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The Financial Advice Our Moms Never Knew (But You Need) · Mom's Money

• 0:01
  Today's episode is called Everything You Learned About Money is Wrong. Actually, let me say that better.
• 0:08
  Everything you learned about money was probably incomplete, because a lot of us were taught money from people who were doing the best they could with the information, access, laws, and economy they had at the time.
• 0:21
  So this is not an episode where we blame our moms. This is an episode where we look back and say, "Why didn't they teach us better?"
• 0:30
  But it's, it's the opposite, where we say, "Of course they couldn't teach us everything. They were not given everything.
• 0:37
  They were not shown everything, and in some cases, they were not even legally allowed into the rooms where wealth was being built." So today we're going to break old beliefs.
• 0:49
  We're going to talk about the difference between our world, the world our mothers grew up in, and the world we're raising our kids in now.
• 0:56
  We're gonna talk about why get a good job, have kids, buy a house, save for retirement was not bad advice, but it was not the whole plan.
• 1:05
  And most importantly, we are going to talk about what we do now because it is 2026, and we have access to tools, platforms, information, markets, and possibilities that our mothers could not have imagined.
• 1:21
  So today's message is simple: The goal is not just to make money.
• 1:25
  The goal is to acquire assets, not to impress people, not to shame ourselves, not to pretend we know everything, but to change the financial story of our families. [upbeat music] This is Mom's Money Talk.
• 1:39
  I'm Ellie Ezra, the mom talking money like no one ever did for you. This is for the woman who's done managing money and ready to run her life like a business.
• 1:48
  I'm not a financial advisor, but I've built companies, sat in rooms with investors, and learned how money actually works, and here's the truth. You don't have a money problem. You have a systems problem.
• 2:01
  This isn't about budgeting harder or cutting lattes. It's about spending with intention, building assets, and thinking like the CFO of your household.
• 2:11
  Because if you're a mom, you're already running a business, the business of the home. So I'm giving you the playbook, one that makes your life feel lighter, not heavier. Let's start with this picture.
• 2:23
  Say your mom was born in 1959. This is when my mother was born. That is the year I want you to sit in for a minute, not 2026, not the internet age, not the open your phone and buy fractional shares age, 1959.
• 2:38
  In 1959, Alaska had just become the forty-ninth state, and Hawaii became the fiftieth state later that same year. The country itself was still becoming the country we recognize today.
• 2:52
  In 1959, the Civil Rights Act had not yet passed. Jim Crow laws were still part of life in many places, including in New York, where my mother grew up. Legal segregation in public places was still standing.
• 3:07
  The Civil Rights Act that outlawed discrimination in public accommodations and employment would not be signed until July 2nd, 1964.
• 3:17
  So when we say, "My mom didn't teach me about wealth," I want us to understand the world she was born into. She was born into a world where access was not equal.
• 3:29
  She was born into a world where race, gender, marriage, and class could determine what doors opened and what doors stayed locked.
• 3:38
  And if your mom was Black, brown, poor, like my mom, first generation, working class, or any combination of those things, then money was not just math. Money was survival. Money was respectability. Money was safety.
• 3:54
  Money was keeping the lights on. Money was making sure nobody could say you were irresponsible. Money was not always presented as freedom. And for a lot of women, money was not presented as power.
• 4:09
  It was presented as something you needed to manage carefully, quietly, and with permission. Now, listen to this. In 1959, median family income in the United States was $5,400.
• 4:24
  The federal minimum wage at that time was $1 an hour. And yes, things cost less, but the structure of life was different too. A woman's relationship to work, banking, credit, ownership, and investing was different.
• 4:39
  In 1960, the Census Bureau described how many women left jobs in their 20s to take on marital and family responsibilities.
• 4:49
  Women's labor force participation rose dramatically later, especially from the 1960s through the 1980s, but that was not the original template many families were handed.
• 5:01
  And one of the biggest things, we have to say this out loud, is women were not protected from credit discrimination based on sex or marital status until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act was signed in 1974.
• 5:16
  Before that, women could be denied credit, questioned about marriage plans, or expected to have a husband or male relative involved in the process. Hmm.
• 5:27
  So if your mother was born in 1959, she was 15 years old before federal law said lenders could not discriminate against her because she was a woman or because of their marital status. 15.
• 5:41
  That means our moms were growing up in a world where the financial system was not designed to say, "Come on in, sis. Build wealth. Own assets. Leverage capital. Start a company. Build a portfolio." No.
• 5:54
  The message was small. Be responsible. Don't make noise. Get a job, get married, have kids, pay your bills. Don't ask for too much. Be grateful.
• 6:06
  That was the template, and to be clear, that template helped some people survive, but survival is not the same as wealth, and obedience is not the same as ownership.
• 6:19
  Now, let's fast-forward, because today we're living with a completely different economy.
• 6:25
  The median sales price for a new house sold in the US was $17,800 in the first quarter of 1963, which is the earliest part of the Federal Reserve's new home price series.
• 6:39
  By the first quarter of 2026, that number was $403,000. Existing home prices were also around the same level, with the median existing home price at 408,800. So $408,800 in March of 2026.
• 6:55
  So when people say, "Just buy a house like your parents did," I need us to understand we are not shopping in the same economy. We are not working with the same prices.
• 7:06
  We are not raising kids with the same cost structure. Childcare alone can eat up a huge part of a family's income.
• 7:14
  The Department of Labor reported that using 2022 data, families were spending roughly 8.9 to 16% of median income on full daycare for one child, depending on age and county, with annual prices ranging from $6,500 to $15,000.
• 7:30
  That's one child. So if you're sitting here feeling like, "Why does it feel harder?" It feels harder because in many ways it is. The cost of housing is different. The cost of childcare is different.
• 7:44
  Healthcare, groceries, the cost of being alive is different. And yet, a lot of us were handed advice that sounded like it came from a completely different operating system. Advice like, "Get a good job.
• 7:59
  Open a retirement account. Don't get into debt. Buy a house. Work hard. Save." Again, none of that is bad, but it is not a full wealth strategy. Some of it's a foundation and the beginning, but it's the floor.
• 8:14
  It's not the ceiling. I remember being in careers class in 1999 when I was 15, and all I really learned was you need a job, you need a retirement account, and that was it. Find a career. Pick something stable.
• 8:29
  I mean, we did mock interviews, and we called to ask for prospectuses, and then we just looked at rates of return. That was the class. And listen, having a job and a career, it's not bad. A job is a blessing.
• 8:44
  A job gives you income, health insurance, structure, stability, access, and a starting point. But here is where I need us to update the lesson. A job is not the whole plan. A retirement account is not the whole plan.
• 9:01
  And by the way, even the retirement system people talk about like it's always existed, it's not that old.
• 9:07
  The 401[k] section was added to the tax code in 1978, and the IRS rules that help make this payroll deduction 401[k] common came in 1981. I was born in '83. So when people act like this is ancient wisdom, it's not.
• 9:25
  This whole put your money in a 401[k] and retire at 65 thing, it's not Moses coming down the mountain. It's a system. Systems change. The economy changes. Tools change. Access changes, and our strategy has to change too.
• 9:41
  So I want us to say this together. Old advice is not always wrong, but old advice can be incomplete, and incomplete advice can cost you. Let's break down three beliefs many of us were taught about money.
• 9:55
  Belief number one: a good job means you're safe. This one is hard because there is truth in it. A good job can give you stability. A good job can give you the paycheck.
• 10:07
  A good job helps you qualify for a traditional mortgage. A good job helps you take care of your kids. But a good job does not automatically make you wealthy. Gives you incomes, great, but assets give you options.
• 10:24
  A job pays you when you work. Assets can grow while you sleep. A job is one stream. Assets can become many streams. So the updated belief is income is the starting line. Ownership is the engine. That is the shift.
• 10:42
  We don't shame the job. We use the job. We use income to buy assets. We use the paycheck to build ownership. We use stability to create options, because the goal is not just to be employed.
• 10:56
  The goal is to become an owner. Belief number two: talking about money is rude. A lot of us grew up in homes where money was private. Money was stressful. Money conversations happened behind closed doors.
• 11:09
  Kids were told, "Stay out of grown folks' business," and I understand why. Our parents and grandparents were carrying pressure. They did not want us to worry. They did not want us to see the bills.
• 11:19
  They did not want us to feel unstable. But silence has a cost. When nobody talks about money, kids learn by accident. They learn from fear. They learn from watching stress.
• 11:31
  They learn from commercials, social media, from their own mistakes, overdraft fees, student loans, credit card interest. They learn after the damage is already done. So the updated belief is
• 11:45
  money conversations are family protection. We don't have to tell our kids every detail, but we can teach them language. We could teach them choices. We could teach them money is not magic.
• 11:58
  We could teach them bills are real, investing is real, taxes are real, ownership is real, and choices compound. We could say this is income and this is expense. This is an asset. This is debt, interest.
• 12:11
  This is a company we buy from. This is how we look up who owns it. This is how we decide if we want to own a piece of it. That's not rude. That's education. Belief number three, investing is for rich people.
• 12:25
  This is one of the most expensive beliefs we inherited because a lot of us were taught that investing was for men in suits. Investing was for Wall Street or for people who already had money.
• 12:36
  Investing was for people smarter than us. Investing, yeah, that's for people who understand charts and earnings calls and all these words that make regular people feel like, "Okay, never mind." But it's 2026.
• 12:50
  You can open an app and buy a fraction of a share. You can buy a broad market ETF. You can set up automatic investing powered by AI. You can learn from free education. You could prompt your favorite chat.
• 13:05
  You could start small. You can diversify, and you can make investing boring on purpose. Robinhood, for example, explains fractional shares as pieces of stocks or ETFs.
• 13:17
  That allows investors to buy portions instead of needing enough cash for a full share.
• 13:21
  So if a full share of a company is $1,000, but you go to Robinhood and you have $100, you can throw $100 at it and still own part of it. Now, does that mean everyone should run to Robinhood and start clicking buttons?
• 13:32
  No, absolutely not, because access without education can still hurt you. But access plus education, that's powerful. The updated belief is investing is not only for rich people.
• 13:45
  Investing is a skill, and skills can be learned, especially by highly capable mothers. Let me add this. Diversification matters.
• 13:57
  The SEC investor education site explains diversification with the old phrase, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." Diversification can reduce risk, although it does not guarantee that you won't lose money.
• 14:11
  But this is a mature conversation, not go all in, not bet the rent, not this one stock's gonna save me. No, we're moms. We're building families. We're thinking long-term, so we diversify.
• 14:24
  Okay, diversify means put your money in more places than just one. We learn. We start where we are. We don't shame ourselves anymore, and we do not try to catch up by gambling. We build.
• 14:38
  Now, I want to give you a bite-sized list. Here are five things 2026 has that 1960 did not, and I want you to hear this as empowerment, not overwhelm, because the point is not that you need to use every tool.
• 14:51
  The point is the menu is bigger now. Our mothers had such a limited menu. We have a bigger one, so now we need to learn how to order. All right, number one, fractional investing at your fingertips.
• 15:05
  In 1960, investing felt far away from regular families. You needed a broker. You needed access. You needed confidence.
• 15:13
  You needed someone to explain the process, and for many women and many families, that world was intimidating or unavailable, and if you feel intimidated still, we're gonna break it down so you don't.
• 15:24
  Today, you can buy fractional shares, right? Pieces of a share of a company, so you can get in. You can buy ETFs. You can buy auto- you can automate contributions, and you can buy with small amounts.
• 15:39
  You can research companies from your phone. You could read investor relations pages and compare expense ratios, or you can learn what an index fund is. You don't even have to take a class anymore,
• 15:52
  and I don't, I don't want us to waste this opportunity, so a practical tip is just pick one company you already spend money with. Look it up. Look it up. Amazon, ChatGPT, Instacart, Target, Nike, Gap Brand, Skechers.
• 16:07
  Like, what are you buying for your kids? Don't buy it immediately. Just learn. Who owns it? Is it public or private? What's the ticker symbol? Like, what are those letters that you can find about the company,
• 16:21
  and how does it make money? Public companies, they have to increase shareholder value. If you want to be a shareholder, you want to know how they make money, and if you're a consumer, how they make money.
• 16:32
  Is the company profitable? Just because they bring money in doesn't mean they're actually profitable, and these companies change over time, so you got to pay attention.
• 16:40
  Does it pay a dividend, meaning do you get money back from your investment, and what risks does it have? Can you buy it directly? Some you have to be an accredited investor. You can't just buy now from Robinhood.
• 16:52
  What are your risks? Is this a company that's gonna go out of business, or is this something you see growing, so when your kids are older, it will be there for them?
• 17:05
  Or do you get exposure to the company through an ETF, which is a group of funds? Maybe you just want to invest in fashion in general. You can buy ETF. It's a little bit of a few different companies.
• 17:18
  This is how we turn spending into studying because we are already smart enough to spend. Number two, alternative income and alternative assets. Now, let's be very clear.
• 17:35
  Alternative doesn't mean automatically better. Alternative does not mean safe. Alternative does not mean put all your money here.
• 17:43
  Alternative means there are now more ways to think about ownership, lending, cash flow, and exposure.
• 17:50
  For example, the app Prosper, it describes itself as an online peer-to-peer lending marketplace where borrowers, borrowers request loans and investors can invest in notes or portions of the loans.
• 18:04
  Okay, so what does it mean? It means regular people can learn about lending in a way that used to feel institutional. Lending has risk. People can default. Returns are not guaranteed.
• 18:15
  You have to understand the platform, the fees, liquidity, taxes, and risk. But this platform, I like it. Let's say you take $1,000.
• 18:25
  You put that on the platform and you can allocate the, just the thousand to portions of people's loans. So people just like you. Maybe they want to do a home remodel or they want to refinance debt or make a big purchase.
• 18:37
  Talk about cool. Peer-to-peer lending, right?
• 18:40
  So you go to the app, you put your money in, it gets distributed with people who are trying to raise money to do what they need to, and then they're paying back loans to real people.
• 18:48
  I mean, obviously there's risk, um, but I really liked the potential payback. You know, it was, it was higher than my savings account when I did it. So I love the mission.
• 18:57
  You know, what could you spare to invest in that?
• 18:59
  Consider that if your values are to help people and to make money, I did it with a little bit of cash, just enough that I didn't feel it too much and it outpaced my savings account.
• 19:08
  And I know like, "Oh, wow, I helped someone refinance their debt and another person did their kitchen remodel." It was great. So peer-to-peer lending, right? Then there's fractional real estate.
• 19:18
  So platforms like Arrived Homes, they have used Regulation A offerings, which allow certain public offerings to both accredited and non-accredited investors when qualified by the SEC.
• 19:29
  Again, this doesn't mean go buy it today. It means the door is different.
• 19:33
  Once upon a time, real estate investing sounded like, "Buy the whole house, have a huge down payment, fix the property, manage tenants, know contractors, have capital."
• 19:43
  Now there are ways to get exposure to real estate without buying an entire property. Do you hear me? All your real estate friends, they're not telling you about this.
• 19:51
  You can sit behind your computer and buy pieces of real estate without the heaviness of real estate. Our moms were not even allowed to buy a home on their own. Look, you still need to understand liquidity.
• 20:04
  You need to understand fees and market risk. You still need to understand taxes. You still need to read. That is the theme of this episode.
• 20:13
  Access is not the same as wisdom, but access plus wisdom can change your family forever.
• 20:19
  Doing a few of these things could be the baskets, right, plural, of eggs that you didn't even know existed for you and definitely did not exist for our mothers. All right, number three, Bitcoin and digital assets.
• 20:32
  Now, y'all know Bitcoin is one of my favorites, not because I think everyone should put their whole life into it. Please don't. Not because I think it's magic, not because I think it can't go down.
• 20:43
  It obviously goes down, but I love the freedom narrative. The idea is digital gold, Bitcoin specifically, not crypto.
• 20:53
  I love the idea of an asset that's not tied to one government or one central bank or one country's political decisions.
• 20:59
  Bitcoin's own developer documentation describes it as peer-to-peer technology with no central authority, where management of transactions and issuance is carried out by the network.
• 21:10
  And even in 2025, even the White House described Bitcoin as often being called digital gold because of scarcity and security, while noting the 21 million coin supply cap, meaning there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoins.
• 21:24
  There will never be more. So now you have an asset with a fixed supply. I like that in terms of value over time. Now, let me say this like a responsible friend. Bitcoin is volatile. Digital assets are risky.
• 21:37
  Crypto scams are real, like for real. Do not invest money that you need for rent, food, childcare, or emergencies, and don't let hype replace the homework, okay?
• 21:48
  But also, do not let the fear keep you from learning because whether you buy Bitcoin or not, you should understand why it exists. You should understand why people care about money that's not controlled by a government.
• 21:59
  Freedom. You should understand inflation, scarcity, custody. Who really owns your money? Where is your money?
• 22:06
  Private keys, basically your own passwords to get to your money, wallets, taxes, volatility, like how up and down it goes, and security. How secure is it if it's not regulated by a government, right?
• 22:18
  Look, you don't have to agree with all of it, but you shouldn't be clueless about it. That's the difference. We're not chasing. We're learning. These are options. These are the menu options we get to pick from.
• 22:29
  And one thing I learned is to keep a close eye on your asset classes. Digital money, for instance, right? Today, we tap our phones to pay for everything.
• 22:39
  This isn't mom writing a check at dinner like my mom did in the '90s before we had debit cards. Like, there's a future here. We could just tap our phone and pay. Isn't that digital money? It's next, right? I see that.
• 22:50
  Borderless, free, an asset used to transact and as a store of value. Pay attention to it. And it's not hard to access.
• 22:58
  Just like logging into your bank account to send a Zelle payment, you can log in to buy Bitcoin on an exchange. So this podcast will talk more about this asset class in the future. It's time you take a look.
• 23:09
  All right, number four, business ownership, LLCs, and tax strategy. This is a big one. I've mentioned before, I am a business owner. I have a marketing agency that's been around for 15 years.
• 23:22
  A lot of us were raised to think the W2 job was the safest and most respectable path. And again, W2 jobs, not bad. But a W2 job gives you limited tax planning. You get paid, taxes come out.
• 23:34
  You may contribute to retirement. Maybe you get benefits. And that's basically the lane. But when you build a real business, you enter a different conversation.
• 23:44
  Now you could talk about business expenses, retirement, plans for self-employed people. You could talk about deductions, about qualified business income deductions.
• 23:53
  You could talk about entity structure or how you separate business and personal finances. You could talk about creating something that may have value beyond your hourly labor.
• 24:04
  So the IRS explains that LLCs can be treated differently for federal tax purposes depending on their classification.
• 24:09
  The IRS also explains that the qualified business income deduction may allow eligible taxpayers to deduct up to 20% of qualified business expenses.
• 24:20
  The IRS also notes that self-employed people have many of the same tax-deferred retirement saving options as employees. Okay, so hear me clearly. An LLC by itself, it's not magic.
• 24:30
  So don't let the Instagram influencers convince you that forming an LLC automatically makes you rich or automatically makes everything deductible. You need a real business, but a real business can be your brand now.
• 24:42
  It can be content, right? It can be your intellect. It could be what you're selling online or your side hustle. That becomes a real business, and the government likes to incentivize people to start businesses.
• 24:55
  There are systems and tools in place, so instead of hating it, let's actually use it to our benefit. You would need... You need real records. You need revenue. You need compliance. You need a tax professional.
• 25:06
  Look, you need that anyway, okay? And you need to understand your specific state. You need to understand what's ordinary and necessary for your business, but the bigger point is this.
• 25:15
  A business can create planning opportunities that a plain paycheck does not. Our moms were never taught that. They weren't.
• 25:23
  I mean, even my mom, she decided to be an entrepreneur and never called herself that, and didn't even know how to do anything other than the skills she had.
• 25:32
  She made baked goods and sold them, but she didn't understand that as entrepreneurship or how to make it a real business, right?
• 25:40
  And she was taught, get a job, and she eventually did that, or stay home with the kids, and she did that, too. Today, there are more options. There are ways to do all of the above.
• 25:49
  So wait, with remote work, side hustle, you could still do kid pickup. Yes, ma'am. Most of the mothers I know are in some sort of mix of it. Isn't it a beautiful option?
• 25:59
  We need to teach our kids that a job can be one part of the plan, but ownership can be another. Your child can grow up knowing I can be an employee, I can be a business owner, investor, creator. I can own equity.
• 26:12
  I can build systems, acquire assets. That is a different identity. Number five, global options. All right. This might sound big, but I want to plant the seed, okay?
• 26:25
  We grew up hearing go to school, get a job, buy a house, live here, retire one day. But 2026 gives us a bigger map. Remote work has changed the map. Digital income has changed the map.
• 26:38
  International investing conversation changed the map. Residency and citizenship plan- citizenship planning has changed the map.
• 26:47
  There are countries with citizen by investment programs and residency pathways that allow people to think differently about where they live, where they raise children, where they retire, where they build community, and where they want a second option.
• 27:01
  So St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia, they all have official citizen by investment programs that describe investment-based pathways.
• 27:12
  So these programs can be expensive in some ways or require a lot of immigration due diligence. Am I saying everyone needs a second passport? No.
• 27:20
  Am I saying everyone needs two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a citizenship, citizenship program? No. I'm saying our thinking can expand. Would you want to spend part of your time in St. Kitts and Nevis?
• 27:32
  That sounds beautiful. And have my family there, or maybe have a second property there. These are options available to us now beyond what we thought.
• 27:42
  Our mothers have been taught to survive inside a zip code, one job, one house, one country, one system. It's 2026. We're allowed to ask bigger questions. Where can my money go further? I may go to Thailand.
• 27:56
  You can live like a king there, right? Where would my family be safe? Where can I retire with dignity? It doesn't have to be here. Where can my children have opportunity?
• 28:05
  Where could I build a life that's not just expensive and exhausting? Something about the mental load here that needs to be said. It doesn't mean run. It means think. It means plan.
• 28:20
  It means stop assuming the life template you inherited is the only template available. Now, let me go off for a second because this is the part that gets me excited.
• 28:29
  We are smart enough to spend, so we're smart enough to own. Let me say that again. We are smart enough to spend, so we are smart enough to own. If you love Athleta, go look at the company.
• 28:40
  Athleta is part of Gap Inc.'s brand portfolio, and Gap changed its ticker symbol to GAP, Gap, in 2024. Does that mean you should automatically buy Gap stock because you bought leggings? No.
• 28:52
  It means you should be curious. You're already giving the company money. Go learn how the company makes money. Go learn whether it's public. In this case, it is. Is it profitable? Are you still buying this in ten years?
• 29:04
  Are your daughters buying it in ten years? Go learn what other brands it owns. They own Old Navy. They own Banana Republic for this particular example. Go learn what Wall Street thinks. Go learn what risks it has.
• 29:18
  Like, has it maxed out or is it going up, right? Are we at the top of the Gap brand or is there more to come, right?
• 29:24
  Go learn whether you would rather own the individual stock or get exposure through a broader consumer discretionary ETF.
• 29:30
  So maybe Gap is part of an ETF that has other funds in fashion, and you'd rather do that than just buy shares of Gap. I'm throwing out a random example, okay? But it's not rocket science.
• 29:40
  It's research, and research is learnable. You love AI like me? Okay, go learn how to get exposure to AI. That does not mean blindly buying whatever stock is trending. It means learning the ecosystem.
• 29:55
  When AI is in play, it's semiconductors and cloud computing and data centers. Everyone's talking about data centers, software, cybersecurity, energy. Everyone's talking about energy. AI infrastructure.
• 30:06
  Even NVIDIA's own investor relations materials describe the GPU as central to modern AI and accelerated computing.
• 30:15
  So if you're using AI tools, hearing about AI at work, watching your kids use AI for school, seeing companies talk about AI every day, don't just be a consumer of the trend Definitely be a consumer of the trend.
• 30:26
  Don't only be a consumer. Study the ownership side of it. Do you guys think it's going anywhere? Is it going up or down? Do you think it's going up? Do you want exposure where it goes in the next three years, five years?
• 30:38
  Have you been watching where it's come from twenty twenty-one to now? Okay, well, study the ownership side of the trend. Who builds the chips? Who owns the cloud?
• 30:49
  I mean, I don't have answers to all these questions, but they're questions to ask. Who provides the software? Who supplies the power? Who benefits? Who's over-hyped? Who's profitable, but who's risky?
• 30:59
  Some of these guys are not making a profit right now. That does not mean that the future is not profitable, right? And who's already included if you have an index fund, right? Who else is in there in terms of companies?
• 31:12
  So this is the shift from consumer to owner. Ladies, you're consumers. You're already spending smart. You're making these decisions about what to buy and why and for who. Take that one step further. How--
• 31:34
  Here is why ownership matters.
• 31:36
  In twenty twenty-two, the Federal Reserve's survey of consumer finances showed that fifty-eight percent of US households had some form of stock holdings, including direct and indirect ownership through retirement accounts and funds.
• 31:51
  But ownership is not evenly distributed.
• 31:54
  The Federal Reserve's distributional data showed that the top one percent held about fifty point two percent of corporate equities and mutual fund shares in the third quarter of twenty twenty-five.
• 32:06
  That means a lot of people may technically participate in the market, but the wealth is concentrated among the people who own a lot. So when I say acquire assets, I'm not saying it because it sounds cute.
• 32:19
  I'm saying it because ownership is how wealth compounds. Assets matter. Equity matters. Business matters. Real estate, retirement, cash flowing, skills, digital assets, intellectual property. Your brand can matter.
• 32:36
  Your business systems matter. Your network can matter. Your ability to learn quickly can matter. And the earlier we teach our kids this, the better.
• 32:46
  Because I do not want the next generation only learning how to be good employees. I want them to know how to be owners, how to read a paycheck and a profit and loss statement, how to know what taxes are.
• 32:59
  I want them to know what interest is. I want them to know what a stock is, what an ETF is, what a business entity is. I want them to know what credit can do and what credit can destroy.
• 33:11
  I want them to know that lifestyle is not the same as wealth, and I want them to know that looking rich and being free are not the same thing.
• 33:19
  I want them to know money is a tool, and I want them to know they are capable of learning the tool. So let's make this practical, because I do not want this episode just to be inspiration.
• 33:31
  I want you to have a to-do list. So we're going to go into a seven-day money belief reset. You can pause. You can take notes. Day one, list three beliefs you were taught about money. Write them down.
• 33:46
  Not what you wish you were taught, what you were actually taught. My dad used to say, "Money doesn't grow on trees." Maybe you heard that. Or, "Rich people are greedy," or, "Debt is always bad. Save, save, save.
• 33:59
  Saving is great." "Investing is gambling," you might have heard, or, "You need a man to handle the money," or, "Just work hard. Everything will work out." Or, "No, we don't talk about money.
• 34:11
  Stay at a stable job, even if you hate it. You need retirement." Or, "Buying a house is the only way to build wealth." Like, anyways, write these down. Write down three, and then ask yourself about these beliefs.
• 34:23
  Is it true? Is it complete? Is it protecting me, or is it limiting me? And who taught me this? What world were they living in when they learned it?
• 34:34
  That last question matters because some beliefs were formed in survival, but we are trying to build beyond survival. Day two, make an asset list. Not a debt list, not a shame list, an asset list. What do you own?
• 34:53
  Cash,
• 34:54
  retirement account, brokerage, four zero one K, IRA, home equity, business, inventory, skills, a brand, a website, intellectual property, Bitcoin, real estate, life insurance with cash value if applicable,
• 35:13
  education that increases your earning power. Write it down. Then ask, "What assets do I want to acquire next?" Not twenty things. One thing. Could be something I talked about that you look into.
• 35:27
  Maybe it's an emergency fund first. Maybe it's opening a brokerage account. Do you have that Roth IRA? Maybe it's increasing your retirement contribution. Maybe this is the year.
• 35:38
  Maybe it's learning about index funds, or maybe it's starting the LLC for the business you're already operating informally. That'd be good.
• 35:47
  Maybe it's finally separating your business and personal accounts, or maybe it's learning about Bitcoin with twenty-five dollars, not twenty-five thousand.
• 35:54
  Maybe it's researching real estate investing without buying anything yet. Pick one, your aspirational goal. Day three, turn one receipt into research. Look at where you spend that money, money this week, mama.
• 36:10
  Target, Amazon, Athleta, Apple, Starbucks, Costco, Netflix, your bank, your phone company, your kid's favorite brand. What are their favorite brands? Pick one. Ask, "Who owns this company? Is it publicly traded?
• 36:24
  What's the ticker?" Love Yahoo Finance for that. Do I already own it through an index fund? You know, is it part of something I have in The retirement account. Here's a great one.
• 36:36
  Do I believe in this big- business long term? Do I believe in it? Is this a trend, or is this the future? What are the risks? Who are the competitors? How does it make money?
• 36:49
  Would I rather be only a customer, or do I wanna be an owner? Again, it doesn't mean buy. It means learn. Every receipt can become a research prompt. See? This is fun. Day four, learn one investment word, just one.
• 37:06
  Maybe I dropped some here you're not sure of. Don't try to learn everything. Pick one word. ETF, index fund, dividend, bond, dollar cost averaging, Roth IRA, cold wallet, liquidity, accredited investor.
• 37:22
  There's a starting spot. Pick one and learn it. The SEC's investor.gov explains dollar cost averaging as investing equal portions at regular intervals, which can help manage risk of investing over time.
• 37:33
  That's one concept. Learn it. Use it in a sentence. Teach it to your kid. Teach it to your friend. This is how we change the culture. Like, "Oh, I was buying Amazon stock when it was $100, but I bought every year.
• 37:47
  So as the price went up, I still had a good dollar cost average." Right? Maybe it, it's not 100, it's not 1,200. It's somewhere in the middle, right, if you keep buying at intervals. That's the idea there.
• 38:00
  All right, day five, look at your job differently. Ask yourself, "Is my job only paying bills, or is my job funding my asset plan?"
• 38:10
  That question changes everything because when your job is only paying bills, you feel trapped, but when your job is funding your ownership plan, you start moving differently. Your paycheck becomes a tool.
• 38:21
  This is a fun game too. How much can I save?
• 38:24
  And instead of saving, typical, how much do I take out of my check to do these different things, to do that one thing you want, whether it's looking at Bitcoin or buying a new stock or investing in real estate or peer-to-peer lending?
• 38:40
  Your benefits become a tool. Your retirement match becomes a tool. Your skills become a tool. Your network becomes a tool. Your experience becomes a tool.
• 38:51
  You stop saying, "I just work here," and you start saying, "This income is helping me acquire assets." That is power. Day six, explore one new menu option. What would you like to taste?
• 39:05
  [laughs] Pick one thing from the 2026 menu and research it. Love fractional shares idea. Fractional real estate, Bitcoin, a business entity, self-employed retirement accounts, citizen or resident options, AI exposure.
• 39:23
  Don't buy first. Research first. Ask, "What problem does this solve? How does it make money? What are the risks? Fees? How is it liquid? How is it taxed? What happens if things go wrong? Who regulates it?
• 39:40
  What would a conservative first step look like?" This is how grown women move. We don't get hypnotized by hype. We do homework. We already do this when we buy. Let's do this for buying and acquiring assets.
• 39:53
  All right, day seven of your week, teach one person. Teach your child. Teach your sister. Teach your friend. Teach your mom if she's open.
• 40:03
  Teach one person one thing you learned because this is how we break the pattern, not by knowing everything, by refusing to keep the knowledge locked up. A lot of our moms were not taught.
• 40:13
  A lot of us were not taught, but that stops with us. Now, I wanna bring it back to mothers because I need this to be clear. This episode is not about disrespecting the women who raised us.
• 40:23
  This episode is about finally seeing the full pictures. Our mothers were handed a narrow script.
• 40:30
  Be good, be responsible, work hard, don't complain, keep the family together, stretch the money, make it look nice, don't embarrass anyone, don't ask too many questions. Many of them performed miracles with that script.
• 40:43
  They made meals of nothing. They paid bills late but kept the lights on. They worked jobs they didn't love. They stayed in situations because they didn't have options. They sacrificed, and they survived.
• 40:53
  They gave us what they had. Now it is our job to add what they did not have, information, access, ownership, language, confidence, community.
• 41:06
  Our moms could not teach us everything about wealth because many of them were not given the wealth education. They were given a survival education.
• 41:14
  So now we honor them by going further, not by staying small, not by repeating the same limits, not by saying, "Well, nobody taught me." At some point, we become the teacher.
• 41:24
  At some point, we become the woman in the family who says, "We are going to learn about money here. We're gonna talk about assets here. We're gonna talk about investing here. We're gonna talk about ownership here.
• 41:34
  We're gonna talk about business. We're gonna talk about freedom." Because the next generation de- deserves more than get a job and hope it works out. They deserve to know how money works.
• 41:45
  They deserve to know how systems work. They deserve to know how ownership works. They deserve to know that wealth is not just for other people. They deserve to know they can participate, and so do you.
• 41:59
  So here's the big takeaway. Everything you learned about money was not necessarily wrong, but it was probably incomplete, and incomplete information creates incomplete outcomes. We're updating the lesson.
• 42:13
  Old lesson, get a job. New lesson, get income, and use it to what? Acquire assets. Thank you. Old lesson, save money. Oh, God. New lesson, invest, own, protect. Old lesson, don't talk about money. I'm talking.
• 42:29
  We're talking. Money conversations are how families heal. Old lesson, investing is for rich people. We, we wish people. New lesson, investing is a learnable skill. Old lesson, stay in your lane.
• 42:43
  New lesson, learn the lanes. Old lesson, security comes from one employer. New lesson, security comes from skills, assets, options, and community. Old lesson, hope retirement works out. New lesson, build the plan.
• 43:02
  And before we close, let me say, this is to the mom listening who feels behind. You're not behind. You are waking up. There is a difference. You're not stupid. You are under-educated. There's a difference.
• 43:12
  You're not bad with money. You may have been taught an incomplete system. There's a difference. You are not too late. You are alive, you are learning, and you can still make moves. There's a difference. Start small.
• 43:25
  List the beliefs. Pick one asset. Learn one word. Research one company. Open the conversation. You're taking one step, then take another. That is how families change. Not all at once.
• 43:36
  One decision at a time, one asset at a time, one conversation at a time, one woman deciding, "The old money script ends with me. My children will know more. My family will own more.
• 43:48
  My life will have more options, and I am smart enough to learn." Because you are.
• 43:53
  You're smart enough to spend, to save, to invest, to own, to build, and you're smart enough to teach the next generation something different. So this week, your homework is simple.
• 44:03
  List the three beliefs you were taught about money, and ask yourself, "Do I want to pass this belief down, or do I want to rewrite it?" We are not just raising kids.
• 44:11
  We're raising future adults, future earners, owners, investors, future decision-makers, future women, future moms who will inherit our fears or inherit our freedom. Let's give them freedom. Let's acquire assets.
• 44:27
  Let's update the money lesson, and let's stop pretending the old template was the whole truth. It was not. It was just the beginning. Stop budgeting your life away. Start building something that pays you back.
• 44:39
  The goal isn't to save money. It's to build a life that money can support. Spend smart. Acquire assets. I'm Ellie Ezra. I'll see you next time. [outro music]