Building Financial Confidence: Knowing Your Numbers and Unlocking Your Best Life with Marika Stimac

[00:00:00] Eric Brotman: Welcome to Don’t Retire, graduate, the podcast that asks you what you want to be when you grow up so you can graduate into retirement with purpose and passion. I’m your host and valedictorian, Eric Rottman. Excited to share our audiences now over a hundred thousand downloads, strong and growing rapidly, and I can’t thank you enough for making Don’t Retire.
Graduate a part of your personal financial journey. Our guest today is Marika Stein. Marika became a life coach with the intent of helping people unlock their best lives, but quickly recognized how many people are held back by their financial insecurities. Now she’s dedicated to empowering individuals to improve their financial literacy and to feel confident in their ability to achieve their financial goals and live the life they desire.
Her book is Keys to Financial Confidence. Unlock Your Best Life, which provides 40 action-based chapters that provide the challenge and accountability that you need to finally organize your finances. Figure out your [00:01:00] priorities, understand your money story. Knock out debt, make more money, and my personal favorite, acknowledge that it’s okay to have wants.
Marika, welcome to Don’t Retire, graduate.
[00:01:11] Marika Stimac: Hi Eric. Thank you so much for
[00:01:13] Eric Brotman: having me. This is so fun because, uh, I am, I, I, first of all, I’m a huge fan of your book. Um, though I do have a, a gripe, I would like to file a, a formal complaint about your book. Um, and that is, that, that is that your book has a recommended reading list in it, and my book is not on your recommended reading list, and that hurts my feelings.
I just wanted to get that out before we got started, just so there was no confusion that that hurts my feelings. You know
[00:01:39] Marika Stimac: what, Eric, there’s no problem. I’m self-published. I could go in there and tweak things. We’ll, we’ll see how this goes. This podcast, podcast one should never podcast goes and then
[00:01:49] Eric Brotman: one should never ask for one’s own testimonial.
Okay, well, so let’s talk about, let’s talk about how you became a life coach and why this was important to you. Um, and a little bit about you and sort of your background. [00:02:00]
[00:02:00] Marika Stimac: Oh, okay. Great. Thank you. Um, basically I was a hairstylist for 22 years and what ended up happening was I heard a lot of stories and a lot of complaints about how people are just not able to live the kind of lives that they wanna live and.
I recognized that I was coming up with strategies with people and we were always having great discussions on, you know, how to make their dreams come true. And I decided throughout c o d when Covid hit that, that no longer was the career for me. I really wanted to help people in another way. I mean, I loved making people look beautiful, but I wanted to sort of dive deeper.
So becoming a life coach just felt like a natural transition, and that’s exactly what happened. That’s what I did. I, I got my certification and then, [00:03:00] Something just came over me where I just felt like focusing on finances and I mean, I’ve always been studying personal finance. I feel my whole entire adult life and I feel that I’m quite confident financially and there has always been, I’ve always received that type of feedback from my clients, you know?
They’ve always sort of approached me for advice, and then I just decided to dive into this full force and a book just came out of me. Um, an app came out of me, a workbook and so many other products that I’d love to talk about and share with the audience, but I don’t, it just, it just seemed like the right thing for me to become and do.
And sorry about the dogs in the background.
[00:03:47] Eric Brotman: No, listen, everyone should work at the kennel. It’s fine. Um, so that’s a part-time job. So you literally, you literally had an epiphany and decided to write a book. I mean, that’s, yes. That, [00:04:00] that’s not something that happens to everybody. That’s, it’s hard work to write a book and yet, y your, your book is so accessible.
It’s so, it’s easy to read and understand, but it, but it’s also insanely profound. And I, I, you know, I went through it. I loved it. I have probably eight or 10 things I wanna, I want to talk to you about that were in the book, other than the fact that I was. Uh, you know, omitted. Um, in terms of, in terms of the, the advice that you share with folks, the first one, the first one mm-hmm.
Is to know your numbers and, you know, we’ve always called that inventory. Sort of know where you are before you can figure out where you’re going. Is that what you mean by know your numbers or is it more than that? Is it more analytical and forensic than that?
[00:04:43] Marika Stimac: Well, it’s, it’s more than that actually. And I think that this, this feeling stirred up inside me when I, when I started talking to people about that chapter.
Mm-hmm. It’s like, Also analyzing why we [00:05:00] don’t want to know our numbers. Mm. Okay. And what is holding us back from knowing our numbers? What are the fears of really digging in and figuring out where you’re at and why is, why is that so hard for you or for so many people? Mm-hmm. And then, you know, conquer that fear.
Acknowledge what that is, accept it, and now move forward and document all your numbers, because that’s the only thing that’s gonna allow you to finally become financially confident. It’s definitely one of the top keys to becoming financially confident. So, yeah.
[00:05:42] Eric Brotman: Well, and, and, and there’s a lot of shame about money.
There’s a lot of grief about money. There’s a lot of, there’s not only a lot of fear, but there’s so many emotions that come up when we think about money. You know, there are, yeah, very wealthy people by any objective measure who think they aren’t wealthy enough and didn’t do enough. There’s others who are [00:06:00] embarrassed by the fact that they’ve amassed, uh, significant amounts of wealth.
There are folks who feel like, uh, they’re an abundant failure when by any reasonable, rational definition that’s not true. Um, and then there’s an embarrassment that happens, I think, when you come into a relationship or a marriage and you’re starting to sort of bear oneself to a potential life partner.
And you have to say, oh, by the way, I’ve got this credit card problem, or I’ve got these other issues, or, and there’s baggage around, um, how we spend and how we keep up with the Joneses and all of that. So you’re really talking behavioral finance here. This is, this is much more psychological than financial.
When you say no, your numbers, it’s also know why you need to know your numbers and being okay with that.
[00:06:42] Marika Stimac: Yes, absolutely.
[00:06:45] Eric Brotman: That’s a different approach than certainly it’s a different approach than most financial advisors take, cuz financial advisors like to, we like to look smart and so we do a lot of math.
Um, when actually most of this, most of this is qualitative, not quantitative. Most of this is [00:07:00] about, about life, not about money. Is that a fair
[00:07:03] Marika Stimac: statement? Yes. And it’s a fair statement. Absolutely. And what about, uh, if the biggest question is like, what’s the fear? What is it that’s holding you back from documenting all your numbers and finally seeing the big picture and where is that coming from?
Then that stems into the money stories. And then, you know, I talk about analyzing why you think the way you do about money, because mm-hmm. That’s so important, um, in regards to how you’re gonna be managing it daily and, and how your future is gonna go. Mm-hmm. And so, but this, this can be shifted, so you can definitely alter your thinking, but as long as you know where you’re starting from, so, Recognizing your money story and then defining what you want it to be from now on, from today onwards.
I hope that my book inspires [00:08:00] people to do that. I hope that I give them a little push to really start digging deeper into those, those deep and ingrained feelings around money. And then I also hope that they take the practical steps that they need to do. You know, that means going into your bank account and analyzing what is happening.
This is another reason I created the app. I created this app called Get Tracking, where you’ll simply gonna be able to. Manually track your expenses as you go along your day, and uh, so it’ll bring a bit more awareness to where your money is going. That’s another thing that people don’t want to deal with.
They don’t want to track their expenses. True, true. And it’s like, that’s part of knowing your numbers. If you don’t track your expenses, you don’t know where things are going, so,
[00:08:53] Eric Brotman: Okay, well, tracking your expenses is important, but it reminds me of tracking calories, which I’ve tried the [00:09:00] apps to track my calories, and all they do is make me want to like hit my phone with a hammer because I didn’t realize how many calories were in everything I ate, which clearly is why the shape that I’ve gotten in is more oval esque than I intended.
Um, so, so on the, on the, the money piece, I mean there are software packages that will do this for you and they’ll download your transactions and so forth, but you’re really talking about point of sale. Point of sale acknowledgement that, hey, I just bought a coffee and a, and it was 10 bucks, and then that needs to be here.
Yes. Okay. Yes.
[00:09:31] Marika Stimac: So I don’t want you to, what, what my app does is it doesn’t link to your bank accounts. You have to manually input all of your expenses. I want you to see how much, and pay attention to how much you spent on groceries right now in this moment, and, okay, whatever feelings arise, you know, when you’re inputting those numbers, I want you to feel them and acknowledge them and recognize is this.
What I value spending my [00:10:00] money on. Mm-hmm. Okay. And then you can stop and start whenever you want with this app, right? Mm-hmm. No strings attached and I don’t even ask for an email address. I just felt like putting it out there cuz I felt that there was nothing out there where we can simply control how we wanna track our expenses.
Personally, I just use it for myself for like my, my home decor expense tracker, cuz I have a problem
[00:10:25] Eric Brotman: with that. You, you have a home decor budget or there is no budget. There’s a home decor habit. I. There’s a home
[00:10:31] Marika Stimac: decor habit.
[00:10:33] Eric Brotman: Excellent. Okay, so we can really dive down to the roots of that. Tell me, uh, if you’re comfortable sharing your own money story a little bit.
Did you grow up in a home where, um, one or both of your parents or other adult people talked about money? Were, were you involved in those discussions? Did you oversee acrimony about money? Like what was your, what was your childhood, your first money memories? What did they look like?
[00:10:57] Marika Stimac: Okay. So yes, of course I don’t [00:11:00] mind sharing.
Um, my money story is I feel quite different from a lot of people. A lot of people. So it’s very healthy and I think that that’s why I am the way that I am. And I think the way that I do about money and finances. So my parents were immigrants. They came to Canada. With very little, but they saw the options and opportunities in a country like this, and they recognized their privilege of being there and, and they worked hard.
And they saved hard, but their entire mindset was, we can. We can do anything. And you know, especially coming from where they came from, where they were so limited to what they can build for themselves. Mm-hmm. And, uh, they just [00:12:00] constantly had that mindset and, and those type of positive conversations, even during stressful times, I saw how they decided to really.
Step into the space of gratitude for where they were and, and recognize that, you know, they have hands, they can work. There’s great money to be made here. And so off they went and they did it. And they were hard workers, you know, they saved, but they definitely always told me that I could do anything that I want.
We just have to work at it, figure it out, get educated, look at our options. Mm-hmm. And that’s what I’ve always held onto. And so it has been a very, I grew up with a very healthy money story and I’m very grateful for that.
[00:12:53] Eric Brotman: So naturally you want to help others create or rewrite some money stories because a lot of the money [00:13:00] stories are not healthy.
A lot of them absolutely are, are seeing friction around money or you know, couples fight about money. Money and kids are the two things that break up marriages the most. That’s what people fight about. Money and kids. Um, yeah. And I can’t help people not fight about their kids, but we can try and help them not fight about their money.
Um, And, and some of that, particularly in front of the children. It does create an issue if you have two parents who are both lavish spenders and, and really spend more than they make. You’re learning that whether you learn to not do it or not depends a little bit on you, but if you have two parents who are both savers.
You know, who are, who are turning off the kitchen light when they walk into the next room for two seconds and then turn it back on when they walk in because they’re worried about the electric bill. Like, you can also take things a little bit too far and feel like, no, we can’t afford that. Or we’re, we’re, we’re not, we’re not getting that grocery or we’re not doing these things.
So there’s gotta be a healthy balance. How do you help folks who have maybe had, maybe not money, [00:14:00] trauma, but. Some drama, um, in, in their, in their money stories. How do you help them get over that and reframe it?
[00:14:07] Marika Stimac: Well, a lot of it is, um, habitual practices and a lot of it is mindset. So a lot of times I will ask people to journal and, and for those people who don’t wanna journal, I will just ask them to either record themselves or just talk it out and first acknowledge like, where did all of this come from?
And a lot of people don’t wanna do it. It’s really sad. Um, just digging in and, and figuring out like where you got those stories from and going back to your childhood if it wasn’t, if you didn’t have great money experiences growing up. But it’s really important to do that. And so I push. I’m kind of pushy.
I’ll be honest. I’m bossy. Like I, I say, okay, like, let’s get through this. This is what’s gonna allow you to get to that other place that you wanna get to. [00:15:00] First, we need to buckle down and figure out what, what is the drama? Define the drama, and then, Sometimes it’s just like, I see it a flip of a switch.
It’s just like, I don’t wanna think like this anymore. Mm-hmm. And some people just need someone to talk to that is not a friend or a family member that won’t judge. And you know, I love building up these beautiful relationships with my clients where they feel that. You know, they can trust me. I’m not judging them.
There’s no judgment here and just a place to spill everything out. A chance to talk it out. Mm-hmm. I think that’s really important. And then the next step is what do we wanna do? Mm-hmm. It’s as simple as that. It’s as simple question. What do you want to think? How do you want to feel? And then then it’s like, and then what?
Like the
[00:15:58] Eric Brotman: question? Well, yeah. How do you, will, how do [00:16:00] you, will that next into being? Yes. How
[00:16:02] Marika Stimac: do you make that up? And everybody, everybody knows the answer inside. If it’s just about sitting. Yeah. It could be like, okay, I don’t, when people say to me, I don’t know, I don’t know. I’m like, no. I don’t know is not an answer.
My kids hate me. Oh my God. They’re like, but I dunno. I’m like, no. Okay. If you don’t know, how could you find out? Where do you need to go to find the answer? Okay. Wait, are you, are you laughing at me?
[00:16:33] Eric Brotman: I, I’m, I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing that, that we now have a life coach who’s bossy and demanding, but not judgmental, whose kids hate her.
Like that’s what, that’s gonna be the way I described this in our show notes. Bossy life coach seeking clients who will learn to hate her. I’m only kidding. Um, oh, no.
[00:16:49] Marika Stimac: So let, well, no, I, I will push you to, to figure this out. Okay. Because you, you’ll wanna, if you wanna work with me, like we’re gonna get some answers.
We’re gonna, [00:17:00] we’re gonna solve this issue, this anxiety behind money and, and, You know, people that I do work with, they want that sense of control, that sense of feeling capable in their abilities to manage their finances. So, Kay, you gotta put in the work it takes. It takes work.
[00:17:20] Eric Brotman: It does take work and, and some, sometimes that work is therapy.
Sometimes it’s coaching, sometimes it’s consulting, sometimes it’s advising. I mean, there’s lots of different ways to get, um, advice, particularly financial advice. There’s lots of different kinds of, of things. Have you run into situations with, without obviously sharing any individual, uh, outcomes or stories, but have you run into situations in your, uh, in your practice where there were folks who really needed something more therapeutic than you were able to do as a coach?
Have you, have you found some of those situations or? Or really the people seeking you out are, are the folks who know they need a coach to just sort of, uh, give them [00:18:00] a little tough love and get ’em going.
[00:18:02] Marika Stimac: Yeah. It’s mostly been just here. You need someone to be able to guide you through this process and they’re, they’ve always been ready.
I mean, if I ever come across someone that I feel. Needs to speak to someone because this is just out of my forte. Absolutely. I’ll, I’ll recommend that and send them over to someone. Um, depending on where they’re living, I always like to have someone to refer them to, but the, there’s nothing wrong with that either.
Right, right. Sometimes you need to do that first and, and, you know, figure out where, what’s happening there, and then come to me, and then it’s like, now let’s step into action. Now what are we gonna do?
[00:18:47] Eric Brotman: Okay, I wanna talk about needs and wants. Okay. I need to talk about needs and wants, not just a want. I, I need to talk about needs and wants.
Um, wants are home decor budgets apparently. Um, yeah. [00:19:00] Needs are not necessarily in that, in that camp. How do you help people distinguish between the two? And sometimes we really know. We know what is a want and what’s a need, but then how do we make it okay to have wants? Like that’s one of the things that your book says it’s okay to want things.
It’s not necessarily okay to act, you know, knee jerk, but it’s okay to want things. How do you frame that for folks?
[00:19:24] Marika Stimac: So I like to direct people to the financial priority wheel that I created, and I want you to define what are the things that you prioritize spending your money on? And I want you to list out eight things or you know, it could only be four things.
It doesn’t matter up to eight things. I mean, it could be 10 things, it could be 12 things. It depends on how much money you make. Um, and then once they’re in your wheel, Decide that this is go going to give, like decide that [00:20:00] this is living your best life. Mm-hmm. These things are what you prioritize spending your money on and get, get rid of the guilt.
This is where like, if you feel you wanna buy certain types of foods, I, I want you to just put it in your budget. Define that. It’s what’s gonna make you happy and go on and do it and live your life. And then, but don’t like, What do you wanna
[00:20:27] Eric Brotman: say? Do you know people who have a smoothie habit or is that just a, like who has a smoothie habit?
Could be anyone mean, it’s just an example. You
[00:20:36] Marika Stimac: know what I mean? I mean, smoothie habit’s. I mean, if that means that you think that you know you’re feeding your body well, this is what defines a healthy life for you. Health is really important to you. You put it in your financial priority wheel, that this is just something that.
Is, is what you feel like spending your money on. And it’s not necessarily like a need. Oh my gosh, I need to have this, but this is what I’m [00:21:00] defining as living my best life. And then it’s okay to want that. It’s okay to want things. You should want things. That’s what’s going to give you drive and ambition and, and motivate you to go to work.
So define what are those things that you want and work towards getting them cuz that’s what life is about.
[00:21:19] Eric Brotman: I love that. And, and by the way, when I hear smoothie, I’m not thinking about kale smoothies that are healthy. I’m thinking about some dessert thing that, that’s got awful for you. So, okay. If you’re talking about some kind of like nutritional routine that’s different than what I was picturing.
So, you know, here’s south of the border, we think about smoothies as something unhealthy. Just for the record, at least I do, let’s talk about some investing basics, because you do talk about investing in the book and, um, and, and not, Like a financial advisor would necessarily, but like someone coaching who’s trying to help people see really the basics and the types of things, because you really go through a laundry list of the kinds of things that one could choose to invest in, [00:22:00] uh, without rendering advice about what was right.
For an individual, you’re basically saying, look, there’s a very broad universe. How, how did you come up with, I guess, first that list and, and the way that you decided to, to share that?
[00:22:12] Marika Stimac: Well, I think that I’ve been recognizing that so many people are overwhelmed with all the different options for what to invest in.
And there are so many things, um, but everyone always thinks investing means just investing in stocks or mutuals or going to a financial advisor and then giving them your money. And that means you’re investing, but it means so many different other things and. What I really would like people to, to grasp from that chapter is that you have to really understand what you are investing in.
So, and you have to be passionate about it because then it will become successful because then you know, you’re putting in the time, the effort [00:23:00] into getting to know about this product or this idea or this business, and that’s fun. And, and then when you watch your money grow, you understand how it’s growing and that gives you that confidence, that sense of confidence.
You know what’s going on with your money, you know how this is happening. Instead of, instead of just, you know, putting in a hundred dollars into some sort of investment account that you don’t even know anything about and you feel. Uncertain about your future with it. Okay. I’m confident. So it’s like, I really just wanted to point
out
[00:23:36] Marika Stimac: that it’s like there’s no one way for everybody.
You know, maybe you love real estate and that’s fine, and that’s all you have in your portfolio. Um, there may be a time in your life that you’re like, oh,
I’d
[00:23:47] Marika Stimac: like to maybe learn a little bit more about this. So it’s like, get invested, get invested in learning about it, be passionate about it, be interested, and then know why.
You want to invest? Mm-hmm. I think [00:24:00] that’s a really big one. Um, like what do you wanna get out of investing? If you don’t know what you wanna get out of it, then what’s the point? And
[00:24:08] Eric Brotman: to find that. Yeah. Sometimes people, sometimes people do things they think they’re supposed to do. They get should on and they should do this, or they should do that.
And that, that is, that’s not a great way to go through life either.
[00:24:19] Marika Stimac: No, cuz you’re unconfident in your product. This is the whole, the whole thing with the book is I want you just to feel confident, feel confident you know what you’re investing in. You know, maybe you wanna get to know more about investing in stocks.
Maybe you wanna do it yourself. So what do you need to do to get to that point where it’s becoming fun and you could become confident in doing
[00:24:42] Eric Brotman: it? So I’m, I’m gonna hold you to the fire for a second because it’s my show and I get to do that. Um, where’s the line drawn between confident and overconfident or cocky?
Where does that happen? For example, if we asked a room full of people who in this room is an above average driver, [00:25:00] 98 hands would go up, two wouldn’t, because they weren’t listening. Uh, everyone thinks they’re better than average. They have a great deal of confidence in themselves, but not in other drivers.
How much of that do you think plays into the investment and the financial world where having some confidence is a good thing, but maybe having too much confidence can lead down a a tough path?
[00:25:21] Marika Stimac: Sure. Absolutely. But let’s be honest. When it comes to money, like what do you think? Majority of people that we’re coming across are not feeling like 100% confident in everything that they’re doing in their financial lives.
What do you think?
[00:25:41] Eric Brotman: Well, most, most aren’t, some think they are, some are faking it. Yeah. I mean, there’s a lot of ego in bravado, especially among male investors. Men have a, a habit, I think, and I’m, I’m gonna play some, some, we’ll have some fun with gender, but men tend to think that they’re better than average at investing too.
If you asked how many were confident they would, [00:26:00] they would almost all say, oh, I am. Absolutely. Um, whereas if they were being honest with themselves, it’s not true. So do you have, are you finding, uh, and uh, again, I’m gonna put you on the spot, are you finding that a lot of your clients are men or women or couples?
Uh, I mean, do men seek out this kind of coaching? Are they vulnerable enough to say, you know what, I’m actually not that confident. I.
[00:26:23] Marika Stimac: Yes, absolutely. Yes, 100%. That’s why I’m not just focused to women directly. Mm-hmm. I mean, I love working with couples. Couples are great. They’re always fun. Mm-hmm. Women are fun.
I mean, but men are coming from a total different place, so I obviously don’t work with people who are overconfident. And especially with Fair, you know, they’re not gonna come to me and, and wanna talk about how to gain more financial confidence. So I haven’t really worked with anyone and if they are, um, overly confident and they’re [00:27:00] having fun and I don’t know, they’re learning and they’re growing and as long as they’re not like giving terrible advice to anybody else.
Okay.
[00:27:11] Eric Brotman: So you, you talk in the book about really fun, uplifting things like life insurance and wills and, um, you know, we, we can’t talk about a financial life without also talking about the financial end of life and therefore also our legacy, which I think is a lot more fun to talk about legacy than it is to talk about mortality.
But why did you choose to include that and, and what do you think people should walk away with from this conversation about those kinds of things? The stuff we don’t want to talk about.
[00:27:41] Marika Stimac: Well define what you want to leave behind, even at a younger age. So every single action you take around money, everything that you say about money, you are influencing others in your life. And I think [00:28:00] it’s really important for people to bring that awareness. To this idea right now because just imagine if we were all feeling a little bit better about our financial situation.
Imagine if we were, you know, taking, oh, I feel so broke, or I can’t afford that, or those normal myths and limiting beliefs, and we started focusing a bit more on. How, how can we make this happen? Or I can do this, or I am capable of doing this. More positive words. That could be your financial legacy. It doesn’t have to be just, you know, um, a amount that you’re leaving behind.
It’s a mindset and. I think that’s so impactful. And even if you don’t have kids, it’s you’re reflecting, uh, to others an idea that could potentially help them with their lives and change their lives. So that’s why, that’s why I thought it [00:29:00] was really important to add that into the book. I think people need to be aware that they’re being watched what they.
What they do with their money and sometimes, you know, it doesn’t mean living in a huge mansion and whatever, whatever it is, driving beautiful, luxurious cars and you know, showing. Uh, a certain side. It could just be maybe, possibly, you know, caring and showing up to people’s birthday parties and bringing like the correct gift for that person because it was thoughtful, right?
Mm-hmm. Or, you know, creating fantastic parties that you invite everybody in your neighborhood in. Like, I don’t know. It’s just, it’s more than just what you leave behind.
[00:29:47] Eric Brotman: Well, it’s definitely more than stuff. I totally agree with that. There’s a, there’s a sense of immortality, there’s a sense of legacy. I think you’re always two generations from being somewhat [00:30:00] forgotten if you’re not careful.
I mean, I, I, my grandparents who I loved dearly and who’ve been gone for 30 years, my daughter will never know them despite my best efforts. Now, video makes that a little easier, but. Even then old pictures. I have pictures from the 1930s and 1940s of great, great grandparents who I never met. I don’t really feel a connection to those.
I, I, it’s neat to have, but it’s, I, you know, that legacy. The only thing I know about my, my ancestors from that standpoint is they were almost all dentists. And I’m especially glad that my father went to law school instead of dental school. Cause I would not wanna be a dentist. Just for the record. Um, okay.
But, but when you, when you talk about legacy, there’s gifts that you can leave your kids. And I don’t mean stuff. I think there’s gifts of, uh, of opportunity. There’s gifts of, um, uh, of, of, of, there’s gifts of of experience, amplitude [00:31:00] experience. There’s gifts of influence. You know, if you leave your kids with the ability to manage, for example, a charitable fund for the community, they become part of that community fabric in a very different way than if you just leave them your stuff.
Um mm-hmm. And, and it is a discussion that, that I like to have with, with our clients as well, about sort of what, not only what do you wanna be when you grow up, and we’re gonna get to that cause, I’m expecting something. You have a very high standard to it to for today. But, but I, but I also, but I also think it’s important to, to ask how do you want to be remembered?
What do you wanna leave behind? How are you making the world a better place by having been here? And it can be small. Yeah, it can be small, it can be acts of kindness. Um, so what, what it, it’s time. I gotta know. You, I have to know what you, what you want to be when you grow up. Because first of all, I’ve, I’m not getting older and I’m not maturing, but I, I [00:32:00] do sort of have this idea of what, what the next chapter of my life might, might look like.
What does yours look like? What do you wanna be when you grow up? Not what do you wanna do? What do you wanna
[00:32:08] Marika Stimac: be? Okay, I know it. I’m ready. So I’m sitting down, I don’t know, I don’t know if this is bad. I don’t know, uhoh, whatever. But it was like the first thing that came to me. Okay. And I basically, I would like to be fabulous.
Like I would like to be. Absolutely fabulous. And why I would like
[00:32:32] Eric Brotman: you wanna be. That is exactly, I know. Kinda answer. No, I don’t think it’s vain, but what, what, what does fabulous mean to you? Because I assure you we have different definitions of fabulous,
[00:32:44] Marika Stimac: so I thought about it cuz I’m like, I mean, I could say the typical answer, you know, I wanna help others, I wanna serve all that.
But I feel that if I became a bit more fabulous, then I can help others around me be a bit more [00:33:00] fabulous, and then they could help others be a bit more fabulous. And what that means is, Just living our best life. Okay, so it means connecting people. For me, it means, you know, waking up happy, doing everything that I desire.
In that day and it means maybe being a bit extra. I don’t know. Like that’s fine. I think that that’s fun.
[00:33:26] Eric Brotman: You are a bit extra. There’s no, no doubt in my mind. And I think you must already be up, cuz I already think you’re fabulous. For the record, if you can get more fabulous, I’ll be impressed. You’ll have to, you’ll have to, to to come back and share.
That’s the goal. Share. Share how you’ve become more fabulous than you already are. Um, we need some extra credit assignments because I, I’m, I’m gonna, I have you tell folks where to find the book and where to find the, the, the app and all the various things. But, but first we need that one takeaway, that one thing that people can do right now to, um, sort of to honor the fact that they spent half an hour with us today.[00:34:00]
[00:34:01] Marika Stimac: Okay. Well thank you everyone for listening. And Eric, I appreciate this time and the fact that you invited me on this show and all the other things that you’ve done for me. Um, I would love to direct people to my Etsy shop actually, because this is where I’m gonna get you to do something if you need a spreadsheet and if you, or if you need a place.
Where you wanna calculate your retirement age or you wanna figure out how to pay off debt, I have all of these spreadsheets available for available for you on my Etsy shop at the FFC Coach, and I would love to offer if anybody reaches out to me. And you know, you could just connect with me either through Instagram or off of my website.
I would love to offer [00:35:00] you anything off of there for free to be able to help you on your journey. I have worksheets available for you if you wanna space to just write out all your numbers or if you would like to have, you know, the financial priority wheel I. And for you to print out and put on your vision board, uh, to look at every single day to inspire you.
So my challenge, my task is please go to my shop, pick something out, connect with me. Um, you, I can give it to you for free, or just grab it and just do some work. Put in the work. There’s so many things there that you can look through and just find that one thing that you really, really wanna tackle right now.
And just grab it, do it, get it done. And move on.
[00:35:46] Eric Brotman: That’s a great extra credit assignment. It’s not homework people. We don’t do homework, but it is extra credit. I love it. And thank you for offering it to our audience. Um, folks will get in touch with you and tell you that they, they heard you on this show or that they watched you [00:36:00] today.
Um, and, and you’ll, you’ll break whatever paywall there is so they can have a freebie, which is really, really thoughtful. Now, where can folks find out more about you? Where can they connect with you online? Where can they get. This phenomenal book, which I, I beg all of you to read and enjoy. Where can people find more about you?
[00:36:17] Marika Stimac: So the book, keys to Financial Confidence and Unlock Your Best Life is Available on Amazon. I also, uh, recently just put out the workbook. So if you just wanna have a space to journal out the questions, write things out, you can also purchase that on Amazon. Uh, you could connect with me on, uh, or check out my website and contact me there through www.thefinancialconfidencecoach.com and you could book a discovery call with me there.
And, uh, you could also DM me on Instagram if you like. And I think that’s it. I’m on LinkedIn.
[00:36:57] Eric Brotman: Facebook. So you’re pretty much everywhere. [00:37:00] I’m the president. I’m pretty much everywhere. Yes. I think we need to, to, to do a sequel to the book, keys to Financial Fabulousness. How does one become fabulous? That will be the sequel.
It’s already being worked on. I can tell This has been such fun. I I really, I, I thoroughly always, I, I thoroughly enjoy all of this and, and I want you to know that when you completed the questionnaire to do this show, You gave me one of the best answers ever. The question was, any questions you’d like Eric to ask during the interview?
And you said anything goes, nothing could be more fabulous than that. Like I could ask anything at all. Um, and, and I, I think I did. And I think you were, you were, uh, gracious and self-deprecating and fun, and I hope folks will check your book out. I really loved it. Um, check out the site, check out all of your resources.
Go to your Etsy page. Thank you for being here. This was, this was a true pleasure.
[00:37:55] Marika Stimac: Thank you for having me, Eric.
[00:37:57] Eric Brotman: I’d like to thank all of you for listening and [00:38:00] watching today, and we’d love to hear from you. So please send us a message or leave comments at don’t retire graduate.com or on social media. If you enjoy our show, please share it with friends and family.
Don’t keep it a secret. Let them join you on your journey to financial freedom. Please also leave us ratings and reviews on your favorite podcast platform. Those are priceless to us. We’ll be back next week with another installment of Office Hours. And in two weeks with another engaging guest. For now, this is your host, Eric Brotman, reminding you don’t retire.
Graduate
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