Summary
Crystal and Lanea discuss essential financial topics, including the importance of maintaining an emergency fund, avoiding banking fees, and understanding retirement accounts. They emphasize the significance of credit scores, the power of compound interest, and effective debt management strategies. The discussion also covers various investment options and the importance of diversification in building a robust financial portfolio.
Takeaways
- Don’t lock your emergency fund into CDs.
- Choose the right banks to avoid fees.
- Aim for three to six months of expenses in savings.
- Take advantage of employer retirement matches.
- Credit scores impact insurance rates and job opportunities.
- Payment history is crucial for credit scores.
- Compound interest can significantly grow your wealth.
- Pay off high-interest debts first for savings.
- Diversification reduces investment risk.
- Investing should be a long-term strategy.
Transcript
Crystal (00:00)
Hi, I’m Crystal, the founder of the Piggy Bank Patrol, a podcast that gets parents talking about money. Myself, along with my co -founder, Lanea are financial analysts and new parents. We want to empower parents to learn healthy money behaviors while breaking cycles and teach children about money.
As always, the piggy bank patrols content is intended for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, and is not to be taken as legal, financial investment, or tax advice of any kind.
Lanea (00:30)
Welcome back to class. Today we’re talking about Finance 101. These are the 10 things that we told us when we first started personal finance think that are foundational to know
Crystal Chabot (00:43)
Lanea you know what really gets my goat?
Lanea (00:46)
What?
Crystal Chabot (00:47)
paying a bank a fee to have my money that they use to make more money for themselves.
Lanea (00:52)
That’s ridiculous. I hate any fees, let alone unnecessary fees and avoidable fees.
Crystal Chabot (00:59)
And it’s not just checking accounts. Savings accounts and high yield savings accounts also have them and retirement accounts and brokerage accounts, literally any type of account you can think of banks can and most likely will try to charge a fee at some point.
Lanea (01:15)
What really gets me is I know a lot of banks that charge a $5 maintenance fee for a savings account unless you least like $1 ,500 in the account. So it’s interesting that the people that could afford at least are fee.
Crystal Chabot (01:32)
that always got me, especially when I lived in Canada. Canada is notorious for its banking fees. And in the US, I have not paid any banking fees since 2010. But in Canada, the last time I paid a banking fee was in 2019. And the only reason I’m not paying it anymore is because I closed the account.
Lanea (01:56)
That’s one way to get around it.
So Crystal, for Finance 101, what accounts do you think that you need to have?
Crystal Chabot (02:02)
the bare minimum basic accounts would be a checking account so that way you can actually function in society and pay your bills and manage your daily spending. This usually is an account that has four to six weeks of expenses max. For most Americans, it’ll be a little bit less than that. And the other one is a high yield savings account.
And we don’t use it like a regular savings account, but the high yield one is where emergency funds go to. So three to six months of your expenses. it’s a little bit harder to dip into and it makes you actually think about it before you withdraw. but also just don’t get ripped into putting your emergency fund into CDs because the bank that I’ve been banking with since I was about 16,
They always send emails trying to be like, hey, get a higher earning percent on your savings by moving it to a CD and locking it in for three to five years. And that’s not a great idea if that’s your emergency fund.
Lanea (03:08)
That is a long time yet. And I would go back to the checking account. And I think it’s really important to avoid accounts with fees. It’s so easy to do now. But the brick and mortar banks, the chases, the Wells Fargos, most of them are still charging monthly maintenance fees unless you have a certain balance or direct deposit set up or X number of transactions. But
Pretty much any bank online right now, think Charles Schwab, they even offer free ATM reimbursements, SoFi, a lot of credit unions. All of those are going to come with no fees or least no monthly maintenance fees.
Crystal Chabot (03:49)
I was just looking at a bank rate checking fee survey and 14 % of baby boomers pay bank fees
Whereas millennial and Gen Z, over 40 % of us pay bank
of the over 40 % of us that are paying bank fees, they’re paying upwards of $30 a month on average, which just absolutely blows my mind. And you know how I like to run numbers. So I plugged it in.
to a compound interest calculator. And these guys, they’re wasting nearly $239 ,000 with an average rate of return of 8 % over a lifetime of 50 years just on And then one of the number one reasons that they were even paying bank fees is because they liked the customer service.
Lanea (04:38)
Which is interesting coming from Gen Z and Millennials. I would not have thought that customer service would play that big of a role into it. a lot of online banks, they don’t have brick and mortar locations, but they do have customer service 24 -7. I think Discover does and Ally does. It’s interesting that that plays such a
large factor into people’s decision on who they bank with.
Crystal Chabot (05:07)
the top three are happy with customer service, always had the account and convenient branch or ATM locations, which just always had an account. Okay. Their parents probably opened the account with them and their parents chose that for them. And then like convenient branch or ATM. I don’t think that’s us because I have been banking at the same federal
credit union since 2010. I haven’t paid any bank fees because I made sure it was free account. And that was before I was even 18 years old. But I’ve only been there three times, once to open it, once cut a check to pay for my house and once to put my husband on the account. rest it’s all online.
Lanea (05:39)
Mm -hmm.
See, we primarily use online bank only. We use Lending Club and I’ve been really happy with them so far. They have really good rates. They reimburse all ATM fees. They’ve good customer service hours. They’ve just been really solid. We haven’t had really any issues, but they’ve been solid the couple of times that we’ve called them. And then we have…
Crystal Chabot (06:02)
Mm
Lanea (06:18)
checking account through a local credit union. And I’m glad that we have that because there have been a handful of times where we’ve had to deal with cash paying contractors and stuff like that. So it’s been nice to have a local option, but both of those options don’t charge any fees. And I think I have like 12 cents in that account. So if there was going to be a monthly maintenance fee, it would have been charged by now.
Crystal Chabot (06:46)
best bet they’re just reinvesting that 12 cents over and over and over again.
I’ve only ever and will only ever bank at credit unions because of just how bad Wells Fargo bit me in the butt. I talked about it on a prior episode.
Lanea (07:01)
Yeah, So we need to have a checking account for bills and daily expenses, a high yield savings account, not a regular savings account, a high yield savings account with ideally three to six months of expenses for your emergency fund. And then you should look into retirement accounts and we’ll kind of get into that a little bit further. But these are, remember that these are accounts, they’re not investments. So
Crystal Chabot (07:09)
Yeah.
Lanea (07:26)
You put money into a retirement account, but then you need to choose the investment so that your money can grow.
And there’s they’re primarily two different types. So there’s ones usually the work you’re thinking like a 401k and IRA. And those are going to be pre -taxed. And then post -tax is going to be a Roth IRA. And that’s something that you would probably set up through a brokerage account through like Schwab or Robin Hood.
Crystal Chabot (07:54)
also in 2025, there is a new federal legislation that’s going into effect that requires auto enrollment for new 401k plans. they, your employer automatically has to enroll if you’re eligible, you into it unless you opt out specifically. that’ll, that can help.
But I feel like that’s also going to lead to an increase in the amount of lost and forgotten accounts because right now about 25 % of workers have a lost or forgotten retirement account just floating around out there. Meanwhile, over 60 % of people who are 50 years and older are worried about if they have enough money saved or not.
those lost accounts can add up, especially if people are job hopping, which is becoming more of a thing now.
Lanea (08:47)
Adam and I were actually just talking about this because he has two old 401k accounts that he knows have some funds and they’re not a lot, but some that he has no idea where they’re located at. So now he has to contact the companies that he worked for previously to get them actually rolled over and you can get them rolled over into one account.
Crystal Chabot (08:58)
Mm -hmm.
There’s a website actually for it. they made a national registry for on a claimed retirement account.
it’s unclaimedretirementbenefits .com.
Lanea (09:21)
Speaking of employers if your employer is offering a match on your retirement account, freaking take it always take it. You’re never going to find a better return if they’re offering a dollar per dollar match, then that’s 100 % return on your investment. And just to put that in perspective.
It’s going to take you an average of seven to 10 years on the stock market for your investment to double, but just you just get that instantaneously by taking advantage of an employer match. So I cannot stress that enough.
Another thing to consider with employer 401ks is that some, probably even most employers require you to be there a certain amount of time before you get the employer match or before you’re able to access it. And that’s called vesting.
Crystal Chabot (10:12)
It’s like golden
Yeah.
Lanea (10:13)
But it is a big consideration, especially if you’re on the younger side of your working journey.
Crystal Chabot (10:19)
There’s just so much opportunity that it’s hard to weigh between staying and going because on one hand, you could basically earn more and then you could put it into your own IRA and kind of make up the difference that way. But at the same time, the type of retirement account that
personally that the state has guarantees at least a minimum of a 5 % return and there’s no account that’s going to guarantee a 5 % return. Yeah.
Lanea (10:52)
No, yeah.
Crystal Chabot (10:54)
It’s hard.
Lanea (10:54)
Yeah, I mean, it’s it’s yeah, it is hard. And then the final account that we recommend you have is an investment account. So these are going to be taxable brokerage accounts. You can open them online through a variety of places. They should be pretty much free. So examples of this are Robin Hood, Fidelity, Schwab. And this is where you’re going to want to put money that is going towards your long term goals. So think five or more years.
And that just allows your money to invest while writing out any potential economic conditions. it’s not foolproof, but on average, five years or more. You should be relatively good.
Lanea (11:38)
credit scores. Why is your credit score important?
Crystal Chabot (11:42)
Well, for one, it gets you things that you want without you needing the money right away.
Lanea (11:47)
Also, it has such a large effect on your insurance rate. It’s insane. You will literally get better car insurance at a lower rate by having a good credit score. You need it usually to rent anywhere to purchase a house. Your living situation depends on your credit score. your job. A lot of jobs run credit scores.
your utilities require a good credit score or you have to put down a retainer, pretty much it’s more expensive to have a bad credit score.
Crystal Chabot (12:18)
It just costs you every way. And if you’re not making a lot of money, it’s like a double whammy.
Lanea (12:20)
Yes.
your credit score is primarily made up of five things. So your payment history, your available credit, your length of history, any new credit or hard inquiries, and then your credit max. But I think the most important one is your payment history because it makes up of 35 % of your score and it stays on your account for seven years.
And the percentage is just crazy. So I think it’s like a 99 % or better. So basically one one miss payment can tank your score, especially if you’re starting out Your score is just going to tank with a miss payment. So if you ever come close to missing a payment or you’re not able to make a payment, make sure to reach out to your lenders right away. It might be embarrassing. It might
not be something that you want to do and this is coming from a person that avoids things that they do not want to do, but just reach out, do everything that you can to protect your credit score. It will be worth it because yourself today is not going to be yourself in seven years.
Crystal Chabot (13:35)
I personally didn’t have a credit score until 2018. that’s when I started taking out credit cards. I had student loans before,
it’s just a numbers game, honestly, time the percent you just pay it bing bada boom, you get 800 credit score. Just don’t mess it up.
Lanea (13:54)
Ehh
I’m the exact opposite because at literally 18, I opened up a credit card and then missed like two payments on it. So my score was terrible for a very, very, very long time. And I regret that so much. not understand at the time, the ramifications that it would have.
And it took a very long time. probably took five years before it got better.
Crystal Chabot (14:22)
I’ve never missed a payment so I don’t know but you were so young too so the added stress of having to dig yourself out of that at literally the very start of your adult life I can’t even imagine.
Lanea (14:28)
Yeah.
Yeah, would. And that’s and that’s why I tell everybody, like if you’re going to miss a payment, just call your creditors because it just stays on there for such a long time and it won’t have as big of effect, for the entire length of time. the effect of it does go down over time, but it does stay on there for seven years. the other main piece of your credit score, your available credit, that’s 30 percent.
Crystal Chabot (14:41)
Okay.
Lanea (15:04)
But that changes every month. if you run up your credit card one month, your score might decrease. it does have a big effect on it. But the following month, if you pay your card off before your statement closes, your score is going to rebound.
Crystal Chabot (15:19)
Yeah, and the available credit is important too, especially if you need to increase your score, especially right now, even though interest rates are coming down, just to get a better deal on like mortgage rates. If you want a top score, generally, people who have scores of 800 plus typically keep the credit that they use under 3%.
Lanea (15:32)
Mm -hmm, yeah.
Well, these are all, proprietary calculations and algorithms. And there are three main credit bureaus. And this is important because they all operate independently of each other. There’s Equifax, there’s Experian, and then there’s TransUnion. So when you freeze your account and you always should freeze your account if you don’t
Crystal Chabot (15:47)
Yeah.
Lanea (16:08)
plan on accessing any new additional lines of credit. When you freeze your account, you can freeze it for free, but you have to go to all three different websites in order to do that.
when you go, you don’t wanna go to necessarily their regular website, you wanna Google TransUnion Freeze because otherwise they will try to make you sign up and pay for a monthly monitoring service and they’re trying to, yeah, they’ll definitely try to do it, but you can.
Crystal Chabot (16:33)
Yes!
Furion is
They’re predatory!
Lanea (16:37)
But yeah, they are. But you can freeze for free. It does not cost anything to freeze You can do it online. Really only takes, for most people, 10 to 15 minutes. And then your account is protected from unauthorized usage.
Crystal Chabot (16:56)
Yeah, I hop in and out of there all the time. Like when we were buying a house earlier this year, I had to unfreeze it and I forgot I had a freeze on it. So when I went to open my account with the Federal Credit Union, they thought that I was a sussy person.
Lanea (17:12)
Usually when they pull, think usually when people pull it, they can, it shows that it’s frozen.
Crystal Chabot (17:19)
Yeah, and they’re like if you’re here and you know that you need to have it pulled why is it frozen?
Lanea (17:26)
Wow, I’m surprised they gave you grief for that. I’m surprised it wasn’t more like, good job for having your accounts frozen.
Crystal Chabot (17:33)
Yeah, I don’t know, it was messed up. I was like, okay, well, give me five minutes. I had to sign in for my phone,
Lanea (17:39)
compound interest is the entire reason to invest and it’s also the entire reason that having revolving credit card debt is so difficult to get out of.
Crystal Chabot (17:52)
It’s just like a sinkhole, you just keep going.
Lanea (17:54)
It really is. if you invest your money, compound interest is your money earning free money. And then that money that you earn for free, plus the interest that you earn now earns even more interest. You can kind of think of it in terms of a family tree. So it’s your children’s children or your money’s money. So put it into perspective, if you take one penny,
and you double it every day for 30 days, that equals over $5 million. And that’s really how investing makes you rich.
Crystal Chabot (18:27)
wasn’t it Einstein that called it the eighth wonder of the world?
Lanea (18:30)
Yeah, he said, quote, compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it earns it. He who doesn’t pays it.
I think that transitions us into credit card interest. So credit card APR. So that’s the annual interest that you are going to pay on your annual outstanding debt. However, it compounds daily and changes when the amount changes. So any extra payment that you make is going to save you on interest.
Crystal Chabot (19:01)
so when you get a new loan, most of your payment is going towards interest. I recommend using an amortization schedule calculator such bank rate has one, just so you can see what percentage is going to interest and what percentage is going to principal because it might be a prudent decision depending on the interest rate and the principle of the loan for you to
pay a little bit extra down to kind of save on interest.
Lanea (19:27)
And if you do have loans you want to pay off, there are two main methods that people advise. The first is the snowball method. So that is where you’re going to take your smallest balance then you pay that one off and you add the minimum payment of the smallest debt that you paid off to the next one.
and then you go on and on and on and on until all of your debts are cleared. So this gets you more wins early on and psychologically this can prime you to keep going because you’re actually winning at stuff. You are checking debts off of your list.
Crystal Chabot (20:03)
the other one is the avalanche method. So basically you pay off the highest interest debts first. And that’s because you’re going to save the most amount of money on interest and pay your debts off in the fastest amount of time.
Lanea (20:17)
I have had credit card debt before and I have had medical bills debt. And I use a mix of the two, but it was a grind so I can speak to the compound interest on that.
Crystal Chabot (20:27)
Mm -hmm.
Lanea (20:31)
once you’re in debt, it is hard to get out of
And I actually, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it now at this point, but I did watch Dave Ramsey when I was first interested in learning more about personal finance. And I will say that the guy is motivating. I don’t necessarily agree with all of his teachings.
But if you are trying to get out of the debt, it is motivating.
Crystal Chabot (20:57)
He’ll shame you just enough to get your butt in motion.
Lanea (21:01)
Yes, yeah.
Crystal Chabot (21:03)
haha
Lanea (21:03)
And then once you have your high interest debt paid off, then maybe you want to look at investing. So we wanted to next talk about the types of investments.
Crystal Chabot (21:16)
I think one of the most common types of investments when people think about investing is things like stocks or mutual funds or even just like bonds are one of the top of mind things. So stocks are pieces of a single company. You basically become a little shareholder and
depending on the type of stock that can have tax ramifications. But to keep it simple, you’re just buying little shares in the company.
Lanea (21:46)
and there is more volatility with this, obviously, because if the company does, well, then you do well. But if the company doesn’t, you can lose everything. So think of it if you invested in Amazon in the, early 2000s, you now potentially with a low investment, you would be a millionaire.
But on the other hand, if you invested in Blockbuster in the 90s, you would be broke.
So that’s why I think ETFs are popular because these are going to be baskets of securities that track underlying index. So for example, you can own an ETF that tracks the entire S &P 500, so the 500 biggest companies. there’s ones for like total US stock market, there’s ones for world markets, S &P 500, NASDAQ largest 100.
But these are very low cost. The expense ratios are not very much, but it allows you to diversify your risk while still investing.
Crystal Chabot (22:51)
ETFs are a relatively new type of fund too, in terms of things you can invest like your retirement account in. So index funds, those were launched in 1976, but ETFs only started in 1993. But even though it is relatively newer, it doesn’t mean that it’s bad.
Lanea (23:14)
then another type is mutual funds. So these are a little bit more difficult to get into, but it’s similar concept that allows you to pool your money with other investors to purchase a collection. So a collection of stocks or bonds or other securities, and this again allows you to diversify your risk.
Crystal Chabot (23:33)
bonds are similar kind of to an IOU from government agrees to pay interest to the investor or you in return for a principal of the loan on a specified date. So depending on how far out the date is set, that can change your rate of return as well.
Lanea (23:54)
Bonds are usually considered safer, I guess more secure. But the downside of that is that your upside to gain interest is capped.
Crystal Chabot (24:06)
Yeah, they pay a lot less back when the interest rate was high. but now I don’t it’s coming down so I’m not sure. I don’t even know how much the government bonds are making right now.
Lanea (24:06)
then
It’s less than five. I mean, it depends on the length, obviously, but it’s less five last time I checked.
Crystal Chabot (24:24)
Yeah, it’s less than five. The four month US bond is 4 .56.
Lanea (24:33)
Then another type of investment is that you can invest in commodities. Think along the lines of gold or silver or uranium energy, even agriculture. These can be funds backed by commodities. For example, Crystal owns shares of gold. She doesn’t physically keep the gold at her house, but it’s protected and vault in London.
Crystal Chabot (24:56)
Yeah, that’s how I do it.
Lanea (24:58)
I don’t own any commodities. I’ve never gone
Crystal Chabot (25:02)
I wonder if any of the ETFs that you have are in them,
Lanea (25:06)
Yeah, I don’t believe so, but I’d have to go and check.
Crystal Chabot (25:10)
The others are they’re not as popular of types of investments, but they are options. So I’m talking about real estate investment trusts and business development companies.
Rates allow you to invest in real estate without having to go out, source the property, and put in the work to make them generate income. So think landlords and landlord conglomerates. You can own a little piece of them, and they pay dividends out to you Business development companies or BDCs are investment funds that invest in other businesses.
of like venture capitalists and it’s more diversified. So they do typically invest in small to medium companies but there’s also different sectors that you can select too like government, agriculture, just kind of different sectors all around.
Medical sector has been very popular, but I digress.
Lanea (26:09)
Well, and then an important part of investing is to diversify. So that’s why we mention all of these different options. So basically it means just not putting all of your eggs in one basket. You want to spread your eggs over different companies, different countries, different industries, even the different types of investments. This allows you to lower your risk. So instead of single stocks, think more along the lines of ETFs.
and you can try to balance your portfolio to your own personal risk tolerance. If you choose individual stocks a minimum of 20 in various sectors is kind of the standard to create a good mix and avoid pitfalls. But that’s going to take a lot of work to balance that.
Crystal Chabot (26:54)
Yeah, it can be very difficult because I think one of the when they first start investing is they invest in companies that they like to shop at. But then you get stuck in clothing brands or tech and it just it makes your overall risk factor.
or higher than some people can tolerate or bite off.
Lanea (27:18)
I think that you could put in as much research or as little research as you want. if you do something as simple as just US stock market ETF, it’s going to track the rate of the entire US stock market. So you don’t have to necessarily worry about individual investing. And yes,
There’s different things that you could do that are great that you can get probably a higher return on. But that’s something that’s so easy that you can literally go to Robinhood for free. You can invest as little as I think a dollar or two into VTI, which is the total US stock market.
Crystal Chabot (27:58)
But also when we’re going in and investing, just remember that You don’t want to be hopping in and out unless you actually know what you’re doing. You understand that you could potentially hurt yourself in the long run.
Lanea (28:11)
I would not advise anybody to try to time the market. You will always lose.
It’s just you’re never going to beat the market by trying to time unit on a day to day basis. there’s a reason that the vast majority of day traders are not successful.
Crystal Chabot (28:29)
Yeah, my dad is one. For example, I just buy and when the stocks go down, I buy more and I hold. Sometimes I’ll reallocate. like this three weeks ago, I reallocated. last week, he was down 5 % and I was up two and half.
Lanea (28:46)
and then there was even an article that I read the other day was all about how a person invested ten thousand dollars every decade over 40 decades and they had the worst timing ever. So they invested like right before the dot com crash, you know, right before the
Crystal Chabot (29:03)
Aww.
Lanea (29:08)
I think it was like black market in like 1987 or something like that. So it was just like the absolute worst timing, the highest of highs. And then, you know, they’re faced with like a 30 % drop, but they still ended up making millions because they never withdrew their money. ride the waves if at all possible, ride the waves because it’s going to go up and it’s going to go down. over
a lifetime of investing, I don’t think that there has been a single case where you would not have made money. At least in the stock market. Yep. Yep. Yeah. The stock market as a whole.
Crystal Chabot (29:41)
Right. Unless you chose like individual stocks and the businesses that you chose went out of business.
Yes, the diversification fallacy.
Lanea (29:51)
Yes. Yes, yes.
Crystal Chabot (29:55)
I do have an update from the previous episode.
Lanea (29:59)
nice, okay.
Crystal Chabot (30:00)
So I did 50 % of my homework. I looked at the Notion template. That’s about it. But the one video that my husband mentions about that lady the choice of buying a new car versus just ,000 her actually was the Caleb guy.
Lanea (30:06)
Yeah.
yes.
Crystal Chabot (30:26)
Yeah, you had it spot on.
Lanea (30:28)
Yes, I knew it almost had to have been, but I’m glad that I was right.
actually did my homework to I think ours was to plan, our budget prior to, and we ended up meeting with a financial advisor last Monday. And that was really good. It allowed us to really talk about what we want and talk about long term better. And then we kind of broke down our categories and our
budget and we have a plan going forward and we have our plan for August and we went through line by line each category. So I was really happy that we ended up doing that.
Crystal Chabot (31:11)
was it a fee advisor or
Lanea (31:13)
Yes, yeah, It was more of a personal finance advisor rather than an investment advisor. I actually found her on YouTube. I’ve been following her for a while, but I thought that, it would be a good idea for Adam and I to kind of talk and get more on the same page. And I thought that she could help facilitate that conversation more than I could alone.
Crystal Chabot (31:21)
Gotcha.
Nice.
That’s awesome.
Lanea (31:37)
And we got some really good ideas to even with like Adams old 401Ks, I didn’t know that he had 401Ks at other places and he didn’t know that they could be charging, maintenance fees or like not investing it. it was a good conversation.
Crystal Chabot (31:52)
the thing that I found with retirement accounts too is once you are no longer employed, the fees that they charge can get even higher.
Lanea (32:02)
I didn’t know that.
Crystal Chabot (32:03)
Yeah, the fee structure can change.
Lanea (32:05)
Yeah, I mean, and if not, like, he’s not really expecting anything, but we’re going to go and look, so.
Crystal Chabot (32:11)
Well, maybe that one website that I mentioned can help with that.
Lanea (32:15)
Yeah, I’ll probably look up his information, see if I can find anything, and if I can, I’ll tell him.
Crystal Chabot (32:21)
Good, good idea. Do you have any idea of what we should do for homework for this episode?
Maybe for our listeners, if they are paying bank fees, maybe they could identify if that’s actually a good thing for them moving forward and explore options to get rid of the fees.
Lanea (32:43)
I’m good with that. For myself, I am going to I have a Roth IRA open, but I don’t actually have anything or much contributed to it. So I am going to contribute the maximum that I can to it this final quarter of the year.
Crystal Chabot (33:02)
Nice. I have a normal IRA, not a Roth, but it’s empty right now because I was going to move my retirement from the state over. But I like that guaranteed 5 % and it’s getting a decent dividend rate. So I think I’m just going to leave it and pay the fees to have it stay there for a little bit.
Lanea (33:15)
It’s nice.
thought about increasing my contribution at work, but I just don’t know what’s it actually invested in at this point. I should probably do more research on that.
Crystal Chabot (33:35)
So I never actually chose an investment for it. It’s just a cash balance and they they’ve been investing it
Lanea (33:43)
Do you know the fees on it?
Crystal Chabot (33:45)
I don’t, I’d have to look it up, but it’s not much. It’s just a small percentage. But of course, over like the course of 30 plus years, that small percentage is big chunk. So
Lanea (33:57)
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s that’s what that’s my homework. I am going to contribute to my Roth and then I’m going to research my 401k at work. Right now I know I’m contributing to it, but I just don’t know what’s invested in and I really need to know that.
Crystal Chabot (34:15)
I don’t know if I should have any homework because I never really finished mine from last week. I think my homework for this week will be to create that money date template for myself.
Lanea (34:26)
Thanks, I like it.
Lanea (34:27)
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. Please remember that finances and parenting is a complex balancing act. But remember, By learning and growing together, we can build a brighter future for ourselves and our families. If you have any questions or want to share your experience, reach out to us at YouTube, Instagram, or Spotify at Piggy Bank Patrol. We would love to hear from you.
Sound Bites
“of the over 40 % of us that are paying bank fees, they’re paying upwards of $30 a month on average … they’re wasting nearly $239 ,000 with an average rate of return of 8 % over a lifetime of 50 years.”
“ride the waves if at all possible, ride the waves because it’s going to go up and it’s going to go down. over
a lifetime of investing.”