most people imagine retirement as them traveling, just living life, having great time. You need money to do that, and you need time to accumulate the money, for the money to compound, et cetera. If your employer offers a retirement plan that has a match, definitely take it. Get the full match. That is free money.

[00:24:58] If your employer doesn't offer one, [00:25:00] you can open your own IRA there are lots of tax benefits around having retirement accounts in place and just get your transfers to those retirement accounts automated. Once you have a firm handle on that, setting that up. You can also start to consider non-retirement investing accounts, and there's a number of different platforms you can use to start doing that, but it's just basically doing additional investing outside of your retirement because when it comes to actually building wealth, saving money is not how you get there. And I'll give you a specific example. So inflation in the United States is about two and a half percent today, but the average highest interest rate bank account is like 0.8%.

[00:25:38] So over the long term, if you're planning to save for 20 years . The value of the dollar decreases every single year. The longer you keep it in that same account, so you're actually losing money, long term. So short term, it's fine because you need to have access to the cash to do those things. Anything under five years, you wanna keep that liquid.

[00:25:55] But when you're thinking about long term savings, you need to invest it. The average return on the stock market is [00:26:00] 8%. You can invest in small business, you can invest in real estate, but. I will caveat and say it's important that you start to educate yourself on how investing works. You should never be investing because your friend said so.

[00:26:12] Because you're read it on Instagram because of X, Y, Z. You need to invest because you have a good feeling from your understanding of what you're getting into. And there's tons of books out there that can help you on introduction to investing. So those are the core accounts. 

[00:26:27] Hala Taha: Awesome. Do you personally invest in stocks?

[00:26:31] Bola Sokunbi: Yeah, so I invest in stocks. I invest in a mix of index funds and individual stocks. However, you want to be mindful that if you're investing in individual stocks, you have to spend a lot of time researching the stocks. You also wanna make sure that if you have a fixed amount of money to invest, you're not putting all of your money into one stock, because that's basically putting all your money into one basket. So when it comes to individual stocks, I do it on a very selective basis. I invest in companies and in stocks that I use their products. I'm [00:27:00] familiar with them. I support their mission. But for the most part, I'm invested in index funds, which basically give you a wide variety of stocks, thousands of stocks that your money is distributed into, so that if one market sector, one industry goes down, your entire portfolio is not.

[00:27:16] Hala Taha: That's great advice. Personally, I love to trade stocks. Most of my stocks are in the FANG stocks, and for those who might not be familiar, that's Facebook, Apple, Netflix, and Google. And actually right now I have over 50% of my money in stocks. Do you think that's too much? Am I crazy? 

[00:27:34] Bola Sokunbi: In individual stocks?

[00:27:36] Hala Taha: Yes. . I will say recently it went down, but I was up to 53% returns. And it's been a year, so I did do good, but a lot of my money is tied up in stocks. 

[00:27:46] Bola Sokunbi: I mean, so one thing I would say is that higher returns always equal higher risk. So the economy has been doing really great for the last several years. We're due for market adjustment or recession, Not trying to predict bad news, but economies are cyclical.

[00:27:59] That's just part of it. We're [00:28:00] gonna get into another recession at some point, and. If your money is only in a specific set of stocks, like five stocks and they're all in the same sector, like tech or media, tech, then that's not really great diversification. So you might wanna think about other segments to put your money in, and when you're investing in index funds and ETFs and things like that, especially for if you are investing in an index fund that is like for instance, matching the s and p 500, your money's invested across all these companies in various different sectors, and those top tier companies like Facebook, Amazon, Google, et cetera, are already in that portfolio. So it's something to consider. Just rebalancing. Yeah. 

[00:28:40] Hala Taha: Cool. Thanks . I got some personal advice. Okay. So can you explain the power of compound interest? I think this is really important for everyone to understand.

[00:28:51] Bola Sokunbi: Yeah. So Albert Einstein described compound interest as the eighth wonder of the world. And compound interest can work to your benefit or it can work to [00:29:00] your non benefit. I don't know the word for that. 

[00:29:04] Hala Taha: Disadvantage. 

[00:29:05] Bola Sokunbi: Disadvantage, exactly. Or detriments, depending on how severely you wanna look at it.

[00:29:10] But compound interest is basically your money, making money for you. So let's say you would invest a thousand dollars and in 12 months that thousand dollars makes a hundred dollars and you reinvest that a hundred dollars. Then the next 12. You now have $1,100 and the hundred dollars that you had made the previous year is now making more money for you, and it's compounding that way.

[00:29:31] So compounding just basically your money, making money for you, and the money that your money made is making money for you, and it continues that way. So it gives an opportunity to save a lot of money because as your portfolio grows, the goal is that the money that your money makes for you far exceeds how much you're putting in.

[00:29:51] When it comes to saving money with No compounding. If you're just putting money, I don't know, in a piggyback, your money's not working for you because you're just adding onto the Pal. But the [00:30:00] PAL is not doing anything, right? It's not creating any results. It's not creating any value. It's just sitting there waiting for you to put more money on top of it.

[00:30:06] And when you think about today's bank accounts, like with the very low interest rate, 0.2% that are not doing anything to tackle inflation, then the compounding is so minute. That it might as well not be doing anything . So compounding is basically your money, making money for you, and it's really important, especially when you are putting your money in vehicles that have.

[00:30:27] Higher performance like the stock market, if the average performance of stock market is 8% over the long term, that's 8% your money will get and 8% your money's money will get, and then 8%. So it becomes this cascading effect of growth that helps your portfolio grow. 

[00:30:40] Hala Taha: Very good stuff. So when it comes to actually putting money in this, these accounts, we've got to be responsible enough to save and to not overspend. Can you give your tips on preventing ourselves from overspending and some of the ways that you personally save to make sure that you're [00:31:00] able to have money and all of these types of accounts?

[00:31:02] Bola Sokunbi: So when it comes to overspending, there are two key things. Number one is your budget. And your budget is basically you telling your money what to do. It's, you don't want it to be the other way around where you get money and all of a sudden it kind of slips away from your fingers and you don't know, at the end of the month you're like, Oh my God, I read all my money.

[00:31:16] Go. You have to tell your money what to do. You have to designate each dollar a job, and that's what your budget does. So that's one way to, start to plan out your spending. When it comes to overspending, there's a lot of different theories out there. I'm of the opinion that you just need to make it as difficult as possible for yourself to overspent, especially when you're in the stage where you're trying to figure out your finances.

[00:31:38] If you haven't built up the self-discipline yet and you're struggling with saving, do you really just wanna have all of your money sitting in the bank account and staring at you back every time you check your checking account when you get paid? You don't want that. So what can you do to make it less convenient for you to overspend?

[00:31:53] And I'm a huge fan of automation. That means with your employer, with payroll, with your bank, you can set up [00:32:00] automatic transfer every time a payroll transaction or direct deposit hits your bank account. Or you can set up automatic disbursement of your funds by date. So exit every 15th of the month, and basically what you do is.

[00:32:12] You say, Okay, I'm gonna have 10% of this check. Go to my residency account, 10% go to that savings account, 20% go to that non-retirement investing account, All those different accounts, and you have it automatically set up so that by the time you come in to check your account and say, Oh, what can I buy?

[00:32:28] There's actually no money there for you to buy anything because all your employees have gone to do their jobs in the different bank accounts. So make it less convenient for yourself to overspend, leverage automation. And a lot of people will tell me I don't wanna automate because my bank account may get overdrawn.

[00:32:45] I have an inconsistent income, and that's okay. Those are valid points. And so you can choose to automate by date and you can just go in and check your accounts the day before the automation's supposed to come through. And if you're not gonna have enough money, you can adjust the percentages, you can adjust the amounts, or you can [00:33:00] cancel it.

[00:33:00] So it's all about removing the convenience to overspend. It's such a simple thing you can do that can make a whole world of difference. 

[00:33:06] Hala Taha: Yeah, I love that. We recently had a podcast where we talked about the need to change your environment, and I think that this plays right into that. If you don't have the money, you can't spend it. If your money is already allocated, you can't spend it. So I love that and I think that ties in with a lot of the themes that we've been covering. 

[00:33:22] Bola Sokunbi: Exactly. 

[00:33:23] Hala Taha: So what's the craziest thing you've ever done to save money? 

[00:33:26] Bola Sokunbi: So I've done a number of things, but I think the craziest thing, I think I may have shared this on, I think I have a YouTube or a podcast on it, or maybe both.

[00:33:34] Hala Taha: A YouTube video. I watched it . 

[00:33:35] Bola Sokunbi: Okay. Okay. . So I may also have a podcast audit. I did it a while back, but it was when I was trying to save I saved a hundred thousand dollars in three years when I first left college, and I had gone into this mode where I was like save. And I was on top of my budget.

[00:33:50] I think one particular time I just had an extra dollar or two and I was like, Wait a minute. Dollars don't have any jobs. I'm gonna put it in my savings account. And my savings account was at a [00:34:00] credit unit, I believe, or a different bank that was somewhere else. And I actually drove all the way to that bank to go make a dollar deposit, cuz the online transfer would not take a dollar.

[00:34:07] It was like there's a minimum $10 or something ridiculous like that, . So I drove there and I went and I was like, I would like to deposit this dollar. And she looked at me like really? Like seriously. And I'm gonna create all this paperwork that's more than this $1 and do more than $1 of work to put your dollar into your account.

[00:34:22] But whatever, she didn't say it, but it was written all over her face the teller . But I deposited it anyway and I felt good about myself and I did it with confidence. And it sounds silly to drive all the way to a bank to go put in a dollar, but it was less about the amount in those early days of me saving money was more about keeping up with the habit, right?

[00:34:40] So it's not. When you're getting your finances in order, I can even do a fitness comparison. It's not about. How much you're able to save. It's not about how many hours you're able to work out in that one given day. It's the fact that you're able to keep up with it. And let's say one day you only have five minutes to work out and you take a quick walk around the block, you can actually check off on your [00:35:00] list and say, You know what?

[00:35:00] Wednesday I worked out, as opposed to saying, Oh, I only have five minutes. I'll just wait until I have another hour. And then you don't work out for three weeks, and it's hard to get back into the pattern. It's the same with your finances. It's about keeping up with the consistency and staying on top of it, even if you're only paying 25 cents to your credit card cuz that's what you had. At least you made the effort, you made the transaction, and you can check it off. Today complete. 

[00:35:22] Hala Taha: Yeah. And even though it was small, it brought you closer to your goals. And like you said, it helped you train and become in the habit of that. And it was also about making a decision.

[00:35:31] You decided that you were gonna start investing in that account and putting money in that account no matter how little it was. And I think that everybody listening to the show should take that advice. Like even if you have $5. Start that account. You have to start somewhere.

[00:35:44] Bola Sokunbi: Exactly. 

[00:35:45] Hala Taha: Okay. So how often should we be checking our finances?

[00:35:49] Bola Sokunbi: I check my finances every day. It's a very simple, just staying on top of my finances, like with my bank account app or with whatever app I have on my phone. I check [00:36:00] every day. It takes two to three minutes. By the time I log in, I just check my transactions, especially my checking account.

[00:36:05] I check my investment accounts less frequently. Depending on what accounts, like maybe every couple weeks, but at least once a month, just so I see what's happening there. I'm less on top of my long term investments because they're long term. It's also not conducive to be checking the stock market every single day, cuz you'll drive yourself crazy with short term behavior.

[00:36:22] So that's like a pretty couple weeks every month. Kind of thing, but your day to day transactions, your savings deposits, like every time you have a transaction going on your account. Let's say you have a transfer to a savings account every two weeks. You wanna check in on it. Let's say your checking account, you wanna spend five minutes to review your transactions from yesterday, so you can, number one, see how you were spending and adjust accordingly. See where you can cut back, and also make sure that the transactions were correct, especially around bill payment. There are a lot of mistakes that happen with cable bills, phone bills, subscription plans, things like that. You just wanna make sure that you're not being double charged, you're not overpaying that your plan did not change, [00:37:00] things like that. So I recommend checking every day, two minutes. It becomes second nature. It's brushing your teeth. You open your app.

[00:37:07] Okay, great. It's fine. Oh, not great, Okay, I'm gonna fix this. And then you keep on with your day. 

[00:37:11] Hala Taha: Got it. Great advice. And before we go, if you had one thing to pick for our YAP listeners to do differently after listening to this podcast, what would it be? 

[00:37:21] Bola Sokunbi: Oh, that's a great question. . One thing depending on who you are and it's applicable to everybody, is the thing that we kept harping about throughout the conversation is know your why.

[00:37:30] Why do you want to be successful? Do you even want to be successful? The answer should be yes. And then the next question should be, why do you want to be successful? What is the thing that's gonna compel you to want to accomplish your goals? Like you have to know that, do you? If you don't know, pause everything you're doing right now and figure that out.

[00:37:48] And then once you know your why, create your goals around that why, and then start to plan accordingly. But you have to know what it is. 

[00:37:54] Hala Taha: And I really think that our listeners should check out all the resources that you have available. I noticed [00:38:00] you have a new free course. Do you wanna just speak to that a little bit and tell everyone where they can find it and some of the other stuff that you're doing where they can learn more?

[00:38:08] Bola Sokunbi: Yeah, absolutely. So we recently relaunch Clever World Finance as a learning platform. So we have a ton of courses that you can take on personal finance, and we're adding new courses every single month. And one of the things that we're offering right now is a free course that helps you create a fresh start and build a better relationship with your money.

[00:38:24] And we talk about some mindset tips, some of which we talked about here on the podcast, but we go more in depth on them. We talk about different financial concept that you should know at a minimum, and it's also an introduction to our broader, deeper dive course content. So you should definitely stop by, check it out, It's no cost.

[00:38:40] At clever wealth finance.com. You'll see it right there. It says, Learn for free. Our goal is to empower you to be able to make the right financial decisions. You can also learn more about Clever Girl Finance on the website, on Instagram. We have a really awesome Instagram community on YouTube, which is I think how you found me.

[00:38:55] Hala Taha: Thank you. 

[00:38:56] Bola Sokunbi: And we also have a podcast called The Clever Girls Know Podcast. Then you [00:39:00] can find that on everywhere you listen to podcasts. 

[00:39:02] Hala Taha: Bola, this was so helpful. I think this is gonna be a great episode, and I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us today. 

[00:39:09] Bola Sokunbi: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. 

[00:39:11] Hala Taha: Thanks for listening to this episode of Young and Profiting Podcast. Remember, this podcast is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered financial advice. Conduct your own due diligence or consult a licensed financial advisor before making your investment. Young and Profiting podcast would not be possible without the hard work of the team who supports the show.

[00:39:33] Big thanks to Timothy Tan, Daniel Mc Vadder Christian, Kayla, Steve, Stephanie and Ryan. Check us out at youngandprofiting.com for show notes and transcripts, and subscribe wherever you like to listen to your podcasts. Catch you in a week or so when we'll be talking with Nick Loper on the Art of Starting a Side Hustle.

[00:39:50] This is Hala signing off.