Ever wondered how to travel the world and feel financially secure? In this episode of The Traveling Therapist Podcast, we dive into financial literacy with Jackie Curry, a therapist turned global explorer who's passionate about helping others invest and build financial independence.
Jackie shares how her love of travel started at 16 and how that journey led her from Portland to Mexico City, through the Himalayas, and now into launching her Financial Literacy Lab. Whether you're dreaming of a solo trek or want to better manage your retirement planning, Jackie’s insights are a game-changer.
In This Episode, We Explore…
Connect with Jackie:
Website - https://www.jackiectherapy.com/finlitlab
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/financial.literacy.lab/
Connect with me:
Instagram: @thetravelingtherapist_kym
The Traveling Therapist Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/onlineandtraveling/
Signup to learn more about life as a Traveling Therapist: https://www.portablepracticemethod.com/free-training
Revolutionize Your Private Practice with AI Course: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/ai
Bill Like A Boss Insurance Billing Community: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/blab
Subscribe to the Podcast:
Apple iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcast | Stitcher | Amazon | Castbox
______________________________
Sponsored by Berries: Say goodbye to the burden of mental health notes with automated note and treatment plan creation! https://heyberries.com/therapists
Sponsored by Alma: Managing a private practice can be challenging. There are obstacles at every turn — from navigating the credentialing process, to managing finances, to finding new clients. That’s where Alma can help. Alma is on a mission to simplify access to mental health care by focusing first and foremost on supporting clinicians. https://helloalma.com/kym
______________________________
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Kym: hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Traveling at Therapist podcast. I'm excited to have our guest today 'cause I already know her and I know all the cool things she's doing. So I can't wait to talk about all this. I guest is Jackie Curry.
[00:00:13] Jackie, thank you for being here today. I'm really glad to have you.
[00:00:16] Jackie: Yay. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
[00:00:20] Kym: You are welcome. So my first question always is how did you go from being a traditional therapist to a traveling therapist? So maybe we can dig into that a little bit and kind of learn about you and then the other cool stuff that you're talking about.
[00:00:32] Jackie: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I feel like it starts with traveling. I started tr my grandmother took me on my very first international trip when I was 16. She took me on a cruise in the Baltic Sea, and we went to Denmark, Sweden. Finland and Russia. And it completely changed my life. I was like, oh my gosh, I need more of this.
[00:00:50] How do I do it? And so I went, when I went to college, I went to college to study abroad. After my bachelor's degree, I did a solo backpacking trip through Central America, 25 years old. This is like pre smartphones. I think, yeah, I was just like, landed in Guatemala City and I was like, I'll figure it out.
[00:01:09] So five months there. And then I went to grad school, got my master's in social work, but always was like, how do I travel? How do I travel? How do I travel?
[00:01:17] Kym: That's amazing.
[00:01:18] Jackie: But during that time there really, it wasn't really a thing to travel. So I went into the traditional route of like working in nonprofit to get licensed and then worked in community mental health.
[00:01:30] And then the pandemic hit.
[00:01:33] Kym: Yes.
[00:01:33] Jackie: That was the sort of this opportunity. I quit my job in 2021 and I had always dreamed of living in Mexico City. So in 2021, quit the job, started a private practice the next day and said September, 2021, I'm moving to Mexico City and I will have a virtual private practice. And that's what I did.
[00:01:56] I spent three years in Mexico City private practice. I did. And then I was able, like during that time I traveled to Spain and like worked a little bit from Spain. So I just kind of like traveled as much as I could after that.
[00:02:10] Kym: is awesome. Where are you now? Are you back in the United
[00:02:12] Jackie: So I'm back in the us I moved back to Portland last November.
[00:02:18] Kym: Okay. Okay.
[00:02:19] Jackie: Yes.
[00:02:20] Kym: Are you glad to be
[00:02:21] Jackie: It's actually been a better transition than I anticipated.
[00:02:24] I'm so grateful for my time in Mexico, but it just, my community is here and I just realize how important my community's here. My, I met, I met somebody, my partner while I was visiting Portland last summer, and so it was kind of like the tipping point of maybe it's time to come back and just be grounded again.
[00:02:43] Kym: Yeah, that's, I think that's one of the hardest parts of being a traveling therapist is knowing there's like, for me anyway, my whole family basically is in Virginia, and there's always stuff happening. They're always doing stuff together, and I'm always like, oh,
[00:02:57] Jackie: Totally,
[00:02:57] Kym: of missing out on a lot of that stuff,
[00:02:59] Jackie: totally, totally. Yeah. Two of my best friends had babies while I was gone and it's was just like hard to be away. And I have a nephew here in Oregon and yeah, my stepsister, my parents, so
[00:03:10] Kym: Oh
[00:03:11] Jackie: it's good to be close to them again.
[00:03:13] Kym: That's awesome. Yeah.
[00:03:14] Jackie: Yeah,
[00:03:15] Kym: traveling at all now or
[00:03:16] Jackie: I am still traveling this year. I went to the Dominican Republic, I went to Scotland.
[00:03:21] I'm going to Korea next month. Alaska was doing a buy one get one free direct flights to Seoul. So I'm going with two best friends. Yeah, so I'm still traveling.
[00:03:31] Kym: That's amazing. So will you be working or, or have you kind of like drawn that line, like, I'm just gonna travel and not bring the work with me?
[00:03:40] Jackie: It's a little bit of both. So for Korea, I'm just taking that time off. When I went to Scotland, it was actually a therapist retreat or continuing ed. So it was, I wasn't seeing clients, but I was there doing the continuing education and that was the coolest thing ever. And I actually just signed up to do another continuing ed retreat in South Africa in February.
[00:04:04] Kym: Oh my gosh, how cool is that? this kind of ties into what we're gonna talk about anyway, but I was getting ready to say those are write offs, right? I mean you
[00:04:13] Jackie: Yeah, absolutely. My business. Those are business. Yeah, those are business trips. My business will be paying for it and, and my credit card points.
[00:04:24] Kym: That's amazing.
[00:04:25] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:04:25] Kym: just backtracking a little bit, like before smartphones and everything, so were you doing those trips like you said you're doing it by yourself, but were you trying to work then or were you just like planning and taking off like four or five months or whatever to go, go do like trekking through the Himalayas or whatever?
[00:04:41] Jackie: Yeah, so when I did, I did the Himalayas at the end of 2023, and so what I did for that trip, I was like, I gotta break this up. So I went to Spain for. I think two weeks on my way to the Himalayas. And I did work while I was in Spain. And then when I was in the Himalayas trekking, there was no, I mean, we had no reception, so that was, I was totally off the grid.
[00:05:02] I let folks, my clients know, like if there's an emergency, you need to call the crisis line. I'm unavailable.
[00:05:10] Kym: Nice.
[00:05:10] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:05:11] Kym: awesome because people are always asking about that, like, well, how do I navigate this? And, we'll, we'll talk. I wanna get into your other passion, and
[00:05:19] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:05:20] Kym: into how to plan for this stuff,
[00:05:22] Jackie: Yes.
[00:05:23] Kym: probably plays into this, so let's. Let's just shift gears and maybe we could tie it back into the traveling piece a little bit, but
[00:05:30] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:05:31] Kym: to your, your passion project, what you're doing right now.
[00:05:34] Maybe you could tell everybody about
[00:05:36] Jackie: Yes, so my passion project it is called Financial Literacy Lab. And essentially my goal, my passion, is to teach folks, particularly women, how to invest, just how to set themselves up for retirement, especially us folks who are self-employed. We don't have an employer. With a 401k. So that is, that is the, the passion project at this, this time.
[00:06:05] Kym: I love it. I love it.
[00:06:06] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:06:08] Kym: maybe we could talk about like, especially for female women, solo traveler types, like what would be your top three most important, like. Things you would want to instill in somebody listening right now that maybe doesn't know anything about finances, or maybe they've
[00:06:26] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:06:26] Kym: know, a terrible credit score or something.
[00:06:28] Like what, what are the top kind of three things
[00:06:31] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:06:32] Kym: would focus on?
[00:06:33] Jackie: Yeah. Well, I, I guess I just wanna start with saying like, I mean, we all have master's degrees and at no, at no point in time was I ever taught anything related to finances. We were, I was never taught about saving, setting myself up for retirement, investing, anything like that. And I remember just going into my first job as a social worker and sitting down with the.
[00:06:57] Finance person to talk about my 4 0 3 B and just, I was like, what? I don't even know what you're talking about. I'm not even making enough money to contribute anything. And it wasn't until my mid thirties that a friend sat down with me, opened an IRA, picked two different index funds and said, just keep adding money to it.
[00:07:16] And in those five years I'm like, oh my gosh, this money is just like growing, growing, growing. And I'm getting excited about it. So. I think sort of the t the tips that I have around it is we have to start planning for retirement today because we don't wanna wake up in 25, 30 years and have no money and we don't know what's happening in social security, right?
[00:07:40] So we have to start thinking about it now. We have to prioritize it. A lot of people say like, oh, I'll wait. I gotta wait. I don't have enough money, and it's not an option.
[00:07:51] Kym: Yeah.
[00:07:52] Jackie: We have to be, and just a little bit goes a long ways. So adding, putting in a couple hundred bucks a month can grow to hundreds of thousands of dollars in 20, 30 years.
[00:08:04] Kym: Absolutely. So in private practice, like for example, I mean I have an accountant and they advise me ep IRA was how I should do
[00:08:14] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:08:14] Kym: you know, 'cause I have an S corp ep, I sep IRA. I mean, for, for somebody listening, solo practitioner, would there be, would, what would you recommend that somebody do? Is it like, can you just go. To E-Trade or whatever and,
[00:08:28] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:08:29] Kym: a 401k or like, how, how do you even start with that?
[00:08:32] Jackie: that's a good question. And definitely I also have an accountant, and what he advised me to do was open a solo 401k, so it's just. I think having an accountant, super helpful, somebody to help guide you on, especially based on the structure of your business. So it's important to know what is the structure of your business, and you are, if you are an S-corp an LC, you can open a solo 401k, a Sep, IRA.
[00:08:58] If you have employees, like you're a group practice, you can open a simple IRA.
[00:09:04] Kym: Okay.
[00:09:06] Jackie: and the cool thing is, so with a solo 4 0 1 KI, so I'm an employee of my S-corp. I'm a W2 employee and I contribute. My goal was to max out my 401k this year. I don't know if I'm gonna get there, but that's $23,500 that I can contribute.
[00:09:26] It's a lot. And on top of that, my. My employer, which is my business, can, can match that. Or can can add. So you can add up to, what is that, over $50,000? '
[00:09:39] Kym: Cause I just asked my accountant about this. I, I feel like it's like 56,000 or
[00:09:43] Jackie: yep.
[00:09:44] Kym: or 64,000 or, or something that, that I could match it up to.
[00:09:49] Jackie: Yes. And then that like reduces our tax rate today because the income, so there's tax benefits too. Contributing to to your retirement plan. The other thing that I have and that anybody can have if you're making under $150,000 is a Roth IRA. And the Roth IRA is amazing because when you put put the money in, it grows tax free and you can withdraw it tax-free.
[00:10:18] So when you're withdrawing it in your sixties, you are not paying any taxes on it 'cause you've already paid your taxes today.
[00:10:25] Kym: Yeah. Oh, nice.
[00:10:25] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:10:27] Kym: That's a great tip. So definitely the retirement piece.
[00:10:31] Jackie: retirement piece.
[00:10:33] Kym: they're like, it's too late, I've missed the boat. Like, do you have advice like on like compounding returns? Like, like should you, should you like, 'cause I have a financial advisor that like kind of advises me where to put money, but I'm also. Know, I also like try to stay up to date with it and, and guide them a little bit, you know, instead of just trusting somebody to just manage this
[00:10:56] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:10:57] Kym: do you, do you have advice around that? Like, how do we do
[00:11:00] Jackie: How do we Yeah, well, in terms of like how do, so I would call myself what they say as like the lazy investor. And so I just have a couple different index funds or exchange and exchange traded funds. So I just have like five and I continue to invest in those. So one is a bond fund. One is a US stock market, one is international stock market, and then I have a couple ones just for funsies 'cause it's fun to, to play around.
[00:11:29] And just as I learn more, my risk tolerance has, has increased. So it can be really, you can make it as simple as you want to make it. We don't have to make it complex or complicated.
[00:11:41] Kym: Nice.
[00:11:42] Jackie: Of course it's ideal for us to start as soon as possible and like that, that is why I'm doing this financial literacy lab and I'm teaching workshops.
[00:11:50] I have a workshop tonight for a group of six women where I'm just gonna teach them the very basic, how to open an account, what exchange traded funds are, and index funds, how to fund it, and then how to just see what will happen. And we know, like research has shown that the stock market has grown or.
[00:12:10] On average in the last 100 years, we are seeing 10% returns in the stock market. So that's another tip. Sometimes people start investing and then the, I think it was 2022 things started to go down. People panic, they wanna take their money out, but we just have to trust it's gonna come back up. It comes back up, it comes back.
[00:12:31] Kym: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
[00:12:33] Jackie: And I think to answer your question around like, is it too late to start? I get, you know, it depends on your situation, your savings. But I know that the older you, you know, if you're starting, I think it's like over 50, 55, you can contribute even more. So you can do kind of like, they call it the catch up contributions so you can be contributing more money.
[00:12:56] Kym: Wow. So how'd you go from, I don't know what a 4 0 3 B is to this? Expert in investments.
[00:13:03] Jackie: my gosh. Yeah, so like I said, at 35, it was when I was 35 years old, this was during COVID, I sat down with a friend to open the IRA for me and told me to just like keep contributing. And then I just, I think, 'cause it was COVID time and I just became interested and started.
[00:13:22] Kym: Mm-hmm.
[00:13:23] Jackie: curious and wanting to learn about it.
[00:13:25] And then I started following some of the different financial influencers. There's Tori Dunlap, her first 100 k Deanne Barrows, who's Deanne the money coach. So I started following these money coaches, listening to their podcasts and real, I was like, oh my God, this is so simple. It's so simple. Why did, why do they, why does the, our society lead us to believe it's complicated that only experts can do it?
[00:13:52] So I just got excited about it and I think, again, seeing, I never in a million years thought that I would have money saved and growing, and now I've like reached over a hundred thousand dollars and to me that is just like. It is so exciting and it makes me want to continue to con contribute to watch the money grow, and I don't wanna work until my mid sixties.
[00:14:13] I wanna retire early. I'm trying to retire early.
[00:14:16] Kym: No kidding. It's like, how can I get out now?
[00:14:19] Jackie: Yeah. I will contribute as much as I need to now to be, to be financially free earlier than 60.
[00:14:26] Kym: read that book. God, what is the name of that book? I'm trying to think of it. It's something like, like, I Wanna Be Fucking Rich or something
[00:14:33] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:14:34] Kym: Dirty Fucking Rich or something. I
[00:14:36] Jackie: Yeah,
[00:14:36] Kym: I know it's got fucking the
[00:14:37] Jackie: yeah, yeah. There's one,
[00:14:39] Kym: do you know what book I'm talking about?
[00:14:40] Jackie: I don't know that one. I did just read one called Rich as Fuck, or Rich af. Yeah, Vivian. Vivian too. It's excellent.
[00:14:49] Kym: yes. Oh my gosh. It's so good. And it it, it's funny 'cause so much of it is like mindset stuff too.
[00:14:55] Jackie: Yes.
[00:14:56] Kym: and know, what you're putting out in the universe and us as therapists. I mean, I don't know if you experienced this with the people you talk to and work with, but have got serious money mindset issues.
[00:15:08] Jackie: Yes.
[00:15:08] Kym: big time. Yeah.
[00:15:10] Jackie: Yeah, we do. I mean, like my first job outta grad school, I was making like $38,000 a year. And then they're asking me about planning for retirement and I'm like I'm just trying to survive and pay my bills today.
[00:15:22] Kym: Yes. Oh my gosh.
[00:15:25] Jackie: So yes, we do have some money. Money mindset stuff. Yeah.
[00:15:29] Kym: Yes, we do. And I feel like we could probably talk about that for like three hours, but, but just putting it, I'm just putting it out there because I've been through that myself. And even reading that book, I, I was like. I've still got these money mindset things
[00:15:42] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:15:42] Kym: some ways, you know, like, like shopping at like TJ Maxx where I, I, you know, I probably could go shop at like Nordstrom Rack and buy like nicer clothes, but I always, you know, like I kind of do stuff like that for some reason.
[00:15:54] I don't know why I do that, but I do.
[00:15:56] Jackie: I'm the same.
[00:15:57] Kym: kind of like analyzing these patterns. It's like, why, why am I doing this? Like, living scarcity
[00:16:03] Jackie: Yes. Yes, absolutely.
[00:16:06] Kym: It's so weird. But, but anyway, just putting that out there for anybody listening to say, like, take a look at the mindset stuff
[00:16:13] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:16:13] Kym: so you can get to a place where you are, where you, you're seeing it like, accumulate and accumulate and accumulate, you know, without even putting in money.
[00:16:22] That's how mine is now. It's like amazing. It's like I'll go in and check the balance. I'm like, holy crap. I definitely didn't put that much in. So, you know, it's really, it just grows over time and it's amazing to see
[00:16:33] Jackie: it is amazing. It is. They, I think they say compound interest is like the eighth wonder of the world. Be, yes, it's amazings.
[00:16:41] Kym: It's amazing. So, so since this is the Traveling Therapist podcast, do you have like some tips around people that maybe wanna do what you, you did like, okay, I wanna take four months and trek through the Himalayas and I don't wanna work. Do you have strategies around that? Like how do we save for that?
[00:16:58] How do
[00:16:58] Jackie: Yeah, so what what I've been doing is, you know, I have my business account separate, and I always just make sure I have. A certain amount in there so that payroll can continue even if I'm wanting to take some time off. So I always want at least two, a minimum, and I actually keep more, I probably keep four payroll cycles always in my checking or my, yeah, my business checking account.
[00:17:27] So that's one thing.
[00:17:29] Kym: smart.
[00:17:30] Jackie: I think the other thing I do, and I mention this, like I am all about the credit card hacks. So finding the credit cards that serve you, that give you the points to be able to transfer to like airline miles and hotel doctor, you know, paying for hotels. So that helps like reduce the cost of being able to travel while you still have some, your paycheck is still coming in.
[00:17:52] Kym: I love that. Do you have a favorite card that you love to recommend
[00:17:55] Jackie: I use the, I love Capital One, venture X personally. Yeah. It's the best bang for your buck. Like it's 400 bucks a year, but you get the $300 travel voucher, you get to use the lounges 10 point 10 times for buying stuff through their portal. It doesn't get better than that.
[00:18:16] Kym: No, it it, and talk about accumulating. It's like, I'll, I'll log in to like pay my monthly balance or whatever, and like, oh my God, I've got like 250,000 airline miles. You know? How did that
[00:18:27] Jackie: Yeah, me too. And I can't, I'm like, can't wait to
[00:18:30] Kym: How can I use this?
[00:18:33] Jackie: Yes. Yeah.
[00:18:34] Kym: So do you, do you use your points like for airlines mostly or in hotels? Or do you like do like the whole, 'cause I know some people are so into it, they like transfer to this credit card to pay for this and get this thing and that thing.
[00:18:45] Jackie: That's what I wanna, that's like my next project is learning how to transfer to maximize. 'cause I know that I'm not maximizing the way that I could. Yeah. What I've been doing is just using it to buy flights and pay for hotels, but I'm gonna learn that's, that's 2026.
[00:19:02] Kym: We need to figure out how to put that in the clinical AI club by
[00:19:06] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:19:06] Kym: membership. Like how could we do some travel hacking
[00:19:09] Jackie: Yes, yes.
[00:19:12] Kym: Yeah. Oh my gosh. So exciting. So, so what else should we know? Like somebody just listening for the first time. So we've got the, the contributions to your retirement, that sort
[00:19:22] Jackie: yeah.
[00:19:23] Kym: Credit cards, do you, do you pay them off every
[00:19:26] Jackie: Yes,
[00:19:26] Kym: a rule around that?
[00:19:28] Jackie: So with all these travel credit cards, the interest rate is insane. I, I don't know, 25, 30%. So.
[00:19:35] Kym: Yeah.
[00:19:36] Jackie: You cannot use these credit cards unless you're going to pay it off in full at the end of each month because it is not worth the interest. Yeah. Yes.
[00:19:45] Kym: Good, good, good.
[00:19:46] Jackie: Yeah,
[00:19:47] Kym: say that like responsibly. 'cause that's, a lot of people don't realize that.
[00:19:50] Jackie: I know,
[00:19:51] Kym: I don't, I mean, talking about financial literacy, people don't even. Think about the interest rates.
[00:19:56] Jackie: right? Right. Yeah.
[00:19:58] Kym: just at my mom's like two days ago and she needed a new hvac and the guy is like, oh, well we can get you a payment plan 120 months.
[00:20:06] First of all, she's like 70. I'm like, by the time you pay this thing off, or she's 76, by the time she pays it off, I mean that's 10 years,
[00:20:14] Jackie: Yeah,
[00:20:14] Kym: know? And then she's gonna be paying like, like $8,000 in interest. And I'm like,
[00:20:18] Jackie: yeah,
[00:20:18] Kym: this, this is not a good idea.
[00:20:20] Jackie: yeah.
[00:20:21] Kym: You know? And she's like, oh, I didn't think about that.
[00:20:24] Jackie: All the buy now, pay later stuff. Avoid if you can't. Oh. If you can't afford to pay for something right now, don't buy it unless it's like an absolute necessity. Or there's a reasonable interest rate, like on a car loan or something. A house loan, something big.
[00:20:40] Kym: Mm-hmm.
[00:20:41] Jackie: I was thinking about something else. I slipped my mind though.
[00:20:49] I can't remember.
[00:20:50] Kym: It'll come
[00:20:51] Jackie: It'll come back. It'll come. It'll come.
[00:20:53] Kym: oh, that's what I want.
[00:20:55] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:20:55] Kym: so what else do I wanna ask you about that stuff? The credit cards. So how do you, how do you get four months of savings basically in your business? Like, do you have hacks for that? Do you cut out like Starbucks?
[00:21:08] How
[00:21:08] Jackie: Oh yeah, I am. My friends will say I'm the most frugal of all of us. I cook with, I cook at home, probably 99% of our meals. We go to Costco, we buy in bulk. I divide things up and put it in the freezer, like meat and things like that. I make all my coffee at home. I do not shop. The only thing I shop for right now are index funds and exchange traded funds.
[00:21:33] I buy clothes secondhand, like at vintage shops or when my friends are like cleaning out their closets, I get the hand-me-downs.
[00:21:41] So I think part of it also is like my values, knowing what my values are and my value is to travel, to adventure, freedom, exploration, not to eat out a meal that's $50 and is mediocre, I can make it better at home.
[00:21:57] Kym: Yeah. Oh, I love that.
[00:21:59] Jackie: so I really am all about the values-based spending and spending on
[00:22:04] Kym: Nice.
[00:22:05] Jackie: travel.
[00:22:07] Kym: yeah, so tell us about the, the lab, the financial
[00:22:11] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:22:12] Kym: And you could just talk a little bit like how'd you create this thing, first of all, because part of this podcast is a lot of entrepreneurial people that maybe don't wanna be stuck in that one-to-one model. So how'd you get there?
[00:22:25] And then what is it like, how do
[00:22:28] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:22:28] Kym: To use it.
[00:22:30] Jackie: Yeah, so just in the last couple years, I find like all I, I get so excited to talk about investing and I'm always like, do you have a retirement account? Who's it with? Do you know what you're doing? And then just as I've talked to the, it's like a mixed bag. Some women are like, yeah, I know what I'm doing.
[00:22:48] I'm super excited. And some people are like, deer in the headlights like I was. And so. As I continued to talk about it, I was like, I just really wanna create a community where we can be talking about this stuff. So it started out with a small, I have a group of women we meet once a month. There's 12 of us, and we just talk all things money.
[00:23:08] We have a different money topic each month.
[00:23:11] Kym: Mm-hmm.
[00:23:12] Jackie: And then when I was in Scotland at the, the summit, it was called Doubt Yourself. Do It Anyway. And I went, 'cause I was like, I need to take this to the next level. So I started an Instagram financial literacy lab, and so on the Instagram I'm posting all sorts of like tips and information about investing, and now I'm moving into doing investing workshops.
[00:23:36] So. I love the idea of doing things in person. 'cause the other piece of this is the community building community and women people supporting each other, especially post COVID. I think we're really lonely and isolated. However, there, so there will be a transition to doing some online workshops as I get more following and traction.
[00:23:56] And then the next step will be to take, I have this community that meets in person, but I wanna build one that meets online. And do some like six month cohorts where we can build community, talk about things, money. And you can leave with a skill or an IRA or a solo 401k.
[00:24:14] Kym: Oh my gosh. I
[00:24:16] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:24:17] Kym: So, so get in there, learn all the things,
[00:24:20] Jackie: Yes,
[00:24:21] Kym: this is the thing I'm gonna do before I'm out of this cohort,
[00:24:24] Jackie: exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
[00:24:30] Kym: I love it. So, so do you have any tips like, I hate to say stock tips, but do you have like a, like an ETF that you love or like some, some stock you always go back to?
[00:24:40] Like,
[00:24:41] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:24:41] Kym: we always are buying, going in and outta Palantir. I don't know if you
[00:24:45] Jackie: Okay. I have been rolling boundary
[00:24:48] Kym: Yeah, yeah. Like, you're like, yeah, I know about,
[00:24:50] Jackie: and I'm a,
[00:24:51] Kym: we'll, we'll buy it. We'll, we'll, you know, we like to. Buy low, sell high, buy low,
[00:24:56] Jackie: yeah.
[00:24:56] Kym: of go back and forth with it. But we also buy the little, I guess they're the ETFs to PLTU instead of the Palantir, the big
[00:25:03] Jackie: Mm. Yeah.
[00:25:04] Kym: I just wonder, do you have like, like tips around that or
[00:25:08] Jackie: Yeah,
[00:25:09] Kym: love no matter what
[00:25:10] Jackie: yeah. So, like I said, I'm like the lazy investor. I do not buy and sell. I buy and hold, and I'm gonna hold until, until I can, until I have enough money to, and I can be free. My, the ETFs that I buy are VTI, so that's the US stock market vx us, that is international market. And then b and d, that is the bond market.
[00:25:35] Those are my three primary investments. I just opened my solo 401k with Fidelity last year, so I have different index funds. I've been more risky in there, but I don't have all those ticker symbols memorized yet. But it's more in, in tech, the tech stuff and ai, because that's.
[00:25:51] Kym: me too. Oh my gosh. Nvidia, Palantir,
[00:25:54] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:25:54] Kym: of that. Mm-hmm.
[00:25:55] Jackie: Yeah. It's booming.
[00:25:56] Kym: that's where I am too. I love that stuff, you know? I love that stuff.
[00:25:59] Jackie: Yes, yes. Yeah,
[00:26:02] Kym: awesome. So if there's any, if there's anything, well, I guess you kind of already said like if there's one thing you just want people to leave with from this episode, what would it be?
[00:26:13] Is it the 401k
[00:26:14] Jackie: yeah. Absolutely. If you are not, if you do not have a retirement plan set up, set it up. Today, and if you have questions, contact me. I'm happy. I'm not a financial advisor, but what I've learned is anyone can open these accounts and anyone can start investing. You don't need to be an expert. You do not need a financial advisor.
[00:26:34] We can. You can open these accounts for free with Vanguard, fidelity, Charles Schwab, and by low cost ETFs and index funds. You can do it by yourself.
[00:26:45] Kym: Absolutely. And you know, they used to charge per trade, but they don't even do that
[00:26:49] Jackie: It's free.
[00:26:49] Kym: I mean, we, we literally some days are trading, making 5, 6, 7 trades a day, you
[00:26:55] Jackie: You're day. You're like the day trader. You're a day trader.
[00:26:59] Kym: not, my, my boyfriend
[00:27:01] Jackie: Okay. Okay. Okay.
[00:27:02] Kym: he, he, he's like, Hey, I'm gonna sell this in your account or buy this. I'm like, yeah, let's do that.
[00:27:06] So
[00:27:06] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:27:07] Kym: we try to time the market a little bit with the day trading,
[00:27:10] Jackie: Okay, okay, okay. When it works out, I know. I was like, my motto is, don't.
[00:27:15] Kym: have a dip again. It just keeps going up. It's like, what is this thing gonna dip
[00:27:19] Jackie: I know. Yeah, yeah.
[00:27:21] Kym: Not that I'm wishing it to dip, but
[00:27:23] Jackie: Right.
[00:27:23] Kym: You know, for day trading you want it to A little bit. Yeah.
[00:27:27] Jackie: Yeah. Day trading for me, I'm like that it's risky for me. I'm the buy and hold. But yeah, everybody has their strategy and as long as you know, you're doing the research and you know
[00:27:38] Kym: exactly.
[00:27:39] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:27:39] Kym: listen to me, don't spark day trading. It is just what we do.
[00:27:46] Jackie: Yeah.
[00:27:47] Kym: that's amazing. So how do people find you? How do they get connected to your resources
[00:27:52] Jackie: So as of this moment, I'm on Instagram at Financial Literacy Lab. That is where I'm posting everything. A webs, there will be a website coming in the new year as, as the offerings grow. Yeah, so for today it's, today it's Instagram.
[00:28:10] Kym: I love
[00:28:10] Jackie: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:28:12] Kym: listening will put it all down in the show notes. You guys could check it
[00:28:15] Jackie: Yeah,
[00:28:15] Kym: so when's your, what's your next big trip that you'll be
[00:28:18] Jackie: I'm going to Korea in October and I'm going with two of my best girlfriends. I am, this is like the first international girls trip that I've done in a, in a couple years, so I'm really, really excited for it.
[00:28:30] Kym: Oh, that's gonna be awesome. Now, how long do you have to go to, to like fully be able to go to Korea and fly
[00:28:35] Jackie: Oh my gosh. I wish that we were going for two weeks, but one of them just had limited. Time off. I think we're going, we're doing eight days. It doesn't feel like enough, but it's, we're just gonna ma we're going to, we're gonna land and we're just gonna, actually, I think we're gonna do a lot of like spa treatments and massages and Korean skincare that we're gonna do a lot of that.
[00:28:59] So I'm excited. Yes.
[00:29:01] Kym: gosh. I can't wait to hear how that goes.
[00:29:03] Jackie: Yeah. Yeah. And then in the New Year's, the South Africa trip, so Yeah.
[00:29:09] Kym: that's right. Yes. Oh, how fun. That's gonna be amazing.
[00:29:12] Jackie: that'll be amazing. Yes. And I gotta, I have to tack something on, like before or after. 'cause you can't go all the way to South Africa for a week, so there will be something else in the works. Yeah,
[00:29:23] Kym: a safari or something.
[00:29:25] Jackie: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Thank
[00:29:30] Kym: today.
[00:29:31] Jackie: you so much for having me.
[00:29:33] Kym: glad to have
[00:29:34] Jackie: Yes. Yay.