FIREside chat with Haley: "It is super important to create strategic money goals"

Hi Haley! Thanks for agreeing to chat with us. Can you introduce yourself?

My name is Haley and I am the 27 year old founder of Femme Financial coaching. I started this business with the goal to help women level-up personally, professionally and financially! My coaching is tailored to you and where you are at in your life. Finance does not have to be so complicated and I help demystify big financial concepts into very manageable pieces so my clients can start feeling confident in managing everything on their own.

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What personality type did you get? Did you find the results to be accurate?

I got The Optimizer! Yes, they were pretty accurate. I'm maybe not sooo detail oriented but everything else was accurate.

What inspired you to start a social media presence about personal finance? For completely new readers, what is the “tl;dr” of your brand?

I have been wanting to start this page for a long time. Covid really gave me the extra time to put thought into a brand and a target audience and get this thing going.  I wanted to make a finance page that was approachable and inspirational for those who are looking for help.

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What is your relationship with personal finance? - If applicable, how has that defined your current pursuits? What changes have you made that have helped? How has it changed over time?

I have always been very interested in investing, but I didn't start for years because I was completely lost as to where to even start. So when I started learning I realized I wanted to give people the tools I so badly wish I had when I was starting out. I now personally have over 160K invested in the market and have coached well over 60 people how to take control of their money as well. I have developed a lot of confidence in my money journey and really want to give back.

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What’s the worst money advice you’ve ever received?

Sell during the drop in March - I obviously did not listen hahah

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What are some things that worked for you for maintaining balance and managing your spending?

Great question! I have always been frugal and been a saver so it has come naturally to me. What helps me is that I think of my spending in terms of hours worked. Like is this pair of shoes worth the 5 hours of work? Or whatever it is. Also, learning what I like to splurge on - skincare stuff & travel are my must haves so I budget for those and go cheap on things I don't care as much about such as having the latest and greatest tech products (I still have an iPhone 7 ha!)

Is there a specific financial goal you are working towards right now? What steps are you taking to achieve that goal?

I have several money goals, I think it is super important to create strategic money goals and I always go over this in my coaching sessions. Personally, I am working towards 200k net worth by January/February. I have been working hard at work and in my side hustle to get there. I'm in a sales role at work and we get quarterly bonuses if we hit certain targets so I am always trying to hit those.

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What do you most enjoy spending on? Or any guilty pleasure you can share.

Yes! Facials & skincare products are my guilty pleasure. Also, travel, although I haven't been able to do much of that lately.

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How often do you check your finances?

Probably every other day if not every day. Usually, because I am following the markets.

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For someone who is starting completely new to personal finance, how would they get started? What specific tips would you have for newbies?

Step 1: book a session with me ;) I would say though, to start reading finance books and familiarizing yourself with basic finance topics such as - emergency fund, index funds/etfs, roth/401k, avalanche/snowball debt payoff methods. My tips for newbies is to automate as much as you can: automate your debt payments, your savings, your investments so that they are automatically taken every month and you don't have to think about them.

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What’s your stack? (Accounts, credit cards, apps or other tools)

I use a lot, but my main ones are probably Vanguard for my personal investments; Marcus for my emergency savings; Chase Sapphire for my credit card; Wealthfront for my Roth etc. I track everything with Personal Capital.

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