[00:00:06] Viktoriia Miracle: Hello. Hello and welcome to a happy time happy money podcast with Viktoriia Miracle. And today we have Jessica Wallace. Jessica Wallace is a lawyer and a financial expert. She has an MBA and it's currently at PhD candidate. She helps people understand the ABC's of finance, and how to make money benefit your longterm.

[00:00:32] Hi and welcome Jessica. Hi, how you doing today? Amazing. So I'm curious to know more about you? How did you start to do what you are doing right now and what inspired you to do?

[00:00:49] Jessica Wallace: Yes. Great question. So I started off in law, so I had a passion for government and from there I went into contract negotiation, which is a part of law.

[00:01:01] So I started negotiating contracts and while I was negotiating contracts, I found a passion for finance, a passion for helping other people. And after getting my MBA, I made a full transition to finance so I currently work full-time, as a contractor for the US Air Force while I reconcile all their financial issues that they have with their budgets.

[00:01:26] And I also have my own business, the finance doctor, where I provide financial advising to businesses and individuals.

[00:01:34] Viktoriia Miracle: Beautiful. So tell us, what are you specializing in? Like what will be your, your gem in the finance?

[00:01:44] Jessica Wallace: Yes. Yes. So I absolutely love macro economics, which is a large scale of how the economy works. And I also enjoy behavioral finance, which helps people understand why they spend the way they spend, really pinpointing who they are as a person and their knowledge and finances and why they may Suze that they make as the business owner.

[00:02:09] And I'm really passionate about the element of how your behavior interacts with society as a whole, because many times. People do not have budgets. They don't really understand how to get control of their finances and maybe people wait until they're in debt to really get control over, over their financial situation.

[00:02:34] Viktoriia Miracle: So you're saying you have to make budget. We have to create budget?

[00:02:40] Jessica Wallace: Yeah. So creating a budget is essential and budgeting is something that a lot of times people think is just numbers. It's just an Excel spreadsheet, or just some tabs in your phone that, that gives you alarms to make sure that you don't reach your limit, but your budget really should be a reflection of how you spend and how you behave.

[00:03:00] And the best way to really understand that is by take first off, taking a look at your spending habits. So, when do you spend the most, when do you actually not spend, you know, what prompts you to want to go out and spend, or what prompts you to want to save? So a great example of that is if you decide to go on a vacation and it's a yearly vacation, maybe you're always saving right before that vacation time.

[00:03:27] So it's best to take a step back and really reflect on your habits and how you spend throughout the year, instead of it being a very zoomed in aspect where you're just going day by day, kind of zoom out and get a better understanding of why you do what you do and kind of put on the timetable. You can put on the calendar, you can kind of zoom out and really understand by your, your spending.

[00:03:52] So that's a great way, great way to get started.

[00:03:56] Viktoriia Miracle: I guess there is like types or different, I don't know, characters, people that are spent because you say you love learning behavior. Like in like a micronomics, like is there is a spending patterns in different countries or different kinds of like age group or any statistics they can share with us.

[00:04:15] Jessica Wallace: Oh, yeah, there's some great statistics. So I have a great story, actually, of a woman who was one of my clients, and I'm free to tell the story, but she had lost a lot of weight through gastric bypass surgery. She got a divorce, she saved a ton of money and it was in a great spot in her life. But when I met her, she was really struggling with her finances. She had gained all the way back and then some, and she had actually gotten engaged and she was struggling with her marriage, with her fiance and her dream home. So everything kind of set back to it was. So really the dynamic of your spending and your behavior is what you know, and what you see.

[00:05:04] So your demographic is essential. So if you come from a two-parent household and you're always used to seeing them share money and share everything that they, that they have financially. You're going to do that with your partner, and you're going to want to do that with your spouse, but your spouse might not be good with money.

[00:05:20] So you might end up in a situation where you're in debt or a situation where you're constantly struggling or fighting over finances. Yet, if you come from a different kind of household where finances weren't shared, or you came from a single parent household, there's going to be a more of a separation finances.

[00:05:37] So demographics really are focused on if you're young. Yes, you're definitely going to be, be more active, right? You're going to be going out more. You're going to be interacting. You're going to be spending more money because you're going to be trying to achieve your goals in life. Versus when you're middle age, you're when that savings and really creating a longterm goal for your life. You're going to go into the home buying and the car buying era. So you're definitely going to want to have a savings to do those things. And when you're a little older, let's say retirement age, then that's when you're really going to make sure that you've already did all the saving that you could when you were younger.

[00:06:13] And if not, you're going to be catching up. So you're going to be even more frugal. I think as much, my you're going to be spending money on things that you are very passionate about, which is, you know, travel and your children, or, you know, your, your future leaving your legacy behind. So, and, and honestly, a lot of times this is not very shared.

[00:06:35] This information is shared between the different generations. It's very separated. You don't really get a look into the older generation of retirement generation versus talking to a younger generation, that's just starting out. So it's best to really communicate with those that are around you and get an understanding of what the future is going to look like.

[00:06:56] And then if you're already at that retirement age, or if you're in your middle age where you're saving up in purchasing a home, being able to communicate that to the younger generations, which really ties into our role in general of capitalism and how the role that we play and this world that we live in.

[00:07:16] Viktoriia Miracle: Yeah. Well, awesome and I think we get to, you know, applied that, understand how we're spending and what and adjust that towards our dreams like what, what is the path right between our spending budget, our spending habits and our dreams. Thank you for that, and the last question that I always ask everyone is to fill in the blank sentence for me, please.

[00:07:38] If you really knew me, you will know that I am blank.

[00:07:45] Jessica Wallace: A big anime nerd, that absolutely loves culture. So loves culture, various essential to understanding how, how to spend and you know, how to understand different perspectives.

[00:08:01] Viktoriia Miracle: Love it. And I know you have a gift for us today. What is that? And how our audience can find you? What is your best social platform?

[00:08:12] Jessica Wallace: Yeah, so you can find me on my website or on Instagram. And my free giveaway is a 30 minute consultation, free consultation. I'll give you some tips, some really great tips on how to separate your funds and how to really start monitoring your credit.

[00:08:29] Viktoriia Miracle: Absolutely. So if you're watching a listening, just to scroll down, there will be episode, page link, where you can click and find all the links that we mentioned above and also video, audio or transcript version of this episode, if you are a reader.

[00:08:45] So thank you for watching. Thank you for coming over, Jessica, and I'll see you in the next episode.

[00:08:52] Jessica Wallace: Thank you.

[00:08:54] Viktoriia Miracle: Thank you.