How to Be A Money Master With Jennifer Harter
Updated: Jun 11, 2021
Episode 13
Wishing you knew more about the stock market? It is easier than you think - Jennifer Harter dazzles us with her no fluff insight to the stock market world, 401Ks, and real estate investing. She inspires us with her mission to end paycheck to paycheck living.
And she makes passive income sound simple and achievable!
Check out Jennifer's Course and Facebook Community
Download The Passive Income Examiner's Playbook giving you the roadmap you need to escape the rat race and live with financial peace!
Transcription:
Lindsay: (00:03)
Welcome to the passive income examiner podcast, where we dissect passive income systems and strategies as a solution to the silent worries that keep us up at night, like how to pay for our kids' education or how to build a retirement we can be proud of. Or heck how about just having a few more family vacations? Hey, I'm Lindsay Sutherland working mama of four, who escaped the big city for a log cabin in the woods, who loves country music and rock and roll. And I believe it is possible to make money while we sleep. Welcome friends. Let's dive in to today's episode.
Hey friends, welcome back to the passive income examiner podcast series. I want to introduce our guest of honor today, Ms. Jennifer of Jennifer Harter consulting. Jennifer built her career in finance and later found a passion for educating the masses about mastering their finance. Let's stick in and hear what she has to offer us today.
Jennifer: (01:04)
Um, and I'm super excited because I think right now more than ever, people are looking for that alternative outside of, you know, regular jobs or they lost their job, or they're afraid to get a job or who knows what I mean, it's kind of a crazy world, or they're realizing they don't have to do the nine to five in an office that, you know, there's other options available. I know there's, there's so much going on right now. It's, it's a wonderful time. It definitely is. So tell me a little bit about you. Okay. I actually, uh, I was in the military after I was going to be a veterinarian, but I didn't like the a hundred thousand dollars price tag that came with it. So I said, you know, I took a year off after high school to try and save as much money as I could.
Jennifer: (01:45)
I had enough to get through one semester of the state college, um, pre vet courses. And so I said, you know, I come from a long line of military people. So I joined the military to get the GI bill was injured, so I could no longer be. I wanted to be a large animal vet, no longer be a large animal vet. Then of course, I went through the whole, you know, now what I want to be when I grow up, you know, eventually I, I, um, I decided I was like, you know what, I, I really liked doing my taxes and most people don't. So I'm like, I want to become an accountant.
Jennifer: (02:20)
And of course I have an account who doesn't do anybody else's taxes, but, but surely actually I started working as a sales tax auditor and then started going to the not-for-profit arena and have, uh, been both a director of finance and director of HR in that arena, you know, and it kind of, it started, I mean, I'd grown up in four H my daughter grew up in four H and so about this time, I, I was working at a small, not for profit on the South side of Syracuse, which has a higher concentration of poverty than Detroit. Um, and at the same time, my daughter and her friends were all, you know, growing up, moving out on their own and, you know, and luckily growing up that for each environment, you know, they all call me. I can send them all my kids, you know, they, they all, you know, it's like one big family, so it would come to me for money in place.
Jennifer: (03:06)
And so I said, you know what, let me go ahead. I was about, it's been almost two years now. I said, you know what, let me go ahead and put this on a website and I'll start as a Facebook group. And then we can discuss this all at once instead of them coming to me individually, because I'm too busy to do this is a full time job. And so I did, so I started the website, started the group, and the next thing I know their parents are wanting to join. The friends are wanting to join. Friends of friends are wanting to join. So the business kind of created itself. Um, yeah, and, and also, like I said, kind of at the same time, working on the South side of Syracuse with all these people, I noticed these little kids, you know, they all had the same hopes and dreams of everyone.
Jennifer: (03:41)
Somehow by the time they were in their teens, they decided, you know, it was easier to just not to have a job, collect welfare, have a lot of kids live, live off the government and the people's money. And, but they also had the elders who were very respectful. You know, they, they get all dressed up in their Sunday best when they had a meeting or even just come in the office, they'd be all, you know, and they'd call each other, you know, Ms. Mr. And the young kids were taught to, you know, to really respect their elders too. So I was like, what happened here? And so that's where it kind of, the whole thing was born when I was like, okay, well here I may be these kids who were raised in really good families, really responsible who are struggling, how under these other people who don't have that same infrastructure, you know, stand a chance. And so that's where I really started to build out my mission of really wanting to help at least a million people stop living paycheck to paycheck by 2030 and help and generational poverty. And so it really, it was just, it just kinda was like this perfect storm.
Lindsay: (04:37)
That is such a, that's a wonderful thing. I mean, you know what I love, especially about where our conversation's going, Jennifer is the fact that there is such a lack to me. There's always been a lack of it, of financial education in, in schools. And I remember, you know, the bank came in when I was in fourth or fifth or sixth grade, somewhere in there and, you know, taught me how to balance a checkbook. And they gave us all a bunch of like information about how to manage a checkbook. There was no concept of what's passive income versus what's traditional income. So did you create sort of a system or something to further educate these people? Or what, where did they go from there after you kind of saw the need?
Jennifer: (05:18)
Well, mostly what I've been doing so far is, um, just education. If you look at my posts, you know, I just, every day I'm putting it, not every day, every weekdays I am putting out high value, good information for them to know. I actually, uh, you know, chose not to even think about considering like being a financial planner or financial advisor, because I don't want to be tied to a product and then be influenced, you know, like in one of my, um, I guess my arch nemesis is like Dave Ramsey. You know, if you go to his website, he's consciously trying to sell you something. He's like, you know, it's not just giving you information. It's like, Oh, look, you can buy this insurer product that he gets a port, you know, he owns the insurance company or he he's with who's are providing the service. And he does that with everything, with insurances, with mortgages, with, um, you know, credit cards. And you go to, I don't know if you've ever been to his website, but it looks like a used car salesman.
Jennifer: (06:10)
Like, so like, I don't want to be like that. I want to be completely independent and just give, get good, you know, give good information. So I do have a system in place which starts with knowing where you are, you know, so really creating that, that, uh, you know, the budget for yourself, creating your, almost like a balance sheet where, you know, your assets, you know, your liabilities, you know, where your income is, you know, your expenses. Um, and then going from there to where, you know, taking those steps to where you want to eventually be an in-between, it's more of, I don't have anything set up per se. I do have, um, my effortless investing course for people who want to get started in investing in the stock market. And it can take you from it. It only takes a few hours if you watch it straight through, but it takes you from like having no idea how to invest in the stock market to be confidently making those first few purchases and just a matter of hours.
Jennifer: (06:58)
And then I'm working also on creating a spreadsheet. I've given out my spreadsheet before that I used to track my ex my income, my expenses, but I'm, I'm actually gonna make it more user-friendly. So it'll actually create your budget for at least to start your budget for you, kind of your, you know, where you are now, and then you can tweak it from there because I know a lot of people, they see spreadsheets, they get overwhelmed, they're still not sure what to do with them. So I'm like, you know, if I can make that a little bit more user-friendly, I've given away for free, but I'll, I'll put a small, you know, like $27 price tag on it or something once that is done. And then I'm also working on a small course, um, you know, just finance fundamentals that really talks about those things. Like you're talking about like, you know, balancing your checkbook, understanding the terms, you know, things along those lines notes that, you know, being able to write down kind of where you are with your, your balance sheet and your income statement and kind of taking all those business things that any business would have. And for some reason, people don't translate it to individuals because we need it just as badly as any business does probably more. So
Lindsay: (07:54)
I haven't looked at that spreadsheet, but does it talk about a net worth? Is it a net worth statement or is it just basically a balance sheet of like the actual funds that you have available?
Jennifer: (08:03)
There's a little bit of both, so yeah. It's um, and I actually have a debt tracker spreadsheet that I do too, that I work with my, um, my mentees with, I really don't like to call them students. Um, I feel like I'm more of a mentor than, than a, than a teacher, but you know, where they can actually track and see like, Oh, okay, this month, this is my minimum payment. This is how much my total balances, this is my available credit. And it really sets them up in a place where if they want to like get a house, they know how it's going to affect them, where they are thinking, even qualify, things like that. So I really try to like, kind of encompass the entire good foundation cause that's where you need to start from anywhere. And right now I don't really have a system in place per se, because it just I'm at the point right now where everyone's so individualized that I don't want to create some blanket product that, um, cannot be, you know, fine tune to what they need, because it seems like so many of the products are out there right now.
Jennifer: (08:55)
We're just kind of, they're made for the masses, you know, and a lot of people don't feel like that resonates with them. So,
Lindsay: (09:01)
And also, I mean, once they take your course and it sparks questions for them, they always have your Facebook group where they can talk to you and ask questions there that are more pertinent to their life because I know you're right when we can't fit one course can't be a one size fits all. But you know, if you've, you've gotten some consistency in the questions that people are asking or the information that's helpful. I mean, that's always a good place to start. I was thinking, but you know, what about a course for like middle schoolers that, you know, parents could invest in to just give them a meat and potatoes, starting out idea, um, money and how, like, how that works, how does money work? How does it work globally? Because I think my kids really need to understand, like we do in our house, we talk about the national debt and how it affects the dollar, but I still don't think they have a concept of like the global issues or like what if the dollar drops, you know, what does that mean for them? You know, things like that, that it's not about worrying or creating worry. It's about understanding that cash. Isn't always just the only way to have money. There's other forms of money. How does it all work together? What is a commodity, those kinds of things.
Jennifer: (10:13)
Especially since cash, actually, it's like, it's less than 10% I to say it's like 7% of the total amount of money out there. You know, the cash in your pocket is like, it's nothing, most of it is on paper and spreadsheets and just numbers, which is why, which is why you kind of have to keep growing the way it has in years past when we were tied to gold as the standard, or we only had a finite amount of dollars that we could print, we could, we wouldn't ever run into the economy. You know, there's just no way it could have happened in it is because now everything is more, credit-based more plastic based. You don't have to, you have to have physical, anything tied to it. It really changes the whole game. So that's a great idea. I might maybe I'll look into that because it's not, it's actually something I want to do eventually, because of course, growing up in four H it's all about, you know, learning by doing.
Jennifer: (10:57)
And, and one of the things that I loved was when I was in, I laughed, I care if I was a sophomore junior, but in social studies, our teacher actually broke us up into groups. We're learning about the stock market and the stock market crash in the twenties. And, uh, he actually broke us up into groups, gave us a hundred thousand dollars each of play money. And we looked up and we bought our stacks. We decided what we wanted to buy, what we wanted to sell each week, we'd get together and make these choices. And at the end of six or eight weeks, whatever it was, whoever had made the most money, got the highest score, like an a plus, and then maybe an a and then, uh, you know, put it really for me. Now I have, I had no fear investing the stock market.
Jennifer: (11:32)
I understood, I understood the terms. I understood how things work. I understood what to look for and, you know, and that was something I just thought everybody learned in school. I later realized that not everyone does. And that was really the basis of the effortless investing course, because, you know, I was like, well, it just gives you information. Most people are just overwhelmed because they don't know, but it's actually very simple. And, and you're right with these other things that could be, it's very simple. It's just that, you know, we're not taught them. And so part of what I wanted to do is eventually down the road was actually have teen groups where I could fund to make investments, whether they invest in Bitcoin or stocks or bonds, or, you know, maybe even eventually real estate. I wouldn't give him enough to really invest in real estate right off the bat.
Jennifer: (12:07)
But if they, if the group made enough money and they then wanted to invest in real estate, they could, or, but they'd be using real dollars to invest in real products would be the group mice. We don't have to worry about, you know, parental consent and, you know, in, in doing any kind of special accounts or anything like that, you know, just so that by the time they reached adulthood, they would be familiar with and comfortable with these concepts. But the idea of know the idea of doing, thank you, doing a little, of course I had to try, no, I really liked that. Um, you know, my, my 20 somethings are my, are really my ICA because I want them to get, I want that to cut the learning curve for them, so that they're in a good place earlier than they can teach their parents or they can teach their kids eventually when they have them.
Jennifer: (12:48)
And that, yeah, that's kind of my plan for ending generational. Poverty is just education. I love it. I really think that's what it comes down to right now. I mean, it clearly, isn't it isn't location because people in the middle of nowhere, Africa are creating their own businesses, making money, um, you know, doing very well for themselves. So it's not a matter of where you are or how you've been raised or the opportunities you were given. It is definitely at this point, just a matter of, of education and in that, you know, that thirst for learning and taking action on it.
Lindsay: (13:17)
So let me ask you, so let's dive in a little bit to your, um, your current passive income strategy and kind of, how did you get to, uh, w what is, is it the courses that you're, that you're selling right now is that your passive income strategy? Nope.
Jennifer: (13:32)
Strategy, but they're not really creating any passive income right now. I decided early on when COVID first hit and I started locking down, I actually did. I took all my, all my offerings, all my paid offerings off the table. I just gave everything away for free. That's why I gave away the spreadsheets. I gave away all these video, or like the videos too, but pretty much everything, all the information that I had, I just was giving away. So if you look at the post I've been creating over the last six months or so, um, there's just a lot of high value, almost no ask in return. You're just, just getting it all out there so people could, you know, get back on their feet or, you know, come out of this stronger. Now I'm at the point now about a month or so ago, I said, okay, now I can start making those asks again. And, and those offerings. So, so yes, the, uh, the, the e-courses are part of my passive income strategy, but the bigger one is actually the, the residential rental real estate, which actually just kind of fell into accidentally.
Jennifer: (14:28)
I had, uh, my first house, which was a trailer on, it was on a beautiful lot. It was a little, little single wide or the detached two and a half car garage on an acre and a third. And, um, there was the first house that I bought after my divorce. When I went to sell it, people were trying to undercut me. I wasn't asking a lot for it. And, you know, we're just trying to, and, and I knew why, because they wanted to turn into a rental property. And I said, I'm like, and I was only trying to sell it for what the land was worth, because I knew he had his trailer. It doesn't really have any value. And so I said, well, if anybody's going to make money off this thing, it's going to be me. I mean, I may live in a trailer, but I'm not dumb,
Jennifer: (15:04)
And I really don't want to sell it so I could have the down payments. I wouldn't have to pay PMI on my new house. I bought a a hundred acre horse farm. Yeah. So anyway, so I, so I, I talked to my sister, she had some extra money, so we went ahead and, you know, we bought a new trailer, put it on there. I actually hauled the old one over. I only bought a place a mile down the road. So I held my old trailer, parked it next to the new house and put a ramp across like
Jennifer: (15:27)
Wonderful, Oh, my neighbors misread, like, what is going on here?
Jennifer: (15:33)
So together we co-own that rental. And I manage it. She's out of state. So she was the money. I was, you know, taking care of everything and we still do it to this day. We saw that property and it's just a cash cow now, because after we paid off the new trailer, you know, it's just pure profit. And so then my dad was in a plane crash and like two weeks before the terrorist attacks and he, um, left me a half a duplex.
And so hearing it locally
Jennifer: (16:03)
That he left me cause you know, the rental agreements, you know, so there was some passive income coming there. I didn't have to pay anything for it. So I had this money coming in every month. I think it was like, I wanna say it was like five 50 a month at the time. It was really no strings attached. I mean, I had to pay the, you know, you know, you'd pay the taxes, you have to, you know, do the maintenance, but, but really it was, you know, just set up and given to me, you know, between those we were making, I was making some pretty decent money and I just actually, um, this spring bought the other half of my duplex because the gentleman, it was my dad's best friend who owned the other half. They built it together. I actually helped build it way back when I was in my teens High school. Yeah.
Jennifer: (16:39)
Yeah. So anyways, so I bought him out. So now I own the entire duplex. I have, you know, I'm up to three doors, you know, so I just have, but it's all, it's all cash cow because it's all, you know, there's, there's no mortgages on it. Although I am looking right now to I'm leveraging the duplex so I can take out the money and buy some additional real estate properties. So that's my plan right now. But, but yeah, that's really, that's my passive income is that, that residential real estate, because there's nothing to it,
Lindsay: (17:08)
You're really in a great position. You've got the education to help people give them the confidence that they need to start making investment choices. And then real estate is one of the best things to do in this year.
Jennifer: (17:18)
I warn people. I've actually, it'd be easier if you went on my website and how to be a money master website and looked it up because, um, but I have it well, if I remember, I think the video might only be in the Facebook group, but I actually did like a whole, almost like a mini master class on rental real estate. And, and there was one thing that I want you to say only certain people are, can be landlords. I mean, it's like, if you don't have the mindset and the fortitude to be on the alert, don't because it's not for everyone. And if you aren't going to be doing something outside your area, or if you choose to go with a property manager, you have to, if you can't do the hands-on, you have to find a team that you can trust. Because as you know, you know, if you don't have the right property manager, if you don't have the right maintenance crew that can make or break.
Lindsay: (17:59)
Yeah, definitely. Well, or you, you know, don't know how to vet your tenant. Like it's always,
Jennifer: (18:05)
Yeah. Yeah. I know. That's right. I really, I really mastered that skill.
Lindsay: (18:11)
Well, we'll usually have one or two rentals. It's a lot easier to be more vested. That's something I was going to ask you, actually, Jennifer, like if you were to talk about somebody who may be listening to this episode, who's kind of thinking about toe dipping into passive income strategy. You've done so much, you've seen so much, what would be your recommendation like, Hey, this is a good place to start. If you were just giving somebody some advice In general about real estate and specific
Lindsay: (18:39)
In general about like, you know, building, building, or investing into a passive income strategy or some sort of, as they might say a side hustle. But the difference is we're not what I'm not about is the hustle part, because exactly either I want to live the hustle hustle in your twenties, but by the time you get there, it's like, no, nothing here. I think I've done every MLM known demand practically, you know, and it's like, or network marketing as they say, but when you're full-time and you're mom and you're, you're busy with your kids, whether they're homeschooled or not, your family becomes your life.
Jennifer: (19:21)
I think it really comes down to your personality, you know, because what works for one person may not work for the other. If you have somebody that's an extrovert and they love, you know, an MLM might be the best way for them to start building that. You know, if they're extremely charismatic, you know, that's what they do well with the MLS where they could do a little bit of hustle and then they build up their team and they have residual coming in. I was actually a Mary Kay consultant for a few years, um, back in my early twenties. That was how I was able to put food on the table when my ex-husband was spending all of her money. And then some, I was trying to, I was trying to be as best I could of say a stay-at-home mom with a young child. I forgot the military. Um, you know, she was only a year old, you know, went away. I got, well, I got the military, she was close to a year old. And then we divorced right after her second birthday. But, you know, and so, and I was a Mary Kay consultant for pretty much from the time I was like pregnant for her until I went back to college. When I finished up college, it's something I had to give. And as teaching riding lessons too, you know, so she could, you know, so she'd get her horse would pay for itself.
Jennifer: (20:18)
I mean, it wasn't all about that. I was like, okay, if we're going to have,
Lindsay: (20:20)
Of course has to pay for herself. So I taught riding lessons so she could have a horse until I got out of college and had a better paying job. Um, but really it comes down to your personality and your passions because as you know, if you enjoy doing it, it doesn't feel like work. And somehow you'll find the time at 6:00 AM before the kids get up or later on in the evening after they go to bed or while they're taking their naps, if you're lucky enough to have kids that actually take naps,
Jennifer: (20:49)
But you can tuck it in. And I really didn't. I, at the time I enjoyed being American consult, but I am not an extrovert. Um, but I did, it was kind of the same thing I do now where I, I spent a lot of times going into like nursing homes and helping the nursing home residents get all dolled up and they loved it and they felt pretty. And, but then they tell their kids and their grandkids and then they will become my customers, you know, and that was, I actually lived in Missouri at the time. So a station, you know, but that's yeah, so it kind of played into my strengths. I liked what I was doing. I was having fun. And, um, and it, it put the, my that I needed on it, you know, so I could buy the food so I could pay the insurance or whatever had, you know, put gas in the car or whatever, little things, they did make a lot of money, but I did not have the personality though, to become like a team leader as you know, your work you're right. You know, we actually have a team I, that was not my personality. So that's why I was not ultimately successful for me. So really I think that'd be my, my biggest advice to people is like, you know, do something that really plays to your strengths in your personality, because it becomes so much easier when, when you do. Yeah.
Lindsay: (21:46)
Well, what if they have like a job and they're making a little bit of extra money and they just want to invest some of it and get a return higher maybe than a 401k, or I think right now. And I'm not sure if this is just me and some of the research I've done, or if more people feel this way, but I don't really trust 401ks, you know, after watching the last market crash and then knowing that that's kind of where we're headed in the next few years. And it may not obviously be as bad as the last one, but, um, God help us. I hope it's not, but I definitely don't know that right now is the time I want to start putting money into a 401k wholeheartedly. Maybe there's another strategy. Like you said, the stock thing, like stocks is truly scary to me. I don't know that I would feel comfortable knowing where to begin with that. Maybe that would be a good, good way to start.
Jennifer: (22:33)
Yeah. And really what most people don't understand is that 401ks were set up to, they were tax loophole and they were set up originally to if they benefit the employer, they don't even benefit really the person at all. They were not meant for people to retire on or retire wealthy on. Um, you know, when you think about it back in the day, used to go and work for the same company. And after 40 years, they'd give you the, the gold watch and your pension for life. And you usually, if you were lucky, you lived a couple of years after that, you know, most people were courteous enough to die very soon after retirement so that the company really needed to be out on a whole lot. And then as people started living longer after retirement, the other companies were like, Oh, darn, what are we gonna do now?
Jennifer: (23:12)
Because you know, this is costing us money. And that was when they actually started, they found this tax loophole and they actually started offering this 401k, uh, you know, so there, it puts all the, it puts a good chunk of, uh, the responsibility on the employee, because now if you don't retire with enough money, it's your fault. You know, it's not, you have to worry about the employer taking care of you. Um, and of course, people don't work for the same employer for as long as they used to. Now, people move around a lot more. But what it does is the, the 401k or whatever employer where, you know, there's four 57 B or four Oh three B whatever it might be. But the employer sponsored retirement account actually shows up on their balance sheet. So it shows up as an asset and as a liability. But when, when they're going for funding, it makes them look, it makes their balance sheet look stronger when the employer wants to go and borrow money from the bank or whoever, or get funding. And so that's what it's really all about. And so really, and if you ever look at I'm sure, you know, you've, you've had a 401k, it sounds like. So if you ever look at the fees, they're charging you, as soon as you stop contributing, this thing starts whittling away. Pretty darn quick.
Lindsay: (24:20)
Yeah.
Jennifer: (24:21)
The fees are outrageous on those things because they tend to put them in mutual funds where somebody is actively managing it and you pay through the nose for that. Really what the 401ks are good for is if your employer has a match, if you put in what the employer will match and that's it, that's how you maximize your 401k. You know, I recommend, and it's based on, it's brief, you know, research and studies and, but most millionaires and billionaires set aside, at least, you know, at least when they were starting out, you know, it changes as you get more money, but you know, at least 10% of your income goes to future, you know, your investments. So if you're putting 3% into a 401k, because that's what your company matches, you take the other 7% and you invest on your own. And a lot of times, the easiest thing to invest in is the stock market. When you're first starting out. And then as you build up more money, then you can turn around into your, take it out and invest it in real estate or bigger items that are less risky. But as you know, if you just, if all you do is just put it in a savings account, it's not going to grow as now. I can keep pace with inflation. So I guess, unfortunately, if you want to call it that, you know, the stock market is really the only way when you're first starting out to get
Lindsay: (25:24)
Ahead of the game and you can do it at it on a small scale until you feel more comfortable. Right? I mean, that's
Jennifer: (25:31)
Oh, totally. Yeah. You could start out with as little as, you know, $5 and buy some. I mean, if you want to buy a share of Ford, I think that's still around. I think it's still under $10. I think GM has the same. Um, you know, a lot of car companies are under $10 a share.
Lindsay: (25:44)
Wow, are you kidding? I had no idea. Tesla is now a Tesla.
Jennifer: (25:52)
I actually did a live on Thursday. I was talking about the stock market and Tesla at that point was $400 a share. Tesla makes absolutely no sense. They, there was absolutely no reason for that, that stock to be anywhere near what it is. Um, cause they don't even sell it. They don't sell that many cars. They don't sell well-made cars. They have, you know, they actually, the cars have like a horrible reputation. I'm not quite sure.
Lindsay: (26:13)
Well, I mean, Ilan is like a great salesman. People love the hood
Jennifer: (26:19)
And I don't know, it's kinda, and there they are getting a lot of data and I know, you know, so as far as data goes, so they are collecting all that data. So they do have some, maybe that's where the value can come from, but it's not for this stuff for the cars themselves. As much as I love Tesla, there is so much fun to drive.
Lindsay: (26:37)
I definitely want to be a part of your group wealth of information and all over the place. Um, yeah,
Jennifer: (26:44)
Sorry. I will bounce all over the place. So sorry, but anyways, so yeah, so that's um,
Lindsay: (26:47)
Well they do all of the information and that's what I love about our conversation is it's like you've enlightened me in lots of ways already.
Jennifer: (26:56)
Well, and you've been laying me too. So this has been perfect. I appreciate that. What I do is when you're besting the stock market, when you're starting out and I actually did a post, not that long ago, I think, I think it was Thursday, right when I talked about it. So you just probably have back and look at that one, but um, you want to invest in something that you, that you use on a regular basis, something that you truly love, um, something that aligns with your values. And then also Leslie it's called Motley fool has what's called the snap test, which is where you snapped your fingers and it disappeared tomorrow where people miss it. And so when you look at some of the, especially some of the bigger sites like Google Disney, you know, prior automakers, Apple, you know, if you snap your fingers, they disagreed about people would miss it.
Jennifer: (27:35)
And so this, those tend to be your, your safer bet. And then it's just a matter of doing some research, seeing what you think is a good price for it, and then buying it when it gets to the price that you think it should be at and then just, you know, plan on buying and holding forever. Unless you see that it looks like it's going to go down the drain. You know, there's always, it always helps if you know, when to get out, but for the most part, some of these bigger companies, you know, they're, they're going to be around for the long haul too. And so through all the ups and downs, eventually, you know, everything goes up and, uh, although there's no guarantees. So I always tell people, we don't like rural courses, don't get involved in the stock market. Um, but it is really the easiest way for somebody just starting out with not a lot of money to kind of get their initial footing and get, and start making the money where they can then turn around and use it to, uh, you know, as a down payment to buy, um, you know, real estate or whatever.
Jennifer: (28:23)
The other thing that people can do to that. A lot of people don't think about when it comes to real estate and you may already be aware of it, especially with your husband, but, um, you know, if you buy a duplex triplex quadplex and you live in one of those units, then there's all sorts of, uh, you get all the advantage of being a landlord, but you also get the really good rates from the FHA. So you can get it for as low as 3% down. Um, and then really in, in your tenants are paying for your mortgage, your maintenance, and then some, and then of course you all the tax breaks that they get as being a landlord. So
Lindsay: (28:56)
Yeah, that is so true. Well, that's great. Those are two great power tips. Thank you for sharing.
Jennifer: (29:02)
That was like a really long answer to your question, but
Lindsay: (29:06)
Honestly, that's why I started this. There's so many different things out there and it's hard to know. Well, I don't trust internet very much like the information I'm getting, everybody's selling me something, like you said, it's like, Google's like a used car dealers. It really is. I think to myself, you know, am I just getting some wholesale goods here? Or is this legitimate? Or is it legitimate for 1%? You know, sometimes it's like, Oh, this could happen. But it doesn't really that often, you know, that kind of stuff like weight Watchers,
Jennifer: (29:38)
I am always comparing finances to health. I don't know. There's just something it pre health and travel. I talked about like the road you're on, where you want to go. But the other one is the, the, the health and weight loss part, because it is, it's like, so I know there's so many similarities, but yeah, it's like, you know, we watched the source for 3.6% of the population. So there are, so you do hear those success stories that you see on the commercials, but for the best, you're just, you're just throwing money away. So no, it is. It's really good. And I like, and I always encourage everyone. It's like, you're taking, you know, if you look at everything that's out there, do your own research and then figure out what works best for you. I don't want anybody to follow me blindly. I'm always putting out those little disclaimers, you know, because I want people to, you know, to be empowered if you're just following someone and doing exactly what they tell you to do, you're not empowered.
Jennifer: (30:20)
Yeah, definitely. And I'm learning every day too. And that's why I actually caught a community, not a group, but in the Facebook group community, I actually encourage everyone to share because I love it when people come in and they know things that I don't know, like I have somebody in here who used to be, she used to work in options trading. And so, you know, she's like my go-to, somebody has a question about options. I'm like, here you go. Here's our expert. Or we might have somebody who, you know, who does real estate, or I have some mortgage brokers in there. I learned something new every day, at least. So at least one new thing every day. So we'll link your community in our, our notes here and your website. And we'll put a link to your course, your stock market course to right now, it seems like Facebook,
Lindsay: (30:59)
Right? I seem to meet the most people. Hey friends, thanks for tuning into the passive income examiner podcast. I just want to give a big thank you for listening. And in celebration of my launch, I'm giving away a gift pack. That includes a $50 Amazon gift card at tools for wisdom, 18 month planner and a 30 minute strategy session with me. Here's how you can win head over to iTunes and leave me a starred review. Then screenshot that review and tag me on Instagram at the passive income examiner. I'll announce the winner. The first week of November today, friends let's empower others who are also looking to escape the rat race and find a better way because we actually can make money while we sleep.