3 Silent Wealth Killers Hiding in Fine Print | Tess Waresmith

Tess Waresmith (0:00)

It's a weird thing with money, too, because I feel like people think you're supposed to be born with this knowledge, like that some people have it and some people don't. Start learning the basics, and there's no harm in opening a small account. And once you start to do those things yourself, you'll realize it's not that hard. Tactically, it's simple. Psychologically, very difficult.

Tyler Gardner (0:21)

Hello, friends. This is Tyler Gardner welcoming you to another episode of Your Money Guide on the Side, where it is my job to simplify what seems complex, add nuance to what seems simple, and learn from and alongside some of the brightest minds in money, finance, and investing. So let's get started and get you one step closer to where you need to be. I am so excited to introduce our guest today because she was the first person who inspired me to start creating personal finance content. Back when I was considering taking the leap from managing money professionally to sharing financial education for free, Tess Waresmith immediately stood out to me. She wasn't flexing charts or drowning people in financial jargon. Rather, she was just telling it like it was. Honest, clear, and refreshingly real. And hilarious. Tess is an accredited financial counselor and the founder of Wealth With Tess, where she helps women in their 30s and 40s build wealth with simple, straightforward investing strategies. Her mission is to help women gain real agency over their money so they can retire comfortably and live life on their own terms. Her story? Well, in her early 20s, she trusted a financial advisor. A fiduciary, no less. And I'll leave it at that for now, and she can share the rest of the story in our conversation. But let's just say, instead of walking away from investing altogether, she leaned in, rewrote her own money story, and by 35 had built a $1 million net worth solo. Today, she's a trusted voice in personal finance, featured by CNBC and Business Insider. Her free workshops have helped thousands, and her community on Instagram is growing quickly because her advice is just that good, and just that real. And as always, if you find this discussion with Tess as engaging and thought-provoking as I definitely did, please consider leaving a review as it helps others find the show, and helps people avoid falling into the traps that Tess explores so well in this episode. Note, I also put Tess through my first lightning round of financial questions at the end of this episode, and her answers will prove very useful in your own thinking about investing and personal finance moving forward. So, enough from me, let's focus now on a very welcome and timely conversation with Tess Waresmith.

I do want to start at the beginning, and I was wondering if you could take me back to when you were in your 20s and when your mom started kind of opening up for the first time with you about her financial situation and the one that she was left in. Can you share a little bit about the impact that that had on you and how that has positioned you to think about money and finance going forward?

Tess Waresmith (3:39)

I get chills just thinking about this moment because it's burned into my brain. But I remember sitting at Chili's. I think it was Chili's. It was a Chili's type restaurant.

Tyler Gardner (3:49)

Oh, so your mom had good, good taste because that's my favorite restaurant. I'm not being remotely sarcastic. I want to start with this. You just won all the points and we can stop the podcast right there. Anyway, sorry.

Tess Waresmith (3:59)

Thanks for coming, everyone.

So we're sitting at Chili's and Chili's is a lively place. There's a ton of noise and kids are running around. And I remember in the movies when everything fades out and you're sort of just focused on this one person. And I remember that really happening to me in real time because I was so profoundly impacted by my mother's sadness. And she was telling me the story of when my biological father left us, he left her completely with nothing and no financial support. So she had a mortgage, two babies, and she's trying to figure this out. She had an okay career, but even still, she was so worried about being okay that she told me that she hired a dating service to help her find a man that was financially stable and had a certain level of income. This is the 90s, right? It's not like she went on hinge. She got like manila folders of dudes. Like this is a lot of effort. And I just remember being so uncomfortable in that moment and thinking to myself, I need to understand what is happening with my money right now. And at that time, I had actually saved quite a bit of money. I was very privileged early on. My first job was on cruise ships as an aerial acrobat, but I was saving tons of money because you live on the ship, they pay for all your food. So I had some money in a brokerage account. I had some money in a Roth IRA, but I had given it to a financial advisor and I had no idea what they were doing with it. And so after this conversation with my mother, I was like, I need to figure this out. And then I dove in and I found all kinds of things that were not okay that my financial advisor was doing. And it was an incredibly expensive lesson that I'd like to help all your listeners avoid. And is the whole reason that now I am a accredited financial counselor, why I've dedicated my life, because I feel morally obligated to help people avoid this mistake, which honestly, I'm grateful that it happened early in my life. So happy to get into what those things were.