Investing In Your Future: Financial Planning for NPs
Listen
Watch
Show notes:
In this week's episode, I'm thrilled to share my conversation with Lauryn Williams, an extraordinary individual who has not only achieved greatness on the athletic track but also in the realm of financial planning. Lauryn's story is a powerful example of how discipline, dedication, and a willingness to learn can lead to success in multiple arenas of life. Her transition from an Olympic athlete to a certified financial planner is not just inspiring; it's a lesson in reinventing oneself and finding purpose beyond one's initial calling.
Lauryn opens up about her journey, revealing the pivotal moments that led her from winning medals to advising clients on financial health. We explore the mindset shifts required to excel in two vastly different fields and the common threads of discipline and perseverance that link them. Lauryn's candidness about the challenges and triumphs along her path offers invaluable lessons on adapting to life's changes and seizing new opportunities with courage and enthusiasm.
One of the most enlightening parts of our discussion revolves around Lauryn's passion for financial literacy. She shares her vision of a world where financial knowledge is accessible to everyone, empowering individuals to make informed decisions about their money. Through her work, Lauryn is breaking down the complex world of finance into understandable and actionable advice, showing that it's possible to achieve financial wellness with the right guidance and mindset.
Lauryn provides listeners with practical strategies for managing their finances, from budgeting and saving to investing and planning for the future. Her advice is for anyone looking to improve their financial situation and build a more secure future.
Lauryn also discusses how her experiences have fueled her desire to give back and make a difference in the lives of others. Whether it's through her financial planning practice or her involvement in community initiatives, Lauryn is committed to contributing to a better, more financially savvy world.
Don't miss this incredible episode filled with lessons sure to support you on your financial journey.
In today’s episode, we talk about:
Lauryn's seamless transition from an Olympic athlete to a certified financial planner, and the motivations behind her career change.
How Lauryn is making financial planning accessible and empowering for everyone, regardless of their background.
Practical financial advice from Lauryn, including strategies for debt management, savings, and investment.
Understanding the value and impact a certified financial planner can have on your financial health and long-term goals.
Lauryn's personal and professional growth, and how she uses her platform to advocate for financial literacy and freedom.
-
Lauryn Williams 00:00
My quick spiel on student loans is like your strategy needs to be either you get very aggressive
and you get them off your plate, or you get on a very passive route and you go for forgiveness.
So a lot of people immediately ears are going up, like forgiveness for forgiveness. I've been
fielding these questions for the last couple of weeks, because there's been so many things that
have happened related to COVID. A lot of people viewed the word forgiveness as like,
immediately somebody waves a wand and your loans disappear.
Liz Rohr 00:29
Well, hey there, it's Liz Rohr from real world, np and you are watching the real world NP
YouTube channel, we make weekly episodes to help save you time frustration, and helping you
take the best care of your patients. One of the things I'm really passionate about with real
world NP is this transition to practice that takes place. So when we leave grad school, it takes
about three years for us to feel really competent and confident. And I want to do my absolute
best with this company to make sure we do what we can to support new nurse practitioners on
that journey. Because what unfortunately, I see happen and nearly happened to me is that I got
burnt out shortly after I reached that point of like, oh, I actually know what I'm doing. And I
almost left being a nurse practitioner, I almost left the profession. And I see that unfortunately, more often than honestly, it should. for everyone's benefit, right? It's just really heartbreaking.
And one of the pieces, it's not just about clinical knowledge, which I think is a really common
misconception for new nurse practitioners. And that's the primary focus, right? Because we're
seeing patients in front of us, we need to know what we're doing right, we need to be clinically
competent. But one of the sneaky parts that leads to that stress, overwhelm, and burnout is
this, these other aspects of this role transition and other parts of our lives. So this guests that
I'm bringing on the podcast today, I'm speaking specifically about financial planning financial
aspects of the world transition to becoming a nurse practitioner questions that people bring to
me things like, how do I deal with student loan debt? How do what should I do with my 401k?
There's like a matching thing? Should I do that? Like, what are some of the pieces that you
L
L
have for guidance on that, so I'm not a financial advisor. And so who I'm bringing on as Lauren
Williams, and we're going to be talking about in this interview, a number of those questions,
and just some foundational information that I think will be really helpful for you, especially if
this is your first job. If you went straight through undergrad to grad school, or if this is your first
time working in this kind of setting with those types of benefits, or the first time having student
loan debt, I think you'll really appreciate it. I feel like it's information that I have kind of learned
the hard way a little bit through experience over time. So I'm really really thrilled to bring
Lauren on because she's so passionate. Having gone through some trials herself financial
tribulations, which you'll hear about in a second, she's really passionate about making sure that
professionals have the tools that they need to set themselves set themselves up for success
financially, which honestly is a huge contributor. What I hear and anecdotally, at least is a huge
stressor for people when it comes to that added piece of the role transition and a new job and a
new a new workplace and a new type of work that you're doing. So I'm going to read you
Lauren's bio before I get into our interview just so you get to know her a little more. She'll share
also from her perspective on some informal shares. But here's the bio here. So Lauren Williams
is a certified financial planner CFP. She's a four time Olympian, three time Olympic medalist
and the first American woman to earn a medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. While pursuing professional sports, Lauren interacted with not one but two financial advisors
that didn't provide the services that she needed. She asked friends what they were doing about
their finances, and the answers were vague and unsettling. constantly looking for ways to make
a difference in the lives of others. She decided to put her finance and finance degree in MBA to
use to fill the gap for young professionals. eager to learn everything, she then pursued a
Certified Financial Planning certification. Her company worth winning offers virtual services to
help young professionals get the answers to the financial questions that matter most to them. Whether that is creating a budget, figuring out how to figure out a plan to pay off student loans,
setting goals for savings or understanding your 401k worth winning is ready to help with all
things personal finance. And one thing that's really important to me is accessibility. And so I
really just wanted to share the information that we as much as we could share, for you to be
able to do what you can with the tools that you have, as well as share some resources of where
you can learn more, where you can get more support, things like that. So I loved this interview.
I hope you enjoy it too. Awesome. Thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited. So there's
an intro before this, talk about your bio but maybe just off off the off the cuff? Do you want to
say a little bit about yourself? To share yourself with the people who are listening?
Lauryn Williams 05:07
Yeah, so a little bit more about me above and beyond the very professional, you know, put
together, you know, quick bio hits, is, I got into the financial industry, because at age 20, I
became a professional athlete, I didn't have goals or aspirations, my whole life of becoming one
kind of fell into my lap. I was a junior in college, I ran the second fastest time in the world,
immediately turned my focus from, you know, being a college kid and having a good time and
enjoying being on scholarship to, Hey, you're the fastest person in America, we're counting on
you for the 2004 Olympic Games, can you can you show up and make it happen? So a lot
happened really, really quick for me. And I ended up with like a $200,000 salary as a 20 year
old, which is a pretty big deal. Especially this is back in like I said, 2004, I am old. It is a thing.
It's I'm okay with it. And I come from a family that didn't have a lot of financial literacy. So I
knew enough to know as a junior in college as a finance major that I didn't know anything, and
that I needed to enlist the help of someone else. What I also didn't know at that time was that
there are different types of financial professionals out there. I happen to be a certified financial
planner, that is fee only and fiduciary. And we could talk a little bit more about, like, what all
L
those different parts are. And I ended up in the hands of a commission based person was
basically very sales oriented and didn't have a lot of knowledge or expertise above and beyond
that. So it was a pretty tough situation because I was financially illiterate and looking for
literacy. And I didn't really get that with the first financial advisor that I had, I did fire him hire
another guy thought that that was gonna go better because this guy worked specifically with
professional athletes, and it didn't go better. In fact, the company that he worked for ended up
shutting down, because they invested a bunch of NFL players money in a casino, the casino
never opened, and they all lost 100% of their money. Oh, myself. I was lucky. I didn't earn
millions of dollars. So I didn't get to invest. But I was not well cared for at that place. Yeah, so
how I got here is basically I got angry and fed up and was like, what do people do when they
want to organize their finances, they're willing to pay for help, but they can't seem to find it
anywhere. And a Google search led me down the coursework, for certified financial planning. It
felt it felt like it resonated better than all the other things that I had researched along the way.
And I just, like blindly dive into it like, okay, let's figure out if this is the thing for me. And I
wasn't thinking as a profession, it was just like, let me figure out if this can help me figure out
my finances because I feel lost. And I don't want to mess this up, I realized I have a good
earning opportunity as much better than the average 20 something year old. So I did that. Did
some internships and basically started my own firm. Because I wanted to be able to help you
unprofessional, similar situations, as many people who are willing to pay for advice. But you
know, don't come from a background where financial planning is, you know, their their mom
and their dad and have a financial advisor if you will figure out their financial stuff. And it's not
just investing. It's all the puzzle pieces of the puzzle related to your finance. So my company is
called worth winning. It's six years old, and we help young professionals organize their
finances. Hopefully, I told the whole life story quickly enough. Oh, I
Liz Rohr 08:27
love that so much. It's just so Oh, it's just so beautiful. And I'm so sorry. You had such a horrible
experience early on. It's it's really tragic when we have these horrible experiences, but how
beautiful that you've able been able to turn that into like this mission driven forward. Were you
studying finances and and in your, in your college experience already? Like, what was your? Or
did you totally switch paths? I'm sorry, I missed that part. Yeah, so
Lauryn Williams 08:51
I was a finance major in college. But back then in my day, there was no financial planning
major, and that's different. So financial planning is the is the thing that helps you organize your
finances, that is a whole major in and of itself now, whereas finances are very broad. You can
go into corporate finance, you can go into, you know, banking, all sorts of different things, like
all encompassing finance didn't really cover specifically what to do with someone's personal
finance, which there's six pillars, which, you know, I'm sure we might have time to talk about
those today. Estate planning, taxes, insurance, budgeting, cash flow, retirement investments, I
don't know if I Yeah. Plus or minus, those are the pillars of planning specifically.
Liz Rohr 09:34
Yeah. So well, we'll definitely come back to those because I think that's really like the the main
and before we started recording, I was sharing that like I think the main thing that I just I feel
L
L
L
and before we started recording, I was sharing that like I think the main thing that I just I feel
the the things that I've heard kind of run the gamut and whether it's new nurse practitioners
who went straight from undergraduate into their graduate degree, this is their first clinical real
job and their words where they get to have things like benefits and retirement and stuff like
that. And they're like, Yeah, I've had people directly asked me In my personal life, outside of
the company, like, hey, Should I, should I sign up for this 401k? Should I be contributing? How
much should I be contributing? What should I do about X, Y, and Z, all the way to people who
are maybe in their 50s. And this is their second or third career, and they might have like a
house or children or things like that. So what I would love to have in our conversation is just
like, really anchored in that place of like you, you are such a, you're such like a pillar for people
in these positions, because they are relatively high earning w two salaried employees who are
trying to figure out what to do with their money. So yeah, so I love hearing your story that like
you came from this place of like, I've tried, and it didn't work out. And now it's like, Okay,
here's, here's how it goes. But yeah, I guess. So. What is maybe maybe before we get into
more specific questions, like What is something that you what's like, what's the thing that you
love the most about what you do?
Lauryn Williams 10:55
Oh, this is a hard one, because pieces of the puzzle. Yeah. I would say it's the idea that people
feel empowered after it's all said and done. So part of what I do is like 60 minutes, student loan
consultations, and at the end of 60 minutes, people's lives have literally been changed. And I
didn't know that that was even a possibility. When I started doing this work, you know, financial
planning in of itself is very complex. Like I said, there's all these different topics and pillars and
things like that. But you know, this is a very finite one piece of the puzzle that I'm helping
people tackle. And, you know, it bleeds over into other parts of your finances. So I'm able to
share part of my other pieces of expertise as we're walking through your Student Loan
Scenario. But to literally, you know, never know a person, maybe only talk to them this one
time for 60 minutes. And to know that I've saved them 10s of 1000s of dollars. And sometimes
they literally tell me, like you've changed my life like this had me slip up at night, you know,
there was just so many things that I didn't know that, like the information that I have is
valuable enough that it can literally change lives, and I don't have to wait 30 years to do it. Or
you don't have to show up 27 times or whatever the case may be, like, I did an Instagram Live
last night. And it's like, I know that it's going to help somebody just when 45 minutes of me chit
chatting with the information like how powerful the information is what I love most about my
job.
Liz Rohr 12:15
I love that. And I love you sharing that, because I think that my finances and money can be so
overwhelming for so many people. So the fact that it doesn't have to be overwhelming, and it
can be so super impactful. And it doesn't take that much time. I mean, maybe that's an
oversimplification. But there's so much that we can do in a short period of time. I guess my first
question to start with what is tell, maybe speak a little bit to like, what is a financial certified
financial planner? And why would somebody wants to hire somebody, there's so many
questions I could go into from there, but maybe so let's start with that.
Lauryn Williams 12:47
L
L
L
Lauryn Williams 12:47
Absolutely. So Certified Financial Planner is kind of the bar we set in the financial industry, for,
you know, top notch like, you wouldn't go to someone like we can you and I can both read
books on medicine. And I can probably figure out how to pack somebody up some YouTube
videos now, but you probably want to go to a doctor, you want to go to the emergency room,
you want somebody who specializes in emergency medicine, if you if you've if you've been
shot, right? The CFP is the same version of that. So there are all kinds of different financial
professionals. And it's a highly unregulated industry. So you can wake up and call yourself a
financial planner, you can call yourself a wealth manager, wealth advisor, and the list goes on
financial advisor, none of those terms are regulated, the one term that is regulated is certified
financial planner, we have to have passed an exam, we have to have a certain amount of
experience. So just like a doctor goes to residency, you have to like do a certain amount before
you can actually call yourself a practicing MD, we say exam experience, we have to have a
certain amount of education. And then the last thing is that we follow a code of ethics as well.
And all of those things, you have a certain amount of continuing education that you do ethics
on a regular basis in addition to other things. So it really really does raise the bar for making
sure that the person is ingrained in finances and personal finances on a regular basis. If they
want to hold that certification, you can not just wake up and call yourself a Certified Financial
Planner, I can go look that up and see if you're telling the truth or not. And then I can call you
out on it and they can actually, you know, come after you. So you know all those other terms
that I mentioned are terms that, like I said, are willy nilly, and you have to be very careful.
Liz Rohr 14:28
Absolutely. And I love I love you sharing that because it's it can be really intimidating when it
comes to money if you're just not aware of it. One of the terms you used before is fiduciary.
Can you say what a fiduciary is? Especially in the context of of somebody if they're like, I know
that I need help with my finances? I would like to enlist some support. Where do I go from
there?
Lauryn Williams 14:49
Yes, absolutely. So fiduciary means that you are legally obligated to do what is in the other
person's best interest which it is mind blowing to me that we have
Liz Rohr 14:58
to be regulated. Do
Lauryn Williams 15:01
we actually have people who are not fiduciary in the financial industry? So it's a really big deal.
And like I said, for me, it's all three fiduciary, CFP and fi only which I'm sure that'll be your next
follow up. Yeah. Yeah, go for it. But douchey areas like, hey, you know, I heard everything you
said, and this is what I think is best based on the information that you provide it. Whereas a
non fiduciary might say, This is what's suitable for you. And you'll frequently find the non
fiduciary with someone who is commissioned based. So as an example, they'll say, here's $2
L
L
L
L
million dollars of life insurance, I'd like you to get live because you know, you've got a spouse,
you got kids, you got whatever going on in your life, like, you can get this $2 million in
insurance, and you can pay $20,000 a year for it's suitable. Like, if you die, your family will get
$2 million. But is it really in your best interest, if you just told me that credit card debt and you
know, you're struggling to pay your mortgage, etc, etc. A fiduciary is gonna say, hey, in light of
the information that I've learned about you go get this $2 million of insurance, or you don't
even need 2,000,008 $1.5 million of insurance. And also, you can go get it for $75. Over here, if
you get it with me, you know, I'm gonna get a cut of it, but I want to do what's in your best
interest. So here's the place where you can get it actually a little bit cheaper, but you definitely
need this insurance. So you can kind of see the difference. And like, you still get to the finish
line, and you get what you quote unquote, need. And it can still be helpful if you kick the
bucket, but somebody charged you a lot more and didn't do it, because because it was in your
best interest, but because of what they were going to earn from it. And the other person did
what was in your best interest?
Liz Rohr 16:36
Definitely. So somebody for example, like, could come like if you were thinking about working
with somebody, and it was like a your local bank, or maybe a chain bank, and they had some
sort of financial planner that was there that wasn't a CFP, specifically was not a fiduciary, they
could be like, Oh, okay, you should, you should definitely invest this thing. And then not
necessarily just I don't know what the disclosure rules are, but they could be making money off
of their recommendations as their priority. First versus if you're CFP fiduciary, that's like very
clear, easy language to just hold on to if you're new to the financial advisor kind of industry.
Lauryn Williams 17:11
So absolutely. And I mean, you bring up a great point, too, about disclosures, like that's another
thing when you're interviewing a financial professional, is how do you make money? Because
the ones that make it seem like it like don't worry, I'll just take care of it all for you. You're like, Wait, like, if it's free? Yeah, that's sketchy. Yeah, I've got a super sketch. So making sure that
you ask them because they do need to disclose at the point at which you ask, but sometimes
they don't. They don't have to disclose because you didn't ask anything. And you feel like it's
free. But it's actually not there's a lot of underlying fees with the investments or things that
they're putting you into. Totally,
Liz Rohr 17:45
totally. And it sounds like at least this is my experience is that when I've if you if you're looking
for somebody, it's helpful to have a fee only meaning like you just pay, like it's a certified
financial planner who has a fiduciary and then you have a very clear payment system of like,
oh, I pay you X amount either per month or per year to help you with this kind of package deal
of how I'm gonna help you with your finances. Would you say that's accurate?
Lauryn Williams 18:08
absolutely accurate is a great summary of fee only is like there is disclosure, there has to be
L
L
L
L
absolutely accurate is a great summary of fee only is like there is disclosure, there has to be
disclosure, you clearly understand what you're paying. There's all types of different fee
structures, but that disclosure piece of the puzzle is like, Hey, I charge 1% of the investment
assets that you have so you got a million dollars I charge 1% It's a $10,000 fee, I charge it
annually, like very clear you understand what is being charged there should be nothing else
being charged besides that, or I charge a monthly fee of $500 a month okay $500 A month
times 12 $6,000 a year that that is my fee but there's no like I said hidden costs related to it
whatsoever and you can decide like you said if that's a fee that you feel is appropriate or not.
And you can also negotiate as well awesome
Liz Rohr 18:53
awesome. So that's just the primer on like what what kind of guidance you have and have
around like the hiring some help with the finances for the people who are kind of like I'm not
sure I'm quite ready to get some financial help but I am trying to figure out some pieces to the
puzzle your specialty is working with like I said salary earners w two earners, meaning that
you're not self employed, who are making around 200,000 or more per year which is around
where a lot of nurse practitioners make their income if you're if you're if somebody's in that
place now kind of dropped in and they're not really aware of like what the different things
they're just like I just I have no I have all this money I have student loans. What do I do about
retirement like what what guidance do you have at that very kind of like initial point of like, I
just got this job I was really overwhelmed to get this job and I'm so happy I have it and now I
have some money things to deal with. What would you kind of say from there to start?
Lauryn Williams 19:46
Well, let we first have to make a little financial checklist. So I would say the foundational thing
to understand is like what is going to be coming in on a monthly basis. So you know, the big
bad b word is budget You can call it what you want to call it, I like to call it a spending plan. But
if you don't understand like what's coming in, you're not going to have a full understanding of
what's going out. And so like you said, for a W two employee, you might make, let's say,
$120,000 a year, that's 10k a month, we can do that easy math, but we got to pay all these
taxes, all these other stuffs gonna come out of your paycheck, they're gonna deduct some
things that you might have opted into, or just automatically, and then you're gonna come back
and you might get like $7,000 a month, once it's all said and done. So looking at your pay stub
and understanding, like what is coming in and what is going out, you know, before I even get to
what ends up in my pocket is important, because you might need to change that. So from a tax
perspective, you might be withholding too much or too little, they might already automatically
take, let's say, 3% out of your paycheck for your 401k. So maybe something's going into
retirement. But your baseline first thing that you want to do is understand, what am I earning?
And what's being subtracted from what I'm earning before I get started? And then let's go from
there and say, what are the things that I need to tackle? So to your point, do I need to tackle
debt? That's definitely at the top of the priority list, understanding what your plan is for that
debt? When do I want to retire by? That's a question you got to ask pretty early on. Like, if
you're at the beginning of your career, you're like, I'm gonna live.
Liz Rohr 21:19
Oh, definitely hashtag mistakes I've made. Yes, go ahead.
L
L
L
Oh, definitely hashtag mistakes I've made. Yes, go ahead.
Lauryn Williams 21:24
100%. We all have because you're just like, hey, retire, what? I'm healthy. I'm young. I'm
making all this money. But you have to ask yourself this question like, What does it look like to
be done? What does it look like for me to not be able to work anymore? If you have parents or
you know, older people, grandparents in your life? You know, what did it look like for them to
retire? Are they still working? And they're 70, and they get up go every day? And they're
miserable? You know, what do you want for yourself can be shaved off of those things, or they
retired at 55. And they were super bored, and now they're back at work, because they had
nothing to do start thinking about or maybe your family has a lot of ailments, and everybody
dies at 65. Like, you might want to govern yourself accordingly based on those things, but you
absolutely have to ask that question. So you can start to work backwards into what should I be
saving for retirement. So it's a money mindset thing that needs to happen. In addition to a, let
me get a clear baseline understanding of what's coming in, let me understand, like what my
big, you know, debts are that I might need to take care of. And then let me look at some of
these other financial pillars. Awesome.
Liz Rohr 22:28
Awesome. That's super helpful. And I really love how your start, I think so often, when it comes
to money, things, especially because there's a lot of fear in there. It's hard to have that bigger
perspective and vision of like, okay, what do I actually want my life? Well, it's tough, right?
Because it's like, how do I actually want my life to be like, currently, where do I want to retire?
Where do I want this to go? And then also the grappling with like, okay, maybe I am living
paycheck to paycheck right now, even though I might have a higher salary than I had before.
Or maybe I had I, you know, chose to take a pay cut, because I wanted to have this first nurse
practitioner job compared to my nursing job, which was like making a lot more money. But
regardless of where we're at, I think it's so helpful to have that vision, because how are we
going to know where we're going? Right, unless we have that kind of perspective, regardless of
what our current situation is?
Lauryn Williams 23:14
Yeah, you just hit on like, 10, great points. You can't know where you're going. If you don't just
ask yourself, Where do you want to go? Like setting goals is so important. Otherwise, you get
stuck on the hamster wheel of just like, hey, this is what's happening in life, this is what I got to
do. And I'm just gonna keep doing whatever like pay bills, work, repeat. And so that paycheck
to paycheck mindset. That's where so many people live, because they didn't ever do this
foundation, or even hit the pause button and just say, like, hold on a second, what do I want
from my life, and they, you know, went and got a mortgage, they went and got a really high
rent, you know, car note, because it's like, okay, I'm a grown up, we need houses, we have cars
we need, you know, XYZ, the best thing you can do if you're new, is say, hey, what do I want for
my life? When do I want to be done? How much do I want to save. So we always use the term
pay yourself first, put that aside, and then build a lifestyle off of what's left over. So in my
example, earlier, I said 10k was the 120 salary, you bring home seven, you know, maybe you
need to save $2,000 of that a month, like you put that aside, and now you're building your
L
L
L
lifestyle I got 505k to live off of that means my mortgage needs to be or my rent needs to be
1500. And this needs to be x and this needs to be x, because it's just not optional for me to not
save that 2000. So now you've built a life that's very affordable for you based on a lower
earning quote, unquote, but it's actually the the earning that you need to be able to save to do
what you want, versus the reverse. what everybody does is like they get all the things and try
to save what's left over. That's the hardest thing to get yourself out of once you've gotten into
it. So absolutely,
Liz Rohr 24:47
absolutely. Yeah. And there's just so many places I feel like we could go in terms of like next
topics because like, on the one hand, yeah, like so there's the there's the like, so So so far what
we talked about is like there's the top line, basically money that you take home money that
you're earning, looking at your actual checks of like, what the whole take home is, what is your
vision and your plan for that? And then can we look at our debts and then come up with a plan
for that? I guess, pausing on that, because that could be such a big topic in and of itself is
talking about how to manage student loan debt, but maybe like, are there other things we can
do? I guess we could focus on that, because a lot of people had questions about student loans,
versus other things, some things you want to touch on in terms of like the other aspects of like
a financial strategy. And I guess, pause real quick on that is like one of the things that I've
really learned because I work with a financial CFP, you know, and I feel like I've learned so
much about there's so much more involved in terms of like, financial health than I realized. So I
guess I'm, I guess I'm debating what are what are your thoughts, especially working with the
people that are listening to this? Yeah. What do you what do you think? Where do you want to
go with this?
Lauryn Williams 25:58
Yeah, I think student loan debt is a great place to kind of start because like I say, we talked
about tackling debt. We talked about increasing net worth, that's a, you know, a big term that's
being thrown out. And it's like, how can I increase you know, by, I have $100,000 A year
coming in. And I have all the money basically going right back out the door? How am I ever
going to have a net worth? That's a positive number, and how am I ever going to pay these
student loans off, because they're two $300,000? Sometimes. So my quick spiel on student
loans is like your strategy needs to be either you get very aggressive and you get them off your
plate, or you get on a very passive route, and you go for forgiveness. So a lot of people
immediately ears are going up, like forgiveness for forgiveness. I've been fielding these
questions for the last couple of weeks, because there's been so many things that have
happened related to COVID. A lot of people viewed the word forgiveness as like, immediately
somebody waves a wand and your loans disappear. And that can happen. And it is happening
for a few people. But that's not what's happening for the vast majority. But the word
forgiveness is still relevant. In the sense that what happens is you either pay on your loans for
1020 or 25 years, but depending on your particular situation, and what is whatever is left over
after that timeframe is what is forgiven. And the result of that is that you actually pay a portion
of what you borrowed. So let me just like give you have numerical examples, so that you can
like better understand, and this is going to be relevant for those people who earn less than they
owe. So let me like say that $150,000 owed and you earn $50,000 a year, you owe three times
what you actually earn. And it's gonna be really hard for you to pay that debt off in my
L
L
example. Yep. So what do you do, you can do the tenure, forgiveness, which is public service,
loan forgiveness, which a lot of MPs will be qualified for, because a lot of health organizations
are 501, C threes, or government agencies. And so we can talk a little bit more about public
service if you want to. But the main piece of the puzzle is that you pay on the loans over 10
years, whatever is leftover is forgiven. So in my example, somebody who has 50k of income
coming in might have a $75 a month payment, and so they pay $75 a month for 10 years. And
whatever is left over that $150,000 balance is completely forgiven. Well, quick math tells us
$75 A month is nowhere near $150,000 over the course of 10 years. So that's why there's
something left over to be forgiven. They're assigning you a payment based on your income,
that's going to be affordable for you on a monthly basis. But he's not going to cover what you
need to be paying to pay it off in a reasonable timeframe. So that's public service for 10 years,
you have the 20 year, the 25 years a 20. year could be depending on when you borrowed, it
could also be based on whether or not you have graduate debt or not. If it's only undergrad
debt, it's a 20 year timeframe. And then everybody else has 25 years. The big difference with
the 20 and 25 year forgiveness is that at the end of that timeframe, it is presumed to be
taxable. So they're going to still forgive your loans after paying for that period of time, public
service loan forgiveness, you walk away scot free, the 20 or 25 year forgiveness, you pay a tax
liability related to that. So you need to be setting a little bit of money aside so that you can
write the IRS a check in 20 or 25 years. But generally that number still ends up being way lower
than your student loan balance. So let's just say it was $10,000 that you paid in the first
situation because it was only 10 years, you know, we're not gonna do all the fancy math right
now. 2020 years is gonna take you longer $20,000 that you pay on this $150,000 A debt, which
means you know, a bunch of still being forgiven now at least 130,000 and probably plus
interest even more. So it's like, I only pay 20 grand and then it's like, oh, I also have to pay this
tax liability. Let's say the tax liability is 30,000. So in totality you paid 50 grand on $150,000 a
debt. Still a pretty good deal.
Liz Rohr 29:58
I say totally Totally Yeah, that's really I'm trying to think about the people and like, so
somebody say they're in a situation they have. They have graduate debt, undergrad and
graduate debt. And then they're taking, they've taken their first job at like a federally qualified
health center, which is a, you know, grant funded, typically well combination. But can I believe
can qualify sounds like for the first one that you're talking about that public service, Grant like,
or loan, like if somebody is in that situation? And they're like, oh, my gosh, I would love to have
help with this. Is this something that people pursue on their own? Is this something that usually
is facilitated by, you know, Certified Financial Planner? Like, if somebody is interested in
figuring out more about these options? Where would they go from here,
Lauryn Williams 30:44
you've got a lot of different options. So if you know if your debt is your main thing, you can
book a one time consultation to just figure out your debt. If you don't feel like you're ready to
work on a long term basis with a financial planner. There's tons of places, so I do them. There's
a company called Student Loan planner, where like I said, I've trained I think, like 25 people
over the last like six months or so. So I'm very, very familiar with everybody there. And they
can help you. You can go on a website, student loan planners website is actually the one I
would still recommend to like figure it out yourself DIY it, there are some financial coaches that
L
L
can help with this. It's just a matter of like one, how much are you willing to spend. And when I
say spend, it's either money or time, you can invest the time and figure this out yourself.
Student aid.gov is where you would go, if you want to just like research it and get it from
directly from the source, where you can learn all the rules and things. Like I said, place like
student loan planner is gonna have a lot of blogs, they're gonna have podcasts that are going
to talk about it. Or you can just be like, Hey, I'm a professional at what I do. There are
professionals that know this thing, and I'm gonna book a consultation generally is going to be
60 minutes, and they'll help me figure out this student loan thing. It's well worth the investment
of money to save myself the time and to make make sure I'm getting the information from
someone who eats sleeps and breathes this all day. Absolutely,
Liz Rohr 32:03
absolutely. And I guess, in terms of I love keeping these really practical in terms of, if
somebody's in that situation of like, I'm so overwhelmed with this, I have, I don't have time
energy to pursue all of that DIY stuff, you have a recommendation of like, okay, so I'm
interested in a CFP, who's a fiduciary, who's going to be able to help me with my student loan
plan, like what should they kind of expect in terms of monthly fees, or once a year? Or is it
really like, Do you have any insights in that, it just seems like at least to me, as a consumer as
well, like, it's hard to know what the options are. And I've gone through recommendations,
basically what to find my team and all my people. But yeah, what thoughts do you have?
Lauryn Williams 32:42
Yeah, it is not black and white is a very gray area. And that's one of the things that was really
frustrating for me as I was like, getting into this industry. And when I was looking for a financial
professional for myself, it was just like, well, what are these terms? And I like I said, I got into it,
and I still didn't get it for probably, I'd say like, the first three years, at least, I was like, I still
don't get like, which, which one of these things is the most important? And how am I like,
describe to a consumer what they should be doing? Because yeah, like you said, there are
some people that do earn a commission. You know, I didn't speak very highly of that on the
front end. But there are some people have high integrity and high intelligence that earn a
commission for doing the financial professional stuff. I said it, for me, in general is like, how do I
make it easy? In layman's terms, it's follow those three things, like that's gonna eliminate a
whole bunch of crap for you and get to a high integrity person. But to your point, like, I think
the thing that you need to be thinking about from a pricing standpoint, is, where's the
complexity of my financial situation? And what kind of investment and am I willing to make in
myself, so, ongoing advice, I think the minimum you will find that four is $3,000 a year. So I
don't if someone is much cheaper than that, then I would kind of be a little bit leery. And even
then it's going to be someone who is probably doing something that is to cater to people who
have lower incomes, or that are beginners and just kind of are worried about sticker shock. Or
maybe they're a younger entrepreneur, and they haven't figured out a way, you know, pricing.
So you can get some really good surveys and they can get you in the door, and you'd be one of
their beginning clients. But I've seen it, you know, $25,000 as a minimum as well, for a lot of
advisors. It depends on like what you're earning then in that case, because obviously $25,000
might be 25% of your income. Yes. Can't afford that. Definitely. So and so that point, a good
rule of thumb is like two to 3% of your income is where like ongoing fees sometimes end up
landing. So you know, you make 100,000 You pay around $3,000 a year for ongoing person.
L
L
But as I mentioned, you can also find someone that does project work. And so for me, my
financial planning firm is all about bridging the gap. Yeah, I've actually stopped doing ongoing
financial planning work altogether, because there's tons of people that do that. Yeah. And I only
do project work. So I am for the person that's like, I'm not really sure if I want this ongoing thing
yet like Maybe I just want to talk to you one time. Yeah. And so I help you in that in the moment
I point you in the right direction, you can either go off on your own, and we never talk again. Or
you go off in your own and you realize like, well, there's a lot more complexity to this, like
Lauren, can you recommend somebody that does this ongoing thing you were talking about?
Because I think I need some additional support. Yes, so I'm all about filling the gaps. But there's
all kinds of different things that are available. Like I said, from a pricing structure, paying a one
time fee, paying ongoing fee, paying a percentage of assets under management. So a lot of us
as young professionals, we don't have assets to manage like somebody's in our 401k. And we
we are living paycheck to paycheck otherwise, or you don't know anything about investing,
you're trying to get into that. So you're coming to a professional. So it's like you can't charge
me based on my investment assets when
Liz Rohr 35:47
I don't have anything sorry. Well, I think I think that brings up a really great place to go. I think
so 401k is such a huge question. So I think 401k and investments it depending on our timing, I
think 401k was such a Yeah, so there's so many facets of 401k. So there's some so I guess I'll
take a couple of examples situation. So one is that, hey, I work in a federally qualified health
center. Or I work in a hospital based clinic and they have a 401 K plan set up already, or 403 B,
I think, no, I don't remember the numbers. Tell me the numbers. I can't remember the
numbers, but 401 k versus the other number one, and then there's like a matching program?
And do I should I sign up for that? What is this match thing all about? What should I be saving?
In that? I know, that's a really big question, but like maybe, like ease us into that situation?
Lauryn Williams 36:40
Yes. And that is not too big to tackle. So first of all, you did say it right? It is 401 K or 403. B.
And what's the difference? There's also, I was gonna say there's also the 457 plan, as well. So
all of them are going to allow you to put $22,500 into them on an annual basis, which is I
guess, point number one about these retirement plans. A lot of people to your point, like oh, I
can do a match of 3%. And everybody's doing the match. So you're like I'm putting in 3%,
because my employer is putting in 3%. And that's, that's what I'm doing? Well, 3% might not be
enough to get you to retire, we might need to be doing the whole 22,000. If you're earning
really well 160 $170,000 coming in, like we should be saving roughly 20% of our income is a
benchmark. So if you're not working with a financial professional, and your DIY and your
finances, look at that number I make 200k 20% of that is 40k. Like, that's what you need to be
saving on an annual basis if you want to be on track for retirement. And when I say saving
saving into an investment account. But to get back to the point, the 401k and the 403. B are
the same one is going to be for nonprofit organization, the other is going to be for all the other
organizations, the 457 plan is going to be specific to the nonprofit or the government agencies.
And it's going to be an additional 22,500, which is awesome. So you're limited to 20. Right? So
if you're a big earner, you can say $45,000 A year into your employer account. So I like to bring
this up too, because so many people are just like, oh, I need to get investing. Which accounts
should I open Lauren? Like, where do I go? Which company should I use? What stock? Should I
L
L
pick? And it's like, are you taking advantage of the thing that's right already, you easily come
out of your paycheck and you don't have to think about it, like set it and forget it. Yeah. And
then once you've maxed those out, then start worrying about some other accounts. Totally.
Liz Rohr 38:31
I love that. And I think that it's I remember when I was starting out, my first job was as a nurse,
and um, they did this whole benefits presentation. And I was like, I don't know what I'm doing.
But I guess I'll start this thing. I think the main takeaway, at least from my personal experience
is like, just open an account and start contributing, like you have to set it up and you have to
like elect to do it. It's not like an automatic thing. And please take advantage. This is my advice
is like a personal thing. Just like please take advantage of that match program. Because
basically, if you're not familiar with that matching means that your employer automatically is
going to give you whatever percent they say my first job, I think, was 6%, which is amazing.
And they say like as long as you contribute 6% We will also contribute 6%. But if you only
contribute 3% Then will contribute 3%. And then you have some companies that will
automatically give you 3% or whatever percentage no matter what. But it's just so important.
It's so important to get it started because it really adds up over time and like you said the set it
and forget it pieces like Yeah, I mean, we all have to think about what our what our top line
thing is, like you said of how much the take home is and how much we can handle being
withdrawn from our accounts every month or every two weeks or whatever, but it's just yeah,
please, please take advantage if you can.
Lauryn Williams 39:44
That was a great soapbox. I feel exactly the same way about it. It's like don't leave any fields.
Yeah, they'll leave these easy opportunities on the table. Sometimes we complain we make it
so complex that we get analysis paralysis and we do not thing, and then you wait 20 years, and
then you're like, Hey, I gotta get my finances together. And I'm like, holy crap when I look at
your stuff, and, you know, I generally don't say Holy crap, but occasionally I do. I gotta say,
Holy crap, we got to make some big changes. Because you haven't been able to do this over
the course of 20 years or so. Or, you know, whatever the timeframe is just doing something. I
talked to a young lady recently, she was like, I didn't know I just said it. And I didn't, I didn't,
you know, didn't do anything else. Like, I never saw it coming in. So I just did it. She wasn't
planning for retirement, she didn't understand finances at all. $300,000 saved and she made
$93,000 A year was beautiful. Just single I was like, yeah, she was just like, I don't know, like,
it's fine. It was totally fine that she didn't know, because she got the money in the account. And
it didn't harm her at all. Just get it in there. Totally,
Liz Rohr 40:51
totally. But I love that you also said about the investment accounts, because that people do get
really wrapped up in that of like, oh, I should be investing, I should be investing and it's like,
yeah, no, 401k is investing pre tax money, you have to leave it there. What if you don't want to
be penalized, right? But like, that is just such a golden opportunity there. And so would you say
L
L
L
that like your kind of general guidance when you work with clients is that they maximize if they
have the money to maximize that they maximize that and then they consider doing an
investment account after that.
Lauryn Williams 41:20
Exactly. Like you said, if we're just trying to keep it easy peasy. You're not going to work with
someone to find out what exactly is the most optimal thing for you? Yeah, just start there
maxed it out, and then you're like, Okay, I maxed that out, move on to the Roth IRA, the Roth
right now you can put $6,500 into, okay, I've done that, too. What else do I move on to the
brokerage account? And there's a lot of robo advisors now. So like, Betterment is the one that I
liked a lot. Because like, what's your name? How much do you want to contribute? Money by,
you don't have to be a guru at all. It's like, connect your account here. And then you walk away
and it's over. You're like, I'm investing money. And I don't know anything about investing
money, where everybody gets, like you said, really worked up? Oh, my gosh, should I be buying
Tesla? Should I be buying airline stocks? Should I be buying Tesla, you know, whatever Apple
stock? Like you don't need to worry about that. Be awesome at what you're awesome at but
save your money into an investment account and know that it's being well diversified by the
robots.
Liz Rohr 42:21
Yeah, it's totally, totally I love I love Betterment as a resource to that's just a company website.
I'm wondering if you have any thoughts, we had a specific question about people, I think
applies to both. But there are some people who are taking jobs out there that are actually a
1099 employee instead of a W two employee. And there are people who have an employee
salaried position at a private practice, for example, but they're not affiliated with, like a
government entity or hospital based system. And so they don't necessarily have the benefit
offered of a 401k. And so that might be too many questions. And one, people have a lot of
questions I've seen about what does a 1099 employee mean? And I don't know if you can speak
to that. If you can't, that's totally fine. But like, if you have somebody who's taking a 1099 job,
like what does that mean? But then also, how does how does one figure out a retirement plan if
you're not a salaried employee? Or if your employer doesn't offer a 401 K plan?
Lauryn Williams 43:16
Yeah, no, that's a great question. So 1099 is basically you are a contractor, you are doing some
sort of contractor work, and you're pretty much a small business, you immediately by doing this
outside work, that is not salaried, not tied to a specific company, you become a small business.
So you don't need to set up a invent a business account, you don't need to set up an LLC, you
don't need to make an S election, you know, necessarily, that's something you might want to
talk about with your accountant. But, you know, don't freak out and assume that you definitely
need those things. But you're gonna get this thing in the mail that says, hey, you earned X
number of dollars, and they didn't take any taxes out of it. So the big difference between 1099
and W two is that w two was going to say, hey, we're taking Social Security and FICA and all
these other different things out of your paycheck and your taxes is going to be partially paid, or
it may be maybe even paid in full and you get a refund. Whereas to 99 they didn't take a penny
L
L
L
out. So you needed to do some calculations to make sure that you have set aside money to pay
Uncle Sam so that I like to say all that money ain't yours. Yes, the easy way to be thinking of it.
And so because you're an independent contractor, you don't have that paycheck. You don't
have that easy set it and forget it, just pull it out, like we were just talking about that 22,500
can go in and it just comes right out of your paycheck. You never even see it coming home, you
need to think about retirement for yourself. And so the accounts that are going to be available
to you if you're a 1099 employee are the SEP IRA, the simple IRA or the solo 401 K, the solo 401
K is my favorite. The SEP IRA is the easiest to set up. And the simple is like it's somewhere in
between.
Liz Rohr 44:57
Totally. I've had to I've had to learn a bunch Because of the company, but I think like, Yeah, I
think like just I'm like hesitant to go down the rabbit hole with that, because like, I really, I think
that one of the things that makes doesn't make me crazy, but I have a lot of concern for people
is that we have brand new grads who are graduating from grad school are so desperate to get
a job, and they're like, oh, they have this 1099 position, I'll just take it, because I'll take
whatever is available. And I guess like my, if you have any words of caution, I think I have an
opinion here I'd like to share of like, tread cautiously, because that's a lot to take on as a brand
new grad of learning how to do your job and then taking on the fact that you're a small
business, which, again, like you just named off three different options of a 401k. Which like, I
don't know, I mean, it's just there's a lot more to talk
Lauryn Williams 45:43
about basic expenses, you know, that's a whole thing. Because you're a small business, you got
to think about that, where your W two, there's no business expenses, you get paid. Totally. So I
think this is ownership comes with complexity to your point, which is why, like you said, the
financial planner that we know in common, like works with business owners, specifically? And
I'm like, no, no. To people.
Liz Rohr 46:04
It's complicated. It's so complicated. So yeah, but it's so that's so that's why the 1099 people
just like tread cautiously, we're gonna take that job. And really, I would absolutely, again, my
opinion is that you get support for that, whether through a CFP, your your, you know,
accountant, things like that. But for people who are in like a private practice, who are W two,
but they don't have a 401k option, what would you kind of say for those people? Out Allah?
Thank you. I've never been in that situation. Go ahead.
Lauryn Williams 46:33
Yeah, it's really tough, because like I said, what happens with the private practice is, is that
they're smaller businesses. So it really hurts their pocket to create the W two situation, create
the 401k, there are rules around actually being able to contribute to a 401k if you set one up,
so the owner is looking at it, and he's like, Well, I want to save money for myself, but also, like,
L
L
L
L
I'm gonna have to put money in for my employees. And it's a really big business expense. So I
can see why it's, it's painful. For small business owners that don't want to end don't want it,
they don't want to set it up sometimes. But also it harms you as the employee, that's, you
know, not not receiving any light, you don't have any place to put your income. Because your
option then is IRA or Roth IRA. That's it. And the option there is $6,500 a year. So let's go back
to my scenario, this person's been making 120 for the whole time that we've been chatting,
you're bringing in 10k a month, you know, as a gross salary, and you're only able to save 6500
for the year? Well, I told you, you need to save at least 20 grand into order to be on track for
retirement. So now you do have to go think about like, Okay, I did this traditional IRA, I also
need a brokerage account. And you know, let me get some money saved over there. But you're
also not getting any tax benefits, you're just getting a little bit. If you do the traditional IRA,
you're getting no tax benefit if you do the Roth, and then you have this brokerage account, that
is going to be taxable. So it's actually going to send you a 1099 as well, at the end of every
year, which, like I said yet another level of complexity.
Liz Rohr 48:01
Totally, totally. Well, I guess, I guess I'm hoping that people are hearing again, not that
everybody has to work with a certified financial planner, but I think money is just so much more
complicated than we give it credit for. And at the same time can be super empowering. Once
you understand that you have a plan, you have a support person to help you. Or you have the
resources of time and energy and and all of that to like support yourself in it. And I guess so I
guess I want to recap. So for people who it's so kind of like the first place to start is really
looking at your take home pay. The next place is thinking about your debts. And what is your
debt plan? Do you have a Do you have a plan? Do you have guidance? Do you have the
resources or tools to investigate that further? And then like, you know, making sure that you
have goals and a vision for retirement and how you want to get there? And like what are the
tools and resources you need to get there? But I guess it's because I want to be mindful of our
time. Like are there other things that you want to that you want to share with people who are
like similar to the clients that you work with? Where they're the salary earners, coming up with
the plan, and they're kind of on the fence about DIY buying it versus working with somebody?
Or maybe I guess if we can speak to the people who are DIY, maybe the art I don't know, what
are your thoughts about that? What What kind of like other pearls of practice or wisdom do you
want to share?
Lauryn Williams 49:14
Yeah, so I would say the first piece of wisdom would be if you're a DIY, don't get your
information from tick tock videos, Instagram reels, you know, those can be fun, they can cut a
light bulb on for you, they can be cute. But you know, to take those as Bible or take those as
law can be really, really damaging. Because like I said, anything you see on social media is not
one size fits all, even if it's good information. And so you need to be thinking about what is
specifically relevant to my particular situation. Everybody, like I said, should not be setting up
an LLC, to go save money on taxes. And that's really you know, that's one of the common
things I see. Like, like people say, though,
Liz Rohr 49:52
L
L
L
that was one of the questions that came in. Yeah, it's like, should I set up an LLC, which you
can directly advise, but yeah, that's generally speaking. Yeah, go ahead.
Lauryn Williams 49:58
Yeah, is it It's just so valuable to get some education from somewhere that is reputable. So like
I said.gov website, so the IRS student aid.gov, if you're going to like DIY it, and then looking at
places that have high integrity, like where are the like, who wrote this article? Did a CFP? Write
it? Or did you know Jane, who's a reporter or pilot? Write it? Are there tons of ads popping up
while you're trying to read the article? Like they're trying to sell you something else? Like the
article might just be something that is, you know, poorly done. So you take on some risk by
doing that research on your own, but you absolutely can. You just need to, like you said, Look
at high integrity things, what I would actually recommend for most of the world is to do
something with a professional, even if it's on a short term project basis. So let somebody give
you some unbiased advice about your situation. And then you can go off on your own and do it
from there. Absolutely. So you don't need to work faces, but at least you heard from somebody
like, Hey, here's all the things I got going on, what do you think Lauren? And I can tell you that
now, whether you take my advice or not, or you like you, you, you smooth it a little bit left or
right or do something else. But now you're at least aware of the things that you should be
thinking about related to your particular situation. And then the third thing would be of course,
like you said, if you can afford it, if you know, you have some complexity, hire somebody on an
ongoing basis. So that's going to walk you through estate planning, you know, because when
you kick the bucket, what happens to your money, insurance, like you said, protecting your
family, if something was to happen, that's life insurance, disability insurance, health insurance,
car insurance, homeowners insurance, all of those things are looked at by a CFP. And then
taxes like you said, our job is not to do taxes, you go to an accountant for that, but the CFP is
thinking about what are ways that you can be more tax efficient. And it's not those gimmicky,
like I said, tick tock video kind of ways. You know, because a lot of people come like, all I want
to do is be more tax efficient. You know, everybody thinks that there's some sort of magical
one that you can wave and you no longer have to pay taxes. Like, that's not real life, you know,
so you want somebody who's gonna keep it real with you. And let you know, like, Hey, here's,
here's how it actually works for your particular situation. And then, like I said, the foundation of
everything, for me is always going to be cashflow, budgeting debt, having a clear plan in place
for that. And you can work with a financial coach, that's not a CFP, if you want, like I said, I'm
seeing more and more I kind of consider myself like you said the person was bridging the gap
between coaching in financial planning, because maybe you just need to get your budget under
control, get your debt under control, you're not ready for all those topics that I just talked about
just yet. You can work with a financial coach in that particular situation. So looking for someone
that is of high integrity that has a track record, that is not, like I said, doing all this super
gimmicky stuff that's telling you how they're going to help you make a million dollars overnight
is important. The way I've transitioned my business is to go one to many, because I realized
that so many people are not like interested in the idea of like working one on one, there's a lot
of fear, there's a lot of anxiety, start with this, get for your girlfriends together. And let's do a
weekend wherever you live. Like, that's the kind of financial planning I'm doing now. Like, let's
just talk about your finances. Let's have some open honest discussions about it with a
professional in the room. And then you get to make the decision. So you leave feeling
empowered to like, Okay, I didn't know these 10 things. Oh, my God, let me let me hire
L
someone to go deeper with this. Or oh, my goodness, I didn't know these 10 things. Now I know
them. Now I know where to go look and get you know where the proper resources are to
continue this journey on my own of empowering myself. I
Liz Rohr 53:35
love that so much. And I'm so happy to hear that your business does that. For people that like
drop in, I just need this thing. And that's it. Because it's such a nice intro for people that are
intimidated. And I just want to say that I'm like 100% on board of like people getting involved
with a certified financial planner, but like, I just I know that there are the people who are like, I
can do it myself, I'm going to DIY it. So it's been really invaluable for me to work with a CFP, not
just with the business, but with my own personal stuff. So I want to be mindful of our time. Where can people find you? If they want to learn more from you? They want to Yeah, like, do all
the things.
Lauryn Williams 54:10
Yeah, really easy. My website is worth dash winning.com. If you want to follow along on
Instagram, like I said, I don't do very much there. But when I do do it, it is of high integrity. It's
not gimmicky. That's gonna guarantee you make a million dollars. And like I said, What I'm
really focused on right now is going into places where groups are welcome or where somebody
wants group activity. So if you want to have me come to your workplace, you know, hit up your
HR department or your ERG group and say like, Hey, can you pray to bring this girl in? Because
I like her and we want to have some real money conversations like that's an easy opportunity
for you not to have that money come out of your pocket, but to also have the information that
you need being brought to not just you but your your grumpy co worker as an example, maybe
your co worker is grumpy because they're living paycheck to paycheck and If both you and
your co worker can benefit from like giving a half day workshop or a couple day workshop in, or
like I said, setting up a financial so I'm gonna host one in Colombia this year that you can sign
up for come over, do some vacationing and getting your finances together. Or you can host one
on your own. Like I said, get some of your girlfriends together get it two or three other couples
together. I'll come in I'll set everything up for you and we will talk all things money so you'll
leave with land but also kind of retreat so I like to call them you know, financial retreats or
financial boot camps depending on what kind of style you like. But yeah, there's opportunities
and experienced just go to worth dash winning that time.
Liz Rohr 55:40
Oh my gosh, I love that. And I love I'm all set for my financial stuff with my people, but I just
like I if I had I would have loved to have that. I would have loved to have that before. But thank
you so much. This is so fun. And I really I know that people are gonna really appreciate it. So
thank you. Thank you.
Lauryn Williams 55:57
Absolutely. I enjoyed being here today.
© 2025 Real World NP. For educational and informational purposes only, see realworldnp.com/disclaimer for full details.
