We often fall into the trap of impulse buying, and we find ourselves short on cash when we need it most. Learn how to escape this bad habit with financial literacy. Dr. Sylvia Morris and Dr. Angela Walker chat with Tracey Craddock, Founder and CEO of TEA Financially, who shares valuable advice on achieving financial freedom. She explains how to diversify your investments to unlock a tax-free retirement and why you should seek professional help for your money matters. Tracey also emphasizes the importance of betting on yourself and becoming the author of your own life story.
Music courtesy of Dealer’s Choice Sound Recordings, Inc.
Music artist: djezi
—
Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
Why You Need Financial Literacy With Tracey Craddock
Financial Freedom Starts Here
Welcome to Boss Leap. My name is Dr. Sylvia Morris, and I’m here with my co-host, Dr. Angela Walker. In this episode, we talked to Tracey Craddock, a financial consultant. We talked about impulse buying and the importance of betting on yourself, positive affirmations, and staying positive. Angela, before we get into our conversation with Tracey, that was full of gems, do you have an impulse buy that you want to share? I know that’s more my thing because I do a little bit of retail therapy.
I don’t think my impulse buys are typically high ticket per se. If you’re talking to 20-year-old Angela, then yes, it would be a high ticket. On things, not necessarily. If I see a great suit, it’s typically a pantsuit.
You do wear a good pantsuit.
Thank you. I love a good pantsuit. I’ve always been more comfortable. What I realized over the years is that a good one will last you a long time. For me, it’s an investment. Now, in speaking and doing what I’m doing, it’s an investment. I’m not a gadget person. I know I love to admire all your purses, but that’s it for me. I can’t think of anything else. I see it and I’m like “This is what I want, and I have to make it happen.” How about you?
Mine are shoes and hear me out. This is very logical. I wear a size 11, 41, or 42, however, if you look at European sizes, that means it may not go on sale because it is the only size eleven that they have. If I try it on, it looks good, it fits, it feels good, and it is under a certain number, then I’m going to buy said pair of shoes impulsively.
You have bought very well because your shoe game is bar none, one of the best.
It tells you about your personality, a shoe, a bag, and you have a great suit or a dress on, in my case, that’s it.
Our guest has talked about so many things, including impulse buying, buying smartly, and investing, most importantly. There are so many pearls of wisdom that she provided. I think it’s a great episode for our audience and something I’d like to share with my family as well. Without further ado, we are going to introduce our guest, Tracey Craddock.
Welcome back to Boss Leap. I’m Dr. Sylvia Morris, and I’m here with my co-host, Dr. Angela Walker. We have an exciting guest. We have Tracey Craddock. She is a financial consultant. Tracey, welcome to Boss Leap.
Thank you so much/. I appreciate it. I’m glad to be here.
We are happy to have you.
Introducing Tracey Craddock Of TEA Financially
You are somebody we need or I needed to be talking to you 30 years ago. We have so many questions to ask you. One of the first background information that we find the audience likes to know is, tell us a little bit about yourself. What did you want to be when you were little Tracey, growing up? What made you, you?
It’s funny. I wasn’t like Sylvia. Sylvia knew she was going to be a doctor. We’ve known each other for a long time, but I wanted to be an actress. We went to acting school, me and my sister. What’s funny is F. Gary Gray, he’s a director, went to acting school with us. It was only three of us black kids. It was me, my sister, and him. If I ever met him, I would remind him of that because I know he would remember. Anyway, that’s what I wanted to do. Fast forward in my life, that did not happen. I did plays and stuff like that, but that was about it.
It wasn’t until middle school, I always liked numbers. I was good at numbers, but horrible at reading and writing papers. When I went to college, my background was in accounting. I was like, “I’m going to be an accountant because I love numbers.” I then found out real quick that this is so boring. It’s all day. I had too much. This doesn’t feel right.
Trying to figure out my life, I have done sales. Always, it seems like numbers were wrapped around that, so to speak. I’ve done a lot of stuff, accounts receivable, and accounts payables inside of leasing offices, which prompted me to also have to sell because you got to rent apartments. I sold Mary Kay sometimes. I learned a lot.
Did you ever get the pink car?
No, I got on target one of the cars, but I didn’t get it. I had a team and everything.
Tell us, what do you enjoy about selling?
What is it about selling? For me, I believed in the product because I use it. I still use it even now. That’s all I use on my face. I have to believe in something to do it. I love the people. I love meeting new people and talking to people. When I look back at it, it was more about educating them on how good they can look. When women look good, we feel good. That’s what I think I was attracted to there. I did Mary Kay for years as I was working. I was working in the credit union, Kinecta, which used to be Raytheon or Hughes, Howard Hughes Aircraft Company. Their old credit union changed names when Raytheon bought them. That’s where I used to work.
I was with my friend and one of her friends one day. She came over to the house and started talking about all this stuff that she’s doing as far as financial. I’m listening to her talking about life insurance and retirement, and the whole time, I can’t even remember what she was saying. I was more focused on, “I could do what she’s doing.” That’s where my focus was. I was like, “It’s not difficult.”
Can you tell us about where you were in life at this point?
It was in 2009 or 2010, somewhere up in there, when the economy crashed. When I was working at the credit union, I used to open up memberships, but I was also doing home equity loans and home equity lines of credit. I got bonuses. Quickly with sales, I realized I could make the money I wanted to make if I was in sales because of the commissions or the bonuses.
When 2008 hit, guess what happened? My money took a dive because, in one day, they were like, “We’ve cut all the home equities and home equity lines of credits off.” I couldn’t sell them anymore. Now, I’m living off of a salary, which was not why I started that job. In my mind, “I have to do something else.” I was selling Mary Kay a little bit more, but when my friend’s friend came over talking about what she was talking about, I was like, “Ding, ding, ding numbers.”
Thought Process In Making A Leap
Tracey, a couple of questions come to mind. I am wondering. It sounds like you were primed to make a pivot or what we would call a leap. Can you go into the thought process around how you knew you were ready to make the leap? What was it about what your friend was talking about finances that you said, “This is for me. I can do this.”
I don’t know what was in me, honestly. I kept saying in my head, “She didn’t know it. I can do this.” I think the pivot was I needed some extra money. To me, I might have wanted to move, but that’s what I needed to hear to move. I was open, so when it was time to pivot. Sometimes, I truly believe that God gives us different ways to get out of situations or to find another means for different situations. Maybe two weeks prior to that, one of the managers at the credit union came over and said, “How would you like to get your life and health license?” She then comes over to the house talking the same stuff.
That’s to sell life insurance and health insurance.
To sell life insurance. It also allows us to move money in rollovers but put it in safe vehicles where you’re not going to lose a dime. I can do that with the license that I have.
Can I interrupt you quickly so I understand? You can do that independently of working for a bank or an institution now that you have the license.
Yes, or working for a brokerage house. I didn’t know that until she came over.
For our audience and for me, too, tell us exactly what the licensing is called. I don’t know if it’s dependent upon the state, but tell us what that is in case there’s someone who wants to know.
It’s pretty universal. It’s a life and health license. That’s what they call it in California. In Georgia, it’s called life, accident, and sickness, health. It’s all the same.
Do you take an exam?
I already took mine in California. All I have to do is continue my education. I have to do a certain amount of hours, just like you, guys. You are certified. You pay the fees every two years, and you can keep your license. I’m licensed in North Carolina, Georgia, California, and Texas. I do business in all those places. Going back to that, the credit union paid for my license because he is no dummy either. I can’t go up under anybody else and work the business while I’m working at the credit union.
When you talk about pivoting, I had to make a decision. Am I going to bet on myself and learn this business or am I going to stay with this credit union? I ended up staying at the credit union for maybe about eight more months. I never wrote a piece of business, but I went out and learned with who was training me. I left there, and I went into selling copiers, which I hated.
Like Xerox?
Yes. I sold copiers back in the day when I was in my late 20s or early 30s.
I think you can sell anything, Tracey.
If you can sell a copier, you can sell anything. I knew it, but I didn’t like it. Fast forward to 2010, I knew I had to do something to start making money in this business. I knew nothing about commission structure. I knew nothing about any of this stuff. What I found out was they had an actual financial advisor that I used to sit next to. As I’m learning this stuff, I’m hearing him in my ear too.
You never know what you’re picking up when you’re around in your place of business or what have you. I kept asking them, “What is my commission here?” They would tow around it. His assistant finally told me, “The reason why they allow you to sell the life insurance is they’re only giving you a small amount. What you sell, they give 90% of that to the financial advisor that’s sitting here.” That’s what put a fire to my butt and said, “I’m getting out of here.”
You never know what you are picking up when you are in your place of business. Share on XWas that during those eight months when you found that out or that was what prompted it?
Yes. After I heard that, I was like, “Let me go.” Where can I go to make the money I still need to make while I’m learning this business and growing this business? That was in the copier business. I hated it, though, but I knew I had to do it. Sometimes, we have to do something that we don’t want to do in order to get where we need to go because everything is temporary. I needed insurance because I have a daughter, and so that’s what I did. I left there, went and sold copiers so that I can now make money in this business, and the rest is history. In 2014, I walked away from corporate America.
Why You Should Bet On Yourself
Congratulations. It sounds like you were gathering your tools along the way, those that yourself and those that were maybe divinely given to you along the way, but you were open to your possibilities. I think that’s part of the key. Given a prod, at the end, that it’s time to go. You listened to that. From an entrepreneur standpoint, any advice or lessons that this has taught you along the way, maybe that you would do differently, or perhaps advice that you’d give to somebody that helped you.
I would have had a little bit more in the bank saved before I took that boss leap because I struggled for years. I’m okay now. Make sure you have enough in your toolbox so that you can pay your bills for at least a year. I didn’t have a year. I probably had four or five months. I knew I had to get out of there and bet on myself. Don’t be afraid to bet on yourself. What is the worst that can happen if this does not work out? Guess what I can do? Go get another job.
I probably wouldn’t have done that, but I know something in sales I wouldn’t have done. Don’t be afraid. There’s going to be people around you that might tell you negative stuff, based on their fears or being a little bit of haters. I had a manager. On my last day at work at the copier company, he told me, “You’re going to go do that. I have a friend that’s doing that. That’s too hard. You’ll be back.”
Not “Good luck,” “Wish you well,” “If you come back, we have a spot for you,” or “You’re excellent.”
We can send him a copy of this episode.
He’s not even worthy of it. Truth be told, people that I used to work with probably still deal with him or talk to him. They probably already told him. I looked at him and I was like, “I’ll never be back. You’re going to have people that do that. I think most people that are around us want to see the best for us, but some like him don’t. There was another lady at the job who told somebody, “Don’t work with her. She doesn’t know what she’s doing.” I had never worked with that lady. Those are people who probably feel stuck where they are. They don’t have the confidence to go out and do what they want to do.
If they can’t imagine it for themselves, then they can’t imagine it for you. The one thing that I did hear early on is that you were able to imagine it for yourself because you saw the other woman and heard what she had to say. If she can do it, then I can do it. Sometimes, it’s being able to see or hear that one person, and hence, boss leap, if we can hear that story of that one person who’s doing what we want to do. Thank you for sharing that.
Growing up in the middle-class arena, our parents only had a pension.
In a savings account.
They didn’t know any of this stuff. They didn’t know they could have tax-free retirement. I can help you with that. They didn’t know that there’s more to life insurance and leaving your beneficiary money, yet you can utilize it, too, while you’re living. They didn’t know that. I didn’t know that. How many of us know that? This is what the wealthy people do.
Why Women Needs Financial Literacy
This is a perfect segue. Could you talk about financial literacy and why that’s important, particularly, for women?
It is important for women because a lot of us are single. A lot of us are first-time high-income earners in our family. We don’t know what to do because nobody’s ever taught us. Both of you guys are doctors. Tell me, how many times you went in your bank as a Black woman, and somebody from the other side that is the financial advisor walked up to you and said, “Can I talk to you?” Has that ever happened to you?
Women need financial literacy because a lot of them are single and first-time high-income earners. Share on XYes.
Has that happened to you, Sylvia?
They profiled me.
Not early on, but now when they see if I have something in the bank account, that’s when it has happened. Not before then.
I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about you coming in and standing in line. I was in a room of 50 women. Do you know only two women raised their hands and said yes? While they were standing in line, the person came to them. Do you know how many times I’ve been in line? I observe everything. This man told me I needed to be a police officer because I see everything that goes on. I remember looking and seeing when I was standing in line and when White men were standing in line, they came over there and talked to the White men. They don’t know what they have yet. Those men were not in suits. They were in regular clothes, but they came and talked to the White men.
You’re in the bank, so you’ve seen it.
The history of America is that there is more wealth concentrated on men, particularly not people of color. I understand why they are perpetuating this myth, but you’re right. Those of us who have resources, but more importantly than that, if you’re in the bank, that means you hopefully are trying to build something. You’re trying to grow something. You’re trying to save and create wealth. It’s an opportunity to start a relationship.
It wasn’t in the bank that I worked in because I worked inside Raytheon’s facilities. I’m talking about me being a client. They don’t know who I am either. I’m in the banks and in line just like everybody else. That’s what I’m talking about. To me, there is a need for women to know what is out there. Nothing is bad, but what I say is you should not have all your eggs in one basket. If all your money is in a 401(k), as we have seen 2 or 3 days ago, what has happened? We know it goes up and down. That’s what it does, but what if it goes down at the time that you’re about to retire? That’s what happened in 2008 to several of them. Not my clients at the credit union. They had to wait five more years to retire when they were going to retire in 2008 to recoup that money.
Who wants to do that? What if you’re 65 years old? Now, you have to wait until you’re 70. That shouldn’t be. What I do is I meet with people to find out what their goals are when they want to retire and show them how they can utilize certain types of vehicles where they can have tax-free money. If it’s too late for that but they still have saved up some money, how I can create pensions for people? They can have their own pension, which might not be tax-free, but I can create a pension.
There was a lady, and she was still working. She’s my client. She’s 73, and she was still working. She wasn’t sure how she was going to be able to retire. It was about two weeks before I moved here. Isn’t that crazy? I was at a women’s event. God knew I was supposed to be up there, but I was supposed to be in the audience, and they called me to talk. I said what I said, and it resonated with her. We ended up talking and now, she’s able to retire.
That’s huge to be at that stage and still be able to create the light and then see the light to retire. That’s wonderful.
I’m independent. I can shop in the industry. I have over 200 carriers. I have a marketing director that I work with consistently in situations like that. That’s not common, 70-some years old and needing to create a certain amount of money per month. I can go to her and say, “This is my situation. What do we have?“
Common Financial Myths That Hold Women Back
I’ve never heard of being able to create your own pension, but I have heard of probably other things. Especially as a physician, you get things that are thrown at you in terms of making money and making it fast and quick. Along that vein, what are some common financial myths that may hold women back or trip them up along the way?
The get-rich-quick scheme doesn’t work. You do need some time. You need some money coming in. I’ll say the biggest myth out there is that the fact that all you’re doing is putting money in your 401(k) thinking that’s the only thing because that is what a lot of us are doing. We don’t know any better. There are more options for us. I’m spending so much money on stupid stuff.
Get that out for everybody.
That isn’t going to bring you anything. It’s okay to go shopping.
Online purchases.
You don’t want to not live. You want to travel. You want to live. You want to do all this, but come on. Do you have to have the latest and the greatest of this or that all the time?
How do we then live for today, but plan for the future? Any pearls on how we can manage it or navigate that?
To me, that’s all about budgeting your money.
Are you a spreadsheet girl? Do you use an app? What are some ways in which you budget?
I can do both. It’s whatever the people are comfortable with, but I can sit down with you and talk to you. Nowadays, you can pull up your bank account and see where you’re spending most of your money. Usually, what I find the most is spending it on food, going out, and entertainment. When you look at somebody’s stuff, that’s what you see. Right away, I can ask somebody, “Do you like coffee? Do you drink coffee?” “Yeah. I drink it every day.” “You go to Starbucks?” “Yes. I know I shouldn’t.” It used to be $5. Now, it’s $7. If you buy some food with it, you’re going to spend $15 or $16 in there. Let’s keep it simple. Let’s say $10. You go to Starbucks four times a week. That’s $40 a week. That’s $160 a month.
That doesn’t include lunch if you’re buying lunch out, too.
That’s just Starbucks. It doesn’t include lunch. If we’re talking about lunch and Starbucks, $150 to about $500. That doesn’t include dinner. What if you go out and spend money on dinner? I don’t want you to stop doing certain things. You just need to curb it. If you’re saying, “I don’t know where I’m going to get $500 a month to invest in.” You got it. Let’s see where you’re spending your money and let’s see if we curb it. We’re not creating any money. We’re seeing where we can take this. Maybe you make your lunch for two days. You’re going to have leftovers and then go out one or two days during your work week, and make your coffee.
Evidence-Based Financial Advice For Women
Budgeting, I hear that. Creative ways outside of your 401(k), I hear that. You are a financial consultant. What other avenues do women have to get reliable evidence-based advice in terms of their financial matters for the novice, for the woman that’s never talked to anyone? I’ll be quite frank. My husband and I didn’t talk to a financial planner until my father passed away. He was using one he trusted. I said, “If my dad trusted this company, I’m going to use them.” We wanted to for a long time, but you’re kicking the bucket down the road. What do you advise? People can come to you, but not everyone in the world can come to you.
Everyone in the world can’t come to me, but everybody in the United States can.
What’s the name of your company?
T.E.A. Financially. It stands for Together Everyone Achieves Financially. The little black part of it, I got the TEA. I have that for me. I usually sit down and have a 30-minute consultation with somebody to find out what their goals are, when they want to retire, that kind of thing. Where’s their head at? What do they want to do? A lot of times, the reason why it’s not fun is because we’re too busy working. We’re not even thinking about that.
It’s scary to think about money and what’s going to happen if I’ve bought one too many bags or shoes and can’t retire. I’m catastrophizing.
I’m glad you said that because catastrophizing isn’t that bad most of the time. You should start somewhere like pick up the phone and call, or I have a website people can go to.
What’s the name of your website? Say that again.
TEAFinancially.com. There’s one that says Book Now, and you can go in there. It’s my Calendly, and they can book a 30-minute consultation. That’s free to talk. Let us see where you’re at and then you can see what I do. If you like it, great. We’ll set up another appointment, and we will then get into talking about what your goals and stuff are. It’s foolish not to talk to anybody because you don’t know where you’re at. That’s like you’re a doctor, but you never took a test or you never practiced on anybody to know if you’re going to be good at it. Go talk to somebody. The information is free.
Controlling Money Like Emotions
On your website, which I’ve enjoyed looking at, there was a quote by Natasha Munson. I’m going to read it, so I can make sure I get it correctly. “Money, like emotions, is something you must control to keep your life on the right track.” Could you talk about what that means to you and how that propels your business forward?
When I saw that quote, it made me think about how we as women buy on impulse a lot of times. That’s what it rang out. We want what we want right now. Usually, when you’re filled with emotions, you’re not being your best. You have to make sure that you come with a clear head. You might not have all the answers. Go talk to somebody. I might not have all the answers, but I know what I know. If you come to me late in life in your late 40s and early 50s, and this is the first time that you are talking to somebody, you’re even putting money away, or you might’ve put a little bit away, but it’s not enough, our focus should be on tax-free retirement.
Taxes are the worst as far as if you think about taxes and how much taxes come out, even of our paychecks. When you’re in retirement, you might be making a little bit less than what your income might’ve been. Hopefully, you’re not. The goal is that you’re going to be making the same amount or more, but if you are, you sure don’t need taxes to be a burden to you as well.
I’ll stop you from a practical standpoint. Can you give us a couple of examples of tax-free retirement streams of income?
Where you can put your money in a place where you can end up getting, pulling it out tax-free. It can earn interest. They’re called indexed accounts. It mirrors the market is not in the market. When the market goes up, you get some gains. When the market goes down and crashes, you don’t lose anything.
Does that mean that you pay the taxes upfront so that I put $5 in, I pay the taxes on the $5 now that I’m working, and then when I take it out during retirement, therefore it’s tax-free?
It’s coming from your check and your savings account. That money has already been taxed, whatever goes in there. Think about how you have $1 million. We were talking about the market. You have $1 million, your money’s in the market, and the market went down 50%. How much money do you have?
$500,000.
What did I tell you? Don’t worry about it. Your money is going to go back up again. Don’t worry about it. Keep your money here. Don’t they tell you that? You have $500,000 now. The market went up 50%. What do you have?
You only have $250,000 more, so you have $750,000 now.
Are you happy?
No, I want the million.
I’m closer to a million, but I’m not at a million.
Angela said it. She wants the million. No, she’s not happy. That’s the market. That’s where the majority of Americans have their money in 401(k). That’s what happens. Now, indexed accounts. As I said, it mirrors the market. It’s not in the market. You get some gains, but no losses. Do you follow me? You have $1 million. You can gain more, but I’m saying easy math. Let’s say the maximum you can earn in this is 10%. That’s it. That’s what we’re going to go off of. You have $1 million. It’s in the indexed account. The market crashed 50%. How much money do you have?
A million dollars.
You got $1 million because you don’t lose a dime when the market crashes. Now, the market went back up 50%. You max out at 10%.
You get $1.1 million.
That is how it works. Are you happy?
I am.
You didn’t lose a dime. In the same scenario, you have the stock market here, where you have $750,000, but over here you have $1.1 million. That’s the difference. I’m not saying it’s bad. The stock market is not bad, 401(k)s are not bad. I’m just saying don’t have all your money there.
The stock market and 401(k)s are not bad investments, but you must never put all your money there. Share on XIt’s another avenue, and that’s called an indexing account.
Advice To Younger Self And Young Girls
Tracey, now that you have all of this knowledge, you have high financial literacy, and you’re teaching others, what advice would you have given to 22-year-old Tracey?
First of all, I probably would have stayed in school so I didn’t have to go through the life lessons that I went through.
Be the person you are now.
I wouldn’t be where I am today, but I think I still would have focused a little bit more. I think I would have said, be better with your money. I was one of those that wanted to have fun. Cindy Lauper’s song, Girls Just Want to Have Fun. I had a ball in my 20s. I had so much fun, but I didn’t save any money. I would have been wiser with my money. Had I known what I know now, I would probably be sitting on a lot more tax-free income than what I have.
I find this to be a fascinating point because I think there are a lot of us. I worked when I first came out of college for a year and a half and had a 401(k). It was with Merck. Back then it was Merck Sharp & Dohme. If I had kept that money there, I wouldn’t have had to do anything, but I know that lesson now. I took the money out and then wasn’t until after medical school and residency that I did a 401(k). It’s easy for us to say, “I wish I had done this when I was in my 20s.” Are you involved with any projects or teaching mechanisms for younger women? I’m wondering, how can we create this education for young women at a young age?
I’m glad you asked that. I’m in the process now. I got here last year in May.
You moved from California to Georgia.
I’m just getting my footing. I’m shutting the T.E.A. Financially down in California so I can open it up here in Georgia, my business. I am going to start probably going to the churches first to see if I can do free seminars and help out that way to get it out there. I joined the chamber. My thought process is to do that. It’s more so educating the parents as well as maybe going into schools if the high schools are open.
I’m going to champion the schools because I feel like I’ve done a decent job at talking to my kids about it, but I find that sometimes if they get that information from another source other than parents, it’s invaluable.
I’m open to all of it, and that’s the plan, but I’m also talking to women.
Social media is huge, whether we like it or not. Whatever your feelings about your favorite social media platform would probably be another avenue. Certainly, you’re here with us on Boss Leap, but what you’re saying will translate well.
You do want to get it the earlier, the better for your kids. Even with life insurance, your kids should be getting life insurance as soon as they have a social security card. No joke. You guys are fortunate because what I understand, and correct me if I’m wrong when you’re in medical school, don’t they bring a financial advisor in there to talk to you guys?
Get life insurance for your kids as soon as they have a social security card. Share on XTracey, are you kidding me? Not when we went back to school in the Dark Ages.
Maybe they do something like that now. I don’t know what school it was though, but somebody had told me that they do have financial advisors that come in and talk to medical students or something of that nature, which I’d never heard of.
Maybe residencies now. That would be great, but that’s a point of contention. We talk about that in our book, The Game Plan, as how we wish. I advise my mentees now to speak with a financial planner early rather than later before they’re making the money to even manage their debt.
It’s important. When I talk to people, they’re like, “Why is all my money over here?” None of it’s bad.
Looking For New Financial Avenues
Can we ask on a whole different avenue? I heard that you’re a mother.
I am. She is 28 years old. She’s a teacher. She doesn’t listen to me either, so I understand. I’m getting her something right now. I’m like, “You keep playing around. Let me help you out. I’m not paying for this forever though.”
What has it taught you then in general in life? I know I’m in the same boat. We can talk to them about what we do and our advice.
Give them about five or six more years. Are they boys or girls?
Both girls.
They’re going to start sounding like you. Give them a little longer because this one now is starting to sound like me. She admits it. Before, it was like, “I’m not like you.” I had a conversation with her yesterday. I was like, “I’m going to start this for you because it’s already too late. I should have done this, that, and the other. I waited for you.” I asked her a question. She said, “I don’t know, whatever you feel is best.” I was like, “Okay.” She would not sit down with me. She was adamant.
It’s different coming from Mom.
Correct me if I’m wrong. Both of them, because they’ve worked, since they were in high school can contribute to Roth IRAs from Jump Street. I think I’ve been talking and talking. Sometimes, what you’ve done is holding their hand and putting things in motion.
They can do that. This is your business?
It is. Boss Leap LLC.
You can have them in the summertime, come work for you, and guess what they can do. You can set up that max Roth IRA form, max it out, or they can max it out. Whatever you want to do. That’s your business.
I’m a proponent of them maxing it out. Now this stage, I recognize I wish I had kept at least the 401(k). It wouldn’t have been a whole lot in there until I was making money.
I’m going to tell you this too. Just know that when you’re at a job, sometimes when you leave the job, guess what? It doesn’t stand a regular 401(k) that you had it in. They put it over in another type of vehicle, even though it’s with the same company because they’re not benefiting from it anymore. Remember, with the 401(k), the only reason why companies allow us to put money in it is pre-tax because guess who gets the benefit of that? The company. Once you leave, they don’t have that tax benefit anymore.
Once you leave, isn’t it important to roll it over?
Yes. You never keep your money anywhere you’re not.
Keep your money with you.
A lot of times, the companies have the one that they contribute to. As soon as you leave, your money goes over here. It’s still with the same company, but it’s over here. You don’t know what it’s doing. You’re not getting any benefit. Prime example, one of my clients is young, so she’s starting out, but she ended up leaving her other job. She rolled over some money. She’s only 32 or 33, but she had about $60,000. She rolled that over in seven days. This happened. She had $63,000 in there. When we called back 6 or 7 days later, that account went down almost $5,000 that fast.
Is that because they weren’t managing it in the same way that they used to before?
No, they weren’t. That worked well in my favor because I was like, “See, I’m telling you this is what happens.” She was like, “Let’s get it out of here.”
There are probably some market losses, too.
I’m sure it was, but the point is that if she took it with her and maybe had it somewhere else, that wouldn’t have happened.
Keeping your eye on your money. We don’t want to keep our purses on the floor either. We want to keep our money.
If that’s what you believe, I’m not with the superstition.
I can never put my purse on the ground around like Sylvia.
Required Mindset For Entrepreneurship
Tracey, talk about what lessons you’ve learned as an entrepreneur. You have been dropping so many pearls. I have this nice list here as far as rolling over your 401(k), betting on yourself, paying attention or I would call ear hustling to stuff that’s going on around you. What lessons have you learned as an entrepreneur?
I would say as an entrepreneur, the hardest thing is to get out of the mindset of working for somebody. That mindset is very difficult to get out of. I always used to joke around and say, “We’re picking cotton on the computer,” because it is like a slave mentality. You’re safe. You have this false sense of safety when you work for a company. You have to get out of that mindset and focus on, “What can I do?” Focus on yourself and that you only have yourself to make this money and whoever else you might bring into your company, scaling up or whatever. You have to focus on yourself. You have to have things in front of you that, for me, positive affirmations and listening to positive motivational things to keep you in the mind frame of doing your own thing.
When you first walk away from corporate America when you have done it for so long, it is a shock. At least it was for me. It’s not everybody, but it was for me. That was one of the hardest things to overcome. The biggest thing I can say is you cannot go wrong betting on yourself. It’s no different than you’re betting on yourself even when you leave a job and try to get another job. That is betting on yourself that you know you’re capable. Let’s say you went up for a manager position, and you didn’t get it with the current place you’re at, but they might not see your value. This company over here might.
You cannot go wrong betting on yourself. Share on XIt’s the same concept. Believe in yourself because the mindset is everything. If you don’t believe in yourself, you’re not going to be able to do it. I don’t like the word fail. I hate that because I don’t believe that none of us fail. You make mistakes and you move on. I think that’s part of life. I don’t believe in failure. It’s like, “Oops, I’m not going to do that again.” That was a little bit of a mistake, but it’s not a failure. Even if your business had to close down for whatever reason as an entrepreneur. Maybe you didn’t have the money management skills that you should have had. That’s not a failure because the bottom line is you can get up and do it again. You’ve already proven that.
With more knowledge.
When you learn and grow.
You learn, and you grow as you go.
Tracey’s Self-Care Regimen
Tracey, this has been awesome and so much wisdom that you’ve shared with our listeners. I heard the positive affirmations and self-improvement, I think, as an entrepreneur, you can’t do enough of that to continue to keep that positive part of my spirit at all times if I can. Tell us anything else in terms of your self-care regimen that you’d like to share with our audience.
What do I do for self-care? Mine is a little corny. I love the movies. I go to the movies. My husband hates it. He’ll fall asleep on a movie at the house. I hate paying for him to even go to the movies because he’ll be asleep unless it’s full of action. I love going to the movies. That’s my self-care that I do. I go in the middle of the day because it’s cheaper. I get popcorn. That’s one of the things I love to do.
It doesn’t have to be anything extraordinary for anybody. I always believe that we have to do something for ourselves, but it can be little. It could be that you love looking at magazines, but you’ve been too busy, so you pick up a Vogue magazine. It could be that small. It could be that you have little kids, and they always have your attention. I used to have to go in the bathroom and train my daughter, “Don’t come in here when I’m in the bath,” but I would sit in the bathroom, chilling, and looking at a magazine, so I can have some downtime. It can be that small. It doesn’t have to be something major.
My thing is I want to leave everybody with we are the authors of our stories. What story do you want to tell about yourself? Whatever it is that you dream about or think about or whatever the case is in your wildest dreams, you can do it. Anything that we can imagine, we can do. There’s nothing that we can’t do if we imagine it. My goal is to have a financial literacy building where I can get some of these multi-millionaires and billionaires to come in and teach these people.
I don’t know how I’m going to get it done, but that’s in my wildest dreams. Somebody might want to be a cleaner or own a cleaner or a grocery. There are people out there that are doing it. Let’s teach them. That’s how we build a community where we don’t have to depend on anybody else. That’s where Together Everyone Achieves Financially comes from.
Get In Touch With Tracey
Tracey, where can our audience find you?
The easiest thing is to go to my website and book an appointment. I’m not on Instagram and all that. They can go to TEAFinancially.com, and book an appointment with me.
Tracey Craddock, we thank you at Boss Leap. This has been a fantastic conversation and we look forward to having you back as you build your entire building for financial literacy.
That makes me nervous.
That’s how we grow. Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure.
Thank you for having me. This was so much fun. I enjoyed it.
—
Episode Wrap-up And Takeaways
Sylvia, that was amazing. I loved everything that Tracey Craddock had to say in terms of building your financial health and wealth, and even some of the ideas that she has for the future. I loved it. She’s going to be a value to our audience, for sure. In terms of takeaways, one that I love is we are the authors of our own stories. To me, it’s a reminder to stay on task when it’s easy. If you’re involved with social media, for whatever reason, whether it’s marketing or a hobby, it’s easy to be led down a road of someone else’s life and, “ I’m not doing this or I should be doing that.” I’m the author of my own story.
I think staying focused on what my purpose is and what I want to do keeps me in line with what I’m truly supposed to be doing. I love that part. Positive affirmations and part of her self-care, I love that. I’ve got a lot, but one of mine is I’m in control of my happiness. That’s a reminder that no matter what’s going on around you, you get to choose how you respond and what you take with you throughout the day. I hate the mindset of, “You ruined my day,” or “Because of what you said, now I’m in a bad mood,” but you can choose.
That’s because you give away your power.
How about you? Tell me what you got out of this.
I so enjoyed talking to Tracey and many things resonated with me, like when she talked about focusing on yourself and betting on yourself. I think we heard that several episodes previously, if I remember, with Jennifer Williams. She talked about betting on yourself and keeping an entrepreneurial mindset where your focus and believing in yourself are the most important things. When she talked about how she stayed positive and affirmed herself, I have a couple.
I think Ariana Grande has a song, Yes. I am in the mindset of saying yes to myself, knowing that I am capable of doing whatever it is because that, in my brain, leaves the possibility of something greater than the universe has in store for me, so I say, yes. The other one for me is being grateful in advance. I’m so grateful to have these conversations with you on a weekly basis. I’m so grateful for our audience, our guests, and our new audience members and subscribers. Those are my take homes for today.
Boss Leap travel. Yes-and our future. I love that. Thank you so much. Wonderful. I’m sure our audience has a lot of takeaways as well. If you all have anything that you’d like to share or that you’d like to see us talk about, please let us know at BossLeapPodcast.com. Until we meet again, may you be well.
May you be well.
Important Links
- Tracey Craddock on LinkedIn
- T.E.A. Financially
- The Game Plan
- How Betting On Yourself Can Make A Difference With Jennifer Williams
About Tracey Craddock
Tracey Craddock Founder and CEO of TEA Financially has over 18 years of experience in the financial services industry. She is a highly accomplished financial advisor who has dedicated her career to helping individuals and families achieve their financial goals. With a wealth of knowledge and expertise in retirement planning and life insurance strategies, Tracey is known for her personalized approach and her ability to develop tailored solutions that meet the unique needs of each of her clients.
Her passion for financial education and empowerment is evident in everything she does, and she is dedicated to helping her clients understand their options and make informed decisions about their financial futures. Whether through one-on-one consultations or group presentations, Tracey is highly skilled in communicating complex financial concepts in a clear and accessible manner.
With her expertise and her commitment to providing exceptional service, she is the ideal advisor for anyone looking to secure their financial future and plan for a comfortable retirement. She believes in taking a holistic approach and working together with you to create a plan that is best suited for you, your family, and your life.