9 Apps to Help You Finally Be the Boss of Your Money

What is loud budgeting?

Here's a little secret about loud budgeting — it's not really new. Chances are that you've already implemented in your daily life at various points, but called it something different. Irwin said, "Loud budgeting is being completely comfortable with yourself to tell those around you, 'Here's my limitations with my finances.' It's about making purposeful and intentional decisions with your goals. You can always tell people, 'It's not personal. I just need you to respect my decisions [around money].'"

If loud budgeting isn't new, why is it so popular right now?

Irwin wants you to know that, if done right, loud budgeting isn't seasonal in nature. The reason it's trending is based on a few things in her opinion. She said, "We've seen a number of things affect finances in the past years. For example, inflation has been affecting different consumers and wages may not have been keeping up with cost of living."

She also said millennials are now finding they have to allocate additional funds to other responsibilities and more people are starting to think long-term. "Individuals who are interested in making a big purchase are starting to figure out that they have to either lower their expectations or save more money," she said.

How can I make loud budgeting work for me?

While she loves seeing more people talk about sharing how they're loud budgeting, Irwin advises against sharing your actual budget sheet with others on the internet for privacy concerns. "The last thing you want to do is trigger someone's financial insecurities or make them think they can target you," she said.

Aside from that, there are several ways to loud budget. "Again, get comfortable about where you want to spend your money and make sure that's tied into your goals. If you want to go out for dinner, tie it to a goal like date night with your partner. You can set allocate funds for one date night per month or whatever your budget allows," Irwin said. "On the other hand, if you know going out for weekly dinner and drinks with your friends or co-workers isn't feasible, ask if you can adjust where you're going. You can also tell your friends or co-workers that you're going to pass on a weekly outing."

What if I'm afraid of being judged about my commitment to loud budgeting?

The decision to make better financial choices is personal and not intended to hurt anyone's feelings. Irwin suggests that you continue to communicate with those around you so everyone is on the same page. She said, "Money is tied to our interpersonal relationships and can change the narrative of your behavior. You can even make suggestions to your friends about spending time together that doesn't involve spending money. Say 'Instead of going out for cocktails on this day, let's go for a walk in the park' or something along those lines."

Why is is so hard to stick to a budget?

This is something we've asked ourselves so many times, but Irwin has an amazing answer for how to combat it. She said, "So many people get overwhelmed by their finances — multiple savings accounts or credit cards — but it helps to put things on paper. When you can see and begin to understand where your money is going on a monthly basis, it makes things a little easier."

She suggests that you change the way you look at your fixed expenses (housing, food, etc.,) by asking where you can be a little flexible. "Ask yourself if food includes shopping at Whole Foods and so on and so forth," Irwin said. Simultaneously, Irwin doesn't want you to get caught up in excluding fun things from your budget. It's okay — we're absolutely guilty of thinking that budgeting means we're no longer allowed to have fun.

"Most individuals, myself included, like to be able to have fun — whatever that looks like — and splurge. If we don't build that into our budget, a one-time event can derail our budget. So yes, your budget can include fun stuff," Irwin said. In other words, the no-shopping challenge can make you feel like worse if you decide to buy something based on impulse.

How To Start Investing In Stocks

You’re probably thinking: but the stock market isn’t for me. And it’s true, to a point. When we think of Wall Street, we often think of white men in suits who don’t necessarily reflect us or our values. What’s also true is that we still have a huge gender pay gap where women only make $0.82 for every $1 that men make. And when a recession hits or layoffs start happening, women are often the ones hit hardest. Just think back to the economic impact of the pandemic. Now, more than ever, we women have to put our money to work for us, through investing in the stock market.

Plus, investing in the stock market has never been easier. With apps like Robinhood, Eight Core and Stash, investing is so much more accessible than it was for our mothers and grandmothers. Yet, many of us don't know what to do beyond purchasing the random stock that was given to us when we opened our account. But, here’s another secret those suited-up Wall Street types don’t want you to know: you can invest with as little as $100, and it all starts with your mindset.

Design Your Investing Mindset

The first item to tackle when it comes to investing is your mindset. A lot of people fail with sustainable and consistent investing because they don't have the proper investor mindset. Of course, investing in the stock market does involve risks, but if you don't take any risks, there are no rewards.

The biggest mistake new investors make is playing the short game and panicking at the first drop in value. They get nervous and cash out before they’ve even given the investment time to work. When you start thinking about investing, you want to consider the long term. Think about it as if you were meeting a person for the very first time. Would you shut the relationship down after just one week of getting to know each other? Or would you actually put in the time to get to know them more, to see if they're truly the person that you want in your orbit? The same goes for your investments.

Think about the relationship you want to have with your money. How does that relationship live on when you step out of the room? Is your money attached to a lot of negative emotions and past traumas? Or do you have a hopeful view of your money and what you want it to do for you? Is your money going to last for 10, 15, or 20 years, or even for multiple generations? Once you define your relationship to your money, and how you want it to work for you, you can keep those goals in mind and use them to guide you as you build an investing plan.

Build Your Investing Strategy

With your money mindset in check, you can determine your actual strategy for investing, and how you get started.

The first thing you're going to need is a brokerage account. A brokerage account is like your checking or savings account, but it’s specifically used to purchase stocks. When you’re considering which brokerage account to set up, look at the tax benefits and income limits of each. If you're a beginner and you're not certain you want to invest long-term, go for something simple, and start with an easy-to-use brokerage account like Robinhood.

Once you have your account, you’ll want to fund it. Now, I know for many of us, it might not be in our best interest to spend thousands and thousands of dollars investing in the stock market, especially if we don't know what to do with the money, or are not yet confident in our investing capabilities.

I like to start with $100 and I recommend my students do the same. In fact, it’s how I started investing in the market while making just $40,000/year straight out of college.

It's not about having too little to invest, it's about where you are going to invest. There are lots of companies in the market with shares worth less than $100, like Coca-Cola Company at $60.01/share, AT&T at $20.38/share, and Roku Inc. at $65.53/share. You can start investing with just $20, $30, $40 or $50 a month, and build up your confidence until you're ready to spend more.

Investing With Debt

When I started investing in the stock market, a lot of people told me that I shouldn't have, because I had debt. But the reality is, the average American household is $165,388 in debt. How are we supposed to build wealth if we're always focused on getting rid of our debt? I counter that we begin investing while paying down debt. If you’re able to make a few, small cuts to your monthly spending, you can allocate those dollars toward investing, rather than just putting everything extra toward debt.

Decide Where to Invest

Start by taking inventory of the companies you already buy goods from. Through investing, you have the chance to start owning a part of that company and actually reverse the relationship of spending.

Let's take Lululemon for example. You can find out the price of Lululemon stock with a quick Google search. At the moment, the price of Lululemon stock is $320. But if you don’t want to spend $320 on a share, you can actually purchase a part of Lululemon with just a dollar amount. Let’s say you purchase $100 worth of Lululemon. You'll now have roughly 25-30% of a share. If Lululemon increases in value, so does your share price!

As you’re considering your options, there may be times where you’ll need to learn some technical analysis to see why the company is moving up or down in the market, to ensure that your investment is well-informed.

If you don't want to just buy one stock in one company, you can always buy an exchange-traded fund like SPY that tracks the movement of the entire stock market. Historically, the stock market has gone up after dipping down, making this another great avenue for beginner investors.

Taking Your First Steps

Investing in the stock market can be scary, especially if it's something you weren't raised around, or you didn't grow up speaking about money at the dinner table. However, it's an important part of adulthood that we need to address more often.

As women, we want to start understanding why our money treats us the way it does, and how we can have it become our biggest advocate. Even though investing can be daunting in the beginning, it's worth it to keep pushing through.

If you need a little extra nudge to get started, you can take my first stock challenge where I'll show you exactly how to take that $100 and invest in the stock market.

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