Yesterday I promised to tell you about the three missing pieces that make investing simple, stress-free, and automatic.
(Did you miss Lesson #1? If so, go here now.)
But first, let me tell you about my girlfriend, Jess.
Jess is honestly one of the most brilliant people I know. She’s a creative director who leads major brand campaigns, has an incredible eye for design, and can take a blank canvas and turn it into something that moves millions of people.
This woman is absolutely incredible (maybe I’m a little biased) – she’s innovative, brilliant, and has this amazing ability to see possibilities where others see problems.
But earlier this year, I found her sitting with her laptop, completely overwhelmed. She had a good chunk of change sitting in her checking account, knowing she should invest it, but…
Every time she tried to figure out “how much” or “where to start,” she’d get paralyzed by questions:
“How much should I be investing?”
“Where do I go to invest?”
“What if I invest too much and need the money later?”
And here’s the thing – this is someone who manages multi-million dollar creative campaigns. She’s confident, visionary, and brilliant.
But when it came to money? She felt completely lost.
Sound familiar?
Here’s what I told Jess (and what I wish someone had told me years ago):
You’re not overwhelmed because investing is complicated. You’re overwhelmed because you’re trying to plan a road trip without knowing the destination.
And it’s not because you’re not smart enough – trust me, if Jess can manage multi-million dollar creative projects and turn abstract concepts into compelling campaigns, she can definitely handle investing.
The problem is that nobody ever taught her (or most women) how money actually works.
Let me explain…
Imagine you’re about to drive cross-country. You hop in your car, but you have no idea where you’re going, how long it’ll take, or if you even have enough gas to get there.
You’d never start that trip, right?
Yet that’s exactly what we expect women to do with their money.
The financial industry hands you a bunch of investment options and says “pick one” – without ever helping you figure out where you’re actually trying to go.
No wonder so many of us never even start!
This brings me to Missing Piece #1: The Right Plan.
Having a solid financial plan is like having a GPS that tells you exactly:
- Where you’re going (your financial goals)
- How long it’ll take to get there
- What snacks to pack along with you (Crucial! The spicier the better!)
- The exact route to take
It takes away that paralyzing uncertainty and gives you confidence that you’re on the right path.
But here’s what makes this different from traditional financial planning…
Most financial advisors will hand you a complicated 50-page document that costs thousands of dollars and sits in a drawer collecting dust.
That’s not what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about something so simple that it takes away all the guesswork in about 5 minutes.
Here’s how it works:
You plug your numbers into a simple calculator (I’ll show you exactly which one), and it does all the math for you.
It tells you:
- How much you should be spending each month
- How much you need for retirement
- How much you should be investing right now
- Your crystal-clear target to work toward
That’s it. No complexity. No confusion. Just clarity.
And Jess? Once she had her plan, everything changed. She went from paralyzed to confident in one afternoon.
She knew exactly how much to invest ($583/month), exactly where it was going (her retirement accounts), and exactly what it would become ($1.2 million by age 65).
And that’s it. Set it up once and trust that as long as you follow the route, you’ll get to your end destination according to plan.
Suddenly, investing wasn’t this scary, overwhelming thing. It was just the next logical step on her GPS route.
I’m so proud of her – she’s now investing consistently every month and actually gets excited talking about buzzwords like “Roth IRA” or “compound interest.” (So cute 😍)
And here’s the beautiful part…
Once you have the right plan, the second missing piece becomes obvious. In fact, you’ll probably figure it out before I even tell you what it is tomorrow.
But I’m getting ahead of myself…
Tomorrow, I’ll reveal Missing Piece #2 – the one thing that makes the difference between women who build wealth and women who just… get stuck in brutal cycle of “budgeting.”
(Hint: It has nothing to do with having more money or earning more. It has everything to do with something you probably already have but don’t know how to use.)
See you in the next lesson,
TJ Kangley
Author of “Invest Like a Woman+”
P.S. Want to see what your own financial GPS would look like? I’ll be sharing the exact calculator I use with all my clients in tomorrow’s lesson. It’s completely free and takes less than 5 minutes to complete.
Ready for Missing Piece #2?
