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Hello, I'm Kai,

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the producer of Balancing Life's Issues
here with Wendy Walner to balance the

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issue. Hey Wendy, how you doing?

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Good. But you're more than a producer.

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You're my friend and colleague
and chit chatter on this.

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So thanks for joining today, Kai.

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Fair enough. Well thank you for that.
And so, you know, the point of today's,

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uh, brief little podcast is we're gonna
talk about an issue and how you could

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potentially balance that. Um, so what
issue are we gonna talk about today? Wow.

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So this morning I got up like probably
the rest of the whole world with, uh,

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why we shouldn't panic, um,

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which I always think it's interesting
when we turn on the news, um,

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and the other podcasters and they're
all telling us how to feel. Um,

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and yet the reality is banks, banks
closed banks went out of business. Um,

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and we saw it on television. Um,
we saw investors losing money.

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So I think panic may be actually
maybe inappropriate emotions.

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I thought we would chit chat today about
what we do with our panic and how we

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can learn from it and,

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and really engage in a conversation
that I'm so passionate about,

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which is money. Fair enough. You
love talking about money, right?

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Kai? You know, I used to hate it. Um,

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and I think there's probably
a little bit of humility,

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a little bit of shame there cuz
I wasn't very good with it. Um,

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but as I kind of figured it out, uh,
I'm now actually happy to talk about it.

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I think shame is one of the most
complicated emotions that we have.

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So we don't take financial literacy class.

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I'm not even really sure people know
how to write a check today anymore. Um,

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you know, it's Venmo and Zel. We
kinda all learn it by ourselves.

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So to me it's really sort of
interesting that, you know,

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I don't know who's taking a class
in what a good FICA score is,

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and yet we're supposed to know this.

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And so I really wanted
to talk about, you know,

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learning, um, personal finance and
budget and frugality. You know,

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frugality is one of my favorite topics.
Like how do I live not on my paycheck,

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not within my cha paycheck,

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but below the paycheck so that when
the blankets the fan we're like,

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okay.

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Right. There's there's
something there to rely on.

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The only financial class I think
I remember was fifth grade misses

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something taught us how to write
checks. Um, other than that, you know,

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you get to college, you have
your student debts, you, uh,

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if all of your expendable
is going to tuition,

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well then you need a credit
card in order to buy groceries.

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And that was the position I found
myself in, got as high as $16,000.

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Um,

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and I was with my partner at the time
and we had to have a serious conversation

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like we can't, you know,

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continue down a path together financially
and achieve our goals and dreams.

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Yeah. If your dead is like this.

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And so that was kind of the moment where
it flipped for me. And I taught myself,

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you know, self budgeting and, you know,

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really committed to
knocking that away 800,

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900 a month and about five years
later we got to the other side.

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But it was a really tough time. Yeah.

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And you were lucky to
have a supportive partner.

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You were also lucky enough to have
that idea of you just said self-taught.

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So I didn't have that
experience. You know,

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I was not even 35 when I got divorced
with three young children. Um,

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and I remember going to the bank saying,
I don't really understand anything.

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We always say step number one is
swallow every bit of shame and

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own the fact that every question is
a fair question. Um, I, you know,

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understanding even on a granular level,

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like fear Isaac or FICA is a good
thing. It's an algorithm, right?

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It means that we don't take into
account gender or race or age that

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we use an algorithm, a
mathematical algorithm to say, yes,

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I trust Kai to pay his
bills. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

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So I wanna make it real for people.
You have to sit down tonight,

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tomorrow with a cup of Chail,

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tea <laugh> and go to
annual credit report.com.

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And it's not free.

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You're gonna need to know what is
your FICA score and you're gonna

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need to know what is a good
FICA score. And, you know,

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we wanna try to get it up there
above seven 50. That's our goal.

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And that's ok because we can do that.
We can get ourselves access to money.

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Um, and when we are talking about panic,

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panic sits in when we know
we need to learn something.

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Panic sits in when we've gained too much
weight, when we're drinking too much,

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when we've let conflict
go. So let's really engage.

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Let's use this opportunity to ask one
another. Hey, what's your FIKA score?

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And will you share it with me? And will
you share with me what you did? Mm-hmm.

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<affirmative>, let's just make
it part of our conversation.

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What's your FIKA score and
what would you like it to be?

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And let's share that information.

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That's amazing. And I, I I think you
bring, uh, that kind of openness, uh,

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to tough conversations. And I think your
ability to walk into a bank and say,

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Hey, I don't know what
the hell's going on,

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speaks volumes to the path you've
been on kind of getting to that place.

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Cause I know it wasn't
easy to begin with, but to,

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to continue balancing this
issue and like the topical one,

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the one that's in the news, like,

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can you help explain to us in
like as simple terms as possible,

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like what's happening
with the banks right now?

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Yeah. Well, I think it's always
very interesting and, and again,

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I think the first step to say is that
nobody knows more than you. Right?

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There's no one out there,

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there's no fortune teller that's gonna
tell you what's gonna happen tomorrow.

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So let's just start with like
a Silicone Valley Bank, right?

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Which had a lot of investors
from Silicone Valley,

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that's why it was called Silicone
Valley Bank. And so, you know,

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we kind of got used to these
incredible success stories,

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the Googles and the Facebooks and the
Silicone Valley stories like that.

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And then in came so many other companies
like the cybersecurity ones and the

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ai, you know, artificial
intelligence ones.

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And so there were a lot of
high risk. Um, and so one,

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the step number two is, you know,
I have to be an honest investor.

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I'm a super conservative investor.
You've got a choice. Like,

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do you want to know your money is safe?

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Are you a little bit of an aggressive
investor or are you a super aggressive

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investor in Silicon Valley?
They took some risks.

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So know where you're ultimately
where your money is as an investor,

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as an employee. Ask the
question, go to your managers.

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Go to your managers, managers, look
online, do some Glassdoor reviews,

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do some due diligence about where,
where your payroll is coming from,

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how much risk is your company involved in,

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and are you comfortable with that
risk? Does it fit what you want?

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Yeah. Yeah. So ask ask my
employer today, you know,

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is is payroll safe? Uh, know where my
investments are going if I have them.

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So I guess just to kind of wrap this
up, you know, should I be worried?

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And if so, you know, what's one thing
I can do today to help protect myself?

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So I know that what I'm about to
say may hit people like a punch.

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Being worried is not always a bad thing.

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Being stressed is not always a bad thing,

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being concerned or even panicked
sometimes we need to be,

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when I had a PHUs score of 350 with
three young children, it was panic.

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The emotion of panic that made
me say, I have to make changes.

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So I'm not telling you
to panic and do nothing.

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I'm telling you to be worried and
concerned enough to learn what you need to

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know. And I'm,

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I'm absolutely encouraging you to
sit on the phone with your bank,

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with your credit cards,
ask the tough questions,

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and do not feel any shame or
embarrassment to say, I don't understand.

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Tell me again, I help me understand
how do I get out of debt?

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How quickly can I get out of debt? Is
things like a consolidation loan possible?

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A debt management program con uh,

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possible talk to your employer about
can I take a loan out from you?

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How quickly can I live debt free
to get my FICA score up until the

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700 s because then I will have
access to capital no matter

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what. So begin the process. Um,

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I know that you may be surprised to hear
it is one of the things I'm most proud

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of in my life that I've done. I've
learned how to be financially independent.

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I learned it by saying, I have no
clue what you're talking about. Hmm.

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Tell me again and have
a little fun with it,

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because in the end it's
an amazing process. Like,

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aren't you super proud
of what you've done?

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I love once a month setting up
the expenses for the coming month.

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I love looking at it
every morning to see, oh,

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how much should we spend over the
weekend on Mondays? And most importantly,

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with a baby on the way in
our life, <laugh>, you know,

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kind of starting to plan ahead. Come July,

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there's a big old new line item
that we're gonna have to consider.

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And that money's not coming from,
you know, a new place. You know,

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that's money that exists today that we
have to figure out how to spend, um,

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differently. So. Well, Wendy,

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thank you so much for coming on to
help us balance this issue today.

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And yeah, I guess we'll, we'll
see you next time. There's,

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there's something in the news
we need to talk about. Good.

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Go ask the tough questions everyone. Bye.

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This has been a production of
Balancing Life's issues with your host,

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Wendy Walner, produced
by me, Kai Sorenson.

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Subscribe to the podcast wherever you
listen and you'll get brand new episodes

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as they drop. Got an idea for the show.

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