Master Your Money Mindset: 5 Strategies to Build Wealth and Leave a Legacy

Hi and welcome to Building a Life you Love.

This is your host, Kristen.

Today I have a great guest interview for you.

We are going to talk about understanding our money mindset and in our spending patterns.

We are going to talk about how do we create wealth and generational wealth in our lives.

And we're going to talk about what are some smart money moves today and into the future so that we can pass down some of that wealth to our families.

Hi and welcome to Building a life you Love, the podcast dedicated to helping you step into a life where your passion blossoms from within, your faith deepens, and simplicity becomes your favorite synonym for everyday life.

If you feel like you've been stuck between the what ifs, expectations and obligations in your life, but you're ready to step into a life you love, then this is the place for you.

I'm your host, Kristin.

I'm an encourager, a faith led entrepreneur, a mom and a wife.

Join me each week as we dive into creating positive habits, stepping out of our comfort zone, and making space for meaningful relationships, and deepening our faith.

Let's do this together, friends.

I'm going to bring you practical tips, uplifting conversations, and expert guidance that you can use today.

So why wait?

Let's step up the path of expectations and into a space that feels genuinely aligned with us.

Hi.

Today on the podcast, I would like to welcome our guest, Hilary Hendershot.

She has her MBA cfp, and she is the founder and chief advisor of a Hendershot Wealth Management.

And I'm excited today because we're going to talk about how do we, I guess, protect our wealth, how do we pass on our wealth, how do we invest smarter and how do we break those thoughts that we have around money if it's holding us back?

So I'm excited to have this conversation with her today and share this knowledge with you.

Welcome to the show, Hillary.

Thank you.

I'm happy to be here.

Thanks.

So I'd love if you just tell.

Us a little bit about your money story and what it is or how it is that you help people, you know, families and women now.

Yeah, absolutely.

Gosh.

So a lifetime ago, but at the beginning of my career, I found myself in a position.

So there I am.

I'm.

I'm being mentored into wealth management as an industry.

Right.

So at, at during the day I go to work, I'm advising multimillionaires how to invest their investment portfolios.

I go home at night to a stack of bills that I would not open because I couldn't pay Them.

Okay, so.

So of course, I was me feeling a little bit of that hypocrisy, that shame that I need to keep this a secret.

And it kind of all blew up one day.

There.

I pull into the gas station, and my beautiful, beautiful convertible BMW 3 Series, completely leased, fully owned by the credit union and rented back to me for a high monthly rate.

I pull it into the gas station to get gas.

I had two credit cards and a debit card.

I put the first credit card in.

It's maxed out, so it gets declined.

Second credit card, also maxed out.

Debit card, bank account, empty.

So there I am with a beautiful $50,000 vehicle, and I can't even buy a tank of gas.

So.

And this really happened.

I walked home from the gas station that day, and on my walk home, I was talking to myself.

And I'm saying to myself, hillary, it is very clear how your life is going to go if you continue to interact with money the way that you've been interacting with money.

Right?

I mean, I graduated from college with a degree in economics.

Sima cum laude.

Excuse me, magna cum laude, 3.9, not 4.

And so I was like, I have a brain for numbers, right?

It's not the arithmetic of personal finance that is the problem, obviously.

I'm also a certified financial planner.

I understand investments.

I understand personal financial planning, but it's not getting me anywhere.

And so I'm saying to myself, what's the difference between me and my friends who I graduated with or colleagues I see around me?

And they want to be successful with money.

I want to be successful with money.

So we both have good intentions, but I'm the one with really bad results.

And so I said, okay, well, obviously it has to be my behavior, and the source of behavior is psychology, right?

So this is kind of how I got broken open about money.

I mean, I thought it was the math, the numbers, the spreadsheets, the addition, the subtraction, and it turns out it's not.

And so I got really curious about money psychology.

I started attending different types of conferences.

What they call in my industry the soft side of personal finance.

And so learning about money psychology, behavioral finance, cognitive biases.

I attended this talk by this woman.

I still know her.

Her name is Denise Hughes.

She's a wonderful woman.

And she said the term overspender.

And I had never heard that term.

It's definitely in the zeitgeist now.

Okay, but 20 years ago, it wasn't.

And.

But when I heard it, I knew I was one because I was someone if money came into my, into my ecosystem, into my world, it literally.

Not literally.

That's a silly thing to say.

It burned a hole in my pocket.

I was that person.

If I earned a hundred dollars, I would spend 120.

I was earning.

I came out of college during the dot com boom.

So I'm making over figures in the first, like two years, but I'm spending, you know, more than I'm making.

So of course, you multiply that by a few years and it's obvious how that's going to go.

And that's where I ended up, you know, approximately 26, 27 years old, something like that.

And so I got really curious what had happened to me that my money mindset was broken and what I saw.

And through no fault of my parents, my mom was a conservative spender and a good saver, and so she didn't want to buy the things that I wanted sometimes.

So I was as the center, the high, starting center on the high school basketball team.

Okay, you can't tell here, but I'm 5 foot 10, like tall.

And so you tall, you stick out.

Everybody on the team had Nike high top basketball shoes.

I wanted Nikes and I.

My mom took me to Payless Shoe Source.

And do you remember Payless?

Yes.

And their brand, their brand is called Pro Wings.

So I got Pro Wings shoes, shoes.

And I thought everyone was looking at my shoes.

I would make fun of them because they weren't Nikes.

I called them like these.

But really it was embarrassing for me.

I was like, okay, there's never enough money.

Like we don't have enough money for the things I want.

I didn't know, you know, my mom, she maybe could have shown me the balance of her growing 401k.

She didn't choose to do that.

I do that with my daughter now.

But, you know, to me, there was never enough money.

And so when you believe, and it turns out I think something like 70% of the population has this particular money mindset.

I've trademarked the term Money Operating System, so we could call it a Money Operating System.

Just like the operating system runs the computer and how the hardware interacts with the software.

It's the same with your core money belief when you believe that there's never enough money.

If money comes into your world while you have to get rid of it because your brain cannot hold two conflicting beliefs at the same time.

There's never enough money.

Doesn't go with.

My bank account is full, so I had to make My bank accounts empty.

Okay.

And I think about half the world has this one.

So when you have, there's never enough money.

You're either an overspender or an under earner.

And now that I've spent, said those two words, everyone listening, you're, you either see yourself in that or you know someone who is like that.

Like under earners are constantly, they're smart, they're educated, they're talented, they just can never seem to have highly compensated work.

Right.

So that's kind of the, the other end of that spectrum.

There's six or seven main money operating systems that I've identified since then.

But the point is I found the leak in my bucket and I filled it.

Right.

You can rewire through neuroplasticity your money mindset.

And now for me, making money is fun.

And I feel pride and confidence about the financial turnaround that I created.

I currently, my husband and I have an eight figure net worth.

I currently run a very profitable registered investment advisory firm, so a wealth management firm by women for women.

So.

And I give you those numbers to evidence for your audience.

Yes, no matter how money has gone for you in the past, you can have an abundance of it in your future.

It takes time and it takes changing your behavior and your beliefs, but it is possible.

And I let that life experience become my legacy.

I talk about this every day almost.

And when I started talking about it, it was mortifying for me.

I was terrified that you would think I was the lowest scum of the scum, like not even deserve to be part of society.

And I'll tell you, at this point, the story has absolutely no hold on me.

I think it's entertaining.

So that is my money story and that's how it turned into a very harmonious, serendipitous career and life for me.

Yeah, I love that you share that regularly because to your point, while you're so far from that, you know that experience experience in your life, it did also let you relate to maybe, maybe.

Obviously when your clients are coming to you, usually they're already financially might be doing okay, but they might be, like you said, overspending, even if they have a lot or maybe just not making as smart long term, long term choices as they could be.

Right.

In other words, most people aren't coming to you when they don't have any money.

But you talk a lot about this and so I think it is inspiring that you share because all of us either have or are maybe, or I shouldn't say all of us, but most of us could do better in some areas around our money.

And people make mistakes.

Even if they're doing great, they have a little oops.

Right?

And I say, you know, we deliver really technical services, but my team and I do it with a very deep well of empathy and compassion.

It's like, look, no matter what you've done with money, I've either done it worse or I've seen someone who has.

I totally get it.

It's all good, right?

It's about what you do most of the time.

Yeah.

So just while we're still on just the money, like you call it the money operating system, what would you just say are two of the things that we can do to try to start shifting that if we.

We realize, yes, we do have a pattern.

Right.

Because we all do.

Whatever that might be.

I know it might look different, but what are the two things you tell people to start off with?

Yeah, you know, I get people sometimes even like, questioning, is the money operating system real?

Like, really, is my financial world governed by my beliefs?

You know, if you ask ChatGPT to read all the psychology literature on the planet that's ever been published, what are the five things that, if you don't know them, you'll fail at being a human?

And the number one thing is your mind fools you all the time in life, you're not just part of the story, you are the narrator.

Right.

And that comes down to that.

That it.

That is.

That is true in your financial life as well.

So it really starts with accepting.

I have a money operating system.

The way you think money is, the characteristics you assign it, the way you experience it, the moods and emotions that surround it, the behavior patterns that you're used to.

I mean, if you notice, money tends to go the same way for you in your life.

It's not like you wake up one day and money is great, and the next day money's terrible, and the next day money's great, the next day money's terrible.

No, there's a theme there, right?

And that somewhere in there is your money operating system.

And it comes down to a very simple belief that you created as a child.

You know, money is very conceptual.

I mean, it's not even real.

It doesn't have any.

Have any tangible nature.

Dollar bills aren't actually money.

They just present money.

Money is like a conversation that humans created.

So, and kids don't get it, of course.

And most of us have parents who have broken money mindsets.

So they pass their, you know, again, through no fault of their own.

Past their money mindsets, money operating systems, on to us.

So, you know, yeah, really your task, if you're listening to this and you want to turn things around for yourself, be that in your results or your experience of money, is really just identifying that money operating system.

What is that?

And more importantly, if you're in a marriage, if you're married to someone, you are in a financial partnership.

That is a financial partnership.

Whether you join your bank accounts or not, you're still one entity.

Moving towards goals, planning for a future life where you cohabitate and do things together.

That's a financial partnership.

What's that person's money operating system?

And how do those two intertwine?

Right.

I mean, that could be a six to nine month journey on its own.

But just answering those two questions, right?

And then the second thing is, of course, you know, it sounds bread and butter and you've heard it a million times, but it's, it's getting to a place where you spend less than you make and you pay for things before you put them on debt.

So, you know, get to a place where you don't borrow money to buy a car.

You know, the things that are perfectly reasonable to borrow money for our house, potentially your kids, for college if you weren't able to save.

But that's a massive shift going from being someone who puts their life on credit cards.

I know from personal experience, by the way, when the credit card bills came, I just wouldn't open them because it was like a game to me.

Like, what happens if I don't pay it?

So if you're out there and that's you, it's okay.

More is possible for you to being someone who pays for things before they happen.

I was just listening to this podcast and this woman went to a bridal shower bachelorette party and she told the ladies up front that she had a budget.

And then when it was closed, clear everything was going over budget, she left and they kicked her out of the bridal party and the wedding and she's no longer a friend.

And I thought, well, that's really sad, but those ladies obviously really have broken money operating systems.

I mean, she put it out there, Right?

Right.

And then when she's like, I can't keep this financial agreement, I'm going to take off.

And it's unfortunate, but she's the one with healthy money practices.

And that's so funny that I would.

I was literally just listening to that as I was putting my lipstick on.

And so those would be the two, the two kind of base for fundamental things.

Okay, great.

Yeah.

I mean, and I know there's tons of books on, you know, money mindset and online.

There's, you know, all sorts of resources as well.

You know, if somebody wants to dive into that once you acknowledge like, huh, maybe I could do, I could do a better job with my money.

Right.

Or how I think about money.

So.

Absolutely.

And a lot, I think a lot of people.

I know it's talked about more now.

Right.

I don't remember 10 or 20 years hearing this.

I'm not obviously in the financial space, but hearing about it.

But now I feel like people talk about it much more than they used to.

Oh yeah.

You know, so I think if they haven't heard this before, you know, there's definitely a lot of resources.

So let me ask you this.

How can we invest smarter as women?

You know, what are the top things that you recommend women do?

You know?

So is it, you know, 401ks IRAs, is it real estate?

I mean, what.

So where do I know?

Everybody's at a different level here, but just in general, like how do you advise people to grow their wealth?

Very good.

Well, let's have a little conversation about that.

So, so first of all, nothing that I say should be taken as personalized advice.

Okay.

I don't know you.

If I don't know you, I don't work for you.

Right.

So everything I'm going to say is just kind of best practices, evidence based best practices where the research leads us to, to invest.

Let's talk about, you said 401ks IRAs.

So if we use a metaphor for saving and investing, your 401k.

So saving and investing, let's say your financial life, your progress to financial freedom.

That's a freeway.

It's this big beautiful freeway.

You're going to drive past lakes and rivers.

There's a beach at the end with a rainbow.

The 401k IRA brokerage account.

Those are the cars that drive on the freeway.

Okay.

Of course you need a passenger to drive the car.

And that passenger is going to determine how fast the car goes.

The passengers are your investments.

So what are you going to buy in those cars?

Okay, so that's what we call investing.

So certainly let's start with the cars.

The car matters.

You have to have a safe car.

You have to have a reliable car.

Many of us start out with access to a 401k.

More and more employers are offering either a 401k or a 401k Ross.

Okay?

Either way, these are Tax deferred ways to save.

So to use another metaphor, you are running, but you're running downhill.

If you're putting money in a savings account, you're running on flat ground.

Flat ground, okay, because you're, you're putting in after tax money.

But if you're tax deferred, you're running downhill.

A 401k, just like an IRA, you defer tax in the year, you put, excuse me, you avoid tax in the year, you put money into the account in the Roth, you avoid tax in the year, you take it out.

If taxes are higher in the year, you take it out, the Roth is better.

If taxes are lower, the 401k is better.

Okay?

So right now I'm recommending my clients have a maybe a 50, 50 mix in 401k versus Roth, Ira versus Roth.

A lot of people have a big misunderstanding about that.

A lot of people, even financial advisors think that Roths are better in all cases.

That is absolutely mathematically not the case.

I have published about this.

Take my word for it.

So anyway, a mix of IRA, 401k Roth, but for a lot of you, your employers will give you free money if you put Money in that 401k or that 401k Roth.

While you would be silly to give up that free money.

So even if you can't defer $24,000 this year into your 401k, at least do a little sprint, a little non spending sprint so that you can maximize that match.

Okay, so that's a little bit.

And then once you maximize, once you max out your ability to put Money in a 401k or a 401k Ross, or if you don't have an employer with a 401k, you're.

If you have, if you have the income under a certain threshold, you can put it into a traditional IRA or regular traditional Roth like at Vanguard or Schwab.

Once you can't contribute to those accounts, you're stuck putting money in a brokerage, also called a trust account, also called a community property account, also called a joint tenants account, basically an investment account.

Again, you're on flat land, okay, because you pay tax with before the money goes in and you pay tax when the money goes out.

You got to go through that tax gate.

All right, so we've talked about the cars, so best to be driving downhill.

Obviously, if you can't, if you like, maximize your ability to drive on a downward slant.

It's so funny.

If you're on an audio podcast and here I Am leaning to demonstrate the downhill.

And then when it comes to investing, simply said, and I love to say this to women, because the stock market is so misunderstood, is that the stock market is absolutely the greatest generator of individual wealth in human history.

Human history.

And yet you probably don't think that because Wall street and the financial news media are never going to tell you, never going to tell you that story.

They all have a dog in the race about.

I guess it's horse in the race about convincing you that they know something about the stock market that you don't.

Mostly with the financial news media, it's that it's always terrifying, it's always risky.

Not risky meaning it could go up, risky meaning it could go down.

And you'll notice if the stock market's going up, they're saying it's a bubble, it's definitely going to burst.

The sky is falling.

And if it's going down, they're saying it's different this time, it's never coming back.

The sky is falling.

Right.

And yet neither of those things proves to be the case.

By the way, a bubble is not a phrase that's taught in any finance or investments class.

So what we know about the stock market, and there's gosh, my clients have 12,000 stocks in their portfolios, is that stock prices are absolutely impossible to predict.

No matter how many times you hear it at a cocktail party, no matter how many times the financial news media says X, Y or Z is coming, the stock price is determined by the actual value of the company, plus or minus temporary investor sentiment.

And all up to date information is already baked into that stock price.

What does that mean?

People say to me, hillary, I love AI and Nvidia is the king of AI.

Nvidia is maxing out AI, enabling AI.

Nvidia is in every AI.

And my answer is yes.

But first of all, Nvidia is already the highest value stock in the world.

There's not much higher for it to go.

Once you reach the peak of Everest, where do you climb next?

Nowhere.

You're done.

That's the highest.

And to say that from an economics perspective, what we know about what happens to stock prices when they become the largest or most or biggest in the world is that they tend to languish in the years after they do that.

Okay, but you didn't ask me about Nvidia specifically.

And I love Nvidia.

Lots of my clients work for Nvidia.

But the point is, everything we already know about Nvidia and AI is already baked into today's.

Price.

So saying those things like, well, Apple's coming out with a car.

Well yes, except the whole investing world already knows that, so it's already baked in.

Right.

And so what we do is super smart, super evidence based.

We buy low cost.

You could buy index funds.

My clients get a slightly different thing that's only available through advisors like myself.

But if you don't do that, index funds are the most evidence based way to go.

The most famous index fund is the S P500.

And then what you have to do is you have to control your behavior.

You have to not get scared when the market goes down and sell out, which is the worst thing you can do.

You and it's contrary to all human psychology.

What do we want to do?

Don't just stand there, do something.

Right, right.

When the best practice in investing is don't just do something, stand there.

Right.

And that's only of course, if you have the right portfolio.

A Pure S&P 500 Index Fund portfolio isn't appropriate for people who are getting close to retirement or in retirement.

It's too volatile.

So again I'm speaking big picture.

But an index fund is liquid, meaning you can get your money out tomorrow, it's marketable, meaning you can expect to sell your the stocks in that portfolio for today's market price.

Which is not always the case with investments.

It's diversified, which in investments you always do.

So for example, you mentioned real estate.

Buying one house is the opposite of diversification.

There is no diversification in that.

And it's non litigious.

Like nobody ever sued anybody for owning a mutual fund.

And I know for a fact that lots of landlords get sued for various, like unexpected reasons.

Right.

And it's really, really expensive.

So I'm a big fan.

I do, I spend a lot of time really trying to change hearts and minds about the stock market because the stock market deserves for us to have a very positive relationship with it.

And even for my clients who have bought into that story, especially when the stock market goes down, which we haven't seen for a few years, people need reassurance because often it coincides with what we call now fall unprecedented events.

This it hasn't been like a decade, we've been calling them unprecedented, but now everything seems unprecedented.

But of course it's always something new because we fix the problems that we know about.

So it takes something, it takes something to trust the market or a market basket of stocks.

However, over the long run, over the last hundred years, the performance of The S&P 500 is about eight and a half to nine and a half, depending on how you measure percent per year.

Warren Buffett is fully on board with the story.

I'm telling you, he's on record saying most individual investors would be served with a pure.

A pure, basically large cap Portfolio S&P 500 portfolio.

Of course, now we know you should probably add international and add emerging markets and add some.

A real estate investment trust as you approach retirement.

You get some bonds.

But really it's the most.

First of all, it's the only passive income out there.

So people talk about real estate as being passive income.

It absolutely is not.

Absolutely not.

You're either managing it directly or paying a manager, which is the opposite of passive management for the most part.

Unless you happen to get lucky in real estate and catch a tailwind in terms of price valuations, real estate quite simply just has the highest returns.

I mean, most, most real estate, residential real estate is somewhere between 4 and 7%.

Stock market, 8 to 10, 11%.

If you're talking about small cap and value.

I know I just used some technical terms.

I apologize.

I didn't mean to leave anybody that's listening behind.

But of course, investing is.

You can get a PhD in it, right?

I don't have anywhere close to a PhD but I just want to say the thing so that for people who are listening, if they understand and have something that looks like this in their portfolio, that they hear that reflected in that in.

In what they're they're owning now.

Tell me, was that more than you wanted to hear or less?

No, I think it was great because, you know, you gave us the stats on what you can expect, generally speaking, right.

Year over year.

If you did one versus the other, I think that was really good.

And like you said, you do hear.

If you listen to the news.

I try not to listen to TV news, but you're right, you hear the scare about everything.

Oh, it's the worst.

So to actually hear you talk about that is actually really reassuring.

You know what I mean?

So I actually, I really appreciate that.

I think some of the listeners for sure will as well.

So.

Yeah, that's.

That was one.

So I think this.

You already kind of answered my question.

And you think that that's what it is to grow wealth is.

Is what you just said, which is the stock markets.

Well, I have about.

No, no, no.

I mean, no, like I said, my husband has a PhD in finance.

He used to run a hedge fund.

He was a finance professor for 30 years.

I run a wealth management firm.

Our marital portfolio reflects almost exactly what I just said to you.

We have the house that I'm coming to you from today and that, and that's basically it.

So, you know, in terms of, do I put my money where my mouth is?

Literally?

Yes, I, I'm, I think the.

Certainly there are times when, for example, if interest rates are higher, you might keep your cash in a different place than you would keep it if, if interest rates were lower.

You know, I come on shows like this and everybody wants to talk about crypto.

Do you have questions about crypto?

Well, I think it would just be.

What is your thought on if people aren't in it, should they get in at this point?

And I know there's a lot of things that are changing right in that, in that environment, you know, some of the things have just passed and so yeah, I guess probably a lot of people do have questions.

So just maybe just overall, what's your, what's your feeling on regular, you know, just people like us just investing in it or having some of the money over there?

I guess so.

So I don't have my money in it, I don't have my client money in it.

But here's why.

Okay, so as an investor you get to choose the characteristics of the investments that you want.

So for example, for me, I have no desire to be a landlord.

I have no desire to suffer through the kinds of potential risks, losses that I've seen landlords have.

So that's just a choice I've made.

Okay, Similar crypto, for example, is not actually a value producing investment that I'm not speaking ill of crypto, it's just simply a currency.

It's like buying the euro or the peso or the dollar.

Okay, so what you're doing is you're trying to make money on the trend crypto itself, nor Bitcoin, nor any of the coins.

Do they produce customer shareholder value?

No, they don't.

It's simply a medium of exchange, exchange.

And so when crypto is going up, you can make money.

When crypto is going down, you're going to lose money.

And so the question is like with the stock market with a nine and a half percent return year over year, over 20 year intervals, you're pretty much pretty confident you're going to make money in the stock market.

That cannot be said for crypto.

It's just simply not True.

Not only that, but there are a million ways to lose money and in fact lose all your crypto.

So, for example, Elon Musk is on record saying he had a large store of crypto.

Forgot where it is, forgot his password, it's gone.

Okay.

I personally have a colleague who put all of his personal investments, his entire net worth into a crypto based business.

He had, I'm going to say, Ukrainian hackers break into his accounts and steal his crypto.

You know, of course, stories abound about people like, just like Elon Musk losing their, their encrypted password and losing their crypto.

So these, for me, those are absolutely unacceptable outcomes.

Nobody's going to break into my brokerage account and steal my index fund.

Okay.

It's just not going to happen.

So if you're into that and you feel like you're in a place where in your life you are swinging for the fences, which buying crypto, buying any type of currency, currency exchange is a swinging for the fence, trading on the trend kind of activity.

If that's a place where you're at and you want to do that, more power to.

You just know what you're getting into as you get into it.

Right?

Yeah.

I definitely wouldn't recommend putting an amount of money in bitcoin crypto that could ruin you financially.

But you know, I'm on record, I published a whole campaign maybe three or four years ago, it's okay to say no to crypto.

And I had so many people reach out to me and say thank you.

Oh my gosh, I've had such fun fomo.

Like, I feel so stupid.

I don't understand it.

It's intimidating.

I hear these stories and I said, you don't have to buy crypto.

It's okay.

Right?

And on the other side of that coin, certainly I'm honest, there are people who have made more money in crypto than I will ever see in my entire life.

Right.

Hundreds of millions of dollars.

But I also know people who have lost everything.

So I'm in the middle.

I'm in the slow lane on that freeway.

I'm driving downhill, but I'm on the slow lane to go back to the metaphor I use.

Does that answer your question?

Yes.

No.

I think that was good information and actually probably made a lot of people look, you know, that's good.

But I think the point is if you're going to try it and learn more about it, you should use it as disposable, you know, like a small amount of money just to kind of learn how it works, like you said, not trying to, like, bet your retirement on it.

Oh, gosh, if someone told me they had their whole retirement bet on crypto, I would feel I would have a stomachache for them.

That would, that would make me very nervous.

Yeah, it's like, you know, a casino metaphor.

If you're standing at the crabs table, you start with 100% of your chips on the table, but as you win money, you take chips off the table so they're no longer in play.

Right.

And you know, I'm in my late 40s.

I don't know how old your listeners are, but if you're in your 20s, maybe you have all your chips on the table.

But at my stage of life, am I willing to risk it all?

No.

No.

And I do go to the casino, and when I go, I spend 250 bucks.

If I make money, I come home.

If I lose money, I come home.

That's it.

Right?

You have a limit.

Yeah.

So good.

Yes, I guess.

What else would you just share with.

Us about as you've worked with clients, as you've talked to people about their money?

What other, I guess just tips or advice would you have for us that we haven't already covered?

Gosh, much.

Let's see.

You know, let's see.

Excuse me, 65.

And the average.

No, it's.

I may have it inversed, but the average American lifespan was either 62 or 65.

So the average American lifespan was very close to the Social Security claiming age.

Okay?

Social Security was never meant to.

To be a retirement plan.

Now, through the wonders of medical science, people are living longer, which is wonderful for us as human beings.

But longevity is a problem for your money, okay?

Because we have longer and longer periods of time.

We call it retirement when you're not working because you don't want to or because you can't because your body doesn't allow you to.

Okay?

So really, and my answer to your question is more an ontological or existential one, really.

Just, like, grapple with that.

We're probably the second generation to ever have to be tasked with the job of funding our own retirement.

We had pensions and Social Security before, and then we would just die.

Right?

Like, human lifespan span just wasn't that long.

So first of all, wherever you're at with money, just, like, have a little, have a little conversation with yourself where you forgive yourself for the things you've done wrong.

The things you don't know, the things your parents didn't teach you, right?

Like, we have a lot to do and life is expensive.

You know, I don't know where you live, but I'm from the San Francisco Bay area.

It's crazy.

It's like Monopoly money out there.

So there's also this conversation about generational wealth.

What does that mean?

Well, it means my money is going to outlive me and I'm going to pass some of it to.

To my family.

Okay, and what is that?

Do I need fancy trusts or accounts or.

No, you don't.

You don't.

Ultimately, you need to first take on the responsibility to save for your own retirement and spend less than you make.

There are ways, assuming you've achieved those two things, to pretty much guarantee that your money will outlive you.

But you need to start the conversation with the second.

Your second generation today, right?

It's a daily conversation about preserving what you've built, what you.

Whose listening is built, what I've built that I will pass along to my daughter.

And someday I won't be here.

I'm the financial advisor.

Someday I won't be here to advise her what to do with what will be my money.

Right?

And so there's this teaching and passing on of mindsets, habits, boundaries, practices.

Right?

And so whatever is appropriate for you and your family, your children if you intend to create generational wealth.

It's not about fancy trusts, right?

It's about spending less than you make.

It's about driving downhill as much as you can.

And it's about making sure you pass those mindsets on to your child.

Because hopefully our kids will have longer lives than we do.

Right?

So.

And that's so good.

I mean, my dad passed away and he had Parkinson's pass away in February.

But he was always, you know, and he does.

He did have a trust, but.

But like, he had some real estate properties and we've sold one of them.

He has a couple more.

And then he has obviously, like, you know, investments and things like that.

But he was always talking to your point about that.

Even, I mean, honestly, even.

So weeks before he passed, he was.

Still trying to, like, invest in new stocks, you know, like, it was just.

Because that was his mindset, right?

It's like I'm trying to still, you know, I was trying to tell him, like, dad, this isn't.

It's gonna take years.

Like, you're putting this new investment in, right?

It's going to be for later, right?

It won't even he wouldn't have.

We knew he wouldn't be alive long enough to even see some of that.

But his point was it was about legacy, right?

It was about that he really wanted to grow his money more for the people behind, you know, his legacy, his family.

And so you're right.

It's so important.

And you know, one of my sons right now is just talking about, because he worked all summer, you know, and he's like, oh, I want to talk to my father in law because he was a retired Navy captain, but he was also a financial planner.

And he's like, I want to get an IRA or I want to get a, you know, something.

He's realizing he needs to start, you know, doing that now, you know, at 18.

He'll be 19 soon.

So to your point, it is having these conversations or starting to, like you said, your daughter's younger, but because you're in the industry, you're already helping educate her on money and you know, what we do with her money.

So that's amazing.

And I think those are great, you know, great things.

As to your point, it's not just about making it, but it's about having conversations around it as well.

I mean, money is nothing but a conversation.

Correct?

You are absolutely correct.

And you know, my parents did a great.

My mom specifically did a great job with money.

And in a way, I was left out of the conversation by both of them.

You'd be surprised.

My father was a financial advisor and I went to him at one point in my late 20s.

I said, how come you never taught me about credit cards?

And he said, I don't know.

I always said to myself, I should have.

And I was like, yeah, because I learned the hard way, dad.

You know, I think, I don't know, I think it's when we grew up because I'm probably just a couple years older than you.

And from what you referenced your age.

Yeah.

And I think we just, I don't think a lot of us, our parents talked about those things.

I know.

I mean, like, it's not that they never talked about it, but it was that.

Not from an educational standpoint or like, this is how it is.

You know what I mean?

So.

Correct.

Yeah.

So absolutely.

Right.

Yeah.

But I think it is changing.

Right.

In a good way.

People are talking about mental health and finances and like, just all these other topics that I feel like maybe we didn't talk about as much, you know, 20 to 30, 40 years ago.

Yeah.

It's in the dialogue, which is so empowering.

It's really so empowering.

And these kids have, you know, everything at their fingertips at this point, which, you know, we didn't.

If you grew up, you know, decades ago, you know what I mean?

We didn't have the Internet yet, at.

Least, you know, Correct.

Anyway, so it's pretty amazing.

I love when you didn't know who was calling until after you answered the phone.

Exactly.

I mean, there were some great things back then.

You know, we definitely got to enjoy our childhood.

But, yeah, they have a lot more information at their fingertips.

Okay, so can you share with us, Hillary, how can people find out more about your wealth management company and all of those sort of things?

Yeah.

Thank you.

Well, so you're listening to this podcast now.

If you have room in your podcast lineup, I have a great show.

It's called love you, Money.

It's a top 0.5% podcast in the world.

We talk about.

And, you know, thank you for asking me about such a wide spectrum of the topics of money, and we talk about all those on the show.

And, you know, love your money is really about being in a reciprocal, loving relationship with your money, which is kind of a cool and noteworthy concept.

So I'd love to have you check me out there.

And then everything I do is available on my website@hendershot wealth.com that just everything's there, so.

Oh, I love it.

Yeah.

And I love that your podcast.

Yes.

Love your money.

That's great.

And I definitely think that's a one to listen to for sure.

So wonderful.

Thank you, Hillary, for taking the time to come on and join us today and share your wealth of knowledge about financial investments and wealth.

So I really appreciate it.

Oh, it's my pleasure.

Thank you.

As I wrap up today's episode, I just wanted to share a few thoughts with you.

And the first is that, as Hillary shared, no matter where you're at with your financial picture, there is always an opportunity to find more financial independence and freedom, more financial stability.

So you just have to understand your spending habits and your behavior patterns and then do the work to make the changes.

Do the work to do the simple things that the experts tell us to do.

Spend less, pay for the things before were doing them right, like have cash, and then start investing wisely.

It's one step in front of the other.

The other thing that I would just say is that we want to focus on our future.

We want to focus on being hopeful and letting money be the tool that it is for us and not getting stuck in those old money stories or money patterns.

Also, I love the quote that by Ayn Rand that says, money is only a tool.

It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.

Much like Hillary's example, we have to actually move our money right?

We have to make it work for us.

She gave us so much great information today, not only about having good financial habits, good money habits, and thoughts about money, but also that we can invest it and we can determine how we invest it, especially based on what age we are and how close we are to retirement.

So I hope this episode was powerful for you.

I hope that it will give you some little kernels that will just take you the next step further in your financial freedom and building wealth for both yourself and the generations to come for your families.

And thanks again for listening in.

And if you enjoyed the show, we we'd love it if you'd subscribe and leave us a review and rating on Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.

And you can check out freebies and resources we have for you@kristenfitch.com and if you have ideas for the show or guests that you'd like to recommend, I'd love to hear from you.

So DM me on Instagram at kristenfitch or you can email me from the website.

Thanks so much.

Until next time.

Have a great weekend.