← So Money with Farnoosh Torabi
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- [00:00]
Farnoosh Torabi
Hi, it's Farnoosh. Are you building a personal brand or business and craving real behind the scenes support? I'm reopening my intimate mentorship program, Farnoosh bts and applications are officially open. It's my four month mentorship program to help fast track your success. You'll learn all my strategies across all the different verticals from podcasting to writing books and I'll connect you with very important people in my life. Applications are available at varnushbts. Com. I look forward to helping you Foreign.
- [00:34]
Montclair Pod Announcer
This episode of the Montclair Pod is brought to you by Montclair Film, our town's hub for film storytelling and community connection. From thought provoking indie screenings and Q&As with acclaimed filmmakers to improv nights, live performances and classes in filmmaking, screenwriting and much more, Montclair Film offers something for everyone who loves the power of a story. It's also home to one of the country's premier film festivals each fall drawing audiences and talent from around the world. Right here to Montclair. Want to see what's playing or sign up for a class? Visit montclairfilm.org for the full calendar of events and ways to get involved. Now on with the show.
- [01:17]
Farnoosh Torabi
Hey so Money friends, I know many of you are thinking about starting your own business or you're already in the trenches making smart, strategic money moves. And if that's you, I want to personally recommend a podcast that can seriously help you get to that next level. This is Small Business what I love about this new season is how real it gets about something we talk about a lot here. Risk Every episode shares honest stories from founders who faced tough financial decisions, taken bold but calculated risks, and made it through the highs and lows of building a business. Host Andrea Marquez breaks it all down in a way that's actionable and relatable. You'll hear exactly how these entrepreneurs tackled things like funding, pricing, and know knowing when it's worth betting on yourself. If you're looking for real, practical insights that can help you move forward with clarity and confidence, this podcast is it. Follow and listen to this Is Small Business now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, don't wait to start making smarter money moves today. Lately, I've been turning to quince for just about everything. Clothes for me, pieces for my kids, even stuff for the house. If you don't know quince yet, they make high quality, timeless wardrobe staples like cashmere sweaters, linen sets, silk tops and denim for a fraction of what you'd pay elsewhere. And with this late summer heat wave, I just picked up some new linen tops and bottoms because I was running out of the good stuff. Everything from Quince fits beautifully and feels amazing, light, breathable and effortlessly polished. I also grabbed a few new bathing suits for my daughter, who's growing faster than I can keep up. The quality is just as good, if not better, than more expensive brands. And that's the beauty of Quince. They work directly with top factories, cut out the middlemen and pass the savings to us. Most most pieces cost half as much as similar luxury items, and they're made with premium fabrics in safe, ethical factories. Elevate your fall wardrobe essentials with quince. Go to quince.com sewmoney for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q U I N C E.com somoney quince.com somoney so Money Episode 1861 Girl Math Trad Wives and the Cost of Playing Small you're listening to Sew Money with award winning money guru Farnoosh Torabi. Each day get a 30 minute dose of financial inspiration from the world's top business minds, authors, influencers and from Farnoosh yourself. Looking for ways to save on gas or double your double coupons. Sorry, you're in the wrong place. Seeking profound ways to live a richer, happier life. Welcome to so money.
- [03:56]
Meg Wheeler
There's this fear almost as women of standing up and saying I am powerful and I am in control and I am in in charge of my money and even making that statement of or.
- [04:09]
Farnoosh Torabi
I want to be rich, I want.
- [04:10]
Meg Wheeler
To be rich or I wanted to go buy the purse. So I bought the purse. Like I made the financial decision to do it because I'm empowered and in control of my money and I know what works for me, right? But we don't do that. We say, oh girl math.
- [04:24]
Farnoosh Torabi
Welcome back to SEW Money everybody. I'm Farnoosh Tarabi. We're talking about girl math on the show today, but not in the way that TikTok wants us to. My guest is Meg Wheeler, CPA financial educator and founder of the Equitable Money Project. She's an all around champion for financial equity. In our conversation, we unpack the viral girl math trend and why it may seem harmless but actually reinforces some pretty dangerous stereotypes about women and money. And we also dig into what it really takes to build wealth when you don't come from generational wealth. How financial knowledge, not money, is often the most valuable asset and why staying Politically engaged right now is a financial strategy. Meg takes us behind the scenes of our popular substack entitled call your representatives. And we wrap with a little financial joy what Meg is happily spending her money on this summer. She's not calling it girl math, but she is sailing into the season with intention. Here's Meg Wheeler. Meg Wheeler, welcome to so Money. It's great to have you here.
- [05:30]
Meg Wheeler
Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
- [05:32]
Farnoosh Torabi
Yeah. We're going to get into a few topics with our time together, including the uncertainty in the economy and in our financial lives. I know that's something that you are on a daily basis dealing with your clients at Equitable Money Project. And we're going to talk about, well, a TikTok trend as it is that won't go away. It's called girl math. And, you know, it kind of. I dump it in the same category, maybe as, like, misogyny, but also like, you know, there's a lot of trad wife crap going on out there. It's just kind of like part of this wheelhouse of like, let's play. Let's, let's, let's, let's have women play small and think that they have to play small and that it's cute and it's not. So it's actually quite dangerous. And we're going to talk about that. But first, tell us about the genesis of Equitable Money Project and how you came, how you arrived at this incredibly important service that you provide to your clients.
- [06:34]
Meg Wheeler
Yeah, so, I mean, look, I had a very traditional career. I got the accounting degree. I got the master's degree. I went into public accounting. I'm a cpa. I was doing the thing. I thought I would stay on partner track, you know, get the job and keep it. That was what we were always taught. Right. And life got in the way. I had a child, I had a grandfather who was sundowning that I couldn't see unless I left work early. And I realized that corporate wasn't working for my life, and it wasn't working for the things that I needed to balance. So I left. And then I thought, well, what do I do now? So the more I looked around, I realized no one really understands the money stuff. We're not teaching it. And I knew I wanted to work with small business owners because I'm particularly passionate about building wealth through small businesses. I think it's one of the greatest ways that, that we can make an impact in this world. And that's where Equitable Money Project was created out of was really this idea that the more we can make financial education accessible primarily for marginalized business owners, the more we can really empower our communities to build generational wealth and ultimately to eradicate economic inequity. Because that is, I think, by far one of the biggest threats to, to our well being and to our society today.
- [07:59]
Farnoosh Torabi
Yeah, absolutely. There's so much uncertainty right now. And how does that play out in the lives of your clients specifically?
- [08:07]
Meg Wheeler
Yeah, I mean, most of the people in our community do not have generational wealth to fall back on. They don't oftentimes have a spouse with a quote, unquote, stable income. Although I have a lot of thoughts about how stable W2 job really is. But a lot of times they're the sole breadwinner in their families and they may have children, they may have other people that they care for. And so the uncertainty that we're seeing this year, whether it's inflation or it's tariffs or it's this, this big bill that's just come out, it's making it really hard for small business owners, especially folks who are in marginalized communities, where access to capital, access to resources hasn't always and still isn't super prevalent. And so it's making it really hard to plan, it's making it very hard to navigate these treacherous waters, if you will. And it's just causing a lot of extra stress. We're seeing health problems, we're seeing people go back to jobs that don't necessarily fulfill them, but they feel trapped. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
- [09:10]
Farnoosh Torabi
You have worked in politics, I believe, and maybe this is now getting us into your substack, which is entitled call your representatives. I was doing that previous to the big bill getting passed. Can we still be calling our representatives? It feels like. Well, I mean, they're answering in many cases, but like, to what end? Tell us a little bit about this weekly instructional substack that you have for the masses.
- [09:43]
Meg Wheeler
Yeah, so let me start by saying I'm a millennial. So I absolutely hate talking on the phone. If someone calls me, I literally will duck under the desk. My husband knows this. Like, I can't. I'll text someone, I'll email you, but if I have to make a call, it's not happening. But. But we in this, in America still have a direct line to our representatives. And this is pretty rare. If you actually look at how a lot of governments around the world exist and it may feel like they're not always listening, it may feel like you're screaming into the void. But we literally have the phone number for every representative's office. And I think that is one of the greatest powers that we have as Americans, and we should be using it every single day. And the cool part about this is calling your representative really just takes a couple of minutes. They're not actually picking up themselves. It's their staff. You're usually, you know, just talking to someone who is jotting down what you say and just making a record of it. But that's actually the critical piece, is that everyone who calls or emails or mails a letter there is a record of it so that they can then go to their boss and say, you got 10,000 calls on this issue in favor of this or against this. And if you're sitting there thinking, well, it doesn't matter, my representative is an R or a D, and they're going to vote this way or that way, no matter what, it actually really does matter because they are looking to see how much pushback they're getting on something or how much support they're getting for something before they go in and make that critical decision. Maybe they're still going to vote to support it, but they're going to try to water it down or they're going to try to do something that reflects the fact that they've been listening to their people. And so even though in this case the bill has passed, we still have a lot more issues. In fact, this week, our call script was all about FEMA and the defunding of FEMA and how we've just seen in Texas the horrific impact of not having qualified leadership and funding in our government department. So you should be calling. You should call every day. And if you're like me and you hate to talk to people no matter who they are, you can call after hours and leave a voicemail. So that's my little pro tip.
- [11:50]
Farnoosh Torabi
Thank you for writing that. And it's such an important reminder. Yeah. That even though big bills pass and the bigger bills, the bigger legislation makes the news, often overriding the. The other stuff that is equally as impactful. Going back to the marginalized groups that you're supporting, these folks who you describe as not having generational wealth, what are some examples of how they can actually build wealth? Like how are you working with them to reconstruct or construct for the first time their wealth legacies?
- [12:27]
Meg Wheeler
Yeah, I love this question. Because people often think that the greatest asset that wealthy people and people who have come from generational wealth have is money. And it's actually not. It's education. And we see this through the way that people. I mean, I did not grow up with generational wealth, but I grew up around people who had it. And they were taught how to start and grow a business. They were taught how to invest, they were taught how to network and how to build relationships that resulted in favorable things coming their way. And so when we're working with folks in our community, yes, we're talking about how to actually grow your money. That's an important piece of it. But the most powerful tool we have in our toolbox is actually the knowledge. And that's why we make our financial education at Equitable Money Project as accessible as possible. Because that, I think, is actually the single biggest gap that we're facing right now in the economy when it comes to economic inequity. And so if you are someone who did not come from generational wealth and you don't have tons of money to throw around and hire people to help you figure all this stuff out, go to your library, listen to podcasts like this, even believe it or not, representatives in Congress will often have information sessions where you can learn about how this stuff works. You can learn about policies, check out nonprofit organizations, organizations, read substacks, read blogs. There's so much out there, and it can feel overwhelming. But I think if you just start by saying, okay, I'm going to learn about this one thing today, maybe, maybe this month, it's, I'm going to learn about retirement, or I'm going to focus on networking or whatever it may be, and just really starting to build up your own toolkit. You know, you're giving yourself the most powerful gift that exists.
- [14:24]
Farnoosh Torabi
What was your earliest money memory, Meg? I mean, maybe a formative experience that has still shaped you, still, you know, impacts your thoughts around money, your approach to money.
- [14:36]
Meg Wheeler
It's a great question. The one that always comes to mind for me is I grew up with a single mom, and every year when it came near Christmas, she would say, you know, this year is going to be a little bit tighter, kind of set your expectations. And every year there would be tons of gifts under the tree, and I would get everything I wanted.
- [14:55]
Farnoosh Torabi
So.
- [14:55]
Meg Wheeler
And that happened because of grandparents and community and family that stepped in. But that taught me a really interesting message about money, which is that what we communicate about money isn't always true. And it really, I think, thankfully helped me sort of dive into how do we get more transparent about our actual money situation and how do we make sure that we have the awareness of our financial situation? So that we can communicate about this, because I said knowledge is the most important thing about building generational wealth, but the second is actually communication, and it's sharing with each other how we're making our money, what we're doing with our money, what are the challenges around money, what are the policies that are affecting our money, and really getting comfortable talking about that, which is, by the way, one of the biggest barriers for a lot of folks in our community, especially certain cultures, where talking about money is not only frowned upon, it is just flat out not okay. And that's something we really have to change.
- [16:05]
Farnoosh Torabi
Yeah, it's so true. And as you were saying about education, also my mind was thinking about access. You know, so it's access to information, but access to people. You know, they say that there's that expression, you are the. You know, you're the average of the five people you hang out with the most. Or, you know, that's as an adult, but even as a child, it's really important that we are cultivating a good learning environment for our kids, too. I'm thinking now for any parent or caregiver in the audience, you know, that sometimes it's not financial literacy and just competence, you know, as a. As an adult is not just about having the money or learning what investing is young, but just being around curious people who support you, who will teach you things, who will show to your point, will be transparent with you. You know, finding those people isn't always easy, but it's. It's just. It's part of the work, I think, that goes. That goes overlooked sometimes.
- [17:08]
Meg Wheeler
Yeah, I think it really is. And one of the things that I'm often saying on the political side of my life is that our voices are one of our most powerful tools. And I think it is especially true when it comes to money, because the messages, and I know we're going to talk about this a little bit when we get to the girl math thing, but the messages that we send out there, both about how we talk about money and how we don't talk about money, are not just affecting us or the person we're talking to or our inner circle of friends, but they're affecting the kids that are watching us. They're affecting the people. You know, I always say you may not have a huge audience, but if you are talking to anyone, you are an influencer and really thinking about what is that message you're actually putting out there?
- [17:51]
Farnoosh Torabi
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- [20:54]
Meg Wheeler
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- [21:34]
Farnoosh Torabi
Well, let's talk about girl math. It's having a big cultural moment. It's nothing new. I remember, you know, this trend started a while ago, but it's just not going away. Why do you think? First of all, it resonates because it is, you know, millions and millions. It's gone viral. But why is it problematic? But why is it problematic?
- [21:54]
Meg Wheeler
Yeah. So let me say a couple of things. First, the first is that I am truly delighted that we're talking about money more than we ever have at any point in time. And I think that is really phenomenal. So I want to be super clear about that. But the girl math thing is concerning. And for anyone who isn't familiar with this, this is really just, you know, you know, justifying purchases or decisions around your money that are not rooted in data or responsibility. But it's, you know, oh, I saved $20 at the grocery store, so I'm going to go buy myself a. Whatever. It does resonate because it's human. We all do this, no matter our gender makeup. And I think that's why the content has spread so wide. But it's particularly problematic because I don't know about you, but I don't think there's anything inherent in the science of being a female that makes us less responsible or less aware or Less capable when it comes to our money. And the message of girl math is literally that in fact I equate it to, you know, all those, you know, memes online of like the wife ordering all the Amazon packages and she's hiding them or the husband, you know, you want to keep your wife happy, buy her a purse or whatever. It's like, like, where is all of this coming from? I am a woman and nothing about that means I'm not capable when it comes to money. Nothing about that means I'm not responsible when it comes to my money. But girl math is sending the complete opposite message. And I do know some people say, well we're reclaiming it. You know, we're taking that sort of feminist, financial feminist approach and we're reclaiming it. But you brought up trad wife and some of the examples that I mentioned. I don't know that it's going so well. If that's really the goal here, I don't think it's working.
- [23:46]
Farnoosh Torabi
Girlfriend. Have you heard of that trend, stay at home girlfriend? Like as if it's the epitome of the soft life, luxury, you know. Yeah. I mean I remember in my 20s we would joke about it, but someone said it and it wasn't a joke to them that, okay, so we were, it was me, my colleague and she just come from the doctor's office and she goes, you'll never believe what the receptionist told me because you know, I told her I'd like run back to work. And I was, she was having a, she was pregnant, so she was going for a gynecological visit, blah blah, blah, blah, blah blah. And so the receptionist was like, why you work, Women should have babies. Oh my gosh, men work. And you know, I say this with an accent too because she was not from America. So maybe it was like a cultural barrier. But like, honestly a lot of American born and raised women feel that way too. And it's one thing to choose that, but it's one thing to be like, this is how it should be. And if you're not doing that, you're doing it wrong. And we can laugh at these things until we cry because that's where it usually goes. And I've done some coverage on that. For example, stay at home girlfriend. Well sometimes she becomes the girlfriend who's now the ex girlfriend living on her parents couch. Because actually when you're a stay at home girlfriend, you have no financial autonomy or identity. So when that relationship ends, it won't end well for a lot of reasons.
- [25:21]
Meg Wheeler
Yeah, I mean, you're right, we do sometimes laugh about it, but this is so horribly dangerous. This, this trend, and I hate to be sort of the Debbie Downer here, but having access to financial resources, and again, not just the actual money in our bank accounts, but the knowledge of what to do with it is power and its freedom and its flexibility. And if we don't have that either because it's been taken away from us through some of the really horrible systems in our economy that were designed for us to fail, or because we actively choose to take a backseat as a stay at home girlfriend or stay at home partner or whatever it might be, we are robbing ourselves of that power. And, you know, sure, maybe you luck out and you have a great partner and this never becomes an actual issue for you, but whether it's domestic violence, whether it's needing to leave the country because of the political climate, whether it's needing to move for a job or it's needing to take a step back because of health, any of these things are, like, can and are likely to come up in our lifetimes, right? These are not abnormal things. And if we're not equipping ourselves with these resources. And again, it's not just about the money. When we put these memes out there and we say, oh, girl math, girl math, girl math, we're sending that message to our own brains that we're not good enough to be responsible about our money, or that the choice we're making to go buy the purse or whatever it might be isn't because we have the power to make our own choices, but because, oh, it's just our girl brains. And, oh, that's smart.
- [27:09]
Farnoosh Torabi
Yeah. Like, assuming that money has a gender association, right? Like, we never say girl cooking or girl gosh, you know, DIY your house. Like it's. I mean, I don't know, I'm trying to. I'm. I'm failing at these examples because it's like money is so specific in that way that we've decided as a culture that if you are a woman, this is how you are with it, and if you're a man, this is how you are with it. Which, by the way, I know plenty of men who justify their purchases the same way that these girl mathers are doing. Whether it's like, you know, if I return something for $50 and I buy something else for 75, I only spent 25, or buying in bulk saves money even if I don't need it all. And look, we all do these things, but why genderize it. You know, we all say these, these things. I say I'm guilty of a lot of this stuff, paying in cash, you know, it doesn't count because it's not going to show up on my credit card. I mean, sure, like, I'll kid myself. It's like I actually just did that last night. Other people's french fries do not have any calories when I eat them. Like that is so whatever I need to do to just sort of make myself feel okay in that moment. And, and look, it's funny, but don't call it girl math. Just call it the stupid things we say to ourselves to justify our financial purchases that are not serving us. Whatever, you know, like that, that doesn't actually, that's not clickable. That doesn't go viral. So I get this too. This is playing to the algorithm. Yeah, it is.
- [28:46]
Meg Wheeler
But I also think too, it's, there's this, this fear almost as, as women of standing up and saying, I am powerful and, and I am in charge of my money, you know, and even making that statement of, or, I want to be rich.
- [29:04]
Farnoosh Torabi
I want to be rich.
- [29:05]
Meg Wheeler
Yeah, I want to be rich. Try that. Exactly. Or I wanted to go buy the purse, so I bought the purse. Like it, It's. I made the financial decision to do it because I'm empowered and in control of my money and I know what works for me. Right, Right. But we don't do that. We say, oh, girl math. What are we afraid of?
- [29:26]
Farnoosh Torabi
Honestly? Like, I mean, we all do it, but why genderize it?
- [29:32]
Meg Wheeler
Yeah.
- [29:34]
Farnoosh Torabi
What are some of the tools or strategies you want every woman to know? Like if there's, you know, I, I'm writing like let's say a Glamour magazine article right now. Like, what's the headline? Here are the three things you need to know. Ladies, men, women, and women and men. Sure, why not? Why not make it for everybody? But since were two women talking, what are some things we want our peers to know about money that in addition to what you just said about it, can be to want money and to have power on money. It's an important thing. You shouldn't feel ashamed, you shouldn't feel guilty about it. But what else can we do to kind of get over this hump as it may be around our self confidence around money?
- [30:18]
Meg Wheeler
Yeah. So I'm going to channel my nana here who always used to tell me, growing up, marry rich but have your own bank account. And I think that is the first thing which is having your own money in whatever form that looks like and having access to it and having control over it forces you to get comfortable with this stuff. It forces you to learn what to do. And I think that's a really important again, even if you're not, even if you have a partner, let's say, who maybe takes on the bulk of that money management stuff, I think it's really critical that you understand how to do this stuff. You understand how money works and that you basically have that flexibility and that out if you need it. So I think that's absolutely number one. I think the second piece, and you said it earlier, which is really curiosity. It's curiosity, it's knowledge. It's. It's not kind of hiding your head in the sand and saying someone else is going to worry about this or it's too hard or I don't like it. It's recognizing that having control over your money is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself because it allows you to really show up and engage in the world and leave an impact in the way that you want. And in fact, when we talk about generational wealth building inside of our community, we're not just talking about the dollars, we're talking about wealth when it comes to your health, when it comes to your environment, when it comes to your time, your impact. And so really empowering yourself with this knowledge is one of the best ways. In fact, I used to have a friend years ago said something really powerful to me. It's simple, but it always stuck with me, which is, how do you want to show up in the world every single day? And when we talk about money inside of our community, that's always the question we're asking for folks, is what do you want your life to look like? And money is just one of the vehicles to help build that. So the more knowledge and awareness you have around it, the more you're going to be able to build the life that you want.
- [32:24]
Farnoosh Torabi
Yeah, and intentionality. You know, earlier you were saying how our education is a big asset in wealth building. Money is not the only tool or the only asset. And I thought you were going to say that a lot of people think real estate is the huge way to kind of accelerate your wealth. And what do you think about that? Because lately it's so hard to buy a home. And we of course know so many people and there are so many examples, hello, you know, housing crash of 2009, where that model didn't prove fruitful. You know, buying a home was not a wealthy wealth builder. It was a fast track to foreclosure yeah.
- [33:07]
Meg Wheeler
And not to get all doom and gloom, but we have fires and floods and the climate crisis raging, which is, I mean, I live up in Massachusetts, right by the water. And our homeowners insurance has, you know, quadrupled. And so it's not even necessarily about the housing market. You could literally lose the house and the insurance assets may not be there. You know, we have significant deficits when it comes to insurance funding for climate disaster. So yeah, I think it's again, it's one potential tool, you know, and look, I live in, you know, right outside of Boston, so I'm hanging on to my equity in my home. Like, you know, it's making my net worth look really good. But, but the age old advice of you have to diversify is so critical here because if all of your wealth is in this one asset, you are literally putting all your eggs into this one basket. And there is so much that can happen. So when we talk about wealth building, we're talking about physical assets like buildings like your home, like maybe investment properties, we talk about retirement, we talk about investing in the stock market, investing in non traditional assets, that's investing in businesses and looking at and creating a portfolio that will sustain you even if one thing gets hit or even a couple get hit because they're all meant to work together.
- [34:39]
Farnoosh Torabi
Yeah, I mean, you brought up climate change. That's like a whole other episode. And I am worried it does raise so many existential questions around the future of homeownership because, yeah, we're seeing more and more of these insurance companies either raise their premiums to a point where it's not affordable or they just get rid of your, your plan, your policy. They're like, we're no longer insuring this region, so why not? You can't own a house without insurance. You'd be a crazy person. So whose job is it at that point to step in and fortify the home? There are a lot of interests at play. Right. Like the insurance company. While they're maybe saving money in the short term by denying these policies, in the long term, that that's like they're shrinking their business sort of. You know, we want people to buy homes because, well, that's important for our economy. And when people want homes because that's for them, it's like, you know, lots of reasons beyond wealth building, like people want that sort of security of having that consistent monthly payment towards a home. They can build a life in that same neighborhood. Blah, Bl blah. So like, where's the shoe gonna drop? On which whose front door is it going to be?
- [36:00]
Meg Wheeler
The government?
- [36:00]
Farnoosh Torabi
Is it going to be homeowners? Is it going to be right? Because the climate's changing. It's not waiting for us. And every year this topic gets feels more and more urgent and there are just more and more examples of people and places that are being compromised because of it and our financial lives as a result that are being compromised because of it. So I don't know. Quick thoughts, quick thoughts on that.
- [36:26]
Meg Wheeler
Yeah, I can solve the climate in 30 seconds. Look, I mean, the climate isn't just changing, it's raging and the shoe is going to drop. That's not a question. We know that. The science is there. It is just a question of exactly when and how long can we push it off? And so everyone's going to lose. Insurance companies, the government, people. People that are going to be hurt the most are the folks with the least. And this is such a critical issue that it's affecting us today. It's going to affect us down the road and we're not talking enough about it. And the sad reality is we currently have a government that doesn't care too much about this issue at best. And so that is a very scary thing. And I think this goes back to that flexibility. The more you can build up your assets in different ways, you know, if all of your equity or all of your wealth is in your home, and I'll give you an example. One of my favorite places in the entire world is this little island off the coast of Massachusetts. And there are homes on the coast that have literally fallen into the water. They don't exist anymore. So when that happens, not if, but when that happens to us, if all of our wealth is in our home, we can't go anywhere because everything is in that one pot. So it's so critical that we have lots of different pots so that we give ourselves the optionality to be able to make a change.
- [37:56]
Farnoosh Torabi
Wow. Yeah. Oh, boy. More to come. Meg Wheeler, thank you so much. Let's end on a positive note, though. What is one thing you're looking forward to spending your money on this summer? Just, just, you know, let's, let's lean into this, this spending math. I won't call it the girl math, but the spending math, one thing that you're justifying, because you know what, it feels good. It's the summer. Life is short.
- [38:24]
Meg Wheeler
Well, I have a sailboat. And if anyone has ever owned a boat, that's cool, you know that a sailboat is definitely not an asset. And that is what I will be spending. In fact, I race on one of the only or the only all women's crew in Boston. And so I will be spending all of my money. If you've ever seen the movie Money Pit, for anyone who's as old as I am, that's basically my sailboat. So that's where my money's going. But it brings me joy and the ability to do that is really tremendous.
- [38:55]
Farnoosh Torabi
That is really cool. I would be bragging about that. That's really awesome. My brother and his wife just moved to Boston, the Boston area, and they're loving it. So we will be visiting them more often. And I grew up in Massachusetts, so I love that you're living it out up there.
- [39:19]
Meg Wheeler
I'm doing the New England thing.
- [39:21]
Farnoosh Torabi
I love it. Meg Wheeler, thank you so much. Tell us where we can find more of your work.
- [39:25]
Meg Wheeler
Yeah, so you can find us@equitablemoneyproject.com we're over on Instagram at the same and we've also got a YouTube channel with lots of actionable tips and videos. And of course our substack callyourepresentatives.com goes out every week. Week.
- [39:39]
Farnoosh Torabi
Call your representatives. Thanks again for doing that newsletter. That's so, so important, that substack, I should say. How do you like substack, by the way? Everyone's like jumping on the substack train.
- [39:49]
Meg Wheeler
I'm learning.
- [39:51]
Farnoosh Torabi
Yeah. It's a good place to be. It's a good place. Good, good hang.
- [39:54]
Meg Wheeler
Yeah.
- [39:55]
Farnoosh Torabi
Have a great day.
- [39:57]
Meg Wheeler
Thanks. You too.
- [40:00]
Farnoosh Torabi
Thanks so much to Meg Wheeler for joining us. More links to follow Meg in our show notes, including her website and her substack. Call your representatives. I'll see you back here on Wednesday. And I hope your day is so money.
- [40:27]
Montclair Pod Announcer
This episode of the Montclair Pod is brought to you by Montclair Film, our town's hub for film storytelling and community connection. From thought provoking indie screenings and Q&As with acclaimed filmmakers to improv nights, live performances and classes in filmmaking, screenwriting, and much more, Montclair Film offers something for everyone who loves the power of a story. It's also home to one of the country's premier film festivals each fall, drawing audiences and talent from from around the world. Right here to Montclair. Want to see what's playing or sign up for a class? Visit montclairfilm.org for the full calendar of events and ways to get involved. Now on with the show.
- [41:09]
Farnoosh Torabi
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