308:[Jennifer Lee] Squeeze the Juice: Unlocking Your Financial Potential

Anthony Weaver: 00:00:00

This episode is Sponsored by bcpublic relations.com.

Jennifer Lee: 00:00:04

It'S kind of fun to explore and say, what is your money story?

Anthony Weaver: 00:00:08

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:00:09

So what is the very first memory of money that you have? And was it positive? Was it empowering? Was it of lack? Was it somebody being stingy about money?

I mean, I remember being a kid and wanting a this like we had to sell cards to neighbors and people. I didn't really want to go sell cards, but I wanted the skateboard.

Anthony Weaver: 00:00:32

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:00:33

So you had to sell the cards to get the skateboard. So. So I understood at a young age that the effort could equal the reward.

Anthony Weaver: 00:00:42

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:00:43

So that's. I'm an entrepreneur.

Anthony Weaver: 00:00:44

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:00:45

Not everybody did that.

Anthony Weaver: 00:00:46

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:00:47

So what's your story about? Money.

Anthony Weaver: 00:00:52

Welcome everybody back to another exciting show, the about that Wallet podcast where we help the Sandwich generation build strong financial habits so that they can talk about money, spend money and enjoy their money with confidence today.

I have an awesome guest today and she is a financial advisor, author of the Squeeze the Juice book, and founder of the financial advisory firm Modern wealth in Sarasota, Florida. Welcome to the show, Jennifer.

Jennifer Lee: 00:01:23

Thanks for having me, Anthony.

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:25

So one of the things with we were just talking back on the green screen was just about like how you're from Maryland and I'm from Maryland and this is already like give me good vibes today, so.

Jennifer Lee: 00:01:35

Me too. Solid Maryland people. I love it.

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:38

Yeah, we're gonna rock this out.

So, you know, making that transition to Florida is one thing, but one of the things is that we also got to look into is a lot of women are usually the caretakers for in the family regardless. And let's keep it real is that they usually outlive the guys in the relationships.

I would say at least 70% of the time I'm just throwing it out there. That's what it feels like.

Jennifer Lee: 00:02:03

Yeah, it's. It's always, it's always hard when I'm talking to a couple and I was like, and they're the same age.

I'm like, well, she's probably going to live five years longer. Sorry. She's female. We start there. So it happens.

Anthony Weaver: 00:02:16

Is it just something like in the water, like guys are doing dumb stuff or what is it?

Jennifer Lee: 00:02:21

I don't have a fun good answer for that one. But. But there's probably something there.

Anthony Weaver: 00:02:26

Yeah. And usually in a relationship, you. I noticed that you focus a lot on the. I want to say, what is it called? Like the no money.

Jennifer Lee: 00:02:37

The non moneyed party.

Anthony Weaver: 00:02:39

Yes, the non money party. I was like that is so cool of a name. I was like, where can I sign up? Where can I learn more about this and who are they?

But can you start about like, who are the no Money party?

Jennifer Lee: 00:02:52

Sure. Well, you know, I love what I do. I love talking about money.

I love, you know, I'd love nothing more than to be at some little gathering and be in the corner talking about something complicated with a business or financial oriented. But you know, that's some kind of the unicorn there. And not everybody wants to do that unless they have a specific question.

So the non moneyed party is often the person in the relationship who doesn't handle the finances, doesn't handle the budget, doesn't handle the retirement accounts, doesn't handle the mortgage, all those things. It's not their natural space. I like to say in relationships we divide and conquer.

You know, your wife may be better at one thing and you're better at another. And so you kind of just lean those ways. It's never, almost never about a level of competency or intelligence. It's just, hey, that wasn't my thing.

Like if you never cooked and all of a sudden you have to make dinner and breakfast and lunch. Oh my gosh. Flipping an egg is a problem.

Anthony Weaver: 00:03:52

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:03:52

So the same thing with money.

If you never had to balance a checkbook or understand what comes in, what goes out and what you have left, how are you ever gonna do it until you learned?

Anthony Weaver: 00:04:04

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:04:05

So it's about educating the person who has not necessarily been at the forefront of that and getting them comfortable with these tools. Because money's just a tool.

Anthony Weaver: 00:04:13

Yeah. And because it's a tool, is there a system that should be in place on how to use that tool? Because you hinted on a little bit.

We like to say, we don't like to say budget because it's us the bad word. But we love it. We usually, I try to switch it up and say a spending plan. You know, would a spending plan be a great for somebody like that?

So the person's handling all the money, they can just write it out right quick. Or should they do it as a couple or separate?

Jennifer Lee: 00:04:41

Well, I think that's a great question. I think if you are a couple, you both need to understand what you really have to work with. Okay? So you gotta have that conversation.

I don't like to say budget a year because people squirm.

Anthony Weaver: 00:04:57

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:04:57

So again, non money, they're gonna squirm. We don't want to talk about the word budget.

Anthony Weaver: 00:05:01

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:05:01

And I had one client one time say, look, my father, you know, made me have a budget as a kid. Don't use budget. I don't want to be restricted. Okay. All right. So let's figure out what your story is and figure out how to help you understand this.

So I like to say, what do you have at your discretion? And people go, what does that mean? Okay, well, you have money coming in from your paycheck from if you have a rental property, from rents coming in.

If you have Social Security from Social Security and you have bills, you have your mortgage, you have your car, you have your kids, whatever your cell phone you have fixed things you have to spend money on, then there's something left over that's at your discretion. Guess what? You get to choose. Do you go to a bookstore? Do you go to the movies? Do you go out to dinner? Do you spend too much money at Costco?

Do you have an Amazon problem? Do you like latte? Do you have shoe fetish? What is your thing? You get to choose.

Now I hope that when we get that discretionary number right, as a couple, you say, okay, we have X number of dollars a month. How much do we want to spend on our Future big goals? 5 year, 10 year retirement.

How much do we spend, want to spend on, you know, three months from now because we want to go on a family vacation. And how much do we want to just choose? Like I'm gonna, you know, go, we're gonna go out this weekend and we're gonna spend $200.

You know, maybe you should have spent a hundred toward your retirement and went to the grocery store and bought some really cool steaks and made dinner and saved a hundred bucks. So you get to choose my job as an advisor. And people think that I'm telling them what to do. I'm not telling you what to do.

Anthony Weaver: 00:06:42

Right?

Jennifer Lee: 00:06:42

I want you to understand what your what is at your discretion. From there, you have all the choices in the world. You can plan, you can fail to plan, that's up to you.

But if you want to get beyond today, right, you need to have your dreams. What are your dreams? What do you want to do if you don't know where you're going?

That's, that's old saying, you don't know where you're going, you're never going to get there.

Anthony Weaver: 00:07:06

That is true.

Anthony Weaver: 00:07:07

Right?

Jennifer Lee: 00:07:07

But if you're shooting for the stars or the moon, you might land in the stars. But you got to do some things to help yourself.

Anthony Weaver: 00:07:14

And when it comes to planning and one of the things like going back to These extra sayings, it's like, yeah, you can run pretty fast, but you ain't going away.

Jennifer Lee: 00:07:22

It's true.

Anthony Weaver: 00:07:23

So how do you kind of bring them in to kind of say like, you know, it's going to be okay.

Jennifer Lee: 00:07:28

Right.

So I try to have some of these fundamental discussions that get to the root of what's going to serve their overall picture, their overall financial health. And the one is, figure out what your discretionary number is. Right, we talked about that.

The other is talking, I was talking about goals a little bit. So what do you have? What's your income, what are your assets, what are your resources? And then what do you want? Right, well, well, I want a new car.

Well, okay, I want to send my kid to college. I want to pay off our mortgage. I want to go on vacation as a family. I want to buy X, Y and Z, whatever it is that you want.

Our job as an advisor is to take your resources, your discretionary number, and help you get what you want.

Anthony Weaver: 00:08:10

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:08:11

So you need those two things.

Anthony Weaver: 00:08:12

How do we pull people away from that? Being scared of their finances.

Jennifer Lee: 00:08:18

It's hard to not be scared about your finances. Right. So I like you to get comfortable with. When I look at, when I look at the steps, the building blocks of a financial success.

Anthony Weaver: 00:08:30

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:08:31

When you're a little kid, you, you stack blocks high and you giggle and then you whack them over, right? They fall really quickly.

So we don't want to build your financial picture on, hey, Amazon is great or this is great, or Tesla and oh no, Tesla's tumbling. You don't want to build it on these one offs or on what you hear at a cocktail party or with your friends on a weekend.

What you want to do is you want to have a foundational level. So there's a couple things that are really easy that people don't think about.

If you have a job that has a 401k, a 403 or a retirement plan, oftentimes there's a match. Make sure you get your free money. I was talking to a woman the other day and she said, I said, well, don't you have a plan at work?

And she goes, yeah, but I, I haven't participated. I was like, well, they're, they're giving you dollar for dollar match up to 5%. So you're making $60,000. You just lost, you know, 5% of $60,000.

What are we doing? It's free money. So you want to take care of your free money. And then you, you don't Want to just.

I mean, sometimes it works if you throw a dart at the stock board and you might pick the right one.

Anthony Weaver: 00:09:41

Yeah.

Jennifer Lee: 00:09:42

There's a great illustration of a bunch of stocks if you took $10,000 and invested in one. So sometimes I'll show it to clients. I'll say, okay, here's a list of 50 stocks. If you.

I give you 10 grand, you could go back, which one would you pick? And they pick one. And then we can look at what has it actually done and say, oh, look, you know, that stock was the 54th in the.

In the 60 that we showed you. And it's like, oh, that's disappointing. All right.

But what did the fund do that had a portfolio manager that's buying and selling the stocks inside of there, knowing the companies and so on, and it was second from the top.

Anthony Weaver: 00:10:24

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:10:24

You might have been number one if you picked Apple, but not if you picked Coca Cola or gm.

Anthony Weaver: 00:10:31

And what goes back to understanding the stocks have different areas inside your portfolio, because Coca Cola is. Can give you great dividends, but they. They don't fluctuate as much. Similar like Microsoft.

Jennifer Lee: 00:10:47

You're a little dangerous on the financial side, aren't you?

Anthony Weaver: 00:10:50

Well, I mean, I did dabble.

Jennifer Lee: 00:10:52

Yeah.

Anthony Weaver: 00:10:53

You know. Well, I mean, this is what we do on the show.

Jennifer Lee: 00:10:56

Absolutely. And it matters. Like, it matters. What is your goal?

Anthony Weaver: 00:10:59

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:11:00

And what is your risk tolerance? So, you know, some clients think they want to go 90 miles down the highway, but they're really uncomfortable.

Anthony Weaver: 00:11:11

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:11:11

And so they need some of those more conservative things like you're talking about. Or diversification.

Anthony Weaver: 00:11:16

Yeah, definitely diversification.

Because one of the things that I noticed that a lot of women actually tune into this show and they always feel overwhelmed because one of the things is that now they have discretionary money to start investing with their children. And it's kind of like, okay, well, I have the money. What do I do to actually help my child be well and good with money?

Far as, like, books or should I make sure that they. What company shot investing in what ETF shall be doing or what should I be doing as a mother to kind of make sure we solidify our. Our finances?

And one of the things, I like how you went back to say, like, first off, you got to look at your values, and it's something that you have in your book that I didn't get a chance to read it, but I was just reading some of the highlights. You have something called, like, your family love letter. Can you explain what that is?

Because I think that will tie in to kind of help people understand where they want to put their money at.

Jennifer Lee: 00:12:19

Yeah, I mean, the, the fit and hope I don't make you cry. It's a, it's a tear jerker.

Anthony Weaver: 00:12:26

Right?

Jennifer Lee: 00:12:26

Like, think about your. Do you have kids, Anthony?

Anthony Weaver: 00:12:29

No, this is my podcast. Is my kid.

Jennifer Lee: 00:12:32

Is your kid okay? Do you have, like a favorite niece or nephew or somebody who like, looks up to you and.

Anthony Weaver: 00:12:37

Yes.

Jennifer Lee: 00:12:37

No.

Anthony Weaver: 00:12:37

Yeah, I do.

Jennifer Lee: 00:12:38

So you're thinking about somebody. So if you had to have the. If, if, if this were your kid and, and it was the last conversation you were going to have with them.

Okay, what do they need to know?

Like, there's a lot of things they need to know about what you would hope for them as far as marriage, as far as relationship, as far as job and work and contribution to society. There's a lot of things that you want to impart with on them about your values and life.

Anthony Weaver: 00:13:07

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:13:08

Life experience. So writing your family love letter is not only. It's about taking care of your people.

It's not only about what do I have as far as assets and who does it go to, but it's what does this mean?

Anthony Weaver: 00:13:20

Right?

Jennifer Lee: 00:13:20

Like, my aunt gave me this ring and she gave it to me. She's still living. Thank you. And she said, I want you to have it because I really love it and I want you to.

You're special to me and I want you to have it. That was amazing.

Anthony Weaver: 00:13:34

Right?

Jennifer Lee: 00:13:34

And I cherish it and I value it today. But writing your family love letter is telling your spouse, your business partner, your niece or nephew, your children, what are your values?

What is important about where are your assets? Right. Where the money. Sometimes there's cash hidden somewhere. We need to know where that is. But where are your passwords?

Who are the people that you can trust? Who's your advisor? Who's your accountant? Who's your attorney? These things, these. Or your best friend, whatever it is. Do you have a safe deposit box?

So it's communicating not only the logistical things, but what your legacy is.

Anthony Weaver: 00:14:11

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:14:11

What do you want to pass on if you're not here? What do people need to know?

Anthony Weaver: 00:14:15

Yeah, and I like that too. One is not to scare people, but to really bring to light on why you do what you do.

And I wanted to ask you about the title of the book because you called it Squeeze the Juice. I know usually the phrase is called is the juice worth the squeeze? So can you explain that a little bit?

Jennifer Lee: 00:14:39

Yeah, absolutely. Well, think about, think about anything. Like, think about this podcast like, or. Or you. Or this interaction.

Like, what's the juice of this interaction? Like, you're gonna. We're gonna be done. You're gonna be like, ah, that was the juice.

Anthony Weaver: 00:14:53

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:14:53

Like, there's, there's some part that's like, you're so, so thankful that that's what you got out of it. And, and that's what it's like in, in life. I don't have children either. I've got nine nieces and nephews, and they are my everything.

Anthony Weaver: 00:15:08

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:15:08

So I like to squeeze the juice. As far as the relationships, the interactions I have with them, there's nothing to me that's more significant than that.

So I use that terminology about getting the best out of whatever interaction, relationship work, podcast, article, whatever it is. What's the. What's the meat of it? What's the juice of it that's going to be. Has the most significance. Set and dug it.

Anthony Weaver: 00:15:33

So what will be the juice from your book?

Jennifer Lee: 00:15:36

I think the juice is different for everybody.

Anthony Weaver: 00:15:38

There you go.

Jennifer Lee: 00:15:40

I think, you know, everybody would take something different from it. To me, the juice is the. Is writing your family love letter, taking care of your people.

Anthony Weaver: 00:15:47

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:15:48

You know, particularly if you were the moneyed person in the relationship, your spouse doesn't know anything.

Anthony Weaver: 00:15:54

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:15:54

And you know, you divide and conquer. So it just wasn't their area, but now they're left. They're upside down. I mean, sometimes we'll have.

We'll have husband and wives come in and their new prospective clients, and the husband will say, I don't really need you. I do my own finances. But I know one day I'm not going to be here.

And I need my wife to be comfortable talking about this and having somebody who she can lean on.

Anthony Weaver: 00:16:19

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:16:20

And so who she can ask questions of. Doesn't always happen that way, but it's really sweet when it does.

Anthony Weaver: 00:16:25

Yeah.

Jennifer Lee: 00:16:26

Because they're really looking out for their. Their partner if they're not going to be there.

Anthony Weaver: 00:16:31

And I think that's a good, healthy relationship to understand the strengths and weaknesses. Because sometimes people just afraid to even talk about the money aspect at all.

Jennifer Lee: 00:16:40

They are.

Anthony Weaver: 00:16:41

And it's like, how do we open up those conversations? Do you have like a beginner, like, if two people are meeting for the first time.

Jennifer Lee: 00:16:49

Yeah.

Anthony Weaver: 00:16:50

And they coming together, like, the relationships become as serious. What would be like, your top three questions to like, kick that off?

Jennifer Lee: 00:16:58

Well, the most telling is to. Well, a couple things. One you can look at. You can ask them about their family and relationships with people.

In their family and things are going to come out.

So you're going to know, you know, oh, I don't talk to my father or I don't have a relationship with my grandmother, you know, she's crazy or whatever it is. You're going to see things. But when it comes to the financial.

And you'll also learn things about the financial picture by asking what was it like growing up in this environment or whatever. But the most telling question is to ask your partner or your friend, kind of fun to explore and say, what's. What is your money story?

Anthony Weaver: 00:17:38

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:17:38

So what is the very first memory of money that you have? And was it positive? Was it empowering? Was it of lack? Was it somebody being stingy about money? I mean, I remember being a kid and wanting a.

This like we had to sell cards to neighbors and people. I didn't really want to go sell cards, but I wanted the skateboard.

Anthony Weaver: 00:18:03

Right?

Jennifer Lee: 00:18:04

So you had to sell the cards to get the skateboard. So. So I understood at a young age that the effort could equal the reward.

Anthony Weaver: 00:18:13

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:18:13

So that's. I'm an entrepreneur.

Anthony Weaver: 00:18:15

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:18:16

Not everybody did that.

Anthony Weaver: 00:18:18

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:18:19

So what's your story about money, your very first story or memory about?

Anthony Weaver: 00:18:24

Well, my first story is one that I can remember only because I got a beaten for it. It's more so of because I actually stole a sticker from a local, local convenience store.

And the thing about it is, like at the time I was really looking at this reflective holographic sticker. Like, you know, you change, it looks really cool. And I was like, mom, I really want this whatever. And she was like, no, put it back.

You know, get something else or we not here for that. I can't remember what she said, but I put it in my pocket anyway. Get home, which is in walking distance.

And so I get home and I start playing with it. She was like, where did you get this from? I was like, from the store. And then next thing you know, the belt came out for at least.

It felt like at least an hour. She was just going in. It could have been like five minutes, I don't know. But she walked me back to the store to give it back to the guy.

And my lesson from that was that finances, like, just because you want it doesn't mean you have to take it. You have to earn it. And by doing so, you have to put in the work.

Going back to understanding, we had to put in the work to get the money so that I can do it myself. Since then I was like, let me make my own money and not rely on somebody else to kind of ask for them for what I need or what I want.

So that was my money story.

Jennifer Lee: 00:19:50

That's priceless. You ought to thank your mother for that beating.

Anthony Weaver: 00:19:54

Yeah, she does listen to the show, so thank you, man.

Jennifer Lee: 00:19:57

No, I mean, it's important, though, your mom imparted, you know, her values and good values on you, so you could understand that, you know, that wasn't acceptable. And then, look, it made you think differently and think, okay, well, I got to figure out a way so I can. I can feed my little.

My holographic sticker need.

Anthony Weaver: 00:20:19

Right?

Jennifer Lee: 00:20:20

And that's good. You know, a lot of people, we talked about budgeting in the beginning.

A lot of people think about from a perspective of lack, and they think, well, budget means I'm restricted.

And when I think about wanting the holographic sticker and I don't have the money for it, I think, all right, what do I have to do to make money to get the holographic sticker? Because I really want it.

Anthony Weaver: 00:20:41

Yeah, right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:20:41

So, you know, it's. We all have a different mindset. You know, it's. It's. It's the lenses that we grew up with. You know, mine are different than yours.

I mean, I did this icebreaker one time, and. And this line of.

We were in this women's group, and we were all standing in a line, and they asked questions like, did you have two parents, you know, take a step forward? Did you, you know, go to college, take a step? And it was just, oh, I got chills thinking about it. The. And these are my colleagues.

And the disparity between where you start, you have a different lens.

So I love that you're doing this podcast because everybody has the right and the ability to listen and learn something and take it and apply it in their life. And that's. That's awesome.

Anthony Weaver: 00:21:30

And that's one of the things that I. That keeps me going is just that one person listening to say, you know what? I actually. Actually, this happened last. Actually this week.

Wednesday, I went out to happy hour. Somebody was like, you know what? Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it.

Because of you and your show, I actually have travel points now that I can take my family on vacation. And I was like. Like, I had to get a hug for that one. I was like, you know, thank you for hearing it, because you don't.

A lot of that stuff isn't written, but when they come to you to say, like, hey, this really impacted me.

And this is what I hope and that people will find the juice use out of your book in, in life and really think like I'm doing something good and I'm not. It's not bad, you know.

Jennifer Lee: 00:22:12

Yeah, no, that's, and that's the whole thing, you know, I didn't write, I didn't write the book to sell books.

Anthony Weaver: 00:22:18

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:22:19

Like, I mean, it's not, it's not, it's not a money maker. I wrote the book because there's so many people that are intimidated about money.

Anthony Weaver: 00:22:28

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:22:29

And so if I can give you like all the nuts and bolts and, and we could have, we could have six sessions and talk about these financial concepts and break it down.

Anthony Weaver: 00:22:38

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:22:39

It's all in the book. It's, it's right there. And I did it in such a way, I hope and I think, and that's the feedback I've gotten is that it doesn't hurt to read it.

It's not a painful book. I promise. Like, it'll take you a couple hours to read it. That's it. There's worksheets in it.

You're going to get, look, the worst thing you get is one idea. Boom, that's okay.

Anthony Weaver: 00:23:01

Life change.

Jennifer Lee: 00:23:02

But you might get 10.

Anthony Weaver: 00:23:03

Yeah, right.

Anthony Weaver: 00:23:05

Yeah. Because depending on it, like you said, every orange is a little different. You might get a lot of juice from it.

Jennifer Lee: 00:23:10

That's right. You might get more juice.

Anthony Weaver: 00:23:12

Right. Because, you know, understanding. Because it seemed like family is a big thing for you. But what does family really mean to you?

Jennifer Lee: 00:23:21

Family probably means most everything. I mean, family for me is do my parents have been.

My dad is no longer with us, but my parents have always been about us doing things together and coming together at least a couple times a year. And so we still, I mean, I'm 55 this year. We still do a family vacation with all the siblings and then the kids and the spouses and it's so much fun.

We do silly things like, you know, dress up and do theme nights and it's just like the pictures are great.

It's, it's fun, but it's really about having those connections with the kids for me and take care of your people, taking care of my mom, you know, making sure that you're there for your siblings. And you know, probably the, one of the most favorite things that happened for me was a mic drop moment.

My 22 year old niece called me or messaged me last year and she said, hey, I want to, I'm going to, I'm in. She Was an au pair in Italy, and she had this really cool job for the summer.

When she graduated college, she's like, I think I'm going to go and, like, babysit kids in Italy and learn Italian. Okay, like, that sounds amazing. How smart is that? I never thought of that. I went and took a job in accounting, but what did I know?

And so she messaged me and she says, aunt Jen, I have 10 days where I don't need to be with the kids, and they're on a family vacation. Will you come travel with me? I'll go anywhere. That's it. That's family for me.

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:48

That's life. I like that.

Jennifer Lee: 00:24:50

Yeah.

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:50

Because, you know, obviously we, like you said, views of life is differently because my, like, the way how we grew up, it was just everything is like, you're independent. Like, everybody's isolated. And it's like, okay, well, as long as I didn't get the phone call you, dad, you're okay. Yeah, I know.

We just kind of live with it. And it's just one of those things. It's like, it'll be nice to have, but we didn't. Don't know that environment.

Jennifer Lee: 00:25:15

That wasn't your value.

Anthony Weaver: 00:25:17

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:25:18

So how do you know? You don't even know if you like it.

Anthony Weaver: 00:25:20

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:25:21

Like, we all have. We all have our things. Like when you go, when you. When you come back for Thanksgiving dinner, that's the root of everything.

Anthony Weaver: 00:25:30

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:25:31

Like, all the stuff comes out, the personalities are back. You're. You're 12 again on Thanksgiving.

Anthony Weaver: 00:25:36

Exactly.

Jennifer Lee: 00:25:37

So, you know, it's. It's all a matter of experience and perspective and your own personal evolution.

Anthony Weaver: 00:25:43

Yeah.

And now, because I wanted to take this podcast episode a little different direction, says just kind of feel the people in with all this stuff and jargon is because, first of, we have to understand living is very important, and living your life is important. And that's the reason why I love your story is like, you're focusing on the women who really outlive just about all the men in the family.

And it's like, where do they go? Where do they start? Start. And you got a little bit of time.

I want to dive into a little bit part of the divorce process, or at least the separation piece of it. When you're extracting the assets. One of the things you talked about, I've never heard this term before, which is a quidro. A quido.

Jennifer Lee: 00:26:23

Quadro, Quadro, Q, D, R, O. Yeah.

Anthony Weaver: 00:26:26

What is that?

Jennifer Lee: 00:26:28

Okay.

Anthony Weaver: 00:26:28

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:26:29

So this is something people forget when they're doing a Divorce. When they're going through divorce. So, you know, a lot of what we do is. Is financial advocacy. We advocate for. Sometimes it's the couple.

Like, I mean, I've had clients that are a couple, and they say we're divorcing, Right. Like, we just aren't in love with each other anymore. We don't want to be evil about it. Can you help us divide assets?

And we talk about those things, which is, you know, perfect way to get a divorce. Okay, I love you. I used to be in love with you. I don't want to be with you, but let's figure it out. So.

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:01

Great.

Jennifer Lee: 00:27:02

Unfortunately, it doesn't always happen that way.

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:03

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:27:04

So. So a lot of times what we'll do is we'll advocate for the one person. You have to gather lists of assets. What do you have?

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:11

Right?

Jennifer Lee: 00:27:11

So if somebody has a pension plan from a government job or a big company that has a pension plan still or an active. Okay. Those type of things have to be distributed. Like, if you have a. Okay, I can't have. You can't just say, here, take half.

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:31

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:27:31

We have to have a qualified domestic relations order signed by a judge to go get that. So if you work for the University of Maryland, then the order goes to your financial person, the hr, and they.

They see it and they say, your spouse is entitled to half, and then they're able to carve that off legally. So it's a. It's a legal document that facilitates some of the assets that you can't just split.

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:57

See, I always thought it was just kind of like, all right, well, it's straight down the middle. I didn't know that was actual form.

Jennifer Lee: 00:28:03

Well, you can. I mean, you know, if you. If you just have a bank account, you can split it right down the middle.

Anthony Weaver: 00:28:08

Okay.

Jennifer Lee: 00:28:08

But once you have a house that gets a little more complicated, you got to sell it or you got to refinance.

Once you have IRAs, even if you have an IRA and I have an IRA and they're uneven, and we're trying to even them out, you can use a divorce decree for an iron ira, but you need a quadro for the okay or the retirement plan.

Anthony Weaver: 00:28:28

Thank you for explaining that.

Jennifer Lee: 00:28:30

Yeah, yeah.

Anthony Weaver: 00:28:31

I was like, what? Because I heard you mention it, but you didn't go to this level of detail, which is great, because for those.

Like I said, we're going to find the juice in this episode. Somebody getting something out of this.

But as we go to our third segment of the show, which is talking about the features and this is where we talk about, like, either personal or you can talk about business, but I prefer personal because we all like to. I like to go back into the episodes and say, like, hey, you remember you said this like last year or two years ago.

So where do you think, what areas of focus that you want to improve on the most?

Jennifer Lee: 00:29:03

Personally, I gotta, I gotta minimize my plate. I like to.

I like to have a plate that has all kinds of stuff in it, and the busier and the messier it is, the more interesting and it keeps my attempt. Maybe I have add, but I like it active.

Anthony Weaver: 00:29:22

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:29:22

I get bored, so I need to get more comfortable with, you know, some space on my plate.

Anthony Weaver: 00:29:30

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:29:30

Which maybe will create a little anxiety around, like, okay, what am I doing? But, you know, I, I need to, to chill a little bit in there, if that makes sense.

Anthony Weaver: 00:29:41

It makes perfect sense. I think as business owners, we like the chaos.

Jennifer Lee: 00:29:44

Yeah.

Anthony Weaver: 00:29:45

Because. Yeah, because there's no chaos. It's like, well, what am I doing today?

Jennifer Lee: 00:29:49

Right, right. I feel that.

Anthony Weaver: 00:29:52

Yeah. So. But let's just go to the business. What do you think will help out your business?

Jennifer Lee: 00:29:57

Well, I just got back from a mastermind group in New York focusing on business owner transition. So, you know, I've been doing probably 13 years or so focusing on women in financial transition, divorce, loss of spouse, those big things.

And we're not, certainly not leaving that area. But there's a lot to be done for and with business owners and their families, getting them ready to sell their business.

Anthony Weaver: 00:30:24

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:30:25

So not five minutes before you sell your business, but like five years before you sell your business. How can we help you shelter more money from tax? How can we plan ahead so that you can get the most money for your business? That.

Or get the right team or transfer it to your kids? So that's really where I'm, where I'm trying to get to squeeze the juice.

Anthony Weaver: 00:30:48

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:30:48

That's, that's my, that's my area of focus for the next couple of years. Just developing and deepening that.

Anthony Weaver: 00:30:55

Yes. So thank you for that. Is there anything that you want to leave the audience with before we dive into the final four?

Jennifer Lee: 00:31:01

You know, the only thing we didn't talk about, which is like the second lowest hanging fruit, the first one, is make sure if you have a retirement plan at work, you're getting your free money. The second thing is if you're eligible and you're not familiar with what a Roth IRA is.

Anthony Weaver: 00:31:15

Yes.

Jennifer Lee: 00:31:16

Google that. Look at that. And, and just put a little bit of money in it every month you will be.

I mean, I sometimes I talk to these like young kids, like a 20 year old, and I'm just starting work and I say, okay, if you just put a hundred bucks away a month into this and be, you know, assertive with it, you'll be like, I remember this lady. And you'll be so rich. And you'll be, I remember this lady told me, and I really need to do this. And you either do it or you don't.

Like, I can't make you do it, but I think you'd be happy if you do.

Anthony Weaver: 00:31:45

So now I do get this a lot. When people start with their businesses, will start a job, do they. Should they start to do it individually or do it part of the company?

Sponsored retirement accounts?

Jennifer Lee: 00:31:56

I have the building blocks that I. That I do. And lower to the bottom, more stable. Get your free money first.

If you're making $50,000 and you have more money to save and you got your free money through work and you're eligible for a Roth, then you might do that on the outside as a Roth, or if your plan has a Roth option, you can add more money in the roth inside the 401k.

Anthony Weaver: 00:32:20

I like that.

Jennifer Lee: 00:32:21

Free money.

Anthony Weaver: 00:32:22

Roth.

Anthony Weaver: 00:32:22

Can't beat that. Are you ready for the final four?

Anthony Weaver: 00:32:24

Sure.

Anthony Weaver: 00:32:32

All right, so the final four questions are the final four questions that I ask every guest and they should be rapid fire, but we can deep dive into them if you're comfortable. Okay. Number one, what does wealth mean to you?

Jennifer Lee: 00:32:43

Freedom, options. Number two, Flexibility.

Anthony Weaver: 00:32:46

Oh, I mean, you keep going like.

Jennifer Lee: 00:32:48

What does wealth mean to me is that we could go all day.

Anthony Weaver: 00:32:51

Right.

Jennifer Lee: 00:32:52

It really means. It really means having flexibility and options.

Anthony Weaver: 00:32:54

So that's good. Number two, what was your worst money mistake?

Jennifer Lee: 00:33:01

I invested in a business with business partners that ended up not being good. And I ended up owning a business that I have no business on.

Anthony Weaver: 00:33:13

So it explains on your futures, on trying to figure out how to sell this business business.

Jennifer Lee: 00:33:18

Yeah. If you want one, come to Florida. You can have it.

Anthony Weaver: 00:33:21

I will.

Jennifer Lee: 00:33:22

It's nice here, I hear, but I.

Anthony Weaver: 00:33:24

Don'T think I want to own the business. Number three, is there a book that inspired your journey or changed your perspective?

Jennifer Lee: 00:33:34

More than one? My favorite book that I give to people is the seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra.

And I have a copy of it that I literally have read over the years. 20 sometimes. And I underline it and I highlight it and I date it. So I'm like, look, I got over this, you know, and it's just.

It's kind of like a grounding mechanism for me from a business perspective, like Robert Kiyosaki's the Four the Cash Flow Quadrant. That is such a good book for an entrepreneur.

Anthony Weaver: 00:34:08

Such great books. All right. I might have to check out the. The first one.

Jennifer Lee: 00:34:12

Yeah.

Anthony Weaver: 00:34:12

To check out. See if my library has that one. Let's see, number four. What is your favorite dish to make?

Jennifer Lee: 00:34:19

My favorite dish, and my last meal to eat is chicken tikka marsala, but I do not make that.

Anthony Weaver: 00:34:24

Okay.

Jennifer Lee: 00:34:25

Way too complicated. Indian food. What is my favorite dish to make? You know, my favorite thing to do, and no one has taken me up on it.

My dream is to have friends come over and bring a bag of groceries and wine. Of course you need the wine. And say, can you make something? Like, here's some random things. Here's some lobster tail, here's some whatever.

Here's some chicken, here's some veggies. What can you make? I. I like to. I learned to cook from the food from the Food Network channel, and I like to do it on the fly. It's kind of fun.

Anthony Weaver: 00:34:59

That is a great concept, going back to, like, if you have the family gathering and be like, hey, everybody, just bring whatever that you didn't get a chance to. To open up. Well, make sure it's so good, you know.

Jennifer Lee: 00:35:11

Right, right. No, no. Well, I did one time. You'll find this amusing and definitely use it if you're. If you're ever moving.

We were moving from Maryland to Florida, right? And we had a freezer full of weird things. You know, three fish, pieces of fish and two chicken thighs. And so I had.

We had what I called a redneck barbecue.

Anthony Weaver: 00:35:33

Okay, okay.

Jennifer Lee: 00:35:34

And. And we cooked everything, right? And people were walking out with lamps. Like, I don't need this lamp. You can take it.

You know, it was very funny, but, you know, it was. It was a fun time.

Anthony Weaver: 00:35:44

Yeah, I would love to have seen that. That would have been funny. Like, I got the chicken wing, but the land was free.

Jennifer Lee: 00:35:51

My dad, I remember him very specifically, he's like, he. He goes, the older people are going to choose first. Let me get. And, you know, he's pushing people out of the way.

I'm pretty sure he got a piece of steak or something.

Anthony Weaver: 00:36:02

That was fun.

Jennifer Lee: 00:36:03

Yeah, it was fun.

Anthony Weaver: 00:36:04

So this is the very last question of the show, which is, where could people find out more about you?

Jennifer Lee: 00:36:10

Well, I have a website called Squeeze the Juice Book, and that talks about the book.

My business is called Modern wealth, so it's modern-wealth.com and you know, if we left you with a burning question and you just have to have it answered, like what was my favorite dish? Or whatever, or something financial, you can schedule a calendar or shoot me an email. I've got a calendar. It's Jennifer Modern Wells.

And you can just set up a squeeze or juice call.

Anthony Weaver: 00:36:37

I'll make sure I put those in the show notes.

Jennifer Lee: 00:36:39

All right, sounds good.

Anthony Weaver: 00:36:41

Well, thank you, Jennifer.

It's been such an amazing time learning about you, about your story, your passion about family and making sure that we all take initiative to start having those family money stories and really sharing what does it mean for us? What is our love letter to our family? What do we want to leave them with? And really getting.

We're squeezing the most juice out of life in everything that we do.

So I encourage you all to find that burning question and answer the question to its nth degree so that you can find your true passion of what you need to do. All right, everybody, we out. Y' all be safe.

Anthony Weaver: 00:37:22

Peace.