How Do GJW Feel about Side Hustles? (S2E20)

Disclaimer: This transcript was auto-generated using AI-powered software.

Megan [00:00:00] Oh, Miss Saira. So I can’t believe it’s been a year of us recording the podcast. It’s just kind of wild to me and surreal. We just ended season two.

Saira [00:00:12] Yeah. I mean, if you had asked me a year ago if we would be here today, still, I would have said, Yeah, but in my brain, I guess I thought we would still be recording season one, maybe. But time just flies. Subjects fly. Everything we do has shifted. You know, you’re a freak of nature in notion.

Megan [00:00:31] I love notion notion. Should I just keep saying their name? Promote us.

Saira [00:00:36] Yeah, let’s manifest having them sponsor us because honestly, they’ve altered our podcast life.

Megan [00:00:40] They really, really have. I really love them now. Everyone at work gets mad at me, but I don’t care. No, I mean God. Hell, I mean, I think we talked about this in season one. But you know, I learned a lot about myself when it comes to finance, when it comes to money, unpacking those inherited beliefs we have from our parents of, you know, don’t talk about this. That’s gauche, whatever to now being the kind of person that is like, this is how much money I make a year, Sai. This is how much money I actually make after taxes. And this is how I put it into my three buckets. And by the way, I’ve made my goals that we talked about at the beginning of last year. I’m like confident and that feels really amazing to me. Like, from a financial perspective, I never thought I could say that.

Saira [00:01:22] Good, I mean, that’s like girl feeling empowered and feeling like you can do what you want to do and that you have the discipline to maintain your lifestyle and continue to grow. That’s like the dream, right, that’s what everybody wants, everybody wants to be able to say, I have enough money to walk away from a job if I want to so. Feel free to criticize me world. I’m here to either have fun or, you know, eventually take a six month vacation and take a break and find a cool job and never talk to any of the people that I work with again, except for the handful of people actually like.

Megan [00:02:01] YOLO. Yeah, YOLO. You know, some of those days where you’re like, All right, like when we went to Mexico, OK? And I was really close to my savings goal that you and I had talked about, which was, I’m just going to say it’s $60000. I wanted to work up my savings.

Saira [00:02:16] Woa, pause, when did we go to Mexico?

Megan [00:02:19] You didn’t go to Mexico. Me and Taylor went to Mexico.

Saira [00:02:22] I was like.

Megan [00:02:22] And it was amazing and it was my birthday present, and thank God for him. But we’re sitting there and we’re in the pool and we’re on like our last day and I’m like, OK, if I quit my job. How long could I burn through that savings in Mexico? I know that sounds crazy, but it was true. I was like, I have this money. It’s kind of like a little buffer. And no, I didn’t quit my job. Yes, I came back and yes, I’m happy, blah blah blah. But just to be able to have that nest egg to say, like if things do go awry, I have an exit strategy and that’s completely fine to have, you know, especially in these days in general. So I feel good about that. I feel really good. But, you know, we took a shift in season two. You kind of gave me the reins, which I’m still shocked about and said yo, go write our editorial calendar. Where do you think we should pivot and go with this? And I decided to take it into series and kind of branch out of finance a little bit. And it was a little scary.

Saira [00:03:21] I trusted you the whole time as I put the blindfold on and rode the plane, I rode that ride.

Megan [00:03:28] So thank you. Well, I think we should jump into the body of the episode and start to unpack kind of some of our learnings from the season thoughts?

Saira [00:03:36] All right, now, let’s do it. I’m ready.

Megan [00:03:42] Welcome to Girls Just Wanna Have Funds, the weekly podcast that deconstructs the intimidating world of finance. Hosted by Saira Rahman, VP of Finance at HMBradley and her partner in crime, Megan McShane, a manager at a Fortune 100 company and supported by Stoctwits. Girls Just Wanna Have Funds will take on the important questions and personal finance that so many of us avoid, but also take on a glass of wine or two. Learn more, subscribe to the show and join Saira and Megan on their no shame adventure to financial freedom at girlsjustwanna.com.

Megan [00:04:21] I changed it up at the end. Oh, we have fun. All right Sai, season two, season two girls just want to have fun. Here we are wrapping it up last episode. I want to take us all the way back to when we recorded backI think in August, the sun was out and not it wasn’t raining in Seattle, which yes, it’s raining here now in February, shocking. Our first series, we talked about girls just want to find balance. Series one. Do you recall?

Saira [00:04:55] Yeah.

Megan [00:04:55] Do you recall that one?

Saira [00:04:57] You know, I hate being quizzed Dr. Turner, Denise Shull and Nina.

Megan [00:05:03] Yes.Boom.

Saira [00:05:04] Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah, I mean, if I were to take those three episodes and kind of talk about overarching themes that I saw. From the beginning, I think the biggest one is if you can allocate enough money and find the inner strength to do so, you could ultimately walk away from your job and kind of do whatever you want for at least a little short period of time. And you, you are your own safety net. You can trust in yourself, right? Like I know for me personally, if I ever lost my job, if the, you know, God forbid, something were to happen and fintech suddenly disappeared. I know that I would hunt down whether it was another job or start my own company, and that was kind of the beginning of the conversation of do you have what it takes to do it and the answer has always been yes, it’s more a matter of coming to grips with that idea and then wanting to execute on it.

Megan [00:06:20] I was so elated at how timely that episode was with Dr. G. By the way, for my my selfish reasons because I was in a transitional state at work and I was having really big imposter syndrome when it came to taking on a bigger job and also finding the way to exit with grace and not burn bridges as much as possible. And she literally wrote the script for me in that episode. I have it in my phone still. And that conversation went beautifully. I led with all positive intention, which was really great and just led with my happiness because it’s what I wanted to do. And ultimately, at the end of the day, no one’s mad at that. And that’s what I took away from her. Like, I was like, These are some legit people that can really help me, and I hope they can help somebody else. So when I say Dr. G is a G, I really, really mean it because she helped me a lot.

Saira [00:07:20] Yeah, I think everyone in that series had their own unique perspective that provided some form of advice to me, whether it was imposter syndrome, like you said, I mean, different ways of managing very emotional risk like Denise did or you know what Nina is doing, which like she is like this think tank of doing all the things and creating her own empire. So yeah, yeah.

Megan [00:07:48] No I mean, it was a wealth of knowledge to kick off this season. I just I really remember that so distinctively about Dr. GUrner, just because it was so timely for me. And I’m sure people can listen back to some of these episodes and like, listen to Denise, talk about risk and talk about her own journey. Like she really opened up and was like, You know, I felt like we were in the room with her having a martini. I was like, This is, you know, some greasy, amazing shit she’s gone through and like, she’s come always out on top. And I’m like, These are the kind of bad bitches I want to ride with, you know what I mean? Like, let’s all like rise. You know, each other up. So I know I’m getting a little like. Yeah. All right Sai I want to talk about something that was really true to you, and I’ve never seen you be this vulnerable. And so thank you for letting me kind of cater this series about life stages because I definitely know there was one thing you know you were getting married and eloping. So there was that there was another one about, you know, how to afford a baby. And then obviously there was one about death because you got to round out the circle of life here, huh? And we talked about how to monetize your mortality. So of the three episodes that we went through, which do you think was the most impactful for you?

Saira [00:09:08] I just have a kinship with Halle that I think is just very deep, just because I have severe fertility problems and it’s something that I’ve been dealing with for a long time. So when I hear an expert talk about infertility, it’s something that I lean into and it’s something that I want to discuss. You know, I think weddings getting married is an easy decision, right? Like, it’s when you’re with the person that you love. Getting married to me does not really matter. It’s it’s like, that is the easy part. The hard part is figuring out like, where are you going to buy a house? When are you going to have, like all the other things, where the hard part? And then when it comes to death, like death is expected, I am reading a book right now that talks about how the samurai live by their own like Code of Virtues, and they all circle around the same idea, which is everybody dies and you should be living your life in preparation for death, meaning the samurai are always extremely like, clean and tidy. They bathe with their swords because they anticipate like that death may come at any moment. They do things very intentionally and respectfully and with loyalty because they want people to remember who they are and that they are good people. So like, I don’t know, after reading that book, I’m kind of like, A, I would like to become a samurai and, B, death is inevitable, right? Just kind of like taxes. And I like I want to prepare for it so that nobody else has any pains, but if you were to talk about like my passion point right now, it’s definitely fertility. What about you, which one struck you the most?

Megan [00:10:50] I think I was most informed by the mortality one because I’ve never written a will or even thought about it, so it was interesting to have that conversation. I felt like that was the most educational one for me. I obviously loved like how to say yes to the dress just because it was fun and we did like your dress reveal and I couldn’t be there in person, so, you know, I cried over here by myself in my room. But what I thought was the most impactful was probably how to afford a baby because both you and Ali really opened up. And I think it’s because you guys both know each other from a younger age where we all didn’t really think about having babies. And now here you are. I, like most women, assume when she wants to try, it’s just going to happen. But as I get older, I’m starting to realize that’s not always going to be the case. And so for me personally, I had to come to sort of grips with that to be like, Yo, you’re about to be thirty three. Like, maybe it’s time to start thinking about this seriously and exploring your options just to know. And I think that’s a reality that all women have to face if they want to have a child. And it’s scary. It’s not fun.

Saira [00:11:58] No, and an equally important news, Nick and I just found out that we got bumped up on the surrogate list, so I’m like, ready, I’m ready for whatever that is. So maybe in season three, there’s going to be some more things to uncover from a financial perspective because I would love to do a bunch of series on that itself to, like, explore that more selfishly. But yeah, I I have lots of thoughts there, so I’m glad that you took away a lot from that as well, because I do think it’s a really important subject that often gets overlooked because of the fact that we do assume that all of our lady parts are consistently functioning and that is just simply untrue.

Megan [00:12:41] And I think what also came out of that too was. How companies should look at this, too, because, you know, everything is kind of shifting on its head now. I think I wrote the other day in some presentation or I talked through it was. You know, it’s all kind of flipping on its head, so to speak, is like, you know, I’m looking for the best corner office with the best window to now I’m looking at companies that are like going to offer me the most time off or the most grace when it comes to big life events or Work-Life Balance or whatever. And one of those I didn’t even think about was if you had a miscarriage do you get time off? Like all of those things like those are very much a reality that I’ve never even thought of, so I was happy that we could shed some light on that too.

Saira [00:13:25] Yeah, for sure, I completely agree with that.

Megan [00:13:29] Moving right along. The next series we talked about, girls just want to build a bank, which was an interesting one. I think we tried to unpack it from different angles. We met with beautiful, amazing women that are doing amazing fricking things. I think the conclusion I came to after that series was, I don’t want to build a bank. It seems like too much work. That’s where I netted I’m not going to lie. Yeah, that’s that’s kind of that’s where I netted on it. There’s a lot of intricacies and a lot more smart people out there than myself that are doing that work, which is righteous in its own regard. But I don’t know. Do you still want to build a bank? Is that what you’re going to do? Or like, what’s your what? What are you doing?

Saira [00:14:13] OK. We both know that that series was selfishly for me because that is my wheelhouse and those are like, you know, ladies represent, I love, I love women building fintech, doing all of the things, especially in a predominantly male industry. So that was one part. You know, Saira, do you really want to build your own neo bank? Because I do dream about, you know, the Saira card. I don’t even know what that means or what it looks like or, you know, but simultaneously, we both know that the reality is that it’s highly unlikely that I enter into that space. I just have other things on my list that I would like to accomplish before I create a charge card, you know, but it was just super educational, and I think for me, the other big thing that I was trying to highlight for everyone is that there’s a lot of stuff going on in the background behind every time you swipe your card, every time you go, take money out, every time you do stuff at a bank there are a thousand companies making a coordinated event occur for you, and nobody really has transparency into that. So that was the other piece that I was trying to kind of link back to season one. Like, here’s some more intel on how this works. So thank you for sticking around for that series and for indulging me on more of an informational session that I think most people usually anticipate when it comes to banking.

Megan [00:15:42] I mean, I definitely learned stuff like, let’s let’s not step away from that for a minute. I’m just not going to go off and build, you know, the bank of Megan McShane is just not going to happen, even though it sounds nice.

Saira [00:15:52] You would love to have a Nina and Sai charge card.

Megan [00:15:55] Come on. I know, but I don’t want to deal with the legality of like security in that, you know, I just don’t want to do that, but I learned a lot of it.

Megan [00:16:06] So I had to do a lot of flipping research before those interviews to tell you the truth because I didn’t even understand what the frik was happening. I was like, what is this backend stuff that’s happening? And so it helped me get more educated in a space I didn’t know a lot about. So no I’m grateful for those episodes. I think I think that was a good journey you took me on like, you’re still teaching me stuff, you know, even if I’m not going to use it, I could be that girl at a dinner party that, like all of a sudden, is like, well, did you know? And like, just bring up one of those points. So if anything, you’re making me look good. You’re making me look good.

Saira [00:16:42] Fintech trivia. Yeah, fintech trivia, baby. All about it. All about it.

Megan [00:16:45] All right. Well, Series four, we had to talk about crypto obviously, we unpacked how to understand the crypto craze. We wanted to get to know what an NFT is. And then obviously, we had to discuss DAOs to understand what the frick is going on there. I am still trying to understand crypto. I feel like everyone’s kind of changing stuff on me all the time. I think I have a general sense of it. I can explain it to a certain term at work now, which makes me feel good and educated. But yeah, I think the ladies that we talked to there are definitely going to be blossoming even more than they are right now in the next two years. We had Bec Jones, who yes, I follow all the time on TikTok to learn everything about her and NFTs. We had Caitlin Cook come on from onramp, who was a beautiful soul to help us just unpack crypto at its very basic fifth grade level. And then we had Leigh Cuen who came on who actually just established her own DAO. Have you joined her DAO? Are you on her DAO? Are you lot of talk about that?

Saira [00:17:46] I’m in her slack. At some point she’ll I’m sure she’ll open up the DAO to all of the people. So I’m with you. I think all of these women are actually just at the very beginning of their crypto journeys. I think a lot of people are generally. It’s still early, as the kids say, but I’m still exploring some of the more nuanced things behind crypto. I think that there are really interesting criticisms and clap backs, by the way, to what people say about cryptocurrency generally. So I’m still in a phase where I’m actively teaching myself and learning from experts exactly how a lot of this works. I just recently had my first one on one with someone from a derivatives platform in crypto, and they basically just break derivatives norms to generate derivatives in crypto.

Megan [00:18:41] Womp, womp, what I can’t, I can’t.

Saira [00:18:47] It’s so cool.

Megan [00:18:48] What the hell is that?

Saira [00:18:51] If anyone from DYDX is listening, you have to call me. It’s literally people trading derivatives. So I mean, the derivatives is such a broad term we’ve talked about this so far, but basically exchanging one thing for another. So it could be like, you know, bitcoin for USD at a very specific cadence over a very specific timeframe that is considered to be, you know, a type of derivative. So. It’s super cool, though, like just so cool.

Megan [00:19:19] It’s like full circle for you.

Saira [00:19:22] Oh my goodness. Like, will I retire somewhere in that industry? I sure as hell hope so. Like and like a dream state. I’m doing crypto derivatives like I already turned to our mutual friend Scott, and I was like, Scott, how have I not? Gone into crypto derivatives, I. I stayed in derivatives for too long. I should have gone to crypto derivatives like a decade ago. So.

Megan [00:19:48] Wonder how many listeners we just lost.

Saira [00:19:54] Oh, stop, everybody loves a good derivative.

Megan [00:19:57] You just leep saying derivative. Have I ever use this analogy with you, my friend Lindsey Shragen in college? She was like, Should we make a baked ziti? And I was like, what’s baked ziti? And she’s like baked ziti, baked ziti. And she just kept screaming baked ziti at me, and I looked at her at one point and I go, yo, are you going to tell me what baked ziti is? Are just going to keep screaming it at me? That’s how I feel about derivatives.

Saira [00:20:18] I feel like you said that in our second episode.

Megan [00:20:20] I know I’m bringing it back, so I am bringing it back because that’s what it reminds me of.

Saira [00:20:25] Throwbacks. Hey, I’m sorry, I won’t use that word. I won’t use the D word anymore. OK? I’ll turn it into a curse d word.

Megan [00:20:33] I love that.

Saira [00:20:35] Gosh. All right. Was that our final series?

Megan [00:20:37] No, no, no. Last but not least, we had girls just want a side hustle, which was the premise of it was girls just that took their side hustles and made it full time. So we talked to Emma about how to influence. We talked to Claire about how to change an industry, and then we talked to Nicole about leveling up. I think that’s what we ended up calling it or something. But yeah, I mean, this is something I mean, I’m obviously pressing on a lot of things that are both personal to us this season, as well as things that we’ve talked about collectively, like being our little business up to. And this one, I really wanted to hit home on an Emma who I explicitly found through Instagram through one of my Instagram only friends. Yes, that’s how I live now is such a wealth of knowledge when it comes to content creation, and her whole premise is around how to help other content creators make money and go full time. And yeah, no, I just absolutely like adore her because I know her personally, but I felt really good about that episode in particular, just like for us to learn something because that was definitely one of my missions I set out on when I was writing this editorial calendar for us was Let’s learn a bunch of shit and decide what we’re going to do with that. We’re not going to build a bank check. We’re going to dabble in crypto, I think. But like, should we take this full time question mark?

Saira [00:21:58] Yeah. I had so much fun interviewing all three of them. I think the unfortunate situation for me is that I just really hate cameras, so.

Megan [00:22:09] You know, we’re doing a podcast, but we always decide to do visuals. We could just be audio all day.

Saira [00:22:15] No, but like YouTube is fun. YouTube is very fun.

Megan [00:22:19] To our 55 followers, and here we are.

Saira [00:22:22] Guys, can somebody help us hit 100? Like, that’s the goal.

Megan [00:22:25] We need a goal here. We need to look at YouTube.

Saira [00:22:28] Here’s my thing. I feel like I have to stare at my face all day and zoom, and I’m still trying to figure out how to shut that off. Like, there is a function that lets you not have to stare at your face, and I’m just trying to figure out where it is. Somebody wants to slide into my arms and teach me how to turn off the camera. I’m just waiting for that moment because I would like to stop seeing my face. In which case, let’s do it all day, baby. This is like the only time I do my makeup and my hair is for you. So, you know, I’m here for all of the content creator stuff. With the exception of video at the moment, so I’ll expand that back into video as soon as I stare at myself all day. All right. Yeah, I learned so much about content creation and they make like more money than like the vast majority of the United States of America. So I’m into that as well. With love, I still need to take Emma’s course, that’s on my to do list. I’m I’m sorry, I haven’t clicked play yet, but I will.

Megan [00:23:32] Oh, it’s on there. No, it’s definitely a fascinating industry, and I definitely think we. What do I tell people when they’re like, so you started a podcast, why did you start it, you know? Do you ever get that question? I get that question a lot. Why did you? Why did you do that? And I’m like, well uhm.

Saira [00:23:53] Well, what I was thinking was.

Megan [00:23:55] It was a pandemic. And, you know, like I was bored on a Saturday and I was like, you want to stare at each other and drink wine and talk shit? I was like, yeah, do you want to not get paid? Yes. Here we go. Let’s do it.

Saira [00:24:07] Wait, wait, wait. Let’s let’s back pedal for a second, though, because we did plan on having some kind of a bit at some point when we, you know, when I was living in Seattle, you and I were like, we’ll go riff raff off of each other like you would make up story. I would make up a story we would like, you know? Yeah, we would, we would turn skiing down a hill into like a full fledged crisis where, you know, helicopters are coming to assist us to get down the side of that hill and people are probably dying like it was a whole thing. So I feel like it was. Some piece of destiny.

Megan [00:24:41] I knew you were going to say it was a calling.

Saira [00:24:44] We were called to the microphone. You don’t think so? You don’t think so? Oh. Why are you laughing?

Megan [00:24:52] No, I just, I don’t know. Maybe we were. No, I know. I mean, how many? The thing is, we were always like, we were those people for seven years. We’re like, All right, let’s start a notebook and we’re going to write this stuff down and then we’re going to do it. And then we just drink too much wine. Like it never happened until you were like until now, until you were like, OK, we’re actually going to do this. And I was like, alright fine. No, it definitely was a calling. It definitely is fun. Even, you know, when we struggle and we’re sick and we’re trying to show up and like, be here and be entertaining. No, I do love it. Like, if we could do this all the time and do like the finance stuff and do other things like, I’d be down. So I did take Emma’s course because you’re stuck with nine. I said, I’m suckers. Yeah, you know.

Saira [00:25:44] All right. Let’s take let’s make that homework. We’ll take Emma’s course together.

Megan [00:25:48] Alright give each other homework, done. Dun dun dun dun dun dun greif. All right. All right. Well, general thoughts on season two dude.

Saira [00:25:56] Hmm. Should take a quick break before we do general thoughts?

Megan [00:26:00] Yeah, I could do some water.

Saira [00:26:04] General thoughts on the whole season, ready go.

Megan [00:26:08] I like this structure. I like the way that we’re shifting the content a little bit as to say, hey, yes, we can talk about traditional finance, we can talk about tools and tips to make you better, and we will continue to pepper those in because we should. But I also like taking the angle of. Here’s life, here’s how you can think about it. And here’s our financial perspective on it. Well, really, Saira’s, but I like that because I think for me, I become of more the every girl that I am that I bring to the table, the one that pushes and ask questions with no shame. And you become or are the financial responsible one and the financial advocate. You know, like you thought about like how much a kid costs, maybe a lot of people, but the cost of the kid and talking about it.

Saira [00:27:01] Most people don’t plan for that, though. Like, think about a baby shower. That’s the extent of planning that people get into it. And on the front, I mean, there’s so many cool stats about this, like so many people go into debt having a baby because they don’t realize how much this stuff costs. They don’t do homework on how much they’re going to charge the hospital. They don’t realize, you know, formula is expensive and you can’t always plan for whether or not you’re going to, you know, get to breastfeed. So lots of stuff that people don’t recognize that are super expensive and I don’t know, who knows? I’m sure Nick and I will be going broke no matter what they are. They also always say that you can’t ever plan for a baby. It just sends a big way more expensive than your plan, so such as life. But I mean, I think the one thing that I took away from all of this is that. There are so many things to think about. And from different angles. And like. Just generally across the board, for me, like what is my risk tolerance for each of these individual things? Would I be interested in actually doing them? Who are these incredible, powerful people that have accomplished so many things? And could I do something similar myself and I’m coming closer and closer to the conclusion that like, yes, I do want to do something on my own. No, I don’t know what that is still. But at least now I have like trust in myself and in you. We’d at a minimum, be extremely financially savvy about it because we’re very good at breaking that piece of it down.

Megan [00:28:34] And I know we talked about this in last season finale, but I feel like we’ve also learned how to work together. Which was hard. You know, like being able to trust and being able to be like get stuff done in both of us are very Type-A. And so it’s hard.

Saira [00:28:52] In different ways, though, like you running the notion and being like, I’m going to take care of the schedule and all of our topics and some of our creative. And I was like, Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. I can figure out the rest of it. So the planning and the scheduling and the like, how are we going to nuance this from a fiscal standpoint?

Megan [00:29:15] Yeah. Well, we’ve come a long way. It’s still a lot of work.

Saira [00:29:19] Yeah. It’s way more work than originally expected, most people have no clue. If you have never started a business with your bestie. The pandemic may have been the best time to try, because at least then we had a whole bunch of time on Saturday evenings.

Megan [00:29:37] It is so true.

Saira [00:29:40] Oh, it was like my saving grace to my long week stuck inside of my tiny apartment, which eventually became here. So.

Megan [00:29:49] Anyway, I guess that’s a wrap on season two, huh?

Saira [00:29:53] Oh. It’s only up from here, right?

Megan [00:29:57] I would hope so. Only up.

Saira [00:30:01] You’re not convincing me right now, but I’m going to say that we’re only continuing on the upward trajectory.

Megan [00:30:06] Tune in next time for girls just want to have funds season three?

Saira [00:30:12] Saucy.

Megan [00:30:12] All right.

Saira [00:30:15] I’m not going to be the first one to say it. So you say it.

Megan [00:30:17] Love you.

Saira [00:30:20] Love you.

Megan [00:30:21] Bye.

Saira [00:30:22] Thanks for joining us. Head on over to girlsjustwanna.com where you can subscribe to the show, follow Megan and I on social or even text us your important financial questions. And remember, there’s no shame in asking anything. We’ll see you next time on Girls Just Wanna Have Funds.