I sat down with my good friend and financial wellness expert Leanna Haakons, from Black Hawk Financial and writer of the book “Young, Fun, & Financially Free“, to discuss all things money and overcoming roadblocks to financial freedom.
Leanna’s firm helps their clients generate revenue by providing their clients with value and education to their target market and investors. She has over 11 years of experience working with numerous funds – including private and public companies worldwide in various sectors.
If that’s not enough… she is also an accomplished business and media host and a best-selling financial literacy author!
**Earn a chance to get a free signed copy of her book – follow us on Instagram for details**
I get to call her my friend, and you all get to discover some wisdom she has today on how to attain financial independence.
You can also listen on Spotify, iTunes and Stitcher
Leanna’s First Intro to the Financial Freedom Concept
When Leanna was in high school, she started watching CNBC after school every day. Friends of hers who were in college were involved with the stock market, and because they had been trading, they were able to acquire a fancier life style.
She was curious as to why, while they were in school, they were able to obtain nicer cars and they explained it was because they were involved with trading and directed her towards which shows to watch.
Leanna continued her education by watching Mad Money throughout college and looking up the stock picks on CNBC or other platforms and compare other analysts’ thoughts about it. She started reading books and self-taught her stock market education.
To me, that is the beginning stage for everyone: awareness.
That’s what happened to me when I was younger – I saw how people lived differently and wondered how. There was something different out there, and I wanted to know how.
Same with Leanna.
She started researching and using the free tools and resources once she became AWARE of the fact that there was a different way to make money.
A lot of people assume that you need a lot of money or big fancy software to get started – that’s not the case. It wasn’t the case with Leanna.
Roadblocks That Keep People From Starting to Invest
In Leanna’s book, she states that there are 3 major myths to investing.
Myth #1 –
“I don’t know enough – investing is too risky and too complicated”.
“You really don’t have to know a ton to get started”, she says. “You have to know the basics”.
She recommends putting aside a little bit from each paycheck and putting it into something ELSE to get started.
Your checking account is earning less than 1%, less than inflation. So you are losing money by just keeping it there over time.
“You HAVE to invest your money” because of that, she says.
“Whether you know nothing, or even very little, you have to teach yourself”.
She recommends taking the time even to start teaching yourself a little bit – start with free resources (like here on www.TheBrownReport.com)
Myth #2 –
People think that they don’t have enough money
She says that if you just have $100, you can open up an account with an online broker, and just start with putting it into an ETF.
Myth #3 –
Investing is too risky
“It is way, way, WAY riskier to do absolutely nothing than to start doing a very little bit of something”.
Practical Ways to Getting Started with Investing
I find when I speak to people, many are living outside of their financial red line.
Meaning they are using 100% of their income and then putting even more on their credit cards. So they have nothing left to invest.
Leanna says the easiest thing to do first is to cut back on expenses and live below your means.
It’s easier to look at your true needs of yourself and your family over trying to find ways to make more money right away.
She recommends taking an initial analysis of looking at your debit/credit cards of the previous two months and seeing what you spent money on. Put it into “Needs” and “Wants” categories.
“Most people think that they are living to their maximum every month and that it’s a necessity, but that’s not necessarily a necessity”, Leanna states.
If you are a homeowner, as a suggestion she says you can rent out your home and rent a smaller place to increase income and decrease expenses.
People don’t think about how one change can impact your entire financial future” – Leanna
I personally have had to do something similar. I moved back home with my mom twice in my life. But we make sacrifices for where we plan to be.
Now I have a house on the lake – but it’s only because of the short-term sacrifice I made THEN to have the life style I want NOW.
Some people will hold on to something that’s killing them and blocking their chance to invest.
They are mortgaging their future.
They do not want to give up anything now, even if it means having a better situation later.
Many do not look at the LONG-TERM plan, they just see the sacrifice of now and do not want to do it.
You have to shift your focus and mindset.
You cannot care what other people think of you or what other people are going to say.
As an example…
A financial advisor went to a town and asked around about who said they didn’t have enough money to get started investing. The town pointed the advisor to two school teachers – one made $40K a year and the other made $50K a year. Both had two kids and a small home.
The first teacher he asked: “How much does it take to live?” and he replied “It takes absolutely $40K a year to survive”.
He asked the second teacher the same question and he replied, “It takes absolutely $50K a year to survive”.
The point?
There is something that the second teacher could give up that equates to $10K a year, and the first could increase their income by $10K a year and not increase the living expenses.
Sometimes it is something that you must learn – and sometimes there is something you can CUT from your income.
Sometimes it’s both – you can learn something new AND cut from your income.
“When you are willing to make a money sacrifice, it makes space for big opportunities to come into your life”, says Leanna.
She also mentions that you have to work hard at it. If you are going to keep spending, nothing will change so you need to change that pattern.
Lessons Learned
Sometimes the risk isn’t worth it
With Leanna’s experience and in her line of work, a lot of times she will take compensation as stock in the company, even up to 50% of her compensation.
Most of those have not worked out, she says, and you still have to work extremely hard.
Leanna says that when you’re young, you take a lot of that risk on and hope it pays off… but unfortunately a lot of it hasn’t yet.
For the most part, Leanna has been a swing to long-term only trader/investor.
She has been more into fundamental research and not as much the technicals. Of her investing account, about 40% is individual stocks while the rest is involved in ETFs and international opportunities.
One of her first investments was Apple (AAPL) when she was about 20 and had it for 4 years… she wish that she had held on to it.
When you are investing, it is all a learning experience” -Leanna
Don’t overtrade
New investors and traders may have the tendency to overtrade at first, she explains. Leanna thinks back to when she was in her early 20’s and didn’t have enough knowledge or had gone through a course.
She recommends that that is something to look out for – getting the knowledge before overtrading initially.
And she believes gaining proper knowledge of how to trade includes thinking about your long-term goals.
And I agree – you need to have the knowledge.
Some people do overtrade – I see this with newer traders. They check their trade daily and panic if it goes down even a little bit. But to zoom out and take a look at the overall pattern takes skill. You will make more money if you stick with the pattern over time verses getting in and out of the same trade many times.
Have an end goal clearly in mind
I also think that you need to take a step back FIRST and decide: Am I an investor, or am I a trader?
In a YouTube video, I explained that trading can be a part of the overall investing plan.
You have to look at your END GOAL and see how trading and investing plays into your goals.
For example, when I first started trading, I wanted to constantly flip my money to increase more. Now that I have a bigger trading account, I would rather enter into just a few trades to increase my account over time to lower my risk.
Don’t believe ALL of the hype
Leanna says what she got caught up in when she first started to trade was the hype of the media of the markets. It drew her into the excitement into making it a career.
BUT she knows now that someone should NOT get all their information about the stock market just from the media. You need to have other resources.
A lot of people start learning by trading, and you should be trading for a goal, she explains.
Women & Modern-day Investing
Back in my day, there aren’t a lot of women in the financial circle. Especially when I was growing up and wanting to get involved in the investing industry, a lot of the people on TV or educators were older, white men.
And no disrespect to them – but that just seemed to be the only demographic. I definitely didn’t see black men, or any women of any race.
Now we are in the space of social media, you don’t have to go to Wall Street to get exposure to the stock market or finances.
Leanna believes that whether you are a single woman or not single, you need to know what is going on in the financial scene.
Even if you are married or someone takes care of the finances for you, still have that knowledge. You may not have that taken care of you forever, unfortunately.
She says to learn all the details of the finances – because if something were to happen, you do not want to be taken completely aback or thrown off sideways.
Whether you are a man or a woman, turning a blind eye to finances is completely irresponsible” – Leanna
Everyone needs to take care of their finances so you can know what is going on.
What if your accumulating debt, and you don’t even know about it? What if the mortgage isn’t getting paid, and you don’t even know about it? She wants you to ask yourself.
“We all have different goals and timelines, but we need to learn to live within those means”, she says regarding different financial situations.
“None of this learned this in school – so you HAVE to teach yourself”, she states.
A lot of people think that going to school is going to teach you what you need to know about trading and investing… but that’s not the case.
School teaches you the “book” version, not the actual skills and life version of investing.
That is why she stresses the importance of no matter who you are, that you HAVE to learn how to take care of yourself and your family financially.
To gain more of Leanna’s wisdom, experience, and insights, be sure to check out her book “Young, Fun, & Financially Free”.
All the proceeds of the book go to the WE Charity which supports the economy for people in Kenya and other developing countries.
Want to get a FREE GIVEAWAY of her book? Follow us on Instagram to see how you can get a free and signed hard copy.
Leanna’s key audience are people who are new to investing, want to gain financial independence, and being healthy and having a wellness life. If that’s you… you DEFINITELY want to check out her amazing content…
You can find Leanna here on Instagram and Twitter.
Her hope is that you follow financial educators and learn how to be financially independent, because you deserve it.