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HerMoney Podcast Episode 296: The 90 Day Reset You Need For 2022 

Kathryn Tuggle  |  December 8, 2021

Looking for renewal or a fresh start in 2022? We’ve got the rundown on the 90 days you need to reset, and turn your dreams into reality. 

We’re now the final month of 2021, and many of us are more than ready to bid this year adieu — or at the very least, we’re looking forward to a fresh start in 2022 — a genuine fresh start, during a year when we can actually travel, go to a gym, get a massage, see a Broadway show, and do all the things that we haven’t done for a couple of years now. 

But as we head into a New Year with high hopes for what it holds, frankly, we need more than hope. We need goals. We need plans. And we need intention. And more than that, what we don’t need is a half-hearted New Year’s resolution that we’re going to stick with for, oh, maybe 30 days, until we forget about it because we just didn’t set ourselves up for success — we didn’t have a real plan for consistency, and making it happen day, after day, after day. 

On this week’s show, we’re throwing everything you think you know about New Year’s resolutions right out the window, and we are going to get very real on how to create lasting change in our lives. And we’re doing this show a few weeks in advance of the New Year, so that you all have time to lay out a real plan — a 90 day plan, to be precise. 

To walk us through the steps we need to take to make 2022 our year for real life change is Teneshia Jackson Warner, founder and CEO of EGAMI Group, a leading multicultural marketing and communications with clients such as Procter & Gamble, Target, Verizon Wireless, Major League Baseball, Toyota, and many more. Teneshia is also the author of “The Big Stretch: 90 Days to Expand Your Dreams, Crush Your Goals, and Create Your Own Success.” 

In The Big Stretch, Teneshia presents a customizable “career workout” routine designed to catapult you from where you are to where you want to be, whether you’re looking to escape the daily 9-to-5 grind, embrace more risk, start a business, or pursue your biggest and boldest dreams. 

Listen in as Jean and Teneshia talk about her role as CEO, how she got her start, and her best secrets for growing a firm from an idea into a multi-million dollar concept. 

She also tells us about “The Big Stretch” and what it is about 90 days — why does that length of time help make our goals and hopes a reality? 

We also get real about intention — Teneshia often focuses on intention, and teaches how intention can give us the ability to manifest what we want most…. After a couple of years when women, particularly women of color, have had so many setbacks that have been beyond their control, how can we get to a place where we’re able to put ourselves and our goals FIRST? 

Then, we break down what an “example” 90 days might look like for a woman who is looking to start her own business, or get a new job? Teneshia gets very prescriptive about the kind of effort you need to be making and the different milestones you need to hit within those 90 days. (We take it step-by-step, discuss measuring progress, what to do when you encounter setbacks, the most common pitfalls, and so much more.) 

Of course we also dive into “stretch goals,” the goals that simply can’t be achieved in 90 days… and we talk about how to conduct a “time audit,” by observing how we spend our time over the course of a week, and tracking in 30 minute intervals. 

In Mailbag, we talk about asset allocation and transferring funds at different brokerage firms, as well as what to do when you’re selling one home and buying another with the proceeds — but you don’t have your money just yet. And in Thrive, ending a car lease early. 

This podcast is proudly supported by Edelman Financial Engines. Let our modern wealth management advice raise your financial potential. Get the full story at EdelmanFinancialEngines.com. Sponsored by Edelman Financial Engines – Modern wealth planning. All advisory services offered through Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. (FEA), a federally registered investment advisor. Results are not guaranteed. AM1969416

Editor’s note: We maintain a strict editorial policy and a judgment-free zone for our community, and we also strive to remain transparent in everything we do. Posts may contain references and links to products from our partners. Learn more about how we make money.

The HerMoney podcast is supported by      Edelman
All advisory services offered through Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. (FEA), a federally registered investment advisor. Results are not guaranteed. AM1969416

Transcript

Teneshia Warner: (00:02)
The whole definition of the Big Stretch is it is the distance between your comfort zone and your dream. It’s the expansion that will be necessary for you to become the best version of yourself. So think about the dare phase as almost like the elasticity in rubber band stretch, you’re going to have to be daring in the name of your dream.

Jean Chatzky: (00:30)
HerMoney is supported by Fidelity Investments. Whether you are celebrating a milestone or adjusting to the unexpected Fidelity is there to help you navigate lights, important moments with confidence. Visit Fidelity.com/HerMoney to learn more. Hey everyone, I’m Jean Chatzky. Thank you so much for joining us on HerMoney. Today. We are in the final month of 2021. Can you believe it? Actually, I suspect that many of you listening right now are more than ready to big goodbye to this year or at the very least you’re looking forward to a fresh start in 2022, a genuine fresh start during a year when we can actually travel, go to a gym, get a massage, see a Broadway show, do all of those things that we have been doing for a couple of years now. But as we head into a new year with high hopes for what it holds, frankly, we need more than hope.

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Jean Chatzky: (01:31)
We need goals. We need plans. We need intention. And more than that, what we don’t need is a half-hearted new year’s resolution. We’re gonna stick with for oh maybe 30 days until we forget about it, because we just didn’t set ourselves up for success. We didn’t have any plan for consistency and making it happen day after day after day and on today’s show, we are gonna throw everything that you think you know about new year’s resolutions, right out the way we are gonna get very real on how to create lasting change in our lives. And we’re doing this show a few weeks in advance of the new year, so that you all have the time to lay out a real plan, a 90 day plan to be precise here, to walk us through the step that we need to take to make 2022. Our year for real change is Tanisha Jackson Warner.

Jean Chatzky: (02:31)
She is founder and CEO of the Yami group, which is a leading multicultural marketing and communications firm with clients like Proctor and gamble and target and Verizon and major league baseball and Toyota, and many, many more Tanisha is also the author of the big stretch. 90 days to expand your dreams, crush your goals and create your own success. And in the big stretch, Tanisha presents a customizable career workout routine designed to catapult you from where you are to where you wanna be, whether you are looking to escape the daily nine to five grind or embrace more risk or start a business or pursue your biggest and boldest dreams. Tanisha welcome. I cannot wait to dive into this.

Teneshia Warner: (03:26)
Oh, thank you so much, Jean, for having me, I am thrilled to be here.

Jean Chatzky: (03:32)
You have been CEO of the company that you founded for 14 years. Tell me a little bit about out you, how you got your start and maybe some of your best secrets for growing a firm from an idea to a multimillion dollar concept. Well,

Teneshia Warner: (03:50)
Jean, it actually started with me kind of taking a moment to be very reflective and to answer some ’em tough questions and get honest with myself around what is it that I truly desired to do in life. So I started my career gene working at IBM global services. I was climbing the corporate track and by society’s standards, things were going awesome by my grandmother’s standard life was very good because her granddaughter landed a good, good job, but there was one part of the equation that was missing. Number one, I chose that career kind of really having outside factors be the driver of the decisions like, okay, is this okay for my family? Is this acceptable? You know, a grandma. And then most importantly, it was all about the earning potential. Can I make money doing this? The thing that was not a part of the equation at all, was what is your purpose? What is your passion? And are you going to be fulfilled doing this? And those were questions I never asked. And I found myself waking up to an amazing job by society standards, an amazing salary in climbing the corporate ladder, but extremely unhappy and not fulfill. And it was during that period that I made a decision that I was going to redesign my life, where passion and purpose would be in the driver’s seat. And that would be the most important thing, not earning potential, but just simply passion and purpose.

Jean Chatzky: (05:30)
Sometimes we hear those two words in the same sentence, a lot passion and purpose, but they’re different when you think about passion and purpose, what do you mean?

Teneshia Warner: (05:42)
So I think they’re interconnected. So I think if you pay attention to the things that you’re interested in and, or you’re passionate about, sometimes it will lead you to sort of this interconnectedness around you discovering your why, or reason for being so your why and reason for being that’s more like a halo, like purpose, right? But it can be daunting Jean to tell someone, tell me your purpose. We aren’t born just knowing our purpose. And I think purpose is a discovery journey. It’s not like this one destination where you say I got it. I got my purpose, but it’s more of I’m being willing to be led on a journey where I’m, I’m putting my passion first and that usually leads to a purpose journey. So for example, when I started, I asked myself some of the simple questions, or what are your gifts? Like, what are you really naturally talented at that?

Teneshia Warner: (06:46)
You know, you can do this. Well, I jotted down things like project management, organization, timeline management. And then I asked myself, and what are those things that you’re passionate about? I didn’t even start thinking about like, can I make a career? It was just, what are you passionate about? I was passionate about fashion. I was passionate about clothing. I was passionate about entertainment. I was passionate about community and culture and I listed those things down. And then I said, how can I better align myself to some of these passions? And once I made that decision, that became sort of a direction point of where I volunteered my time. Mm-hmm . And for me being willing to volunteer with those passion correlation points it later, put me on a purposeful journey. So does that make sense, Jean?

Jean Chatzky: (07:40)
It does. Yeah. And what I like so much about it are a couple of things. I mean, I totally agree with you. I think our purpose, like knowing this is my purpose in life, you know, expecting somebody in their twenties or thirties or even somebody, you know, who’s taken a break from work. Who’s been working at a job expecting anyone who hasn’t really thought about it and considered it to know their purpose, I think is unreasonable. I think you’re right. It is a discovery, but I also love that you didn’t flip a switch while you were working your desk job at IBM and just start this company you put in some work.

Teneshia Warner: (08:20)
Absolutely. So after I made that list of what I was passionate about, I then decided I was gonna volunteer in some of those areas. So I was still working at IBM, but I was volunteering. So Jean, you name it. I volunteered on a movie set. I did something in the costume design area. I volunteered with Russell and Kamora Simmons. They were doing really big things in entertainment. The more I volunteered, the more I was able to determine what my purpose was not as well as what were those things that made my heart beat really fast. So I got in action first while still having that other job. But I was paying attention when I was volunteering to what are the things that I think better align with? I think I would actually be willing to do it for free. And I know that’s a big like, ah, but that was like a question in my mind.

Teneshia Warner: (09:14)
Eventually I did have to make a daring move. I did leave IBM global services without having another job. And that’s not the formula for everyone. We’ll talk about that in a minute because I feel the more responsibilities you have, there’s a such thing as called dreaming responsible. But at the time I didn’t have a lot of responsi abilities and I could afford to take a daring move, leaving one job without having another. However, I knew I only had X amount of time before it turned into something. And so make a long story short. I did land a job opportunity sort of in the entertainment space that was allowing me to connect C brands with multicultural audiences and communities. I knew this is my sweet spot. I love it. I knew that because it didn’t feel like work. I knew that because I looked forward to Mondays eventually by just working and contributing hard in my passion space, it did lead to me starting my own, which is AAMI group, but that was a journey. It wasn’t like I had the perfect formula in the beginning. It was just the willingness to be led by passion and interest versus earning potential only.

Jean Chatzky: (10:31)
Yeah, you are saying so many smart things, right? Because it’s always a bit of, of a dance. At first, when I started my business after getting fired from money magazine, I had a client, right. I had a client, I had one client. Right. But I understood that if I could get more clients, then I could build something around this. And it took time for this business of mine to take shape. Right. It took time for us to figure out what business we were in. And so it’s an evolution. It doesn’t have to be perfect on day one. Tell me a little bit about the book. Tell me about the big stretch. What is it about 90 days?

Teneshia Warner: (11:14)
All right. So a couple things I do want to share with the listeners, the inspiration behind the book. So the inspiration behind the big stretch, I basically have lived a dream journey for 17 plus years. You heard me tell you a snapshot, leaving one job, moving to a city, New York city didn’t know a soul and creating something from nothing and really moving an idea from idea into a business forum. Because I lived that I knew certain key learnings that I wanted to share with other dreamers. I’m a firm believer that dreamers do not let dreamers dream alone. So one of my passion points was if I can give any of the lessons that I’ve learned to someone else to live a more purposeful path, I wanted to do that. Secondly, I created a project entitled the dream project around eight years ago and I would bring in these iconic dreamers, Jennifer Fleiss, the founder of rent, the runway magic Johnson, Kathy Hughes.

Teneshia Warner: (12:18)
I would interview them at this symposium and just basically share knowledge. Well, here’s what I realized after interviewing 200 plus iconic dreamers, I started to see that there was some universal truths that was a commonality across all of their stories. And so I then took on the challenge of if I can create what I call a dreamers blueprint, a dreamers bootcamp to get the masses started on the dream. Then that’s what I wanted to do. And so that’s the inspiration by behind the big stretch, the big stretch is broken down into four phases that I found as those commonalities amongst those iconic dreamers. There’s a dream phase. There’s a design phase. There is a dare phase. And then it’s due. I have broken those phases down. There’s exercise that you do week over week. And then Jean to answer your question, why 90 days is people actually need to see results and traction.

Teneshia Warner: (13:27)
And I know from a standpoint of the way that we run my business at AAMI group and many corporations, we look at the year from a 12 month perspective, but then we also have our quarterly goals and objectives. Those quarterly goals and objectives is 90 days. And so I knew if we could break this down into a blueprint where the reader could start to experience some success in their dream path very early on, then that would be the motivation to keep going. So that’s why 90 days versus, you know, 12 months, I want you to get some real traction over the, the 90 day period to get you started. And then you can continue creating those goals in 90 day. Increments going forward

Jean Chatzky: (14:15)
Is so interesting to me because after the television show, the biggest loser came out. I got a lot of calls saying, let’s just do this with money, right? But the thing about the biggest loser and the thing about any diet is that if you’re actually doing it, you can see some results really quickly. And sometimes with money, the results come a little more slowly and you need a little bit more time. It’s also less visual and that makes it more difficult. But what I’m hearing you say is that when it’s your career, when it’s your life path, you have to give yourself even more time to see those results. It is. And that’s hard, right? That is hard. It is hard to stick with a process where you don’t see these wins coming at you fast and furious. So how do you keep people with it over the 90 days? Well,

Teneshia Warner: (15:09)
I think first and for most, it’s really about the mental and the dedication and knowing that great results. They actually come by way of dedication, commitment, and consistency. Just knowing what you put in it is what you’re going to get out. Like honestly, looking back over my, my business journey, there’s a direct correlation. You use the biggest loser. So I’ll tell you a personal story. I gain weight in COVID gene. I’m guilty, right? I gain weight during the pandemic. Lot of stress eating and going into 2022. I did make, in my mind, I want to do something and I know I have to work at this. So I put myself in a 90 day plan. Now, of course, this isn’t a business plan, but the story is the same type of analogy I had to work every single day of that plan. And I know if I want the results, there’s a direct correlation to the actions that I’m doing daily. So

Jean Chatzky: (16:13)
Can we take a step by step walkthrough of what a woman might do in those 90 days? Let’s say that we’ve got a woman who is either looking to start her own business or to get a new job. Maybe she was one of those people who left work during the great resignation. Can you give me a set of what might her steps be? How do we measure her progress? I have more questions, but let’s start with those. She’s gonna get a job. What are her steps?

Teneshia Warner: (16:42)
Okay. Well, first off, Jean, I love this. Let’s give her a name. What do you wanna name? This woman that we’re gonna take through this dream journey. oh

Jean Chatzky: (16:50)
Boy. Oh boy. Let’s name her Elaine. It’s my mother’s name.

Teneshia Warner: (16:54)
Okay. So let’s go. So first off you said that Elaine left the workforce during the pandemic. The first challenge that I would give Elaine and using those four phase approach that we talked about in the book, dream design dare do in the dream phase, I would actually spend time with Elaine asking her to do a lot of introspective work around. What is it that you desire to do next? What is your dream? And one thing that I found Jean is people do don’t necessarily give themselves time to imagine and especially imagine freely. I mean, the last time you looked at your calendar and you said, Hey, I got a three hour block to just dream freely.

Jean Chatzky: (17:47)
Last time I had a three hour block, I think I took a nap. I gotta tell you .

Teneshia Warner: (17:52)
So the first thing I would do is before Elaine just goes, jumping back out there, doing something, we wanna make sure that her next move is purposeful. So I’ll challenge her to dream again in the dream phase. And there’s tons of exercises at the big com in that first phase, there’s a purpose questionnaire. There is some imagination exercises. There are things that actually support you in pulling out what is your dream?

Jean Chatzky: (18:22)
So during this phase, during the dream phase, and then even during the next phase, which what, remind me, what’s that design, but when you’re dreaming, right? How do you measure whether you’re actually making progress?

Teneshia Warner: (18:35)
So the challenge in the dream phase is I just want you to listen to your heart around what is it that you desire in this season, in your life? So for Elaine, if she left the workforce, maybe in this season of her life, there is an opportunity for her to make a career change that she always wanted to do. Or maybe she’s decided I wanna redesign my life in a way that my next career move allows me to work from home. I don’t return to an office full time. I don’t know what that’s going to be for a Elaine, but I need a lane to know what that for her before she starts taking action. So again, that’s really doing the work internally, eventually in the dream phase. What I have you do is I would have a Elaine right down the vision that she sees for herself over the next 12 month period.

Teneshia Warner: (19:29)
And I would advise her, do not think about the, how to prematurely, because when you start to think about the, how prematurely, you start to shrink your dreams before you even allow them an opportunity to come into fruition. But some of the questions I would have is how many people have benefited from this idea or career move? What type of impact have you made? What does this look like? What does this journey look like for you? What type of business idea have you brought to life? And I, I’m almost having her stand in the future from a 12 month period. And I want her to write it down. So first we’re gonna ask Elaine to write it down and get excited about it. Don’t start thinking about the, how too prematurely.

Jean Chatzky: (20:15)
Okay then.

Teneshia Warner: (20:16)
Okay. So once she has that and let’s give Elaine a dream and we’re gonna give Elaine a dream. Okay.

Jean Chatzky: (20:21)
Elaine wants to open a bakery cuz that’s my dream.

Teneshia Warner: (20:27)
Ooh. Okay. So Elaine has decided that she can came out of the career force in the pandemic, but she has now decided she would like to open a bakery. That’s her 12 month vision. Okay. So I would have her be very specific. Where is the bakery? What makes the bakery so special? Who are your sort of ideal clients that’s coming in and out of the bakery still in this dream phase. Okay.

Jean Chatzky: (21:00)
Let’s take a lane into if we can into the next phase, cuz I don’t wanna get to phase three and have my producer say we are out of time.

Teneshia Warner: (21:07)
Okay. So we’re gonna move her to design now. Okay. So the next phase in design, I’m going to now start moving you out of the imagination phase into reality in the design phase. Basically I’m having you start to shape your 90 day plan as well as your overall, almost like a 12 month vision. So in that design phase, I have you write out and these are smart goals and I know you’ve heard of smart

Jean Chatzky: (21:39)
Goals. Sure. Smart. They’re actionable. They’re strategic, they’re measurable. And what am I missing?

Teneshia Warner: (21:48)
It’s time. So we’re gonna have her write it out in a way that is specific so that your goal is direct in detail. I’m opening the bakery by X amount of date or whatever that is. We need to make sure it’s measurable. Your goal is quantifiable to track. Progress. Attainable is realistic and you have the tools and resources to do it. It’s relevant. So it aligns with who you are and like your why and it’s time base. It needs to have a deadline. So I want you to first take a look at those things. And I want you to kind of outline that from a 12 month perspective. So Jean we’re gonna say Elaine is gonna have the location for the bakery. It’s going to be open over the 12 month. Like that’s the ideal goal. The bakery will be open in one year. That’s 12 months.

Teneshia Warner: (22:45)
Okay. Mm-hmm in order for us to map out the 90 day plan. I wanna ask Elaine, Elaine, if you know, in 12 months you would like the bakery to be open. Let’s break down your goal into achievable parts. What can we get done over the next 90 days? Like what are the most critical things to do in order for that 12 month goal to happen? She’s probably gonna say things like I need to research what it takes to open a bakery. I need to form a LLC or a business institution. I need to start researching locations for a bakery. I need to start researching what resources are going to be available to me from a funding for perspective. So those are things that we can then say, well, what’s achievable in 90 days. I think what could be achievable is incorporating or forming her business structure.

Teneshia Warner: (23:41)
I think another thing that could be achievable is for her having the business plan done in 90 days. And maybe another thing that can be achievable is finding some like-minded sources that she can interview that has opened a successful bakery, where she can kind of glean knowledge. So those are things that can happen in the 90 days. I’m gonna force her to make sure it is very measurable because what is measured is what counts. So then at that point, you’re in the design phase, you know, you’re gonna have a business plan, you know, you’re gonna form an LLC and you know, you’re gonna identify three people that are running successful bakeries that you’re gonna interview, make it quantify and measurable. Ask yourself at the end of the 90 days, can I look in the mirror and say, did I do it or did I not do it? No gray areas,

Jean Chatzky: (24:34)
No gray areas. I totally get it. And I’m with you on the things that are measured are actually the things that we manage. I, I believe in that we’re gonna come back in just a second and we’re gonna to talk about those last two steps. We’re gonna talk about the dare phase. I’m very curious, and we’re gonna talk about the due phase, but before we do both of those things, let me remind everyone that HerMoney is proudly sponsored by Fidelity Investments. Some of life’s most important moments are planned for way in advance others. We just don’t see ’em come as always. Fidelity is here to help you navigate both the joyous and the unexpected events with confidence, their resources, guides, and tools can help guide you through important financial decisions when you need it. Most visit Fidelity.com/HerMoney to learn more. I am talking with Tanisha nurse. She is CEO of Yami group. Okay. We did our design phase and now we’re moving on to the dare phase. What the hell is that?

Teneshia Warner: (25:35)
so the dare phase is out of all of those iconic dreamers that I told you about that I interviewed all of them, had a certain level of comfort and being daring in the name of their dream and being willing to stretch. The whole definition of the big stretch is it is the distance between your comfort zone and your dream. It’s the expansion that will be necessary for you to become the best version of yourself. So think about the dare phase is almost like the elasticity in a rubber band stretch. You’re going to have to be daring in the name of your dream in the dare phase. I really try to get the reader comfortable with being uncomfortable. And so we’re going back to Elaine, right? Elaine has to set up her business structure, whether she’s gonna do a C Corp or Corp or LLC, Elaine may tell herself a story.

Teneshia Warner: (26:36)
You know what? I’m very uncomfortable with the business aspect of it. I’m an amazing baker. I’m not a business person. I get that a lot from creative people. Like I don’t wanna necessarily lean into the business. I wanna lean into my art. What I would say to Elaine is I want you to identify what are the things where you would have to stretch outside of your comfort zone in the name of this dream become aware of, of those things. So one, she may say, I’m gonna have to learn. What’s the difference between an LLC, a C Corp and a Corp and determine which structure is best for me, that may be uncomfortable for her. So that might be her dare in that section. I also said that I wanted her to talk to through three successful bakery owners. So she may say, you know what?

Teneshia Warner: (27:28)
I’ve never been the person that would pitch myself. I’ve never been the person that would reach out to a stranger and ask for their time. What I would say to Elaine is it’s time to be daring in the name of your dream and be willing to be uncom research, those potential bakers, and be willing to maybe send that LinkedIn message to say, Hey, I’m gonna be starting a bakery in 12 months. Do you mind doing a 20 minute informational interview with me where I can learn about your story and your journey. Now, Elaine might be very uncomfortable with that. But what I will say to is you gotta be comfortable being uncomfortable and daring in the name of your dream. So that’s what the dare phase is about, is getting you comfortable, expanding beyond that comfort zone so that you are moving in the direction of your dream. I’ll pause to see if any questions before we do the last phase. No,

Jean Chatzky: (28:21)
I was gonna say, okay, I get that. And finally, we can move into the due phase, but we’re still only 90 days, right? We’re not opening the doors on this bakery

Teneshia Warner: (28:31)
Yet. You’re not opening the doors. Remember we have those three goals. You’re gonna have your business structure set up. You’re going to have three informational interviews set up with a successful baker.

Jean Chatzky: (28:42)
And she was gonna write her business plan.

Teneshia Warner: (28:44)
The yes. Okay. So we’re still in the 90 days. So she’s been daring. I need her to be comfortable being daring. And then the do is really giving her tools to understand that doing the dream, she has to be equipped to do the dream for the long term. So inside of those tools, there are stories where I let her know in advance every dreamer that I’ve ever interviewed, they encounter obstacles. And I need you to have the tenacity to keep going. When you encounter your first obstacle,

Jean Chatzky: (29:23)
How do you do that?

Teneshia Warner: (29:24)
Well, there are exercise is in that section of the book where I actually have them start to anticipate. What’s a roadblock that you think might come in your way and what are solutions around that roadblock. And so let’s just say in the case of Elaine, she wants to open this business. Maybe one of the first roadblocks that she will see is, oh my God, after doing this research, I’m gonna need a minimum of $250,000 to open this bakery, right? She can look at that as off or an opportunity. I’ll challenge her. Okay. This could be a potential obstacle, lack of capital or lack of funding. Let’s start to brainstorm solutions for you to get over. Overcome that obstacle. I want you to find sources of funding that are available for women owned business owners. I want you to be willing to apply for, I want you to be willing to go in your bank and determine, can you get the financing for this business? I want you to become so resourceful that you become very much so a skilled dreamer that knows obstacles here. It won’t be a stop sign, but I understand the thought process to problem solve my way out of the obstacles. So the due phase is really trying to give the dreamer the tools to have the tenacity, to do the dream for the long term. I

Jean Chatzky: (30:53)
Wanna take a step back here, Tanisha, cuz we’ve spent a lot of time talking about, okay, you wanna make a big change, right? You wanna quit your job. You wanna a start a business. There are a lot of people who are listening, who are in jobs or already have businesses that they’re not leaving. And yet they have goals to how do you apply your philosophy? If you wanna make it work in the life you currently have.

Teneshia Warner: (31:21)
That is such a, a good question, Jean. So for all the listeners, Jean has your back so here’s the one thing that I found the dreaming journey is not a one size fit all. I actually have something entitled the dreamers profile assessment, where I actually encourage people to take this and you learn to something about yourself, on what dream path might be right for you. So there’s one, that’s more like a make it happen. Dreamer CEO. This is like the profile that we’re talking about with Elaine, where she wants to for sure start her own business, big move. But there are profiles in there like a hobby dreamer. This is someone who says I’m not quitting my job. My job takes care of me. My job takes care of my family. There’s not an option for me to do that big of a move, but I’m looking for a bit more fulfillment.

Teneshia Warner: (32:12)
That brings me joy. So for the hobby dreamer, it’s about them still doing something that’s goal oriented and getting something off the ground or, or nurturing hobby. But the hobby dreamer doesn’t necessarily have the passion to make this hobby a monetize business entity that has to take care of their family. So I’ll give you an example. I just hung up with an amazing dreamer that I’m gonna use for this. She is a corporate executive at a fortune 50 company in America, very high ranking. You know, she and I brainstorm a few years ago. I told her, I said, I’ve never seen anyone dress as fashionable as you dress. When you come to these different events, have you ever thought about maybe you creating a blog or leaning into that fashion? And so she actually just did a call with me. She’s gonna retire in about three years, but in the interim she’s creating a whole digital platform. She’s gonna be blogging about fashion and style. She’s going to be doing a podcast about fashion and style while she’s working her job. But she’s found a way to nurture her hobby in the interim. And we’re working with very measurable things as well. So does that answer your

Jean Chatzky: (33:30)
Question, Jean? It does. It does. And it’s a fantastic example. Last question for you. I have gotten letters from listeners and also had experience with some women in my own life who say, I want to achieve X, Y, or Z. I want to make this change, but I don’t have any time. You’ve got a technique in the book where you describe conducting a time audit, tracking your time in 30 minute intervals. Can you just explain it and tell us why it’s helpful in reaching our goals?

Teneshia Warner: (34:06)
Well, Jane, I think you hit the nail on the head. So many of us are so busy. The first thing that is gonna come to mind is I just don’t see where and how I can do this. So the purpose of the time audit is when you can see where your time is going and how you’re spending it, and you can challenge yourself maybe to be more efficient. Then eventually that education has you become knowledgeable on where you can reclaim your time. So I have the listeners, your listeners, or the readers of the book. They actually observe themselves over a week period. And you map your time like what Jean said in a 30 minute increment. And if you need to do it for two weeks, that’s fine. After you do that, I have you take a look at where your time is going and then an exercise with yourself to say, where can I reclaim some time?

Teneshia Warner: (35:04)
Okay, you may find, oh my goodness. I didn’t realize I actually binge watch about eight hours of TV over a week period. Or you know what? I just realized. I’m spending four hours a day, cleaning my house and doing laundry. I, I then challenge you to be resourceful. Where are the easy areas you can get time back for yourself? Well, some of it is gonna be like that TV watching. If this is important for you to get that blog off or it’s important for you to do the research for the bakery, I’ll challenge you for the 90 day period. We’re going to go away with your Netflix binge watch and give that time back to yourself. And, or in some cases, if you’re financially able, I may say to the woman is the four hours of what you’re doing here really worth it. Can you bring in support or out some things that allow you to get your time back?

Teneshia Warner: (36:00)
And of course that can be a family decision. But for me personally, I did this before and it was one of the reasons where I no longer felt guilty about bringing in additional support and doing some things in the house that I needed my time back. Once you can see the amount of time that you can reallocate towards your dream, then I want you to be unapologetically selfish about that time and have that time work for your dream. I did this exercise with a media entertainment executive. Her goal was to write a book, not leave her job, but write a book. When she first did this exercise gene, she could only find 30 minutes a day of extra time that she could give back to herself. She was a working mom. She was a working executive. She had high demands, but we found 30 minutes.

Teneshia Warner: (36:53)
She used that 30 minutes over a long period of time to write a and for a book to write a proposal for a book to have conversations of how do I get this book out? And you know what? I’ll never forget the day of going to this conference and I’m digging through this gift bag and bam, I pull out her book um, and so it was a reality that started with this is the dream. I’m gonna make some measure goals. I’m going to find the time to work on this. And I wanna use this 30 minutes, even if it means, you know, it takes me 12 months of this, 30 minutes to a tangible, real dream that was manifested that I was holding in hand at this conference.

Jean Chatzky: (37:36)
That’s amazing. I love these strategies. You’re so tactical and strategic and that’s exactly what we need when we’re talking about things like dreams. Believe it or not. We need tactics. We need strategies in order to get to real results. Tanisha Jackson, Warner. Thank you so much. The book is the big stretch. 90 days to expand your dream, crush your goals and create your own success. I hope you’ll come back with us sometime I

Teneshia Warner: (38:05)
Will. And I wish you just the very best of everything that you’re doing with this podcast, I can feel that you’re operating in your passion purpose territory. So just continue to do what you’re doing. This was amazing. And thank you for having me on

Jean Chatzky: (38:22)
Thank you too. And happy new year, we will be right back with Kathryn and your mail bag. But just a reminder before we do that, HerMoney is supported by BCU. A credit union that helps its members feel confident and assured with the peace of mind that comes from making smart financial decisions, visit bcu.org, to learn ways to secure your financial future.

Jean Chatzky: (38:53)
Hey everybody, if you listening to this podcast around the time that it first airs, I hope you’ll do me a big favor and head to HerMoney.com to fill out our listener survey. Every year we take your pulse, we try to figure out what you like about this show, what you don’t like about this show. We ask you some question about what you might wanna see in this show in the future. Won’t take a lot of your time, but it really will help us as we hit the road running in 2022 to make this the show that you wanna listen to. Thanks so much. And her monies, Kathryn Tuggle is with us for your Mailbag. Hey Kathryn,

Kathryn Tuggle: (39:36)
Hey Jean. You doing all right today?

Jean Chatzky: (39:38)
I am doing just fine. I had a very nice time talking to Tanisha. Thanks for teeing that up.

Kathryn Tuggle: (39:44)
She was great. I feel very inspired. I’m going to take that energy with me

Jean Chatzky: (39:48)
The rest of the day. Yeah, absolutely great energy. I mean, I’ve always been a fan of the smart goals approach, but I just think the way she’s approaching it, knowing you can only do so much in an abbreviated period of time, particularly when it comes to something like your finances or your career, that’s not gonna change overnight, but giving yourselves those small achievable pieces that you know, you actually can hit is the key to long lasting success. We had Elliot’s family here for Thanksgiving. His kids were here, Sam and his wife, Shelby and Emily was here and Elliot’s ex-wife was also here and her husband, Eric and her mother Jeanette. And before we hear a collective gasp across the podcast world, I think Elliot’s ex-wife. Cynthia is somebody I would’ve been friends with in another life. I feel like I’m friends with her now she’s a former journalist. They met in journalism school and we’ve done this before. It’s turned into actually a really, really nice addition, but that’s not where I was going with this story. Cynthia and Eric look amazing and they look amazing because they’ve been on noon. That app that gets you eating right and exercising and changing your habits. And I think the reason that it has worked is because it’s small, manageable, trackable pieces.

Kathryn Tuggle: (41:21)
I feel like I see popup ads for no on Instagram all the time. And there’s a reason, I guess why people are

Jean Chatzky: (41:28)
Raving about it. Yeah. I don’t think it’s for everybody. I don’t think any solution is for everybody, but I think just like journaling is a solution for some people and hypnosis is a solution for some people. I think you gotta find the thing that works for you when it comes to changing your habits. And this seems to be working for a lot of people, but to me, plan, I think works as well. Yeah.

Kathryn Tuggle: (41:55)
And going back to her point and your point about the small goals, this is exactly what we talk about in the world of budgeting. You know, like you have those incremental savings benchmarks that get you to the bigger goals at the end of your year or at the end of your life for, and it’s all about consistency. Yeah.

Jean Chatzky: (42:16)
A hundred percent and consistency to the point that you can be consistent. And when there comes a time when you have a misstep, because there’s always gonna be a time that you have a misstep, you give yourself a little grace and you get back on the horse as soon as you can.

Kathryn Tuggle: (42:32)
Yep. Absolutely.

Jean Chatzky: (42:34)
Let’s answer some questions

Kathryn Tuggle: (42:36)
For sure. Our first note comes to us from Jen. She writes, hi, thanks so much for this podcast. I’ve learned so much about life and money over the past couple of years, I’ve done a pretty good job setting up and contributing to savings and retirement accounts. But there’s one account that I’m not sure what to do with. It’s an old bridge account that my mom set up for me over 20 years ago, it’s just sitting there untouched with about $90,000 in it. I finally looked into the asset allocation. There’s about $25,000 in cash. And the rest is divided into three class, a or M mutual funds with 0.8 to 1.3% expense ratios. My, my gut tells me that I do just as well or better with low cost ETFs. I’d like to invest this money for the long term. What do you think also, is there a best practice way of selling and buying funds at different brokerage firms? I’ve only set up new accounts and never transferred. I’m curious about any possible tax related issues if this is done in correctly. Thank you.

Jean Chatzky: (43:37)
So such a great question. Jen and taxes was exactly where I was gonna go on the answer. I don’t know what stocks are in your account, but based on how the markets overall have done in the past two decades, you’ve got some pretty big gains sitting in that account. And when you sell these funds, you are going to owe taxes, long term capital gain taxes, very likely on those gains. And for that reason, before you do anything, I would Absolut. We talk to your accountant. If you have one or at least talk to somebody at that brokerage firm about what the taxable obligation will be. If you did decide to sell, I think over the long term, you will do better with low cost investments. Whether they’re exchange traded funds, as you mentioned, or index funds, you’ve got a long time ahead in the future and paying much, much smaller expense ratios than you’re paying now would absolutely benefit you with the exception being, if these particular mutual funds have been extraordinarily stellar performers.

Jean Chatzky: (45:01)
And the way to figure that out is to look at the type of mutual funds they are. Are they value funds? Are they growth funds? Are they large cap funds or small cap funds figure out what category they fall into, then go to Morningstar and compare the last 20 years of returns in the average funds in that category against what you’ve got. The, if they’re stellar performers, maybe there’s a reason to hold onto them, but I really, really doubt it as far as the best practice way of buying and selling at different firms. Most people are doing it online themselves these days. So you sign onto your brokerage account. You fee out what you wanna buy and you seriously just press a button. I’ve got an account, for example, at Fidelity, where I trade a little bit. I do that with the flick of just a couple of keystrokes.

Jean Chatzky: (46:06)
It’s very, very easy. And there are a lot of different financial services apps as well as brokerage companies that work the very same way. But taxes are the main issue that you’re gonna wanna consider here. And you’re gonna wanna consider them before you do anything. So talk to your accountant. And then my advice as always is to look to consolidate your accounts at a single place or two, where it’s really convenient for you to look at ’em. And that may be the place that you have, your company, retirement plan, your 401k, so that if you do sign on to their portal, you can see all of your accounts at once.

Kathryn Tuggle: (46:54)
I cannot say enough good things about having all of your accounts in one place, as someone who left multiple jobs and left 401ks behind bringing everything under one umbrella was the best thing I ever did.

Jean Chatzky: (47:06)
Yeah, for me very much the same. I like, I just like the clarity of being able to see it all in one place.

Kathryn Tuggle: (47:14)
Yeah, for sure. Our next note comes to us from a member of the private, HerMoney, Facebook group. She writes my husband and I just retired and are building our house and moving to be close to our grandkids. Our plan is to use the proceeds from selling our home, to pay for our new one. Instead of having a mortgage, our new home will be done in March. One of your podcasts mentioned that retirees without a mortgage are much more likely to be happy. And that’s what we’re going for. Our new home will likely end up costing $600,000. And we should end up with around 400,000 from the sale of our old house. If our old house doesn’t sell before March and we need to come up with around $200,000 or so for the down payment for a few months, where would you look to borrow this money? It doesn’t seem like getting a mortgage for just a few months would be worth it. And I don’t know if that’s even possible. I thought about pulling some principle out of a Roth, but that doesn’t really seem like a smart move, but I thought I remembered you could use the money from a Roth for like 90 days without penalty, as long as you replace it. What do you think I’m guessing there are some sort of bridge loans available, but I don’t know much about them and I’d love some advice. Thank you.

Jean Chatzky: (48:23)
I wouldn’t touch your Roth in a situation like this. I think the, the fear always what happens if something occurs over those 90 days and you don’t have the money to replace, I think it’s just too big, a risk to take. Instead, I’d look to a home equity loan. You clearly have equity in your current home. It’s a very easy transaction to just borrow the money for, from your current home. And then you’ll repay both the first and the second mortgage. The home equity loan or home equity line of credit is basically a second mortgage. You’ll repay any debts on that home at the time of closing, will you pay some interest? Yeah, you’ll pay a little bit of interest, but it’s a very, very short period of time. And so I would not mess around with your retirement if you don’t have to. And by the way, I’m, I’m sure that you remember how much I agreed with that study about not having a mortgage in retirement. I really think if you can swing it, that’s the way to go just as it takes one more big obligation off your plate. So good luck.

Kathryn Tuggle: (49:36)
Thanks Jean. Yeah. And that episode for anybody wondering is episode 2 87 with Wes MOS.

Jean Chatzky: (49:42)
Awesome. Thank you, Katherine. Thanks

Kathryn Tuggle: (49:45)
For the great advice, Jean. Anytime

Jean Chatzky: (49:47)
In today’s thrive, ending a car lease early first thing, is it even possible to end a car lease early? Typically you can only get out of a car lease if you die. And in some cases, if you pass away, your spouse might actually be required to continue the lease agreement. No, this doesn’t sound good, but there is a ton of gray area. It’s not impossible to get out of a car lease early. You just need to be prepared to invest some time and put in some work to make it happen@hermoney.com. We’ve got a rundown about how to do it before you approach the dealer about ending your lease. Take a look back at that. Lease agreement. Look at the number of payments remaining, the residual buyout value and any early termination fees. Once you have a handle on that information, you can then approach the dealer and attempt to quote unquote, sell your car back to them.

Jean Chatzky: (50:40)
Interestingly, the pandemic has created a unique opportunity for people who are looking to do jet this because there is a nationwide car inventory shortage right now, dealers need to get cars back, especially if they’re cars, they can easily resell. And they’re more likely to be flexible. If you have a car that’s in high demand and that they really want like a Subaru or popular Toyota or Honda models, it, if your dealer won’t let you outta your lease, you can consider swapping or selling it online via a lease trading site. But this only is probably gonna work. If you have a model that’s in high demand, or if you’re willing to give some sort of compensation on the price, if you’re willing to give the person takes that lease back from you a really good deal. Keep in mind that ending a lease early is like anything else with cars, it’s a negotiation and you’ll definitely have a leg up on negotiating an early lease ending.

Jean Chatzky: (51:41)
If you decide to buy another vehicle or lease another vehicle from the same dealer. Thanks so much for joining me today on HerMoney. Thanks to Tanisha Warner for sharing her incredible insight on how to get to a better place in the next 90 days. If you like what you hear, I hope you’ll subscribe to our show at apple podcasts. Leave us a review cuz we love hearing what you think we’d like to thank our sponsors, Fidelity and BCU. We produce this podcast out of CDM sound studios. Our music is provided by video helper and our show comes to you through megaphone. Thanks for joining us. And we’ll talk soon.


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