Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Good Money Moves for 2024 with Karla Ukman

Transcript

Good Money Moves for 2024 with Karla Ukman · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast with the number 1 small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small Biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small bizchett podcast?
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  Well, it's time every Wednesday we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start
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  and grow a successful small business.
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  And just 20 minutes or so a week you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel your
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  business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the small beachhead podcast today.
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  Now it's time to talk about money matters.
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  Let me welcome my guest Carla Uckman, who says she's not your father's financial adviser.
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  She champions financial education, and personalized strategies for women and
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  historically excluded communities.
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  She leads her own firm, Artemis, wealth advisors, for over a decade And she ignites
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  financial awareness and empowers clients to take charge of their money in ways that
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  resonate with them.
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  Carlos passion lies in dismantling financial Emerson and fostering economic resilience.
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  So if you want more information about her, head over to artemiswealth.net, Carlo, welcome to
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  the Small Bishop podcast.
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  Thank you so much for having me.
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  I appreciate it.
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  Alright.
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  So tell me your backstory.
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  How did you get so good with the money?
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  Well, I was not always good with the money.
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  I came from a middle class background.
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  I did not come from generational wealth.
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  I made a lot of money mistakes, especially in 2008, when things got crazy and I didn't have
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  the financial education to really make good decisions.
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  And throughout the years, I was in corporate America.
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  I had trained people in the past and I loved educating people and I had a tour that said,
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  hey.
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  You should get into this industry because you love to educate people.
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  Said, I don't know about that.
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  And the more that I thought about my experience I had I had with either a financial advisor or
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  banker or somebody in the money space, it wasn't positive.
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  It I always felt judged.
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  I felt like I couldn't get resources and the money mistakes that I had made were you know,
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  following me throughout all these conversations that I was trying to have, they also would
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  speak to my husband and not to me.
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  So I I dug real deep and I said, you know what?
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  I think this is my calling.
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  I think this is what I'm supposed to do and change the way that we are ingesting this
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  financial literacy because we're not being taught this.
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  And my parents weren't taught it, and it's it's skipping generations.
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  Our schools are also not teaching this.
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  So I got into the industry and what I'm doing is I'm really focusing on the education side of
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  money and all things wealth building And the reason that I work with women in other
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  communities is because historically, we are not given the same information as other
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  communities.
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  And I want us to be empowered with our money.
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  I want us to make decisions where we can truly change generations to come.
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  So that's That's how I got into the industry.
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  Alright.
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  So tell me, how can a financial advisor help a typical small business owner?
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  So many ways.
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  I love this question because when we're talking about money, you have business money and you
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  have personal money, and it is intertwined.
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  So a lot of business owners think that You have your bucket of money with your business and
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  that's going.
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  And then you have your personal money over here, and that's going.
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  Actually, it's all intertwined.
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  Because what happens is you're getting paid from your business.
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  Right?
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  So you're paying yourself a salary, Hopefully.
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  Hopefully.
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  Right.
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  Hopefully, we're there.
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  But even if you're not, how and and you're working towards that, How is that gonna affect
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  not only your retirement, but also tax planning?
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  How are you gonna create a legacy or How are you going to provide for your family or
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  charitable gifting if that's something that is on the horizon for you?
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  So when you're working with an advisor, you're actually putting both of your small business
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  income and your personal income together and you're saying, okay.
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  How can we reach our money goals?
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  Okay.
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  So tell me about I know a lot of times small business owners when they first start, right,
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  there there's banks do not loan money to start up businesses unless you are buying a
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  franchise, and you better be, you know, a 1,000,000 liquid and be buying borrowing money.
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  Right?
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  So a lot of business owners have to think about, are they gonna hit their home equity?
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  Are they gonna, you know, cash out four zero one k to start their dream business.
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  And what is your official advice about that?
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  Yeah.
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  So I get this question a lot and rightfully so.
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  Right?
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  So this is not a a recommendation, so I'm putting my little asterisk there.
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  So everybody's you know, situation is different and you wanna make sure that you're looking at
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  your own situation.
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  But in general, when we're talking about 1, the 401 k, There are different ways that you can
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  take money out of a 401 k.
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  You can take a loan if you're currently employed, and you might be starting a small
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  business and not quitting your full time job.
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  Okay?
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  So let's say that because that happens a lot when we're starting a business.
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  We don't just jump right in a lot of times.
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  If we take a loan out of our 401 k, we aren't being exposed to taxes.
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  Like, if we took a with drawal from our 401 k.
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  So that is a strategy that can be utilized.
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  Now the second that you quit your job, that loan that you took out in your 401 k is now
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  going to be full income and you're gonna be penal the IRS says, hey, you know, you're no
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  longer able to pay that loan and you don't work there anymore.
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  So now you're gonna be penalized.
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  If you are no longer working, and you're jumping right into the entrepreneur journey,
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  you wanna make sure that how much you're taking out of your 401 k isn't going to not only
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  expose you to unnecessary taxes because what if you're in a different tax bracket now but also
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  how is that going to affect your future retirement goals?
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  And when you're doing an analysis, So what I do with my clients is we talk about all this.
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  We look at an analysis and we say, okay.
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  If we start taking money out of this, where's our tax exposure?
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  Are we comfortable with that?
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  And then also how is that going to affect our our retirement?
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  Because now we have to make it up and play catch up.
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  And and that's a lot of times hard to do.
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  With the home equity, that is something that has to be done the right way.
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  So you wanna make sure that you're not putting yourself in a bad position.
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  It's just like utilizing cards.
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  Right?
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  Credit is not bad.
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  Credit is actually good when it's utilized properly.
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  And so if that is something that we talk about, and we look at all the other options, we can
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  utilize that especially because the interest rate is usually lower on those than taking out
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  credit cards.
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  So it is an option, but everybody's situation is different and so you wanna really deep dive
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  into where you're taking money before you just start pulling money out.
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  Now one of the things I know that you I read that you said that a lot of times people don't
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  get started with procrastinate with, you know, saving for retirement or even investing because
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  of just procrastination, because of just, like, fear or a change and things like that.
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  Can you talk about why that is?
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  Yeah.
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  So, for business owners, what I see a lot of times is, and I'm a business owner.
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  I've been doing this for 10 years.
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  I focus so much on my business.
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  And what we're doing is we are forgetting about our own personal side of things and based off
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  of also our experiences.
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  So if people have bad experiences with the financial world, why would they expose
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  themselves and work with someone that is already going to judge them for not investing
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  anyway, they're gonna show them all these reports that show that, oh, well, it's doom and
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  gloom.
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  Why would they wanna put themselves or that they're already focusing on so many different
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  things.
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  You don't need someone throwing things in your face saying you should have done it sooner.
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  And so that's what I see a lot of is the procrastination comes from the fear of judgment
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  And they're like, well, it is what it is, so I might as well just not start anyway because
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  someone's gonna judge me.
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  That's what I see.
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  Mhmm.
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  So how can we I mean, the thing about it is though is that I think the thing about small
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  businesses and and I have this problem myself.
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  Small businesses need their bins their money liquid.
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  Like, kind it up in 401 k as in in IRAs and stuff is scary because When you have things
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  like the pandemic happen, when you have things like 0809 happen and you have to tap into those
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  resources just to stay alive and keep a roof over your head, you know, saving money that you
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  can't touch until you're 59a half sounds like ridiculous.
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  Like, you know, is it better to save with, insurance policies and things like that rather
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  than be tying stuff up in, you know, in 401 ks for that matter.
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  Well, okay.
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  So here's the misconception about life insurance and I see this all the time.
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  I'm actually, expert in life insurance when it comes to a planning.
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  And, life insurance is a great tool for cash accumulation, but the problem is it's still
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  tied up So you hear all these things that say, okay, you can take money, withdraw money, or
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  you can take loans.
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  The way that these policies are structured is unless you have a big amount of money to put
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  into the policy, at the very beginning, these policies are structure where the cost of
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  insurance, so your fees are front loaded in the 1st 10 to 15 years of these policies So it's
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  not structured where in the 1st year, you can start taking money out of it because you
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  haven't even been contributing to it enough for it to even grow the cash.
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  Side note, it is a good way of, you know, accumulating cash, but it has to be done
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  correctly.
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  So to your point, when we are you know, taking money and putting it into certain things and we
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  don't want it to be tied up.
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  1, having a CFO and bookkeeper in your business is super important because then you know what
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  your cash flow is.
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  So we're not going to start putting money into retirement funds or other you know, type of
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  accounts unless we actually know we can do that.
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  And we also know that we have savings on the side.
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  In order to, you know, have these emergencies covered.
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  But there are different strategies you can start saving as a business owner where it
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  doesn't have to be in a retirement account and you could have liquidity.
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  It just has to be structured in a in the proper way.
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  Can you give us an example?
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  Yeah.
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  So just an investment account or, you know, a CD, like a 1 year CD or you know, something
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  that is paying interest like a bond, something that you're at least growing your money.
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  It is not tied up and you're not being exposed to inflation because this is one of the things
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  that you have to think about too as a business owner.
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  Your cash is still being exposed to inflation and your banks aren't putting how much money
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  you lost on your bank statements Are they?
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  They aren't because your cash lost money due to inflation.
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  So you wanna make sure that if you have some liquidity issues and you wanna make sure that
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  your money is growing, you don't put it into something where you can't touch it for, you
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  know, 10, 15 years.
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  And so you could do that with, like, a bond or a mutual fund or, you know, something very
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  safe.
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  I see.
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  So tell me, you know, there's lots and lots of economic uncertainty still on the horizon for
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  2024.
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  What are some of the action steps that some of our listeners can take, to make their money
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  just work harder for them without risking without a bunch of excessive risk.
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  Yeah.
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  So one thing is assess your risk tolerance.
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  What what do I mean by tolerance.
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  That's how comfortable are you with these fluctuations in the market.
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  And when you're working with someone like myself, I help take the emotion out of the
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  markets.
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  I I help really make sure that you have, you know, the information of what it's done
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  historically, throughout the past 100 years based off of, you know, how things have
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  happened with wars and things like that.
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  So assess your risk tolerance first because if you're too aggressive, then you are going to
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  see some of those market fluctuations, but sometimes you might need to be but that's one
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  thing that you can do.
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  Also prioritize your security.
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  So we just talked about making sure that you have cash on hand for your expenses in case
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  something does happen.
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  And that means in case the market is fluctuating, with these uncertainties.
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  And we've seen that the past couple of years.
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  So having something where you have 3 to 6 months of emergency funds to have living
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  expenses where you don't need to take money out of, let's say, a 401 k that you set for
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  yourself as the business owner or an IRA.
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  And then these safety nets really help help with debt too because if you have debt, and you
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  can pay these bills, and you're not, you know, scared of how the market's fluctuating and it
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  just it just gives you more of a peace of mind.
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  So you wanna make sure that you assess how risky you are and also make sure that you have
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  cash on hand as well.
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  And and even, you know, just making different adjust to your investment account can make a
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  big difference when it comes to these uncertainties.
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  Great.
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  Thank you so much, Carly.
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  You've really been giving us some great information.
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  And when we come right back on the small bizhet podcast, we're gonna learn more about how to be
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  more intentional about how you use your money in your business.
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  You're watching the small bitch chat podcast, and we will be right back.
• 15:52
  Hi.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson small biz lady, and I wanna welcome you to small biz lady university.
• 15:58
  Our mission here is to end small business failure.
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  So all of the courses here are about 2 things.
• 16:05
  How to become your own boss or how to make money online.
• 16:09
  So that's what we do here.
• 16:11
  So whether you wanna learn about email marketing and sales funnels, or you're ready to
• 16:16
  get started with social media selling, or if you're really just getting started with
• 16:20
  ecommerce I want to jump into our how to sell and market online course.
• 16:24
  Either way, if you want to learn how to become your own boss and do it well, I have every
• 16:31
  thing you need here at smallbizladyuniversity.com.
• 16:34
  If you have any questions or have any technical problems getting signed up, just email us at
• 16:39
  support@malindamerson.com.
• 16:43
  Take care.
• 16:48
  Welcome back to the small bizchett podcast.
• 16:51
  I'm Melinda Emerson small biz lady, your host, and I'm here with my guest, Carla Uckman, and
• 16:55
  she's talking to us about the money, about how to get smarter, about how we use our money.
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  So we're not just earning paychecks, but we're actually building well.
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  Carla, I want to jump back in with you.
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  I know that you talk about, you know, financial education and continuously learning about,
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  money and different different types of vehicles you can use to fund your business or fund a
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  shortfall.
• 17:19
  You know, all of us in business know people like to pay small business owners late last or
• 17:23
  not at all.
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  So you gotta make sure that you're covered to kinda deal with that.
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  Do you have any suggestions about how people get financial education if they're if they're,
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  like, clueless or they never had a a parent with a professional job that that hadn't
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  accessed anything like this.
• 17:39
  Yeah.
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  So a lot of my clients start listening to money podcasts.
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  There's a lot out there that you can listen to.
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  You can also attend nonprofit financial literacy programs.
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  There's conferences out there and seminars that you can attend books are great and also joining
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  different Facebook groups that are involved in just, wealth planning and money education.
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  Awesome.
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  Awesome.
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  Now I know that in your practice, you specifically focus on women and people of
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  color.
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  And you said that your approach is different with working with co these clients compared to,
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  like, traditional financial planners.
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  Talk to me about that.
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  Yeah.
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  So the reason that it is different is because I don't come to the appointments where I'm just
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  throwing recommendations out without truly knowing.
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  I ask what your money journey has been because that's super important.
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  Do you have money traumas?
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  Are there things in your life that made your money relationship complicated, and a lot of
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  times it has because of the generations and where we're coming from.
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  So talk about that as well as whenever I'm making recommendations, there's always
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  education behind the why.
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  And I break that down with my clients and really make sure that they understand what I'm
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  recommending and, and it has a purpose for them.
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  Awesome.
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  Awesome.
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  And last question for you.
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  What is the best business advice you've ever received?
• 19:09
  Oh, so the best business advice I received was you know, making sure that you're surrounding
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  yourself with people that are smarter than you.
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  Get in rooms with people that are smarter than you.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  That is such such great advice.
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  Thank you so much, Carla, for being with us.
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  I can't wait to learn more about how you serve, people of color and and women in business
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  because we all gotta get better with our money.
• 19:36
  That's for sure.
• 19:37
  Thank you all for joining me for this episode of the small biz chat podcast.
• 19:42
  If you are an author speaker or you wanna become 1 or a coach, I wanna let you know that
• 19:50
  branded demand 2 is coming.
• 19:53
  The 2nd cohort of my branded demand 6 month coaching program starts March 20th.
• 19:59
  So if you are interested in finally becoming a national brand, I want you to consider joining
• 20:05
  me because It is amazing.
• 20:08
  So if you head over to smallbizladyuniversity.comforward/brandantaman
• 20:15
  dashgroupcoaching.com.
• 20:17
  That's what you need.
• 20:19
  Dashgroupcoaching.
• 20:21
  That's what you want to get the information and my second cohort starts March 20th.
• 20:26
  So I can't wait to see you all there.
• 20:29
  Now I have one last thing for you.
• 20:31
  If you want to grow your business, you have to grow yourself.
• 20:36
  Alright.
• 20:36
  Thank you all for joining us for this episode.
• 20:45
  Thanks for listening to the small biz chat pod cast with Melinda Emerson.
• 20:50
  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday for more
• 20:56
  fantastic information and interviews.
• 20:58
  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
• 21:03
  website succeed as your own boss.com.
• 21:06
  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.