Power Up Wealth podcast – Happy New Year 2024 – Episode 63 transcript:
James Derrick 0:00
I’m James Derrick. Today I will be interviewing Sharla Jessop. She and I will take a step back from all the financial minutia to discuss setting and celebrating our personal goals and achievements. By the end of the podcast, I hope to have Sharla in the hot seat sharing some personal goals with all of us.
Sharla Jessop 0:28
Welcome to the SFS Power Up Wealth podcast where we provide impactful insight and expert opinions on timeless financial principles and timely investment topics, preparing you to make smarter decisions with your money.
James Derrick 0:51
Thank you for joining me today, Sharla.
Sharla Jessop 0:53
Thanks for having me, James.
James Derrick 0:55
Sharla Jessop is the President of Smedley Financial Services. She is a Certified Financial Planner with a wealth of experience. Sharla, you recently wrote an article you titled Happy New Year, and you talked about setting and celebrating personal goals. And I noticed you didn’t use the term New Year’s resolutions. I understand some people might find that overwhelming. I’m wondering, did you do that on purpose? And you know, what advice could you give to us about setting goals and making them more freeing and less daunting?
Sharla Jessop 1:23
Exactly! You know, to me when I think of New Year’s resolutions, and it’s probably the same with most people, all of your flaws, okay, well, I do this wrong, and I do I gotta do that better. I got to lose weight. I have to eat better. I need to exercise more. I got to save more money. I mean, it just seems overwhelming in a way to me. I think the reality is most people who make New Year’s resolutions would agree that by March, they’re not following them so well. You know, they start out hot, and then it fizzles. And so doing a goal that is meaningful to you and that you can stick to and is something that you really want to accomplish, and not doing a list of items just you know, keep it to a few things. And you can always make it you don’t just have to make goals in the first of year, you can really make them all year long. So if you finish something or feel like you’ve accomplished it, you can start something out.
James Derrick 2:11
Absolutely. You know, it reminds me when you see a magazine is like 101 ideas to improve your finances. And you’re just like, takes a long time to even read the list, let alone accomplish 101 things. But if I had one thing that I really wanted to focus on, I think I could do it.
Sharla Jessop 2:27
I agree with that. And I think also if you break it up, so it’s manageable. I’ll just compare it to dieting, because a lot of people have dealt with eating better or dieting. You know, I know I have. If you start a diet one day, and it’s a crash diet, and you’ve cut off all the things you’re used to and all the things you find joy in eating, it’s depressing, and you find yourself hungry, and you’re wanting things all the time. But if you just change a few things in your eating habits, and start off one week, replacing a meal or something simple, maybe cut down on the soda pop, that would be mine cut, let’s cut out some of the setup as slowly transition, you’re more likely to change a habit and achieve your goal versus just setting a resolution and trying to make it I’m going to lose this much by this time. Make it a lifetime.
James Derrick 3:12
Yeah, I like that. I want to dive a little bit deeper into one word you said which was replace. In the book habits, they talk about this like you, you don’t just move away from something from a habit you want to break, but you have to move to something. Could you talk a little bit about replacement and whether it’s dieting, or whether it’s finances, or personal relationships or something else what.
Sharla Jessop 3:34
Let’s talk, let’s put it in the context of finance, because, you know, if people have are trying to change spending habits, for instance, let’s say, I think most people struggle with this at one time or another trying to control the limited funds that they have and they’re spending. But if you have a goal of reducing your spending, or not even reducing so much as focusing on how you want to spend your money. Where do you want it to go? What are the things that are most important to me that I need to make sure I do first? Those are the things that oh, you always fill that bucket up, you know whether it’s money going to my 401k right from a paycheck or adding to an IRA on a monthly basis or you know, insurance for my home, my car, building an emergency fund so that if something happens, those are things that are automatically filled, and then determining how you’re going to spend the other money that’s more discretionary. You know, the money that’s a little extra. It only spends once. So really being thoughtful about how you spend your money. You’ll feel better about it after you’ve spent it and you won’t have regrets. Let’s say that I’m replacing something, maybe I’m not going to go splurge shopping, maybe I’m not going to go to the mall to look around because looking around typically causes us to want to buy. I had a client one time he said something and it stuck with me forever. And he had said the heart doesn’t want what the eyes don’t see. So if you don’t go shopping or looking for things, you’re probably not going to have a desire to buy it.
James Derrick 4:59
That’s a lot harder to do nowadays with the internet.
Sharla Jessop 5:01
Yeah, that’s another one we’ll talk about later, maybe turning off your phone and your feed. But you know, replacing that by saying, Okay, I’m in charge of my spending, and I have this much money. And this is what I really want to get right now, this is important to me, you know, I have this event coming up, maybe I want a new outfit for that event. Or maybe I’m having a family party, and I’m going to need to spend some extra on groceries. Or maybe we’re planning for a vacation. So we save a little extra. But knowing what you’re spending for, and replacing your splurge spending with a plan, what you’re spending.
James Derrick 5:34
It’s about being intentional about how the money is going to be spent. It also reminds me a little bit of the phrase pay yourself first, because rather than if you want to cut back your spending, well, why do you want to cut back your spending is it to save a little bit more, to hold on to a little bit more? Well, if that’s the case, pay yourself first, have it go directly to your 401k or directly into a separate bank account, and all the rest of the money may get spent. But if you pay yourself first, then you can make sure that gets done.
Sharla Jessop 6:02
Right, make sure you’re not at the last of the list. So what you’re saying where there’s no money left.
James Derrick 6:06
And I think there’s something to say about having a positive attitude versus a negative one too. If you’re focused on your new goal that is way more exciting than focusing on avoiding your old mistake.
Sharla Jessop 6:18
So true. And you know, as human beings, we’re very visual, not all of us. But most of us are visual. So we’d like to see something. And sometimes spending, we have something in our hand right then, you know. We go shopping, we see something, we buy it, well, now we own it, and we have it and it’s tangible. And sometimes saving isn’t so tangible. You know, putting money in an account and not spending is not really a tangible thing. So you have to create a tangible, make it a tangible, put a picture on the fridge, that you see, you know, I’m going to remodel my house, this is what it’s gonna look like. I’m gonna buy this vehicle, I’m saving for it. I’m gonna retire someday. This is where the trip I’m gonna take. I mean, just make it visual. So you can remember it.
James Derrick 7:00
I like that that’s a really great idea. And it’s a good way to help you recognize the success as you get closer to it. So let’s transition to some personal Sharla thoughts and questions here. What personal goals does Sharla Jessop have for 2024? If you don’t mind?
Sharla Jessop 7:16
Sure! Yeah, this will prove that I am not perfect. Even though I’ve been doing in this industry for over 30 years, I’m still not perfect at what we do. Spending, being more cognitive of my spending is important to me. Making sure just understanding where my money goes, you know, everybody’s talked about their budgets and inflation and what’s happened and how we, you know, groceries are more. And having an understanding of where my nondiscretionary money goes and where my discretionary money goes, because I’ll give you an instance. Subscriptions! I think I did an article on managing your subscriptions and going bankruptcy by subscriptions. And I am horrible at having subscriptions, because I want to have them so that my grandkids can watch movies on Disney when they come over or have it for this reason, I want to watch that movie. So I have a lot of subscriptions. And I need to narrow those down. And those are just the types of things that I’m gonna look at and say, Okay, I can only watch one TV show at a time.
James Derrick 8:16
Maybe you could find a subscription service to help you keep track of your subscriptions.
Sharla Jessop 8:20
I think there’s an app for that.
James Derrick 8:21
Yeah, I think so. And, you know, all this reminds me a little bit too, of when I was first married, we would get our credit card bill. And I’d be like, there is no way we spent that much money. You know, there must be a fraudulent transaction in here and you start going through, or maybe you’re thinking like your spouse may have bought some high ticket item that you didn’t know about. So you start going through and you’re like, wow, like, this really adds up. There’s nothing in here fishy. It just adds up. And I find myself still doing that today, after all these years, he’s still look at this bill, and you’re like, wow, this really adds up. Like, you really have to make it a priority, kind of like dieting, where it’s just, you know, a constant effort. How about this Sharla, one financial goal you would suggest to others?
Sharla Jessop 9:06
You know I think a financial goal that everybody benefits from in their own budget or financial situation is just save a little more. So it doesn’t have to be huge amounts a number, you know, maybe it’s 1% more, maybe it’s a certain dollar amount more, but save just a little bit more, because we can say we’re going to spend less, but like you’d mentioned earlier, if we make the goal to save more, and make it first whether it’s our 401k. You know, retirement, I don’t care how old you are is going to creep up fast. And you have limited time to save and resources and the more you save early on, or as soon as you can, you’re going to be in a better financial position when retirement comes.
James Derrick 9:44
Yeah, I like that. One of the things we’ve been talking a lot about in my family in the last week is not letting others define our financial values and our spending. And we find this a lot with friends that have good intentions who are like, well, you’re not doing this or you’re not doing that? Why not? And like, well, the money’s already spent. At least that’s what we’re thinking maybe we should just tell them, the money’s already spent, we’ve got other priorities, you know, because there’s a little bit of peer pressure going on. And we certainly don’t want to spread that to others. And we don’t want them spreading it to us. And so that’s one of my, my goals. And my suggestions to everybody is, you determine your own values and your own spending.
Sharla Jessop 10:29
I think that’s great. I think it’s so easy to be caught up in that. And like you said, people don’t do it intentionally. They’re defining something that gives them joy. And they want you to feel that same joy, but they don’t know your financial situation. Nobody else knows your financial situation, but you and your immediate family. And so, you know, do what’s right for you.
James Derrick 10:47
Be confident about it. Okay, final question, a non-financial recommendation to everyone for 2024.
Sharla Jessop 10:54
You know, for me, it’s being more present in the moment, and building and nurturing relationships. For instance, I’ll use my family as an example. I want to be able to do more with them, spend more time paying attention to them, you know, be in the moment with them, not on a device or not thinking about what needs to be done, and doing things together, finding ways to support them in all the things that they do. My grandkids are getting a little bit older. And you know, they’re involved in a lot of different things. And it’s such a joy to be able to go and see them and support them and it brings them happiness to know that somebody else is supporting them.
James Derrick 11:31
Yeah I second that. What better way to find more happiness in 2024 than to set down your cell phone and look people in the eyes and spend some time with them? Thank you, Sharla for joining me today.
Sharla Jessop 11:42
Thank you, James.
Shane Thomas 11:43
Thank you for joining the Power Up Wealth podcast. Smedley Financial is located at 102 S 200 E Ste 100 in Salt Lake City, UT 84111. Call us today at 800-748-4788. You can also find us on the web at Smedleyfinancial.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The views expressed are Smedley Financials and should not be construed directly or indirectly as an offer to buy or sell any securities or services mentioned herein. Investing is subject to risks, including loss of principal invested. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. No strategy can assure a profit nor protect against loss. Please note that individual situations can vary. Therefore, the information should only be relied upon when coordinated with individual professional advice. Securities offered through Securities America. Inc., Member FlNRA/SIPC. Roger M. Smedley, Sharla J. Jessop, James R. Derrick, Shane P. Thomas, Mikal B. Aune, Jordan R. Hadfield, Registered Representatives. Investment Advisor Representatives of Smedley Financial Services, Inc.®. Advisory services offered through Smedley Financial Services, Inc.® Smedley Financial Services, Inc.®, and Securities America, Inc. are separate entities.
