Miss Findependent

Hi everyone, It's Nika Farb, and Katie Karlos. Welcome to the Miss Findependent Podcast. We're passionate about helping women become financially literate and independent. Our aim is to help our listeners build the toolkit to be more confident investors, entrepreneurs or go further in their careers.Women have never been more empowered than we are today. We’ve made tremendous strides over the last century by becoming more educated and participating more and more in the workforce, but we are still lagging in one key area: financial literacy. A study by Stanford University showed that in the US women on average, are expected to live 5 years longer than men, but accumulate over $100,000 less wealth. Women are less confident than men in making many financial decisions. Confidence stems from knowledge. Throughout our next series of podcasts we're going to host a wide variety of guests successful in various domains.  Nika is a seasoned entrepreneur and sales professional and has experience in building her own business. She'll be leading conversations on how to start a business and various business models today. Katie is a professional accountant and will help our listeners prepare for tax season and financial planning.Stay tuned!

We start off with a visualization of the future. You enter an elevator, press the top floor, and come out as you, only 10 years into the future. We ask you to question where you see yourself - what sights, sounds, and people surround you. The reason we do this is to help you understand that you need to be working for the life you want now. Things won't just fall into place, you need to call them into existence and take action to purse what's yours. We talk about some of the ways millennials often live above their means and get into significant credit card debt. We discuss ways to prioritize debt and where to focus your attention. We discuss basic budgeting skills and how to manage your inflows and outflows to ensure you are net positive month over month. We provide a brief introduction to TFSAs and RRSPs and explain why both accounts are necessary for everyone to have, even if you have a company pension already set up.

We discuss the importance of asking for employee referrals and how to cold outreach. We talk about everything from what to say in your LinkedIn messages, or email, to how to increase your response rate. We break down how to connect with people you've never met and how to give back to people that reach out to you. We provide examples of networking tools you can utilize such as joining professional organizations (ie. Women in Capital Markets) and explain how these tools can be used to obtain job opportunities as well as employee referrals.We discuss the importance of Temp Agencies and how to take advantage of Freelancing to get the most value out of your skillset. We provide tangible examples and proof of how our method works.

Building financial literacy can be a daunting journey, especially if you don't know where to start. In this episode we break down the basics of what actions you need to be taking in order to set yourself up for success. We start with explaining what an emergency fund is and how to build one. We teach you to build a system for monitoring your cash inflows and outflows and how to be mindful of your spending. We dive deep into budgets and present an easy system - the 50/30/20 rule - for mindful spending on needs, wants, and savings. You can download an easy budgeting worksheet by singing up for our mailing list here: www.missfindependent.com 

On this episode of the podcast we are joined by a special guest, Michele Molino the Founder of Female CoFounder. Michele is a badass female entrepreneur, and also a Product Manager at Vmware Pivotal Labs. She's previously worked on brands like Virgin Mobile, CraveTV, Bell and Lucky Mobile. Michele is a proud Schulich alumna who graduated with Honours and Distinction specializing in Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Finance. Now she’s creating an opportunity to uplift women who are excited about building the future of tech.For every 20 start-up founders in the technology sector, less than 3 are women. We’re working with everyone in the tech community to change that. Female CoFounder is a community where you build diverse teams for side-projects and startups. Join the community at www.femalecofounder.com - If you've ever thought about starting a side hustle, building a business or venturing into entrepreneurship, this is the conversation for you. Michele shares her story about how Female CoFounder was built, some of the challenges and setbacks she's gone through and her learnings along the way. Nika's been a community member of FemaleCoFounder since their early days, and led their first Lightning Talks on Risk and Resilence in entrepreneurship, and how to build up your risk tolerance. Michele talks about the community she's building and how important it is to have the right people by your side when you're creating something special. With Michele we unpack what are some common fears that hold women back from starting businesses. We talk about how to get out of your own head and how to persevere. 

The holidays can be the most exciting and expensive time of year for some. While this holiday season is definitely going to look different from previous years, now more than ever is it important to show your friends and family how much you love and appreciate them. It's not about how much you give, but about how much love you put into giving. In this episode we go over how to have a conversation with friends/family about expectations around the holidays. A lot of people have either lost their jobs, aren't getting their holiday bonuses, and/or cash might be tight for many this year. Having candid conversations with friends and family is the first step in trying to understand what your holiday budget should be. We discuss how to value your relationships and offer suggestions for people with bigger family groups. We talk about why Black Friday/Cyber Monday aren't always the best times to buy, and why maybe you shouldn't be boycotting Amazon. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review! As always, thanks for listening. - Nika & Katie

A special episode with Liz Enriquez (founder of Ambitious Adulting) where we discuss how to build the mindset to start investing, how to build credit, and how to get started with real estate investing.Liz Enriquez helps Canadian Millennials learn about personal finances in a fun and non-intimidating way. As a young adult, Liz struggled with anxiety around money, and became committed to improving her financial literacy to help her cope. She dove deep into Personal Finance books, blogs and podcasts and saved $100,000 by the time she was 26. She has been featured in BNN Bloomberg, Globe and Mail, and Apartment Therapy and hosts her own show "Ambitious Adulting" on Cable 14.  @Ambitiousadulting on IG/twitterhttps://www.ambitiousadulting.com/about/

Why do people fail at keeping their New Year's resolutions?In this episode we unpack why only 8% of all people who set out to achieve their New Year's goals, actually achieve them.Studies have found that only 64% of people stick with their goals past one month, 46% past six months, and 8% through the end to long term achievement.We provide you with the steps to take in order to ensure that you set yourself up for success and join the 8%. We teach you how to create SMARTER, more specific goals, and dive deep into the "why" you are creating your goals in the first place.

We cover the following topics in this episode:1) What is crypto currency2) What is blockchain3) How to purchase crypto currency4) The risks surrounding crypto currency5) Our thoughts on Bitcoin and Ethereum6) And much more. This website has everything you need to know about Bitcoin:https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/getting-started.htmlThe best crypto hardware Wallet:https://www.ledger.com/Wealthsimple - buy and trade Bitcoin and Ethereum:https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/product/crypto/

In this episode we share some of our tips on how to make money conversations feel a lot easier and less awkward.We guide you on how to approach these tough conversations around money with your parents and significant others.In addition, we provide our advice when it comes to having conversations about retirement, spending and saving, debt and financial management. 

Once again we see how powerful social media is in our modern day. A retail investor posted about how the stock was undervalued on a public forum, WallStBets, and brought to light GameStop (GME) was shorted at 120% of the available shares by hedge funds. 4 Million people follow this forum. Retail investors, and FOMO investors bought the stock, the stock price shot up. Listen to hear what happens next. 2:20 - What is Shorting?8:00 - How did GME blow up?11:20 - What is a Short Squeeze?15:04 - Free Markets15:52 - Correction - The Stock was shorted 120% of the available shares, not 120x17:33 - Importance of Long Term Investing23:00 - What Happened with Melvin Capital

In this weeks episode we talk all things real estate investing with Severina Lutaj, investment banker and real estate development guru. She's managed portfolios of hundreds of commercial and residential tenancies and has in-depth knowledge of construction/maintenance as well as experience building out property management operations & processes. Her strong finance background and diverse real estate experience has led her to having unique, first-hand experience with investment properties and learning how to get on the property ladder.Here's what we get into:3:45 - How to Deal with Imposter Syndrome11:30 - Where Do I Start with Buying Property?12:19 - What to Look for in an Investment Property?19:45 - How Do I Research Real Estate?57:22 - Stock Market vs. Real Estate Investing

Stop thinking "If only I'd invested in Tesla 10 years ago I'd be a millionaire". Instead, switch to a forward thinking mindset. Ask yourself, 10 years from now, what do I wish I would've invested in, in 2021. There's opportunity everywhere, you just need to be open to it, and learn how to spot long term trends to see it.Timeline: 2:45 - FSDs (Full Self-Driving Cars)10:12 - Satellite Internet16:36 - E-Commerce25:23 - The Future of Retail33:17 - Alternative Medicines46:50 - Telehealth50:37 - Aging Population53:16 - The War on Cash 

We dive deep into the 5 actively managed ARK ETFs and give our opinions on ETFs as a whole.In addition, we give our suggestions on the best investing practices for different types of investors.

In this episode we take the driest topic of them all.... taxes... and try to hydrate it a bit. While listening to this one, we encourage you to channel your inner cactus. Why a cactus? Because they retain water for weeks, and you're about to retain some #Knowledge An RRSP is a Registered Retirement Savings Plan. It's an investment account that you use to build wealth for retirement. There's no minimum age to create one, you can create one as long as you are legally eligible to work. The maximum age to open an RRSP is 71. Timeline4:34 - What is an RRSP and how does it work?9:45 - Contribution room and how to calculate it13:26 - Self-directed RRSPs 12:40 - Employer matching17:19 - What happens when you over-contribute?18:58 - Withdrawals from your RRSP23:30 - First Time Home Buyers Program (HBP)

In this episode we dive into: 3:45 - Do you need to file a tax return if you didn't earn an income4:52 - Work from home claim for 202011:50 - Transferring assets into your TFSA in lieu of cash15:11 - Tax loss harvesting (using capital loses to offset capital gains)21:00 - Tax implications of buying/selling cryptoThis episode is for educational purposes only and is not to be taken as advise. 

Ryan Kia has an incredible story. He's been investing in the financial markets since the age of 11. Currently, he works as the "Head Of Finance" for "KWG Global", a research consultancy in the field of academia. He also co-founded "Quantium Research Limited" (https://www.quantiumresearch.co.uk/), a company that produces articles, videos, podcasts, and weekly reports for investors (via their newly-released QR+ package).Episode Details:2:00 - What is Quantium Research?6:35 - How to learn from failures16:37 - WTF are NFTs?28:13 - The CSI 30030:37 - FAANG vs. BAT39:39 - Volatility Indicators

This episode features special guests Dani Kagan and Victoria Marshman who are passionate and driven entrepreneurs, business leaders and dance teachers. As the Co-Founders of City MOGULS, they bring together the entrepreneurial community through a multitude of programs and experiences. The UofT grads founded City MOGULS in 2015 to unite and celebrate innovative and philanthropic entrepreneurs to inspire great leaders. Their signature event, The MOGUL Awards, celebrates the top 20 Canadian entrepreneurs in a unique fashion show to support Canadian causes. To date they have raised almost $200k to support Canadian at-risk youth. The City MOGULS community has recently expanded to provide educational resources, online programs, like their accelerator program MOGUL Crews, and a brand new membership program to support early-stage entrepreneurs to launch them to the next phase of their journey. They are proud to be supporting thousands of entrepreneurs across Canada and the globe!Here's what we get into: 1:40 - How did Dani and Victoria meet and what is City MOGULS4:50 - How to balance friendship and business7:39 - Parallels between competitive sports and business12:11 - How to lay the first brick when you're building Rome16:59 - City MOGULS transition into the digital world22:00 - How to Find Your Why26:37 - How to build a community for your business33:47 - When to hire talent to grow

Julian Brass specializes in coaching service-based entrepreneurs and high-performing organizations to get behind their brand (so they can go BEYOND their brand) and master their mindset. His expertise leads to empowering his clients to create a successful entrepreneurial life that unites the mind, body, and soul while generating massive impact and income. He built and sold Notable Life and the Notable Awards, is the international bestselling author of Own Your Anxiety, a global keynote speaker & corporate trainer, business advisor and investor in wellness brands. He is recognized as an award-winning entrepreneur who launched, built and eventually sold Notable and the Notable Awards, one of the top online media brands for successful millennials in Canada. You can learn about joining one of his programs by joining julianbrass.com/subscribe and follow him at instagram.com/julianbrass.We discuss the importance of loving yourself and being mindful of your own inner dialogue.Julian provides actionable steps to owning your body, mind and soul. In addition, we dive deep into how financial stresses can effect mental health and actionable steps you can take in order to improve your anxiety around your finances.Lastly, we discuss the impact of social media on one's mental health and how to control the narrative.You can purchase Julian's book "Own Your Anxiety":   https://amzn.to/3dpJ2Xp