379 | Crazy Blessed | Sharon Lechter | How Money Works For Women

Okay. Have you ever wondered, like, I wish I knew how money worked? Like, yeah, of course. You go to Target, you pay for stuff, you get it. But, like, how does it really work? Do you ever feel like sometimes you're in the dark about it? Because I get it if you do. Because I remember growing up, I just struggled so much. I just didn't understand money. I knew I wanted it, I didn't know how to get it. And I then I learned how to get it, but I didn't know what to do with it when I did. So wouldn't it be nice if someone could just take your hand, sit down with you in their own beautiful way, just explain how simple it really is? Well, make sure you are listening and taking notes because I've got Sharon Lecter coming on the Crazy Bless show today. You probably know her from Rich Dad, Poor dad, financial literacy expert, keynote speaker, business mentor five times New York bestselling author. Guys. And she's here with us today, so stay tuned.

Foreign.

I am so excited to be hanging out with you today.

Well, I'm delighted to be with you, Hannah. It's very exciting to be with you.

Well, I don't know which I'm more excited about, that you are an expert at money or you're an expert at being a grandma. Because I'm doing both right now. So I love that. My biggest fans call me grandma. That's beautiful. I love it.

I tell everybody when I'm speaking, the only reason I have kids is so you become a grandmother. Because that's the best thing in the world.

It's the. It is so much fun. Well, I am just. I have read so much of your material. I love how simple you make things. Honestly. Because, I mean, you tell me if I'm wrong, but I think a lot of financial experts, and I could be wrong, kind of make money more confusing. So you give them money to handle your money for you, does it? Do you know what I'm saying?

You're very, very correct. A lot of financial planners don't really want you to learn about money. They want you to rely on them. And same as sports agents. For these kids that have million dollars in their contract, their agents don't want them to learn how to manage it on their own. So, you know, it's something that you got to figure out who's. Who is the benefactor of the individual. Is it for them, is it for their client or for themselves?

Yeah, yeah. Like, I paid a lot of financial experts to not teach me anything about money. And it doesn't profit me any. And so I know that, you know, we are supposed to gain wisdom. We're supposed to learn strategies. And here's, here's what I go to. Whenever I'm confused about something, I'll go to the Bible. And it says that his yoke is easy, his burden is light. And he also says money is a blessing. He says it is a blessing. He, you cannot read Deuteronomy without understanding that money is a blessing from God. So how are we supposed to first of all get this blessing and then manage this blessing in a way that's not so hard? And that's what, like, what do you think are the biggest things that stand in the way of people? Just, okay, I'm gonna figure this thing out?

Well, the biggest thing is we're not taught about money in school. So we grow up hearing things like, save for a rainy day, pinch your pennies, I can't afford it. Money doesn't grow on trees. So we grow up hearing money negative, money negative, money negative. And so we build this scarcity mindset and it gets implanted in our subconscious. And so as we grow and we start making money, we're afraid we're never going to have enough. And then when we get to a level of success, we're afraid we're going to lose it. And it all comes from this deep rooted fear that was just kind of nurtured all our lives. And you know, the Bible also says the love of money is the root of all evil. Most people think that that means money is evil, but it's not. Because the more good you do in the world, the better you will do financially. But the focus is on doing good and helping others and money will come. And so it's really important for people to understand that money is just a piece of paper with ink on it. Right? It's the emotion that we attach to it. And can we see that we can really serve others and do well and not feel guilty about it? A lot of people have this success guilt. And when they start making money and they think, particularly, you know, when you're deep seated in Christianity, you just think, oh my gosh, I, you know, I shouldn't be making this much money. And yes, you should. If you're out there doing the right thing for the right people, God wants to bless you. So you, you know, God made you to be you. A perfectly example of you. Not me, not Hannah, not someone else, you. And he's given you the gifts and the talents to create, create the success that you deserve.

That is so powerful because I think, honestly, Sharon, I think that came up in my life, like, I had a lot of that negative indoctrination, like rich people are greedy and, you know, don't make too much money because. And what, what even is that? I don't even know. But. And so I finally got over this idea of like, I should be poor. I realized I started crazy enough reading the Bible and realizing that being poor is a curse, poverty is a cur. So I'm like, well, wait a minute, God wants to bless me. So I started opening myself up to learning a little bit about money, learning how to make money. But then I started making money and sabotage myself because then it's like, now I'm making too much. Even though we're supporting orphanages and we're doing all this. And, and so I'm so glad that, that you're transparent with some of those subconscious beliefs we hold around money. And, and if we can just like face them and say, what if this maybe isn't true? Then I think we can open up a door to really learn more about money. Like, how did, what is your story? Like, how did you get to be a financial expert? Why did you even go into this area?

Well, I'll use your tagline. I was crazy blessed. I was raised in a home by parents who talked about money. And they were. Neither one of them had high school educations, but my dad went on to be self educated and engineering school for the Navy. So he's a pretty smart dude. My mother had her own beauty shop. So I was raised in a very entrepreneurial home. We had rental properties that I had to scrub out the bathrooms between tenants at the age of 10. So I say I've been a real estate investor since 10. But we talked about cash flow, we talked about assets, we talked about accumulation, the momentum of money. And I didn't realize until I got out to real world that I was kind of the only one. Nobody really understood money. They didn't understand assets. My favorite word on earth. And assets are sexy. If you remember nothing else from this podcast, remember assets are sexy. And the older you get, the sexier they are. But we're not taught about assets. We're talk taught about income. Get another job, work overtime. But you want the. If you buy, building, create income producing assets, they become your employees and they start working for you 24, 7. And the harder they work, all of a sudden you see you get old time back because they're working for you and the cash flows coming in and that's the message. You don't have to have millions of dollars to be financially free. You are financially free when the income from your assets are higher than your monthly expenses.

Okay, I want you to say that.

One more time because you are financially free when the income from your assets during a month are more than your expenses for the month because they're working for you. And it does not. When I met Robert Kiyosaki, who lived in a two bedroom condo and had two small apartment complexes, he was making $100,000 a year. His expenses were like 35, 36,000 a year and he was financially free. That was the message I wanted to tell the world. Because you don't. People think, well, in order for me to financially free, I got to have billions of dollars. No, you don't. You just need to be smart about your money. Buy, build and create income producing assets. Wow.

And, and guys, when she's talking about income producing assets, it's just your money that's earning more money. So it, so it doesn't necessarily have to be a rental property. It could be, it could be real estate. It could be a service you create that people subscribe to. It could be like there's so many ways we just, you know, making your money work for you. So you can even have your own bank and loan money to people. And now the money's coming back from that, which is something I was not even aware of.

And absolutely today with high interest rates, it's an opportunity. A lot of people are becoming the bank. You know, assets include businesses that you own that generate revenue for you, real estate, as we said, paper assets, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and as you said, loans to other people or your money's out there working for you. The question is having your money have momentum, right? You stick it in a savings account and right now it's earning less than inflation. So that, that's a negative momentum. You're going backwards. But when you have your money working for you, that's positive momentum and that continues your track towards financial independence.

See, I love how you just make it simple, okay? If your money is still, and if it's not doing anything, it's just being eaten up, negative momentum. But if your money is moving, you're investing it, it's growing, it's possible. Like that's not rocket science. Why do we make it so hard? Why do you think?

Because we're not taught, you know, we're taught about easy credit. So we get credit cards and all of a sudden we wake up and we're in credit card debt. When it comes to debt, you really need to look at your debt, say, is it good debt or bad debt? And it's usually bad debt. And that's what you need to get rid of. You need to really work hard to get rid of the bad debt. Because at 20%, 26% interest, you're definitely going in the wrong direction on your momentum of money. It's going to take you forever to pay that off, and it probably is going to impact your credit score. So that impacts your ability to borrow more, even if it's good debt. And so you really need to start being honest with yourself and Hannah. That's the number one problem. Most of us, particularly women, put our head in the sand. We may even give up the power over money to our spouse or partner. And that's a problem because, you know, that's one of the reasons we wrote How Money Works for Women. Because so many women I've known through the years, they wake up after 25 years of marriage and they get their husband comes home and wants a divorce or their husband passes away, and all of a sudden they don't know where anything is. They don't know the paperwork, they don't know the assets, and they have no credit of their own, particularly when the spouse dies. You're on your own. And if you, you, you may not even be able to access your own bank account. So it's really important for us to understand that you have to pay attention to your own financial position, your own credit score, get a card in your own name, right? Do something that allows you to build your own credit so that you don't get left like that.

Well, what do you think would be the first step for a woman who's like, you know what I. They might even think, well, I don't really need to learn about money.

Well, you just set me up to tell you the first step is to get my money. How Money Works for Women.

How Money Works for Women.

I love this book. It's my 28th book, and I'm really so proud of it because just like you said, I make it easy. It's a. It's a four color, right? And we have women. We address women of every decade of life from 19 to 86, about the things that they face. So we go from college to planning a wedding, to starting a business, to having a special needs child. So you have to retool how you earn money and understand the resources that are there. To one, a woman that escapes an abusive relationship with children and has to start all over again. To a woman who is at, you know, in her 60s, trying to figure out Social Security, understanding how to invest, understanding what to do when your husband leaves you or when he dies, all of these things are important for women to understand. And we, the resources and the questions you ask yourself and how you can prepare yourself to have a stronger financial position instead of, you know, the 80% of men die married. 80% of women die single. Think about that.

Wow. 80%.

Yes. 80% of men die married. Because our husband. The good news is our husbands died before us. We live seven years younger. The bad news sometimes is they die before us and we.

Yes, right.

And 80% of us will die single, which means we will have time, that we are in charge of our finances. And if you don't educate yourself. And right now, Hannah, in the world we have, you know, the latest number I saw was like 42% of households. The woman is the primary breadwinner. And so that means with that comes responsibility. But even more than that, we already control 60% of the US wealth, and by 2030, we're going to control 2/3 of it. With that comes a huge responsibility. Not we're going to be inheriting all this money, but. But we need to learn how to receive it, how to invest it, how to have it grow so that we can create generational wealth and nobody can do it for us. We need to educate ourselves. And that's really why I wrote the book, to get people to wake up. Because what happens is we particularly we women, we kind of, if we don't know something, we hide away.

Yeah.

We think we're the only one going through it. And this book opens your eyes to the fact that you're not alone. Whatever you're facing in life, whether it's a death, a divorce, a financial setback, and illness, there's a lot of us that have been through that and probably multiple of those issues. And so we want to support you in getting through the process of re establishing yourself and seeing hope in the future, because you're still here for a reason. I tell people a lot of times things happen to us and stops us in our tracks. In 2012, I lost my youngest son. You're not supposed to outlive your children. And so I went into a world of numbness and neutral for. For a couple of years and almost decided to retire. But I got a lot of pushback from my family and friends. And I think I even heard him in my ear say, get over it, mom. There's More for you to do. You're still here for a reason. And that's my message to everyone watching, listening to this. Whatever's happened to you, whatever has stopped you in your tracks, whatever you're looking for, searching for, you're here for a reason. There's more for you to do. And if you've had a setback and you know, and you've gotten through it, that could become your message. Your mess can become your message, and that can become your mission. And you can become somebody else's miracle.

That is so beautiful. And I love that. First of all, what you said is no one's going to do it for you. That could feel scary. Oh, my gosh. No one's going to do it for me. It's up to me. However, we know that God will order your steps. We're not doing this alone. Even though we have to do it on our own. We don't. We're not doing it alone. And, and he's guarding us and he's watching us and he's leading us. But I think it's that, you know, first of all, I want to honor your comeback. That's spectacular. And I know your son is just fist pumping right now about how you stepped up. Because those things that could wipe you out, when we can be that warrior that stands up and faces it, I mean, yeah, it wipes you out for a season. Things like that have happened in my life, and it wipes you out for a season. But you realize, no, no one's going to do this for me either. I got to decide if I want to get up and do this. So no matter if you know that person who may be watching or listening and you know, money's never been an issue, everything's fine. Maybe it's time to just know more about it, to learn how it works, to become familiar with it. Maybe the reason they're watching this is to prepare them to become that wealth magnet or to just to. To become more wise about it. But I want to honor what she went through. And a lot of women have gone through a crisis. And you can, you know, that crisis, of course, can either take you out or it can take you over. And so I'm just, I'm just rooting for those people who are watching and listening right now. And I think that first step. Yeah, get a hold of the, Get a hold of the book, how Money Works for Women. And what do you think is the. Because you've dealt with women so much, they're just drawn to you and you and you've helped them in so many ways. Not just manage their finances, but really understand how to grow wealth. What have you seen as the that's the thing that kind of makes them want to do it, but then they don't. They kind of freeze. What happens there?

Well, it's all about fear and a lack of self confidence. In my book three Feet from Goal, which was the first book that I did with the Napoleon Hill Foundation, I talk about the personal success equation. And it's really your passion and your talent. It's all about you. You know, my passion actually came from anger. You know they say love what you do, do what you love. Well, mine's from anger. I was mad we weren't teaching kids about of money in school. But my passion, my talent was being a CPA for 35 plus years and being in publishing forever. And so I combine those two and most of us stop there thinking we have to do everything on our own. We own a job, not a business owners but it's really a job in order to truly be successful. The P +T times a power of association. Who do you know who's helping you? Do you have people on your team who are strong where you are weak? Do you have the right connections? Do you have a mentor that's going to open doors and accelerate your success and then times a taking action? How many times do we know what we're supposed to do? We just don't do it because fear paralyzes us. And the last element is plus F for faith. Faith in God, faith in yourself, faith in what you're doing, faith that you will succeed. And I use that, this formula in every interview and with all of my mentoring clients because you'll find what needs a little work. When you look through this formula, you can go to personal success equation.com I have a downloaded workbook that you can go through. But it's usually the power of association and the faith that self confidence that need the most work and they go hand in hand. You know, we all have bad days but when you have the right people around you, they're not going to let you stay there. It's that power of association and your self confidence. We have the right people around you, your self confidence will grow. Don't try to do everything on your own because that's something that women do, you know.

Right.

I'll just do it myself. Right. It's like when you get somebody else on your team that's strong, where you are weak, you accelerate your success.

That is so good. Sharon and I. And you're right. Women are the ultimate. Just get out of the way. I'll do it myself. Right. Okay. That's not very good.

Multitaskers. But sometimes we shouldn't be. Yeah.

Oh, that is good. Yeah. Especially in this area. Like, there comes a time when, no, you can't do everything by yourself. I love that. That power of association is so strong. I was just talking with this. With one of my coaches, like, literally this morning is like, it always lies. There's always a room where the answer is, now get in that room. You know? So. So what about that person right now who's like, I just. I wish I knew those kind of people. How do I. How do I find that team? How do I find that mentor? How do I do that?

Well, in that formula, the f. This faith in most of us is fear, and that holds us back. And my book, Outwitting the Devil, which was the second book, and it was hidden away for 75 years. It was originally written by Napoleon Hill, talks about how to get past the fear. And part of that is definiteness of purpose. Knowing what you want, what's your purpose? And sometimes you need help figuring that out, but then also learning from adversity. The fact is, most women define themselves by their failures, and you shouldn't. A failure is not a definition. It's just something that happens. It's an occurrence. Learn from it and keep moving forward. And then it talks about the power of your environment. Who are you around? What are you listening to? Usually when I get mad about something, I start a new company. So that's what I did. When Covid started, I was so mad about all the negativity, I started a new program called ATMs for Abundance, tips and Mentorship, a take on the word ATM from banks. It's a daily message of positivity, of abundance, really, to try and fight all the negativity in the world. And that message, I think I've just done my 1500th one, and I love it, and people love it, and it's really you. What are you feeding your brain? Because what happens is it can even be running in the background, the news, and it goes into your subconscious, consciously listening to it. But you get edgy, you get frustrated, because your subconscious is hearing all that negativity. So pay attention to your environment. What are you reading? What are you watching? What are you listening to? And who are you spending your time with is really important that because you are the CEO of your life, you are in control. You're in the driver's seat. So you're choosing. We're all where we are today. Because the choices we made before today, if you want different, something different in your life, something better, something more, start making different choices.

That's so cool. I just want to, like, take that and, like, plastic, tattoo it somewhere in my body. Like, that's so good. Like, just if you want to get different results, make different choices, it's. It seems so common sense, but. Right. Those factors hold us up. One thing that really compelled me to finally get my act together. And of course, I think we're all in the process of getting our act together. I don't know anyone who has their act together, really. Like, we're all working on it, but, you know, with seven kids, I remember thinking, if I don't figure this out, then I am passing down a curse. Like, if I. Like, if I don't, if it doesn't terminate with me, then it's going to replicate with me, and I'm going to put my children in that place of financial hardship and confusion and fear and. And it was. It was hard for me to face some of those things. You know, you have to face some of those patterns and break those patterns. But I think that's a really strong one, especially if you're a mom, to realize if I don't, if I choose not to, like, just like you said, put my head in the sand, then I'm leaving it for my kids to deal with.

Well, that's something you should tattoo or put on a sign if it does. You know, if I don't terminate it, I'm going to replicate it. It's such a true statement. You know, you've heard the phrase, the rich get richer, the poor get poor, and that's because we learn about money at home.

Yeah.

If we truly want to level the playing field for every child out there, we're going to provide financial education in schools. And that's the message I've been screaming for 30 years.

It still has. And can you please scream louder? Because it's still like, here's how to apply for a college loan. Here's how to apply for a car loan. Never about. Here's how to build an asset and get out there in the world and change lives, and then wealth comes as a result. Where's that being taught? Why is it not being taught?

Well, it's not. The teachers want it, the students want it, the parents want it. It's the administrators that are stopping the process. And it's very frustrating. It's Something that, you know, I've been working on it for a long time, and it's. We just keep. We are. We are seeing progress. There are now 25 states that are going to require a semester of personal finance for graduation. Some of those won't be implemented until 2027, but at least they're in the right path. But we need all 50 states. We need to make sure our kids get. Get that information before they're out in the real world.

Yeah, it's amazing. Something everyone needs, something everyone's going to use, but something so many people are ill. School.

They're in school, they learn about condoms, but they don't learn about money.

Exactly. Yeah.

Let's.

Let's camp out on that for a minute. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, that's a whole different thing. But that's true. We are teaching the most inappropriate, inadequate things that just lead to confusion, other than, here's how to balance your checkbook. Here's how to put. Make money work for you. Here's the dangers of debt. I didn't know that. I remember the first time. You're gonna laugh. We'll wrap this up soon, but I gotta share this with you. First time, my husband and I, okay, first of all, we are broke as a joke. We don't know our. Our butt from a hole in the ground when it comes to money, right? And I'm in the store, this furniture store, and I see this beautiful piece of furniture, and I was just looking at it, so pretty. And he said, did you want to take that home today? I was like, oh, no, no, I can't. Like, we're. We're not. I don't have the money to buy. He's like, oh, well, let's. Let me just go run the numbers and you might be able to afford to take it home today. With nothing down, I was like, what? Nothing down. Ran the number, sure enough, I could, and I discovered this beautiful thing called credit. So amazing. Until it's not. And then they come and take the furniture away because you can't pay for it anymore. And it was like, maybe I need to learn about this.

Yeah.

So you know what. What's beautiful about it is just like you said in your book, is for every single age. So no matter what you've gone through, everyone's. Everyone's had their ups and everybody's had their downs, and there's always restoration. So no matter how you. How old you are, no matter what you've gone through, no matter where you are now, there's a place that can lead to wealth or else God wouldn't have said that.

And you're never too old.

You're never too old.

You know, I'm not good enough. Yes, you are. I'm not bright enough. Yes, you are. I'm too old. No, you're not. You know, you can do anything today. The world has never been easier to start a business, whether it'll be online marketing, on online communication. So it's something that just don't get frustrated and. And you know, I have a whole program called refire because so many people feel like they've. They're out of rope, but you're not. You know, you're still breathing, so you have an opportunity to create.

Well, that is so beautiful. Sharon, I want to thank you so much for coming on the show and just sharing your wealth, your wisdom, not your wealth. Well, okay, I'll put a link in there. No, just your wisdom about wealth with all of us because it has been a life changer for so many women. And I know this book is going to be as well. We'll put the link in our show notes. We'll. But guys, just like she said, you're. You're smart enough. You're never too old. You're not too young. Anyone can do this. You start leveraging this and getting the information and applying yourself, you're going to be blessed like crazy.