The Lie Women Are Told About Money and Power - Episode 127
In today's episode, I talk with my friend Shang Saavedra, who saved enough money to retire by the age of 31! We talk about her new book Wealth Is a Mindset, why talking about money is so important, and how growing up shaped the way she thinks about money today. Shang shares how she and her husband lived simply so they could save more, and how her health scare made her rethink everything. We also talk about how your thoughts and feelings can affect your money habits and why it’s never too late to change.
About our guest:
Shang Saavedra is a published book author and the founder and CEO of Save My Cents, a nationally recognized personal finance expert. Shang finished saving for her retirement by the age of 31, and is America's leading expert on saving a retirement with joy. Shang's insights have been published by Business Insider, CNBC, Forbes, Fox Business, USA Today, Time / NextAdvisor, Nasdaq, and more. Previously, Shang worked for L.E.K. Consulting, Victoria's Secret, and CVS Health. Shang received her bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard and her MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Her book, Wealth Is a Mindset, published in January 2025 with Third State Books.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Naseema: [00:00:00] Chang Edra is a published a book author and the founder and CEO of Save My Sense, a nationally recognized personal finance expert. Chang. Finished saving for retirement by the age of 31 and is America's leading expert on saving.
Retirement with Joy. Shane's insights have been published by Business Insider, CNBC, Forbes, Fox Business USA Today Time Next advisor, NASDAQ and more. Previously, Shane worked for LAK Consulting Victoria Secret and CVS Health. Shang received her bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard and her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Her book is Wealth is a Mindset which was published in January, 2025.
Okay. What's up? My financially intentional people? I'm joined with my, good, good friend Shang Edra, [00:01:00] and she has a book that just came out in January that we're gonna talk about. We were talking before that we've started rolling that like it's like now or never. People like, we gotta get our finances together.
Like now. If what is going on in this world hasn't been a wake up call, I don't know what's gonna be a wake up call for
Shang Saavedra: Sky's falling.
Naseema: to do this. Yes. And one of the first steps I feel like you should take is. To get this book, wealth is a Mindset. But before we talk about the book and all the amazing things Shang has done in her life, which she is fabulous, you'll see she's just an extraordinary person.
Welcome to the podcast For the first time, Shang.
Shang Saavedra: Oh my God, you built me up. Thank you. Such a great introduction.
Naseema: Of course. And let's just talk about your background, how did you get into this money space? Where did you start getting interested in learning about money and teaching other [00:02:00] people about it?
Shang Saavedra: Yeah, I owe a lot of it to my parents who never shied away from talking about money. When I was a kid back then, we were super frugal immigrants. So I think along with my parents, I also had this desire to get really rich. One day I'm like, I wanna be rich so we don't have to be so frugal anymore and not survive as immigrants.
So at least when I was. Going through high school and college, it was always on my brain you gotta get rich by finding a really high paying job. So that was my first priority. And in college I got exposed to the idea of investing just by. Pure luck of the interest that I had. I studied economics and so yeah.
Right outta college, I, began with budgeting and saving money and putting away money for retirement. So I, definitely owe a lot of that head start to my parents making it like a normal [00:03:00] like fact of life for me. They're like, this is just part of adulting. It's like the same as you washing dishes pretty much.
Naseema: And let's not downplay the fact that you didn't just go to college. You went to Harvard.
Shang Saavedra: Harvard
Naseema: Harvard,
Shang Saavedra: say that with gravitas.
Naseema: yes. But like you hear all the time, like I do like. about money is taboo. Why would you talk about money? But that was a normal thing in your family. Why do you think we have, like culturally in America, this thing about talking about money is taboo.
Shang Saavedra: I don't get it to be honest, because my parents, I mean they talked about it, but also loved to gossip, which I think is actually the funny part about this whole thing is that my family is a family that gossips about our family members' money. So I knew not everything, but I knew the business of like my aunts and uncles and scandals that happen every now and then between different family members.
Was fun. At the same time. And my parents were [00:04:00] also honest about it. Maybe, I don't know. This is totally a guess. I feel like because of the way that we've historically portrayed like wealthy people in the media and quote unquote reality shows, I feel like there's a lot of shame around if you don't have money like that you are somehow a bad person or that like you did something really, really wrong.
And as I start, we'll talk about book later, but I talk about this. All the time. I'm like, there's nothing inherently wrong with you if you are financially struggling. It's just, we're gonna work that out. But that doesn't mean you're a bad person. But I feel like people make it out to be that way.
So no one wants to talk about money if they're not doing well in it.
Naseema: I think I say that people that don't want you to talk about money have a vested interest in keeping you broke. Like I think like all the consumerist messages and all of the things about a waste that you can spend money but not really ways that you can build wealth are [00:05:00] intentional. So when people say stuff like, oh, talking about money is taboo, I'm always like, suspicious.
Shang Saavedra: I like it. That's also part of your brand. Being intentional about it. It's Hey, we gotta be intentional about keeping our coins
Naseema: exactly, exactly. But I think that being able to talk about money gives you power in understanding that money is a tool, and you understood the importance of having money and getting money early because you set yourself up in a position so that you could retire out of that space really early in life.
Shang Saavedra: Yeah, yeah. This happened because, even though yes, I, I got high paying jobs, it doesn't mean that these jobs are a walk in the park. I was in my twenties working anywhere from 70 to 90 hours a week, both at my full-time job and also I was. Side hustling as a wedding photographer. And in my after I went to business school, I, had a [00:06:00] startup job.
And then I went into corporate and I landed at this very toxic fashion company and I was like, oh my gosh, this better not be the rest of my life. And that's when it came really apparent to me and I was like, wait, if you have, if you are able to save up a ton of money, eventually, you're not gonna depend on a toxic job.
Anymore to feed you. And that's really when I was like, okay, we're gonna just, and my husband had introduced this idea to me that we're just going to live off of very little and save and invest the rest. Later I found out that the concept is called fire financial independence retire early.
But for me it was just like, let's get out at this toxic job. And that's what really pushed the two of us. To accelerate our savings such that by the age of 31 I finished saving for my retirement.
Naseema: So what's like when you talk about this concept of kind of exiting the workforce early to your parents, what do they think about it?
Shang Saavedra: I [00:07:00] didn't tell them that. I didn't tell them that that was the plan. I was just telling 'em like, oh, life is good and my net worth is growing, but I wasn't gonna reveal everything to them.
Naseema: Why is that? Do you think they'd have something to say
Shang Saavedra: at the time, I assumed that my parents would want me to work for the rest of my life. I don't know, because they brought me up to be like, you gotta do good in school so you get a good job. So I was under the impression for the longest time that I don't think they would, understand what I was doing. But actually it turns out that by the time I finally did leave corporate, they were very supportive of why I was doing it. So thankfully that was not the case. But yeah, sometimes you know, you can be completely wrong about what your parents think of you. So I.
Naseema: Yeah. where do you think your husband established a mindset that will live off as little as possible and save and invest the rest?
Shang Saavedra: I also owe it to his upbringing and also some of the books that he [00:08:00] read. Two things I think it really influenced him is one he also saw how bad things can get if you rely on two incomes and then one person loses that income. He saw it at firsthand in his family. And then two, he read a book about how it was actually written by Elizabeth Warren and somebody else.
I forgot the second name, but I cited in my book, so sorry. I'm so bad at remembering names. And it's talking about the two income family trap that. Americans have gotten used to a two income household, but that means bigger house, two cars, everything. And the moment that you lose one of those two incomes and you have children, then everything can go up in flames.
And that made him think, why don't we go back to a closer to one income model to make sure that there there's just more room for bad things to happen in life essentially.
Naseema: Yeah, that two income trap is really interesting and I recommend people read that book and it's a [00:09:00] little bit of racism. Behind that two income trap, if you don't know the history of America is because people wanted to separate themselves from, black people and different other races.
And so to put themselves in this social strata. They had to have two people in the household work in order to maintain these more affluent lifestyles.
Shang Saavedra: Mm-hmm.
Naseema: So yeah, I recommend people, I. Pick up the two read that book about the two income trap because it's very, very interesting. And yeah, it was this big shift that moved away from making sure that everybody can survive off of just one person, one person's income.
The homemaker and all that stuff is this big shift to move into two people working. And that really shifted how. Like economically things work in families. So very interesting read. I'm so glad you brought that up. But cheers to your husband for [00:10:00] having the insight to understand like, no, we, we need to live this way. And then cheers to you for picking a husband that understood that because.
Shang Saavedra: It's not the first thing we talked about for sure.
Naseema: But it does make a difference. It definitely does make a difference in who your partner is as far as like how you can really thrive financially. And we understand that, finances make up. A big majority of, divorces, they're the cause of many divorces and, financial issues.
So I think choosing a partner, which you can be on the same page with financially is very important. So I said kudos to you for that.
Shang Saavedra: Yes, I definitely consider myself lucky in that regard.
Naseema: Yeah. So were able to exit the workforce at a very, very early age. 31 is really, really young.
Shang Saavedra: Mm-hmm.
Naseema: After that point, what did you aspire to do with your life?
Shang Saavedra: I didn't have kids yet, [00:11:00] so I also didn't have a reason to exit the workforce, so I actually worked all the way to third age 37. I had my first kid at 34. I had my second kid at 37. And right after having my second kid and I was al already, in a maternity leave I actually got hospitalized for.
An issue related to labor and delivery. But then later we found out it was actually a chronic issue and that kind of I know before we started pockets we're talking about those like defining moments in your life. I was in the ICU and there was a person dying across the hall from me.
I was like, oh my God, am I dying? Why am I here? I'm too young to die. And that's when I was like. Shang, if you die tomorrow, do you think that you've been living the life you've been wanting to live? This is six years after I finished saving for retirement, right? I have been working because I was like, oh, I don't know anything else other than working.
Like I've just been a workaholic all my life. That's how I was set up. That's how I was trained. Nobody told me. Okay, when you reach. [00:12:00] Financial independence, do something else. That wasn't somehow in my brain I was like, I've been telling that to other people. I was like, but I'm outta my toxic situation, so it's not that bad, da da, da.
And I think that's a valid choice because I guess I didn't have reason enough until the birth of my second child, not even my first, my second child. I was like, you know what I feel like I just wanna be more of a mom. And that's when, that's when I finally put in my resignation Left corporate altogether.
I still teach, save My Sons and I coach people, but I am there for my children, for everything, all their healthcare appointments, every party at school, every afterschool activity, all there first. I'm there and I'm like the ideal parent that I had dreamed up of in my head, like that's who I'm aiming to be right now, and I think that's really what my boys need.
Naseema: I love that and I think that. We don't understand the value that that gives the children. Yes, we [00:13:00] want to be in a financially secure position for them, but that time and energy and being able to be there for them is everything. And yeah, that's where I'm at in my life right now. Yeah, I'm, wanna be on every field trip.
I wanna do all of the things, be able to spend time and really, Sharing those experiences with my kids because this time you can't get back. And then after they turn 18, the amount of time that you spend with them drops drastically. And I just like the emphasis on working to your 60 really misses that mark of the time that you're able to spend with your kids. Mind you, when I I had kids late, but still when my youngest daughter. Turns 18, I'll be 60.
Shang Saavedra: Mm. Mm-hmm.
Naseema: I supposed to retire and spend time with her? No. So I love
Shang Saavedra: Mm-hmm.
Naseema: you're able to be present with your kids and that's what your focus is. But you still have a huge internet presence, a huge community.
You still do educate. You're the CEO [00:14:00] of save my sense. And let's talk about the origin stories of that. Like how did that start? How did you start sharing about money?
Shang Saavedra: Yeah. When I was in my super, super frugal stage, like I would blog about these low cost recipes that I had and then like how my husband and I were able to travel for like next to nothing we were doing, the credit card points. Game. And we also often got our work to pay for like most of the travel.
And then you add on, an extra half day or something. And I guess over time a couple of friends picked up on it and they said, Hey, not me, but I have another friend who like needs help with student loans. So originally was like I was helping people learn to pay down their student loans and.
I happen to be part of this entrepreneurial society and that organization gave me the courage to just formalize this into a business. I joked that I was like screaming into the void on social media 'cause I was like, I have no idea how social media works. I thought it was just where you put like your pretty pictures of your outfits and.[00:15:00]
This has nothing to do with outfits. So I would say I was on social media pretty early. Didn't have like a meteoric rise, like what you would see these days, but I was just constant in putting out content and it grew. And over time I think people know me for two things. One is retirement and one is like living a frugal but happy life.
And so I coach a lot of people on. Let's make sure that you're set for a dignified retirement. I'm not talking early retirement, but yes, people will ask me about that too, but at least we get you to on time retirement. And then how can you change your mindset, especially if you have to spend less money?
But still find joy. And a lot of that has to do with what I eventually learned was mental health. I was like, oh my gosh, there's this like super, super strong connection between our mental health and our financial behaviors and nobody's been talking about it. And that's when I decided to write a book on it.
Naseema: Mm-hmm. Yes. [00:16:00] And I think there's a rise now of like just the term financial trauma and financial therapists and people that are tying the two things together because we can see that we can do all of the things, all of the actions. Like behind building wealth, but we continuously fall off because we haven't fixed the mindset behind it.
And that's why I love the title of your book, wealth is a Mindset. Talk to us about the origins of the book. Like
Shang Saavedra: Yeah.
Naseema: you to write this and what do you want people to get out of it most?
Shang Saavedra: When I was very early in my coaching days, we're talking, maybe five, six years ago I was a very numbers person and I would help my clients create a budget, but a couple of them just consistently couldn't keep to it. And I was like I don't think this is a logical problem. Like [00:17:00] they know they have to spend less than they earn, but why is it that they cycle into credit card debt?
And I just started asking more questions. How did you grow up around money? What do you believe about money right now? What do you fear? What do you want? I found that everybody wants financial independence. All right? Everybody wants to be rich. No doubt about it. Nobody ever comes to saying, Shang, I wanna be in debt for the rest of my life.
No, that's not it. And also the people who struggle, there's no correlation by the way, with their intelligence. Like I have people who have master's degrees, PhD degrees. Making good money who still struggle with credit card cycles. So then I dug a little bit deeper. And actually one person in particular was just bold.
She was just like, oh yeah, by the way, and I spent this much on therapy for my depression. So that's when I was like, let me take into like depression. And I started diving into scientific papers and asking the questions. And I saw a very, very strong link between people who have any mental health symptoms.
So it could be depression, [00:18:00] anxiety. Mood disorders even existence of A DHD can all lead to, behaviors in finance that are less than optimal. I was like, oh my gosh, okay, you have a brilliant person. But if their brain is sick, and I'm saying like, I thought, I like to talk about depression, kinda like talking about the cold.
You have a organ, a brain that happens to have a little bit of its sickness that you need to treat. When you treat it, it gets better. And then, so I started asking people, Hey, have you tr thought about therapy? Have you thought about medication? How is your mental health, anything traumatic happened recently or anything traumatic happened in your childhood?
And that's when in my book, I developed basically three like. Root causes of money issues where it summarizes people who've had trauma, people who've had mental struggles. And then what it does to your finances in a book says, this is why you behave the way you do. But also the good news is we can change it.
Naseema: I love that. [00:19:00] I love that. And I know you share a lot of stories in your book. Which one like really stood out or was like one of the harder ones to share?
Shang Saavedra: I think the one that I love because it's such a story of healing is that we have a woman in the book who grew up. Abused by her father just told, you're not worth anything, yada, yada, yada. And then oftentimes children coming from abusive households also land in abusive relationships when they're adults.
And then, so similarly, this woman went on to have abusive romantic relationships as an adult to the point where like she would just give all her money to her ex-boyfriend to support him for his dreams, but none of her own. And what was almost like a miracle in hindsight, she got hit by a car and she got injured, okay.
But because of the injury, it caused a traumatic brain injury and it forced her to go [00:20:00] get treated for the traumatic brain injury. And then as part of that, there is also therapy and, and all the self work that's involved. And because of that, she. Realize how much she had to heal from all of her past. Not just car accidents, but like everything before that.
And because she got that medical support, because the insurance paid out for her medical expenses, her mind healed. And so by the time she got to me, she was ready. She was ready to do all the things. She'd been avoiding, like paying down her debt, starting to invest for the very first time. She was already actually, already pretty frugal.
So it wasn't like that was much of an issue. She was just afraid. To take the next step. 'cause she was told all her life that her life didn't have a meeting, so she was never thinking about taking care of herself. And I thought that was just such an amazing story to work with. Her name in the book is called Sammy.
So look out for Sammy in, in the book.
Naseema: Yes. Yes. Read that Sammy's [00:21:00] chapter. What do you think is the biggest thing that when it comes to adjusting your money mindset like that people like is underrated, like what do people continuously sleep on?
Shang Saavedra: Yeah, I, I think it's actually telling yourself that you can do it because oftentimes people grow up in environments where you grew up in poverty, your parents were poor, the culture around you is poor. You never saw what it's like for someone to live a rich, intentional. Wealthy life and there's certain behaviors that go around it.
And I, don't think there's any gatekeeping really. It's actually not like hoity-toity cocktail parties or behaving in a certain way. It is all about saying, actually, where I. Come from, doesn't have to define who I wanna be in the future.
But recognizing that where you came from can impact the way you think. And then so oftentimes. [00:22:00] People are like, Nope, that's not me. Or, okay, that person got rich because of privilege, or that person got rich because they had daddy's money or whatever. I'm like, okay, yes, people all start out at different starting points, but what can you learn from somebody who's wealthy and say that's something that I can do?
And I would say always focus on what you can do what you're capable of, and focus on those little steps and don't measure yourself against anybody else. 'cause. Everybody's journey is so different.
Naseema: That it was definitely rings true for me because I didn't realize it until my mid thirties that wealth was for me, and I had to tell myself that because I realized that the images of people that I saw was wealthy, or the people that I experienced were wealthy, didn't look like me, didn't
Shang Saavedra: Yep.
Naseema: background as me, so subconsciously. I felt like that wasn't for me.[00:23:00]
Shang Saavedra: Right.
Naseema: then until I realized wait a minute, that's for me too. That's when I really was able to step into that transformation to start building wealth for myself. But yeah, like I think that we undervalue how much we like. Inwardly don't see wealth in ourselves. And those messages, like those messages, like sabotage, like what we can achieve because we don't believe that or we don't even know to believe that.
That's another thing, a lot of people just don't even know. You don't know that you have to inwardly like really believe that it is for you in order to accomplish that. So that Shang.
Shang Saavedra: Yeah. Yeah, I'm totally about that.
Naseema: Yeah. And as a labor and delivery nurse, I'm very sensitive to issues around, maternal morbidity and mortality, and I've seen firsthand, and I've almost been there firsthand,
where, [00:24:00] You're in a position where your health is totally compromised and you're just like, I have to make a decision I have to live. I haven't gotten to the ICU level, but I, like you are right up against that door, right?
Shang Saavedra: Mm-hmm.
Naseema: Heard a couple steps away from not making it and it's super scary. What is like one thing that you took away from that experience that you feel like is imparted in this book?
Shang Saavedra: Gosh, because that was so traumatic. The good news is that scare also was the. The motivation I needed to finally make my physical health a priority. Like I will admit, because of how much I worked all my life, yes, I made attempts at eating healthy and I have made attempts at working out, but they often fizzled out after a couple months.
And I think that people relate to that. It's like you, you attempt to rightsize your finances, you do well for a couple months, and then it [00:25:00] gets busy. And I love the way that a friend of mine reframed it to me. She's girl working out or taking care of you? It's being good. To you yes, you are not gonna the first workout or the first, several months of working out.
You are not gonna like the changes in your diet, but you're doing good for you. And I focused on that and I'm proud to say, other than the fact that I'm pregnant right now, but outside of pregnancy, I have been able to, I. Slowly work my way up to three times a week, weightlifting at the gym. I love weightlifting.
I found out that that was what I liked the most and I started doing this at like age 37. Like it, I feel like. I felt wow, it's late for me to finally get started on a health journey, that that was my incorrect mindset at the time. But I shared that in the book to tell people, Hey, even somebody like me can have those feelings around a goal that I haven't been able to achieve for really long time.
But then if I rethink the whole thing, redo my goals, don't make it too [00:26:00] hard in the beginning, then it can probably finally stick. I'm proud to share that. 'cause I was like, yeah, I'm happy with the progress that I've made because I just stop ing myself to have to look a certain way or, or be a certain way at the gym.
And that's finally when I was like, oh, this is good and I'm gonna keep with this routine.
Naseema: Yeah, and I often find that intentionality in one area. How often bleeds into intentionality in the rest of your life, in other areas of your life, I should say. So like you start with your finances and then you're like I wanna live to enjoy this, the fruits of
Shang Saavedra: Yeah.
Naseema: So I gotta start taking care of my body.
I gotta get my physical health in order. I gotta get my diet in order, and I gotta get again, back to your mindset, like continuously feeding those positive messages into your mind so that you stay mentally healthy. So one step in the right direction often opens up room to make many, several steps in the right direction [00:27:00] in all areas of your life and how that is encompassing what you just talked about.
Shang Saavedra: Yeah, it's, it's all related. Even my therapist tells me, she's like, when you are suffering through greater symptoms of depression and anxiety, it also shows up in the body. She's it's gonna show up in the way that your sleeping patterns, your eating habits, all of that. And another study that I cited in my book talks about how children from more traumatic backgrounds such as, you witness violence in your family, or.
Single parenthood or whatever these are all circumstances that can lead to more negative effects on your health in the future if you don't address the trauma right? And recognizing, hey there's nothing wrong with you having been born into less than ideal circumstances, but that just means that you have to be more aware of its impact on you, and you have to seek healing.
Instead of letting that trauma fester and take [00:28:00] life away from you ultimately.
Naseema: Yeah. know so many people, like we were saying, like we started in our, in our mid, late thirties, like on this path, but there are so many people out there that think it's too late. It's too late for me. I'm already such and such age. What do you tell those people?
Shang Saavedra: You still got a life ahead of you, and when did you wanna live that life? More joyfully than like previously. Yes, time is time is a major factor in compounding interest and investing, but also, even if you just choose to change the way that you think about money, I can literally say, you are going to be happier tomorrow and you're going to feel lighter and you're going to feel like life has more meaning and more purpose assigned to it.
And wouldn't you want to live out the rest of your life with that more positive? Mindset's gonna make you happier, then you're going to improve your [00:29:00] relationships and your life will just feel better. And we can put numbers to that, but I honestly would say, just having a more joyful outlook on life in and of itself it's priceless, and I want that for everybody.
Naseema: Yes. Yes. I think a lot of times also people focus think that they have to hit these like big, audacious, goals, right?
Shang Saavedra: Yeah.
Naseema: about like the accumulation of those little things that you do on a daily basis and working towards whatever goal that you want that really matters. The aggregation of marginal gains, right? Like we like to call it.
Shang Saavedra: Yeah.
Naseema: I think if we shift our focus to that, then you realize like time is just a thing. Time is gonna pass anyway. It's about making those steps in the right direction that really matters. So I really like that.
what do you think is the biggest lie that we are told, especially women when it comes to wealth?[00:30:00]
Shang Saavedra: that we can't do it as well as men can. And that's a lie because they've done analysis on portfolios by gender and I found that women are actually a lot better at investing probably 'cause we're actually shock less emotional than men when it comes to investing. We don't tend to like trade whenever, something goes haywire in the market.
We tend to. Think more long term. I think that comes a lot from us having the default caregiver role. Like when you're a caregiver, you think longer term than a man who, doesn't have that much to live for. But also the reality is that we do tend to live longer by average, five years relative to men.
And also our careers take more of a hit. Income wise, because we take more career pauses to care for not only children, even if your child less, you may be asked to care for your elderly parents as the girl in the family, for example. So recognizing all of these cumulative effects and the fact that to me, money is power.
It's. [00:31:00] Power for you to be free from the influences of politicians and also power for you to influence the causes that you care about. That's why I am so serious about pushing all women, all people, but in particular all women, to see yourselves as wealth builders. I'm like, there is no I, I'd say there is no barrier when it comes to wealth building.
You have to first tell yourself that there is no barrier, and then once you say, okay. There's no barrier. Wealth is for me. Then we're gonna find ways for you to get in the game and build the wealth that you fully deserve.
Naseema: I love that, I feel like your parents on both sides, so your parents and your husband's parents did an amazing job of cultivating this spirit of being intentional with your money. lessons are you hoping to share with your boys as they grow up and what do you want from them as adults?
Like how do you want them to approach money?[00:32:00]
Shang Saavedra: Yeah. For the audience, my boys are ages five and two. What I will do and what I won't do based on, how my parents raised me, what I will do is I do talk openly about money as well. Usually in a very neutral way. I'm like, Hey, by the way, daddy and mommy work so that we can afford, life so we can afford this house so that we can afford food.
And my 5-year-old knows. If he wants to buy a stuffed animal at the gift shop that costs money. And actually we started giving him a $5 a week allowance to teach basic arithmetic basic concepts of money. And obviously we'll make those lessons harder and harder as there are math skills ramp up.
What I will not teach, and I think it. It wasn't necessarily something that was directly taught to me by my parents, but I think it was indirectly they made me feel that if I wasn't productive, if I wasn't a high earner, then I haven't quote unquote earned my place on earth. And I understand why I, I inherited that mindset.
It's because we were a family of immigrants. Like the [00:33:00] life was just so precarious. Financially it was important to be like, okay, you gotta earn your keep to stay in this country and afford to. But now that my husband and I have established the financial security for our children, I don't want them to feel that same way.
I'm like, yes, it's always important to afford the lifestyle that you want, but the amount of income you make and the amount of network that you have, I. It is not reflective of your worth as a person. That's completely separate. I wanna love you no matter what. So I just don't want my children to fall into the workaholic, the workaholic that I'm still trying to work out in my own life, which is like trying to separate my sense of like accomplishment apart from my ability to work.
Naseema: Yeah, I love that. And I struggle with that too. 'cause it's like if you have any downtime, you're like in your mind, oh my God, you're so lazy, you haven't gotten this done. And it's
Shang Saavedra: and I'm like, where's that voice coming from? [00:34:00] Why is it there?
Naseema: Why is it there? It's all that, it's all that mindset stuff. It's all the stuff that we still have to work to unravel, and I think that it's something that you just can't work on one time. It's one of those things that you have to continuously work on you have to surround yourself with people that are working on it too, because it's easy to fall back into these traps and it's easy to slip back into that mindset because you have been dealing with this mindset for so long
Shang Saavedra: yeah.
Naseema: Yeah, that's why I hope everybody picks up this book. It's out Now. Where can people find the book and where can people follow you and save my sense.
Shang Saavedra: Yeah, so the book is available wherever you buy your book. So if you do it online, Amazon, Barnes and Noble. We got hardcover ebook and audiobook versions, and then I hang out the most on Instagram under the username. Save my sense. I've also got a website, save my sense.com, and links to, [00:35:00] free downloads and fun stuff like that.
But yeah, I would say if people can pick up a copy of a book, you can totally, see my own journey as well as, develop your own journey towards wealth and hopefully it would change your life.
Naseema: Yes, I believe that. I really believe that. So I really appreciate you, Shang. I always love hanging out with you. You're the best. You're an inspiration for me for sure. Definitely part of my people that I aspire to. So I really appreciate you taking time out to share with us and to share your book.
Shang Saavedra: Thank you. This was super fun.
Naseema: Thanks, Shang.
Hey there I’m Naseema
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