In honor of financial literacy, I wanted to share on a topic that I think is one of the most important things to know financially. Learning this can be the difference between financial security and financial devastation, but unfortunately few people are taught this.  In fact, most people are unwittingly taught the opposite. This topic is How to Create Crisis-Proof Finances and was the topic of my recent TEDx talk. 

Check it out in the video below. (Please note that the sound gets a bit wonky around 8'14 for about 10 seconds and then comes back.)  

Transcript

I remember the day my boss called me into his office. 

I was excited for this talk! I thought all those nights of working past midnight at the law firm had finally paid off and he was going to give me the bonus I’d been expecting.  I also thought the conversation would touch upon my maternity benefits. I was five-and-a-half months pregnant and the previous week I told him I was...

A while back, I decided it was time to show my body the respect of eating healthy, sleeping more, moving regularly and generally taking better care of myself.

All wonderful things that I knew would have a positive impact on my life.
But, despite knowing it was good for me, I struggled. I stopped, I started. I missed days. I’d forget and brush off my intentions for the day, and then feel like I was starting all over again the next day. And then, one of my beautiful friends told me that she was working on some life changes to get healthier and that it was working. I started following her program. I got into a community of support and had people that I could call upon for favorite foods, workouts, and great restaurants that didn’t derail our plans. We checked in with each other and texted reminders about that workout and drinking more water.

It made all the difference to have someone walking this path with me - a group of people walking with me.. People I cared about....

Ready to be inspired? It's time for a Goddess Spotlight!

In these Goddess Spotlights, I introduce you to members of our community who are successfully building their real estate portfolios and are on their way to financial freedom. Some are relatively new, while others have been at it for a while.

These goddesses invest in almost every niche imaginable, and they ALL have a lot of insight to share!

Today, I'm sharing my interview with Allison Ruhlman - our Wealthy Goddess of the Month!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW HER INTERVIEW:

Here’s a recap of what we talked about:

How nothing you want is in your comfort zone and how you have to get uncomfortable in this process.
Why it's not about networking. It's about relationship-building. And the more relationships you have, the better.
How the connections she made in the program allowed her to finally "get in the game" and acquire 5 deals in one year.
The importance of not letting fear stop you. Do the mindset work to deal with the inevitable fear....

When trying to figure out where to invest, especially in the path of progress, a strategy I've learned is to buy at the line, move the line. This means you find a property at the line of a nicer area where the area starts becoming not-so-nice and the properties are cheaper. Invest in a property on that border, improve that property, and the nice area is expanded and your property is in a desirable place to live. Now you have moved the line. This helps expand and improve the community while giving you a hack for finding a discounted property in a good location.

There are several studies that highlight how women are biologically wired to be around other women.

One of nature’s “feel good” hormones - Oxytocin, the “bonding hormone”, is released in women’s brains in 3 instances: during sex, during breastfeeding, and when women are in groups of other women.

Our brain dumps oxytocin to tell us when something is good for us. It feels good so we will repeat it. Nature has us wired to bond with our lovers, our babies, and other women.

In a UCLA study, scientists found that when stressed, men tended to go off alone or react aggressively (“fight or flight”). Women, on the other hand, tend to their young or gather together to commiserate, cook, and be with others, usually other women (“tend and befriend”).

For women, getting together with other women is one of the healthiest and most effective forms of stress relief. It feels particularly good because of all that oxytocin that is released...

I often hear people say that they feel more comfortable investing in the stock market or keeping their money in a bank account. To them, this choice feels safer and more reliable. But this is a myth. I believe that they say this because they have not done the work of comparing how money grows in different investments. So I’ve broken it down for you.

Let’s say you start with $50,000. Now if you put that money in a bank account, where it compounds at 1% interest, after 20 years you will have made a profit of $11,009.50.

Now let’s say you want to invest that money and you choose to invest that $50,000 in the stock market, which averages a 7% annual return on investment. So after 20 years compounding at 7% you will make a profit of $143,484.

Now let’s compare those two options to real estate investing. Let’s say you purchase five 3/2 single-family houses in Cleveland, OH for $50,000 down (20% of value - $250,000 total in assets). The average rent for...

No one can do it alone. That's why we believe so strongly in the power of a team, the power of community, the power of sisterhood. It takes a ton of support, encouragement and creativity to succeed in real estate investing. That's why we created this community of REI Goddesses.

You don't have to do this alone. We are here to help.

Happy Women's History Month and International Women's Day!

International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality.

Here at Real Estate Investor Goddesses, we are committed to accelerating gender wealth equality in this country and the world.

We have a real gender wealth gap that is startling! Many people know about the gender pay gap (for every dollar that a man makes, a woman only makes 82 cents). What's even more troubling for me is the gender wealth or net worth gap. For every dollar of net worth that a man has, a woman only has 32 cents! And that figure gets even more shocking when you factor in race. For every dollar of wealth that a white man has, a black or Latina woman has less than one penny! We need to change that!

I'm super grateful to the women who came to our Wealth Through Real Estate Event last weekend here in Los Angeles...

For better or for worse, your success in real estate will be determined by WHO YOU KNOW.

Real Estate is a relationship business. Who you know, and who you are working with, can make the difference in what deals you get, and how much money you have access to.

You will need relationships with great service providers such as agents/brokers, lenders, property managers, CPAs, contractors, attorneys, and with great potential partners – deal and investment partners.

Without these right relationships you either:
(a) can’t acquire a good cash flowing property (especially in a competitive market), or
(b) you can’t run it well, if and when you do acquire it.

A lot of people think that’s not fair. Maybe it's not, but that’s the way it is.

There is something you can do about it though…

You can absolutely get yourself some of those "right" relationships!

So how do you do that?

There are three ways to do this. These are what I’ve done that have made...