On the one hand, people
are really striving for homeownership,

and people also like to improve themselves
by getting a higher education.

But unfortunately, what a lot
of people don't talk about is

on the other side of
those two big goals,

homeownership and college, is that
nasty little four-letter word, debt.

And we've got $1.5 trillion 
in student loan debt outstanding,

a trillion dollars
in auto loans,

so the challenge is how
do you meet those goals

without putting yourself
in the hole financially?

Part of the big mistake that 
a lot of people make is ignoring it.

So many people abdicate
financial responsibility.

I'm all for people
having trusted advisors

and accountability
partners,

because I think that having
an expert in your corner

definitely helps you to reach
your goals more quickly,

but what I don't like
is for people to just turn over

their finances 100% to any
third party, whether that's a spouse,

a family member,
an advisor exclusively,

without being plugged in
and engaged and sort of

knowing what's going on
with their finances.

If you spend more than you earn,
you will always be broke and in debt.

That's economics, 
you will never get around that.

And so it really doesn't matter
if you make $50,000, $150,000,

$15 million, if you're
living above your means,

it's going to catch up
with you.

It's frankly, much easier to get out
of debt than it is to stay out of debt,

because staying out of debt
requires a mindset shift.

It really does require you
to reorient your thinking

and to not care so much
about everything else

that's going on 
around you.

And increasingly, as we move
into this era of social media,

I find that a lot of
people fall victim to this,

because they're watching their
Instagram pages or on Facebook,

and they're seeing
what other people have

or the curated
version, at least,

of what people
want you to see.

The challenge is to understand
where was I a year ago?

Where was I 
two years ago?

I'm not going to compare
myself to others.

I'm just going to benchmark
myself against me

and measure 
my financial progress.

Once you start doing that and
kind of disassociating yourself

to the extent that's possible from
what other people are doing,

it actually really
liberates you.

Because you start to say
I'm on a unique path

and that journey is all about me
and what my financial goals are,

what my priorities are, and what
my special considerations are

given my family
circumstances.

One of the things that I think
women in particular need to do,

especially young women who
are starting out in their careers,

is to negotiate
more.

And this is true whether
or not you're an employee

working for 
somebody else

or you're a business owner
and you're charging clients.

I think when women fail
to realize their value,

it impacts them financially
for decades to come.

As a matter of fact,
research shows that

women who don't negotiate,
they actually lose out on about

2 million dollars' worth
of earnings in their lifetime.

So it's critical that women
see themselves as capable

and that they know
their worth and frankly,

assert it and demand
that they get paid

what they are, 
in fact, worth.