The 5 Questions Podcast
Join us as we unlock real estate and business insights, one question at a time.
The 5 Questions Podcast
Financial Success Made Simple: Lisa Elle’s Engaging Approach to Wealth Building
Ever wondered how to make financial planning not just effective, but actually fun? Join us as we chat with Lisa Elle, a financial advisor with over 24 years of experience, who’s revolutionizing money management with her unique and engaging approach. Learn how Lisa tackles money-related anxieties and personalizes financial planning to align with each individual’s unique needs. She also shares insights from her book "Strut: How to Kick Financial Ass in Sexy Shoes," which uses playful metaphors involving different types of shoes to demystify financial concepts, making them especially accessible for women.
In another enlightening segment, we dive into the importance of holistic financial planning. Discover why piecemeal advice falls short and how long-term relationships with financial planners can significantly enhance your financial journey. We introduce the wealth trifecta—gaining knowledge, maintaining accountability, and creating a comprehensive financial plan—providing essential guidance for those just getting started. Lisa emphasizes that it’s never too late to plan for financial success, regardless of your age or current situation. Tune in for practical advice, inspiring stories, and a fresh perspective on managing your financial future.
That's a huge mistake, and that is why being in communication with your financial advisor is really important.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the five questions podcast, where we unlock real estate and business insights one question at a time. Welcome to the five questions podcast. I am your host, Mario Lamar. On today's show, our guest has been a financial advisor for over 24 years, has been featured as a trusted advisor in the Toronto Star Investment Executive and Global TV. She is the author of Strout how to Kick Financial Asset in Sexy Shoes. Welcome to the podcast, Lisa L. Lisa, Thank you. Thank you, Mario. So good to have you with us today. We're going to have lots of fun. The concept of the podcast I ask you five questions about real estate, investing or business and we get straight to the point. You ready, I'm ready, All right, Lisa, you describe yourself as someone who makes money fun. Can you share some examples of how you bring the fun into financial planning for your clients?
Speaker 1:Well, who doesn't love to talk about money? Money is a fun topic Now I say that and it is loaded with all the emotion that we put into it. So we get anxiety and we get fear and all these emotions, but truly, when we start to understand the value of money and what money really is, it's just energy, it's our energy and what we bring to it. So I do like to make money fun.
Speaker 1:The money game is fun and it is a game I always joke about CRA and Canada Revenue Agency and when you're paying taxes. But you're in the game of money whether you like it or not. You are here on the planet, you need to eat, you need to put roof over your head, food, clothing, shelter, all of this so you're in the money game automatically. So why not make it fun? And so how do I do that? Besides, you know I do talk a lot about like kind of your relationship with money. You know a lot of this is like healing some of our money traumas, our money past, moving forward and creating a financial plan that will serve you and your family and help you reach all your financial goals. So I do like to make it fun and because it is amazing and not just fun, but it just feels so expansive and light and you get so much clarity when you do have a plan and it just adds so much to your life and just takes all that stress away.
Speaker 2:So basically, you put out strategies to your clients but you make it. It's not like an accountant kind of way, it's more of an explanation, and then you can make it fun because they understand the outcome of it.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and what's really neat about it is that it's so tailored to everyone's individual money situation and their past. We all have this unique money blueprint, and working with that to take it to the next level it's fun.
Speaker 2:That brings us to our second question, and I mentioned it in the introduction. You have a book called Strout how to Kick Financial Ass Eds in Sexy Shoes. It's a very intriguing title, to say the least. What inspired you to write this book and what key takeaways can maybe readers take from that book?
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much. Yeah, so this here is a copy of my book. If you're on the video, you can see it. So what inspired me to write this book very simply was I would be talking to clients or have a lot of girlfriends. You know people my own age and women did not want to engage in financial conversations about money. I think it's been shifting now, but I just had a lot of friends that were too scared or didn't understand or didn't even want to talk about money and that fear paralyzed them. So what I wanted to do was make a very fun and simple way to talk about money that women could relate to, that they would enjoy, that they could get a lot of value from, could relate to, that they would enjoy, that they could get a lot of value from. So what I did was I wrote strut and what I've done with the book is every chapter is a different pair of shoes. So basically, I cover different topics.
Speaker 1:You don't have to read the book in sequential order, but you can. But every different chapter is different pair of shoes. So I have like, as an example here, chapter four is rain boots. So I'm comparing financial concepts to different types of shoes, and what woman does not love shoes? So we really walk through the shoe closet and I'm relating financial topics to shoes. So it's been great and it's got really good press and a lot of women have really been inspired by my book, mostly because I break it down in very simple, very easy, you know, in layman's terms, for women to just understand it. So readers can expect, honestly, they can laugh out loud. You can definitely expect to laugh out loud. It's pretty funny. I like to think I'm funny. Doesn't everyone like to think they're funny? Absolutely, but more so.
Speaker 2:It really gives you the framework to start to develop your financial plan. And maybe one thing that women maybe don't realize by reading your book, they'll be able to save some money and go buy some more shoes.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Yeah, that's what I like to say. I don't want I never talk to my clients from a place of lack or scarcity, and I think that's so important because there is abundance and I do believe that. But I think there's also the part of you know really getting the financial basics in place and the structure in place. So that's where I help clients balance that.
Speaker 2:That's great. That brings us to our third question. In the introduction I mentioned you have over 24 years of experience as a financial advisor. What are some of the biggest financial mistakes that you've seen people make and maybe how can they avoid them?
Speaker 1:Okay, well, we do not have enough time. Yeah, I have seen a lot of mistakes, some very common ones, and I mean this is a very broad stroke. But the reason why you want to work with a certified financial planner or financial advisor or a really good tax specialist is you want to play the tax game to the best of your ability to minimize your taxes. And big mistakes I've seen as an example is clients not structuring their accounts properly, meaning their tax bills are double or huge than what they could have been, and the other part, on that same note, because they didn't structure their accounts properly or do proper beneficiary designations.
Speaker 1:I've seen clients pass away and, let's be honest, the CRA knows they're going to get their money at one point, whether it's today or whether it's when you pass away.
Speaker 1:And I've seen it where, literally, the CRA has gotten way more than they should have because just things were not structured properly. So why it's important to work with a financial planner is that you really want to minimize that you know extra hand in your pocket, which is the CRA. Yes, they're going to get their fair share of taxes, but really you just want to pay your fair share, not double or extra than what you're what is due. So that's a huge mistake, um, and that is why being in communication with your financial advisor is really important. The other big one, I would say is a lot of clients, um, they don't like and this goes back to like very, very simple things like setting goals, like having an exit strategy that could be for real estate, that could be for, you know, if you're investing in stocks or or whatever it is, but you know how are you going to? It's one thing to grow assets, it's another to um, you know preserve them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, preserve them and then, you know, go through drawing income off of those assets and in retirement I use that in quotations because whatever that is for you where you want to have basically passive income lifestyle, so yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think those are all really big considerations when you're making a financial plan that are really important, and there's something to be said that a financial advisor is very different from just having an accountant working for you. You need that planning, that strategy, which maybe an accountant is just. You know, most of them maybe are just running numbers and executing where you're going to help and put a strategy in place for your customer to bring them to the end goal where they want to be, exactly yeah. Our fourth question your marketing focuses a lot on women, but you also say that it works for men, couples, kids and even pets. How do you tailor the financial advice to meet all the diverse needs from your diverse clients?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's so funny, you have pets in there. It's actually funny. I just have to say this quick story. But I do have clients who come in and they actually do want to leave their pets money to care for them. So it is listed in their will. So, yeah, I mean everyone's important. I mean, let's face it, even our pets cost money and so they're part of the financial plan, no matter how you cut it right.
Speaker 1:So how do I tailor my financial advice? It really is so specific to, like I was saying kind of before how you were raised with money. What are your mindsets around money? What is your personal financial situation? What are those goals that you have, those dreams that you have, because those dreams and those goals that you have for the future are completely possible to reach, you know, with just the right direction. Right, and this is where you know asking good questions and building a relationship. That is the number one thing, and I I always joke about this with people.
Speaker 1:But this is what's happening in our industry and this is society like this is from, you know, probably hundreds of years.
Speaker 1:But what's happened is we have a fast food society where advice is fast food and instant gratification society with our cell phones and everything, which is fine, but relationships is where having a core relationship with a financial planner, as an example, is where you're going to drive a lot of value and benefit.
Speaker 1:You know no different than, say, a marriage, right, like there's a lot of value to relationships and having someone who knows your full, entire picture, that can, you know, be there to advise you at different stages of your life, that long-term relationship is invaluable to your finances.
Speaker 1:The problem with society today is like I always joke with people saying like, oh, on April 30th you run to the you know H&R corner tax company or you run on you know March 1st to your corner bank and do your rsp deposit. I mean now you can do it online, but you know back in the day and what happens is there's no um, no consistency, no like coherence, there's not a comprehensive plan, overarching plan, and that's just because the system was set up that way. So what's happening, what's emerging? And there's not a lot of us, there's truly, truly, truly not a lot of holistic financial planners that have even the skill set and ability to actually look at your tax, who are advanced tax planners as well as look at your investments as well as look at your risk management andP someone who can actually look at all areas of your finances and really help guide you, because they all do work together and they all do work to help you reach your goals.
Speaker 2:If you can work with someone that can put all of those, tie all of those circles together and make one big circle, the old picture, it changes the old dynamic. And just treating each problems or each aspects in one at a time, you're probably not going to have the same results. But if you deal with someone like you, like a financial advisor that sees the whole picture, maybe can have a totally different outcome. And another thing I want to add, something you said is people should not diminish their goals or dreams, no matter how big they are, because it's true, with the right mindset and the right strategy in place, everything is possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, it brings us to our final question. Already it's a quick podcast, but for those who are just starting their financial journey and feel overwhelmed, what is the first step they should take to get ahead financially?
Speaker 1:I can answer this in a couple ways. The easy answer is, of course, hire a financial planner. But I can talk about I kind of have a wealth trifecta okay that I talk about in presentations and one of the pieces of the wealth trifecta is knowledge. So education, so educating yourself. Read things like my book, you know. Go to courses, you know, just learn what you can. Read things like my book, you know. Go to courses, you know, just learn what you can. Youtube, google, whatever, but learn. That's going to give you a little bit more confidence when you're discussing and talking about your money. So knowledge is the first one.
Speaker 1:The second part of the wealth trifecta is accountability, and that's where it's nice to work with, you know, a financial planner, someone who can kind of hold you accountable to your plan, to what it is you said you set out, like what you're setting out to do, and I think that accountability is a huge piece. And then the third part is kind of the financial plan, which is getting clear on your goals, coming up with the full, you know, starting at the bottom, where I start with the estate planning and risk management, and I have like a process I take all my clients through to say, okay, like it could be as simple as oh you know, I need a couple million dollars to in assets to then stream off into passive income. It could be something like that, right? So then creating that plan, so you know, it's like really it's. It is like getting those three legs of support, accountability, knowledge and then creating like a financial plan which is like the implementation side of like setting up your TFSA or or buying real estate, or like the actual nuts and bolts of what works for you in your life and your plan. So, yeah, for people starting out truly, and I mean, where are you starting out?
Speaker 1:I have clients who come to me at kid you not my youngest client? Well, I have babies as clients, because the parents do things for the babies. But I also have like 16 year olds. You know that if you're 16, or you have kids that are 16, they can open their own investment account in Canada, and my oldest client's 95. So it doesn't matter, you know what age you are.
Speaker 1:The thing I also want to say, too, is you can start at any time, it is okay, and that's one of the things like I'm always preaching is like there is no shame in starting at age 50 to retired age 60, right, Like there's no shame in in your debt situation If you've been bankrupt, there's no shame in that. And life happens, stuff happens. And one of the things I like to just share with people is that, no matter where you're at, like I want to help you get to wherever it is you want to go, and and that's what I love too but what I do it's like I'm not the boss. You know who the boss is. The boss is your goals. The boss is. You know that's who the boss is. We know we're like you set the goals and then we follow the goals, cause that's like you know the dreams, the desires, like the things you want to accomplish. That's the boss. That's what our goal post is. Right, so that's what we use as our marker and our measurement tool.
Speaker 2:So yeah, because a lot of people they have big goals, for example, or, you know, medium or whatever the size is, that's not important. They have a goal, but then they feel overwhelmed how can I achieve it? And they just see one big mountain. Well, you come in and you dissect that into sections and say, well, you can't. You know, start and one an hour later you'll be at the top. You need to do aspect. So thank you for putting that service out there, because I think a lot of people need that.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, for sure. And it is interesting, like just to throw a statistic out there, there's, I think, something like around like there's a couple hundred financial advisors in Canada, I think there's only like 20,000 certified financial planners. Like it's not a huge number. Don't quote me on that number, but it's not a huge number is my point. So, yeah, if you can find one to work with, a, that's rare and good on you. And the thing is, because we're not mandatory, you know, it's only the people who want to you know better themselves or better their financial situation, that come and seek us out. So, um, but it's, it's going to be one of your biggest assets in growing your wealth.
Speaker 2:Lisa, it was a pleasure to have you on the podcast today. Lots of knowledge and insights that you gave us. Lots of value, Uh, I hope that. Uh, and wish that people can go and get your book so they can read it. Is there somewhere where they can order online or?
Speaker 1:Absolutely Amazon. You can get my book on Amazon or chapters Indigo online.
Speaker 2:Perfect. Thank you so much again for being on the podcast, and then we'll talk soon. Thank you so much, Mario Bye-bye. Thanks for tuning in to the 5 Questions Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, like and hit the notification bell on our YouTube channel so you never miss an episode. Stay tuned for more insights and tips to transform your real estate and business game. See you next time.