How to Become Rich: Investing for Beginners

Are you the person that enjoys investing in things that you use? Maybe start with stocks. Are you the person that has heart palpitations every time something bad goes on? Maybe don't be a day trader. Maybe be like a passive investor. Are you the person that loves entrepreneurship and wants to give back to other entrepreneurs? Maybe be an angel investor. So you really want to start with where you're comfortable with your personality because don't go try doing something that's just not you. You want to do something where you're like, I could see myself doing this. This would be kind of cool.

Hey. Hey. Welcome back. It is right on time that we are hanging out right here, right now, together, this incredible episode. We're going to chat with Ange, who is an investor, investment coach, founder of the Happy Investor method. And listen up. You will not find Ange on a lot of social media. She just chooses not to do a lot of social media because there are other places she's showing up. And I had to tell you that because she did not drop that until the end. And we could have went down a whole nother conversation and path about that. But what we covered in this episode might shift the way you think about money, might shift the way you feel about your business and how you create wealth and how you step into the future of your wealth generation. Because her goal is to make investing accessible and fun for all. She's got step by step blueprints. She's helped thousands of individuals and businesses learn how to use the stock market. She first started investing when she was making 40,000 a year and was six figures in debt. She's a self taught first generation investor. Wait until you hear about how close she was to money growing up. But it wasn't a part of her story until later. And she went on to not only generate multiple six figure incomes passively in the stock market, but helps others do the same. She's got her money invested in a variety of places and I'm really pumped for you to listen into this episode in case you're thinking maybe there's another way I can do this money making career entrepreneurship thing. She has courses, workshops, seminars, and she's all about helping people, especially women and people of color put their money to work to change the world. You're going to feel changed listening to Ange speak in this episode. Her investments have allowed her to travel all over the world. Listen up to find out her favorite destination out of the more than 50 countries she has traveled to. Taking care of her parents, paying for her wedding, purchasing her first home, all while planting the seeds to create her own trust fund babies. She resides in Flower Mound, Texas, where she creates abstract paintings and records a private motivational podcast in her meditation studio. I mean, just that intro. What a beautiful variety of things that come up in Angel's life. And she's managing money. Something very tangible. All balanced with that meditation studio. I mean, you just know there's going to be gold. So let's just dive right into this. And you've got to tag me in. I am on social Amber McHugh on Instagram. Let me know what you think of this episode. Leave a review if you got a nugget in here. And definitely reach out to Ange athappy investor method.com. this is gonna be good. I can't wait for you to listen.

Go, go.

Okay. Here you go. And thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be here.

Oh, my gosh. Me too. And we were literally just chit chatting a little bit before we started packing. I'm like, can't talk anymore. Have to hit record because you just started to tell me that you were in. You traveled a lot. I know. And you were most. You were recently. Before. What did you say? Before COVID You were in South Africa.

Yeah, before the pandemic. I was in South Africa and you're.

In Cape Town in Jo'.

Burg.

What did you think?

This is a really interesting question. It's almost like asking, do you like L A or New York? They're totally different vibes. Right. And I loved the. The comfort of Cape Town because we went to Vineyards and it was just such a beautiful experience. However, I'm originally from New York City, so I did appreciate the raw, honest of Joburg.

That is so good for me to hear because I am Cape Town obsessed. And I haven't been to Pretoria or Joburg yet. So it's good to hear your feedback.

Definitely New York vibes in Joburg.

Okay. Handle that.

Yeah, it's.

I gotta do a trip.

You should. And it's a really beautiful place. We also went to Zimbabwe, and Zimbabwe was amazing. I think that probably was my favorite. Wow.

Okay. That's good here. Because Cape Town is like Cape Town and Lisbon probably compete for my favorites. So hearing that.

Yes.

Something trumped Cape Town and Joburg. Trump Cape Town. Yeah. That's amazing.

Well, it's different.

They're different. Yeah. And you said, I think you've been to 45 countries. Is that right?

Oh, geez. It's now like 50 something.

Okay. What's your favorite favorite?

So my favorite favorite is India. Always India for me.

Wow.

And it's not favorite because it's comfortable. I mean, if I love a little bit of an interesting trip. And I think travel has the ability to change your life, and that isn't more. There isn't a country where that happened more for me than India. It literally just blew my socks off. There's nothing that can prepare you for India. It doesn't matter what anyone tells you. You're gonna either love it, hate it, and chances are, probably be both.

Oh, my gosh. I have goosebumps. Because you're right. It can change you. Traveling, being in a new environment, experiencing something completely different than what we're used to. Yeah.

Yeah. That will change you to your core.

Did you always travel a lot or did this start more when you shifted paths in your career?

I wish that I could say that it just started, but no, I've been. I mean, you don't get to 50 countries in like, five years unless you've got a true goal for that. But for me, even when I was in college, I thought credit cards were created so I can travel and backpack and. And I fully treated it that way. So I've been going since the tender age of probably in my 20s. But my parents did take me abroad when I was younger, so I went to England. I went to Guyana, which is where my parents are originally from. And they planted the seed of, you need a passport, because this isn't everything. You have to go out and meet people who might not be fortunate enough to come and meet us here.

This is so good. Um, speaking of fortunes and the. For being fortunate, you create fortunes. And so this is a good little segue. Your story is so cool. You were working a job, making 40k a year, is that right?

Yep.

And you started thinking about wealth differently, Creating wealth in stock markets and investing. How. How did this happen?

So it's really funny because I think everyone just needs one bad relationship to set you right. Right. Whether this is a romantic relationship, whether this is a financial relationship, a work job relationship. And for me, it was my work job. And I was working 40 plus hours a week, really and truly, 12 to 12. And they weren't paying me for it. And I kept on asking for a raise, and they just kept saying, we don't have a budget for it. It's not within our means. And this was when I recruiter, so I was actually cutting checks for twice of what they paid me. And they just always came up with the money for everyone else but me. And I thought to myself, well, I'm in a sucky situation where I just can't leave. I didn't have that huge savings. I didn't want to go back to my parents with the, you know, my tail between my legs. I turned down an offer at Goldman Sachs. And this was really one of those moments where it's just like maybe I didn't make the right decision and I'm feeling it. And so what I thought to myself, I actually googled, you know when you're sitting at your desk and you have a ton of work to do, what you obviously do is not the work you're supposed to do. And I sat there and googled how do you become rich? Because I was just in one of those points where I felt so deflated, so unappreciated, and I thought, it sucks that I'm here in this situation only for the money. And that's just never where we want to be, regardless of how much you make. And so I googled that and they said, hey, if you're going to be rich. And it took me a couple hours. I was sitting there with a million tabs open and it finally came down to if you're going to be self made. Because I really understood that I'm not really going to inherit wealth, nor did I want to wait for someone to die to get whatever was coming to me. And so they said, you're either going to have to start entrepreneurship or you're going to have to start investing. Most self made people do both. And I thought from then on, you know what, here we go, we're just going to try to do both.

Oh my gosh. Did you have any experience in investing before this?

I had zero experience. If there was a way to have negative experience, that's what I had. So I had a very close relationship to debt because I had six figures in debt at the time. And every time I googled, how do you invest with debt? Everyone said, don't do it, pay off your debt first. And for me I thought, well, the debt is my past. What's happening with my future here? Because my present is the present. And everyone kept on saying, pay off your debt. And I thought, this is not going to work out right because I'm going to be debt free and that still equals zero. And I don't want zero, I want like multimillion. So what are we going to do here? And I decided to do both. So that's why I said I came from Negative backgrounds. Because my first relationship with money was from a. From a lack. Right? My parents were paycheck to paycheck folks. They were rich in love, but they did not teach me about stocks and bonds and anything like that because it just wasn't accessible. What were.

What careers did your parents have when you were growing up?

Ooh, chow. So my dad actually worked at a bank, which is the most ironic thing ever. The man who worked for. Worked on Wall street, worked as a leading operations specialist, clearing trades, but never actually invested in the stock market. And it was really crazy, right, because a lot of us are around things that we could do, but we're just. It's still inaccessible, you know, from my dad at the time, you would need multiple thousands of dollars to partake in the stock market, and they weren't paying him that much. And he also had other responsibilities like a family and his parents and all those things. And so it really wasn't in his realm of experience. I'm helping people do this, and I can do it myself. So that's what my dad did. And my mom was a caretaker, so she took care of elderly people. She was really the hustler in the family. She would take care of old people. She would start a cleaning business around Christmas time. She was just that person who would figure it out. And even though I was extremely ashamed of it growing up, because I thought, oh my gosh, you're a cleaner. I hope we never clean someone's house that I know from school. Which, I mean, what are the odds? Because she made sure to go in the rich areas to fly her around. Good. She's really excellent. Her acumen for the hustle and the grind. But all this to say, that's where my parents came from. So I'm really a person who's changing our legacy and our generational wealth by what I'm doing. It's really undone for my family.

It's incredible. So how did you. How did you step into it? Did you just start Googling? Did you like. And how much did you start with?

I love this question because now that I teach it, and I've been teaching for about seven years, and I get so many crazy questions. You don't want to know. But one of the biggest questions I get is like, how much do you have to start with? And when I realized that this question is not necessarily about the dollar amount, it's really about how much are you comfortable losing? How much are you comfortable with trying out something new and not knowing where it's going to Go. And that has nothing to do with, with how much you actually have. You can have thousands saved up and be okay with only losing a hundred bucks. Right after it gets beyond a hundred, if it gets to 5,000, your nervous system starts freaking out. You go into scarcity, so you don't touch it. So at the time when I started, I just did a percentage of what I made. And I think this is the easiest way to think about it. If you can start doing 5% of what you make or 10%. So for me I, at the time my take home paycheck was 550 bucks. So I would just do 50 bucks a week. Right. And that was 200 bucks a month. And that 200 bucks a month. I would love to say that it made me a multimillionaire in the beginning and it absolutely did not. Like I was just doing the Google searches and YouTube videos and I ended up losing a lot of my money in the beginning. And that's what most people do.

Yeah, I mean, yeah. Where do you start? Okay, I'm just, I'm find it on the Google. I don't know, just start playing around. I do not invest. It's funny, my talk about like, how much are you willing to lose? My husband and I had a conversation when he started investing in crypto and it's funny because I'm like, okay, I don't want to know. This is, we agreed on an amount that we are willing to lose and invest. And he's continued to invest as things have gone up and down. And yesterday or the day before I read an article, I'm like, bitcoin went up, we're up to 30,000. How much bitcoin do we have? We just have one, right? One or two. He's like, we don't even have a whole bitcoin. Okay, I'm just going to keep ignoring it.

But it still went up. And that's the cool thing about investments, right? So even if you have half a bitcoin, an entire coin, I mean when I started I had a tenth of a coin. And that tenth of a coin still went up when bitcoin went up. And that's the whole part about it. It doesn't matter how much dollars you make per se, it's about how much of your dollars are making money. Right? That's all that matters is how much of the money that you have is actually doing something better than what the rest is doing. The rest is being spanked.

Right.

The rest is going down the toilet after we go out On a lavish meal. The rest is on our body looking fabulous. The rest of the money is like in our homes. The rest of the money, it's in doing a lot of other stuff. It's in other people's pockets. But for this little specific corner of your wallet where you have investments, what's that doing? Well, that's making money. So that makes you feel a lot better about the other stuff that's happening because somebody's making money and that's okay. That's actually really good.

Good. Okay. Because you're right. I am more inclined. Like, I just like my, my. I got some money sitting in the bank account. I'm like, I like it there. That's like, no, it's not working for us. Of course I'm an entrepreneur and I've got investments and I've got things going on, but there is money that could be working for us in some way. To your point, even if it's a hundred bucks, that what are you willing to lose? Oh, my gosh, Ange, I've got so much running through my mind now. But I, I want to back up because you were. Got it. You had a decision between Goldman Sachs offer and did you just turn it down?

So you got that.

And then what?

So I had a summer internship at Goldman Sachs. It's called a summer analyst. And it's this really highly coveted position where three people from my entire university got an offer and me as a liberal arts student actually got the offer.

Oh, my gosh.

Which was amazing. And I took it because I thought, I'm going to learn how to make a crapload of money. This is amazing. I'm going to be so rich because I'm going to be working for the richest people in the world, which is Goldman Sachs. And I went there and I didn't actually learn how to make my own money. All I did was learn how to manage other people's money. So I saw that extreme wealth existed. I mean, I was in my early twenties managing millions and millions of dollars and trading them to offshore accounts and looking at the Bahamas, Cayman island, ridiculous wealth. And then when I tried to figure out, well, how did you get this in the first place? It was a dead end. And at the same time, I also saw my personality changing. Right. So Goldman has a culture, and it's a very elitist, It's a very we're the best of the best, screw anyone else kind of culture. And it was changing me at a very impressionable age. Right. I was in college making more than my parents and so of course, I had a little chip on my shoulder. I was changing. And I started seeing myself become something that I never saw myself as, which was someone who was very money hungry and almost disrespectful. And not that other people in this industry are, but that's just what it did to me. I, like, became the nemesis in my good person story. Like, I was kind of mean and rich and like.

When did you realize, like, that was. That that was happening?

I realized it when I was in a really bad relationship. So, you know, when you make one bad decision, you don't just make one bad decision. Like, how you do one thing is pretty much how you do a lot of other things. And so the other thing I did was get into this really grimy relationship with someone that I never thought I'd see myself with. And my mother met him and, and this lady looked at me and then she met him, was super polite. And then at the end of the evening, she came to me and she just said in my face, Ang, my spirit doesn't agree with this person. Ooh, clutch the pearls on your neck.

Yes, yes.

What do you do with that? What do you do when your mama comes to you and tells her her spirit? And my mom is not the type to intervene ever in my relationships, except for that one time. So then I thought, well, damn, how did I end up, you know, this is when you do some self reflection. How did I get here? Why am I with this person? Where else in my life are things this way? Like, who am I? And that's when I had a, you know, a coming to moment of there are a lot of things wrong right now and I'm just going to start nipping at them. And the lucrative Goldman position was one of them.

Okay, so you started down the path of entrepreneur and invest before you quit or you quit and then started down that path.

So I didn't accept the offer. They extended an offer and I did not accept the offer to continue. And then I said, I'm smart, I'm going to get a lot of other jobs, Right? Naturally, says the naive smart person. And like, who starts a business? Like, I'm a genius. I'm going to make a crapload of money when I start my company. And then you find out about marketing and you're like, like, so this is a lot harder than I thought.

Take some time.

Exactly. So for me, I ended up scrapping around and it was right before the recession. So I was a college student. This was backdrop 2007, 2008 I got a job at Ralph Lauren doing budgetary finance. I knew I didn't want to do numbers anymore. I knew I was a really personable person. And so I said, okay, I could do fashion. You know, let me do some fashion. It's not Goldman, but it's Ralph Lauren. It's cool. Still, my entire day is all Excel. Still not learning how to make a lot of money. So then I thought, you know what? If I'm going to be wealthy and if I'm going to be my own person, a business owner, I need to learn how to be an extrovert. At the time, I was painfully introverted. My stomach would tighten up when I was in a crowd, more than four people. And I know you might be listening to this and thinking, ange, a crowd is not for people. But to me, in an introvert, it is. And I got a job as a recruiter, and that was that job that I mentioned at the beginning where I wasn't paid a lot and I took the L because I really needed a job. But then I also thought, I'm going to learn how to be more extroverted. And I'm going to learn because you're paying me to be extroverted. So I'm going to learn the skill of connection and understanding, humanity and negotiation, as well as the ins and outs of a business based on recruiting talent. And that's kind of the beginning of the end right there. That's when I had anxiety attacks in the stairwell, probably because I was an introvert doing an extroverted job. That's when I started the Google searches because I was asking for more money because I was used to having more money from Goldman job and Ralph Lauren. And this is like. This is the origin story.

Oh, my gosh. Wild. And it's so interesting how you stepped out of.

Right, okay.

Goldman Sachs job. We are not in alignment. Let me go, Ralph Lauren pit stop to way not in alignment. Like, I'm going to push myself even further out of comfort zone. But this is when we start to experience learn. Like, okay, no, I just. I've got to remember where I just heard this quote. I'll think of it. But the gist of it is that if you don't allow yourself the opportunity to hit rock bottom, you. You're not allowing yourself the opportunity to fully heal. And I was like, oh, yeah. Like, I resist that rock bottom. And you just, like, leaned into it. You're like, I'm gonna keep going. I'm gonna. I am not happy. I'm gonna try to push myself out of my comfort zone a little bit more. And it opened things up for you.

Yes, absolutely. And when you say that, what I'm thinking of. Radical results require radical change.

Yeah.

And it's, what are you willing to do to get what you want?

All of that. Radical results require radical change. What are you willing to do to get what you want? Mic drop.

Yeah. I'm not advocating getting on the pole, by the way. You know, whatever.

Whatever floats people's boats.

I mean, whatever floats your boat. But don't come back. Like you told me, that I need to do a radical change. Oh, my gosh. I'm just gonna put that out there. I'm from New York, so anything could kind of go right.

I love it. Oh, my gosh. That's funny. I once I. I have a boudoir photography company. We're in 26 cities. And after that, I was like, you know, how can I make more cash? I'm feeling pretty good. Should I. Should I go to Playboy? Should I try? I ultimately, didn't. I. That pushed me down the path of entrepreneurship because it was a total catalyst for, like, okay, I can do that kind of photo shoot. I can do anything. So it really got my wheels turning. But what are you willing to do to get those results? Okay, so where do we go from here? I have so many questions, but I'm just kind of sitting in this incredibleness that is your journey.

It is. It's. I think when we think about our journeys, especially as our financial ones, I think a lot of folks think of it as separate. They think, this is how much money I'm going to make, and this is where I want to do, and the kind of lifestyle and really and truly, they intertwine so much. Your money story and what you are supposed to do in the world and how you express yourself every single day are so intertwined. And when I think about, say, your net worth or your money, I think about it as your reputation. Like, when you step out of the room, what does your money do? And for a lot of us, it does nothing because we stepped out the room. Right. If your money is tied to your income and your time is tied to your income, and all these things are dependent on you, when you step out the room, money's on a break, and that's not okay. And we think about our reputations. We put so much emphasis on our brand, so much emphasis on our reputation on what we're doing for our clients, as well as so much emphasis on how much revenue are we making. But then when you step out of that context, then what's really there? And that's really a quintessential question we all get to ask ourselves, especially when it comes to our money. Right? And for me, it's not that right for me. Just to give you an example of what it could look like when that's not the situation the scenario looks like. When I'm not working, when I'm taking an eight month maternity leave, I have other assets working for me. Whether it is hotels that are bringing in ownership, whether it's real estate, whether it is intellectual property from courses, whether it's investments, whether it's dividends. I'm always constantly thinking, when Ange needs a moment to stop being Ange, does this mean that our financial status and our financial well being stops too? Because that's really stressful.

That is a stressful thought, which is the case. I just came across a news article of how many people are living paycheck to paycheck. And the number right now, now is just ticking up because of right global financial circumstances. So how do we get out of that cycle and start this journey to have our money working for us when we need that break? Because people break right now too.

We do, and I call them blinders. So oftentimes people talk about competition, comparison. And to me, I think it was Tim Ferriss where I got the idea of don't look at the news. If something really crazy is going to happen, you'll find out about it. And, and I feel as if this is a bad thing to say, but it's been a long time since I've actually sat down and watched the news. And there are many reasons for this and benefits. First of all, my mental health has improved so much from not watching consistent doom and gloom, right? Because it really does take a hit on you. And if there's anything crazy that doesn't be found out, people just tell me. You see it on social media. Someone calls you, they're like, did you prepare for the tornado that's coming tomorrow? I'm like, what a tornado? Okay, right. So it's little stuff like that. You put it out to the universe. Universe. If I have to know something, let me know. Same thing for even this episode, right? Somebody is thinking maybe I should start investing or thinking about it. And then this episode pops up, universe has got you. So when you start thinking about universe has got you, the universe has got you, you have got you, regardless of whatever is happening around you. And the only way to understand that is to put your Blinders on. Almost as if you're thinking about a horse at the Kentucky Derby. And do you ever notice how when horses are running, do they get to see what the other horse is doing next to them? No, not. They've got blinders on. There's a reason for blinders. So once you have the blinders, all that. It's almost as if you have headphones. Everything else falls to the side. You put your blinders on, you say, where am I now? And where do I want to be? It doesn't matter what's happening in the world. It really doesn't because you have your own personal power. So you just put a number out there. I want to be here. And this is where I am now. Okay, universe, I'm ready to see the signs as to how to make that happen. Okay, nervous system. I'm going to do it, even though it feels really uncomfortable. Okay, mind, I'm going to use you as the tool that you are to help me figure out this and to use discernment. Right? And as you start thinking about these things, you start actually planning. You know, I didn't think it was possible to be a hotel owner. I really didn't. I just. I mean, come on. Like, who owns hotels?

Yeah, who owns. I didn't know. Wait, I. You own hotels? Tell us about your, like investment, like collection portfolio.

Okay, I can talk about the portfolio. And this is really unique because I don't really talk about it as much, but I will now. And the reason why I don't talk about it as much because I talk about my clients and I'm so. I just teach a lot. And so for us right now, what's in my portfolio, we've got two hotels. They're not whole ownership. I'm investing with 30 other investors. We each put in our pooled our money together and we own two hotels. One in Kentucky. Probably that's why I said the Derby, because that was a part of the revenue model for that hotel and the investment thesis. And we also have one in Indianapolis by the Indy 500. So of course you can tell sporting events and having hotels around. Those was the investment thesis there. I recently acquired a position in SpaceX, which is really cool because I always wanted to be an astronaut and probably that won't happen, but I own a spaceship in some weird way, so that's cool. We've also got. I got a crapload of stock, so I have a lot of stocking companies because the stock market's been around for generations. And I'm thinking that it will continue to be around. So that's the way I make my money.

Insurable.

I know that the stock market isn't going anywhere and our entire life relies on it. Our entire economic system and the government will never let it fail. 401ks, all of that. So that is insurance to me. That actually makes me feel good. So ton of stock. And I also, we also. My kids have companies, investments as well. And I also am an angel investor, so I have some positions in other. In other companies. It gets really fun. I have debt. So people ask. It's so funny, right? I had a whole lot of debt, six figures. And now we own debt. In terms of people, we loan people money, well, businesses money for collateral. So I have a deed to a cannabis farm in Massachusetts that also owns like the local newspaper. I don't know. But it's just wild and crazy how fun money can get. And I'm learning just as much as anyone else. It's just that I share what I learn.

Yeah, you share what you learn. And you're like, you're, you're learning and you're. You said it. Well, when you're like checking with the nervous system, like, it's going to be okay, we got this.

Ah.

Because those feelings come up. I'm sitting here thinking I want to be ang when I grow up. And like, okay, I start feeling things.

And okay, navigate through that.

Because everybody's got a beginning wherever. If you haven't invested a dollar, if you're just at the beginning or you've got some invested but you want to multiply it. Which leads me to the question, how do we. How do you start down this journey? Are stocks the best place? Is it.

What? Oh, what. So I've got something called a wealth stack and it's actually in one of our freebies. Right. It's just a. It's a staircase. Because you don't want to just throw yourself skydiving into wealth management. It's really scary. And you're probably going to hit something that's not too soft.

And so have you ever heard the phrase just leap and the net will appear? I love that you're like, don't do it. Don't you do that and watch for the net.

Don't you do that, friend. You go and make a net and then you leave.

You make the net.

Yes, go make the net. And then we leave. Right? Go and get a pillow or something. Put it down and then do at least. Exactly. And the net for me is education. Right. So a lot of people Go wrong, where they just act, and then they're like, I'm just gonna learn on the way and wing it. Well, all that's gonna do is prove to yourself and that inner self, part of you that's always waiting to be proven right about how you mess things up. That part is just waiting for you to mess up. So we actually have to be quite cautious because we don't want to serve the wrong narrative. We don't want to serve the narrative from when we were 20 something and made our first money mistakes. We want to serve the narrative of, wow, we're well into our 30s and 40s and 50s, or however you all are, and you've done amazing money things, and this is just one of them. And the way to reinforce that is to create a plan. When you create a plan, you get information. So you just want to kind of understand the landscape of investing. You want to do a pulse test, right? And say, am I the person that enjoys having tenants? Maybe not. Am I the person that would enjoy having tenants and enjoy seeing property and having something physical? If yes, maybe start with real estate. Are you the person that enjoys investing in things that you use? Maybe start with stocks. Are you the person that has heart palpitations every time something bad goes on? Maybe don't be a day trader. Maybe be like a passive investor. Are you the person that loves entrepreneurship and wants to give back to other entrepreneurs? Maybe be an angel investor. So you really want to start with where you're comfortable with your personality, because don't go try doing something that's just not you. You want to do something where you're like, I could see myself doing this. This would be kind of cool. Like, it would be cool for me to own Lululemon because I love yoga and I have a crapload of Lululemon clothes. Mm, that sounds okay. Like, go. Go for it. We're on a MacBook computer right now, recording this. Own some Apple.

Own some Apple. Yeah, those people who bought Apple back in the day.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, nice. Moo. Of course you did. I love it.

I did. I recently released a video showing people what a beginner portfolio looks like. And I had six stocks in the account, and. And Apple was one of them. And all you see are, like, 40 rows of apple trades.

Seriously?

And. And no shame. Some of them were like, $50, $20. It was literally me investing whatever I can in the moment. And then it got up higher where it was like, $100, $1,000. Right. And just to show people that in the beginning, it's going to be awkward and weird and scrappy. And that's okay, because at the end of the day, I still had Apple stock, even if it was just 0.2% of Apple stock. And it matters because now I ended up paying. When you look at the numbers, like, $24 a share for Apple.

Yeah, that's pretty good.

It's pretty damn good.

Oh, my gosh, this is so fun. What is? Of all those things that you mentioned. Oh, outside of stocks, stocks is your favorite, huh? You said you love that. That income it brings. Yeah.

Okay.

Okay. No, we'll just leave it there, because I have a different question, which is your. Your primary paycheck, your primary way of earning comes from stock investments or comes from education or where would you say, like. Because there could be the dividends, right? And actually maybe explain what dividends are. Wrap it all up in there.

So my primary income right now is through entrepreneurship. So businesses. And what I do is. I take that because I have catching up to do. I didn't. You know, they say these things like, oh, if you invested when you were 22, you'd be a millionaire by 35. And I'm like, friend, that was not me. I was six figures in debt just trying to figure it out. Okay. A hot mess. So for those of us who have catching up to do to retirement, I make money and I invest the money. So I probably invest about 30% of what I make. And all I'm doing is making sure that over time, it's going to be 20%, then 10%, right. So that I am investing less and living off of my investments. And this is the way you want to think about it. And so when I think about, yes, I can retire, and I'm sure I'd be pretty fine if I were to just live off of our investments. The thing is that I have really nice taste, and I have really wealthy goals, and I also have a mom that I want to retire and kids that I don't want to ever be in. The question of should they work or choose passion. So I've got some financial things to do, so I'm still in the game. And I also have causes and initiatives, and I'm really good at making money, so I'm not going to stop it probably ever.

I obviously, there's so much here. This is so cool. And I'm also loving your demeanor and your approach to this. Like, I love making money, and there is more to make. And you saw it. You're like, all right, how do I.

Get some of that.

Like, I don't want to just move people's money around. I want to. I would like to earn and take some of this. And there is money for the taking.

There is money for the taking. And it's. You know, I think coming from a humble background that I came from, there was definitely a lot of money story that I had in terms of, if I'm wealthy, does that mean that somebody else is hurting? Does that mean someone else isn't eating? If I'm eating? And that really comes, I think, a lot when you come from a place of not eating. Right. Not having enough money in your. In your past. And it also comes if you have a really good heart and you can just look around and see there are people in need. And what I realize is that we are in a state where there is always more than enough. It's really up to us to decide what that enough is for us.

Yeah.

And it's.

It's okay, whatever it is. And this is actually something that I have been really mulling over lately. And not as much in the money space, but in more. So I grew up with the mentality in the mindset of work hard and you will be rewarded. And sometimes that's a good job from someone, sometimes that's financial. But it all started with that work hard story. So I'm kind of. I've been rewiring this for a while, and I've recently realized, like, it is not over yet. That story is not over. Amber, you can dial it back. And so I'm shifting, like, okay, you can dial it back, and there will still be rewards. Some financial, some otherwise, like, it's good. And. But this comes up in so many different ways for people. The money story, what is my enough? How. How do you determine that? Whether it's in money or in another area of your life? Because you are motivated. You are such a joy and delight, and you've got passion. And I just imagine they're like, all of these things that you could do. How do you bring it back and decide, like, no, this is it. This is enough.

Enoughness is amazing. It's such a. It's such a query, because I think it really does start with understanding that you're enough. Period. Period. Right. Regardless of how much I have or don't have, I'm still enough. Regardless of how much time I have or don't have, I'm enough. Regardless of how many things I do on the checklist or don't do, I'm enough. And that is something that's like. And even as I say it, my voice trembles because this is also something that I have to constantly work on, especially as a high achiever. My body temperature is rising. Like, I'm noticing the triggers that my nervous system puts out to know that we're on shaky, we're on shaky land right here. And how do you measure enoughness with your goals and the work that you have to do on the planet, right? As well as the lifestyle you want to live? And I just look at it every day. I think to myself, if. If God or someone were to say, the jig is up, we're done, am I. Am I okay with that? And every day, you know, every moment I think about it, I don't think about it a lot, a lot. But every moment I think about it, I think I did enough. Whatever it is that I did, I can confidently say I did enough. Like, I've impacted enough people. I've impacted the people that are around me and my family and my friends, and I've impacted the world. I left a little something for the people that I love. It ain't as much as I want, but it's enough. And in knowing that everything else is sprinkles, right? Everything else is sprinkles on top of the whipped cream. Because my life is the whipped cream. And who I am to the core is the ice cream. And so really, I'm doing all this for sprinkles. And let's just be real, sprinkles are great, but you don't need sprinkles, you need ice cream, right? And so that's what helps me understand that, yes, I want to do this and I want to do this, and is it ever enough? No, it's never going to be enough because that's the human condition. And if you understand that, then this is like a little bit of that India coming in, right? A little bit of that yogi. If you understand that this is. This is the. This is the quintessential problem or query we get to solve within being a human in human form is that we are constantly wrangling with what is enoughness and dissatisfaction and all these things, then you realize that this is just a part of my human experience, right? And whatever I accomplish is great. But at the end of the day, I really didn't need to accomplish any of it.

I didn't need to do any of it because you are enough right now.

Yes.

Oh, and I have so many more questions. I keep you here all day, all night, but I know you Got money to make. We need more sprinkles. So tell us, number one, if there's anything you're like, oh, we did not talk about this. I have to tell you this. There's any, like, final word, anything you want us to know, but also, we got to know where to find you. We have to share.

So that was a lot. Can I just say that I feel like that was such an energetic download.

How does it feel? How do you feel?

Like, vibe, like, vibrating, you know, like pulsating. Like, like so. And that's okay. And if you're hearing this, you're probably too. And so what I do want to say is just take, like a moment after this episode to just, like, take, integrate, right? Just write a couple of things down that you took away, some nuggets, some action steps. Even if it's just like, I am always and forever enough, it doesn't matter. But I just want you to integrate that because that was a bit of a quantum leap in, like, five minutes that we just did. And so I just want to acknowledge that in this moment. And then when you're done processing and integrating, come hang out, come play with me. If you see that it is SOL aligned and you like to carry this conversation on or it's fun. My company, the Happy Investor Method, we talk about happiness and money in a very unapologetic, powerful way. And we've got a lot of goodies on our site. So just go to happyinvestormethod.com a lot of folks are social on Instagram and all the things I'm not. I really value my time, my personal space, and my mentality. If you cannot tell, so you're going to find me in the inbox. So put your email in. I'm super old school. When I have something to say, I'm going to say it. It's totally not even like a weekly email. I'm not even all that together. I'm like, when I got something to say, I'm going to tell you. If there's something going on that I think can make you money, I'm going to say like, hey, by the way, did you notice this was happening? This is how it's going to impact you. And that's the best way. You know, I love working with my clients to help them create radical shifts in wealth.

You just dropped another gem there at the end. You're like, nope, not going to be on social. Because so many people I talk to right now are like, oh, my gosh, what do I do? How do I do this. You don't even have to.

It ain't paying me.

People need to get on over to happyinvestormethod.com to follow how you grow, create, build wealth, be an entrepreneur, or invest in other ways and get off the social. If that's what you want.

Yeah, don't. You don't necessarily have to always watch other people's lives. You can make your own.

Oh, my gosh, Ang, you're amazing.

Amber, you're amazing. You're so amazing for having this conversation. I mean, such a gift. Way to be a leader and be intentional.

Oh, my gosh. Thank you. I'm so happy to have had this time with you and grateful and you haven't seen the last of me.

I don't want to. I'm gonna be at your kitchen table.

Thank you again, everybody. Go find Ang. Happyinvestormethod.com get those emails. Get the wealth.

The wealth ladder. The wealth. Yeah, the wealth stack. Yes. That's our freebie. So when you put your email in, you'll get a freebie as well as, like, an affirmation. It's really fun. We will get your right brain and your left brain on board with becoming wealthier.

Thanks, everyone. Thanks, Angie.

Thank you.