YFP 288: An Interview with Suze Orman (YFP Classic)


This week we replay a YFP Podcast Classic. Suze Orman, #1 New York Times bestselling author on personal finance with over 25 million books in circulation, joins Tim Ulbrich on today’s episode. They talk about her most recent book Women & Money: Be Strong, Be Smart, Be Secure and the advice Suze has for pharmacy professionals feeling overwhelmed with their student loan debt and managing their financial plan. 

About Today’s Guest

Suze Orman has been called “a force in the world of personal finance” and a “one-woman financial advice power house” by USA today. A #1 New York Times bestselling author, magazine and online columnist, writer/producer, and one of the top motivational speakers in the world today, Orman is undeniably America’s most recognized expert on personal finance.

Orman was the contributing editor to “O” The Oprah Magazine for 16 years, the Costco Connection Magazine for over 18 years, and hosted the award winning Suze Orman Show, which aired every Saturday night on CNBC for 13 years. Over her television career Suze has accomplished that which no other television personality ever has before. Not only is she the single most successful fundraiser in the history of Public Television, but she has also garnered an unprecedented eight Gracie awards, more than anyone in the entire history of this prestigious award. The Gracies recognize the nation’s best radio, television, and cable programming for, by, and about women.

In March 2013, Forbes magazine awarded Suze a spot in the top 10 on a list of the most influential celebrities of 2013. In January 2013, The Television Academy Foundation’s Archive of American Television has honored Suze’s broadcast career accomplishments with her recent inclusion in its historic Emmy TV Legends interview collection.

In 2010, Orman was also honored with the Touchstone Award from Women in Cable Telecommunications, was named one of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” by Forbes and was presented with an Honorary Doctor of Commercial Science degree from Bentley University. In that same month, Orman received the Gracie Allen Tribute Award from the American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT); the Gracie Allen Tribute Award is bestowed upon an individual who truly plays a key role in laying the foundation for future generations of women in the media.

In October 2009, Orman was the recipient of a Visionary Award from the Council for Economic Education for being a champion on economic empowerment. In July 2009, Forbes named Orman 18th on their list of The Most Influential Women In Media. In May 2009, Orman was presented with an honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Illinois. In May 2009 and May 2008, Time Magazine named Orman as one of the TIME 100, The World’s Most Influential People. In October 2008, Orman was the recipient of the National Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign.

In April 2008, Orman was presented with the Amelia Earhart Award for her message of financial empowerment for women. Saturday Night Live has spoofed Suze six times during 2008-2011. In 2007, Business Week named Orman one of the top ten motivational speakers in the world-she was the ONLY woman on that list, thereby making her 2007’s top female motivational speaker in the world.

Orman who grew up on the South Side of Chicago earned a bachelor’s degree in social work at the University of Illinois and at the age of 30 was still a waitress making $400 a month.

Episode Summary

Happy Holidays! This week, we bring back a YFP Podcast classic! YFP Co-Founder & CEO, Tim Ulbrich, PharmD, is joined by the one and only, Suze Orman. Suze, #1 New York Times bestselling personal finance author with over 25 million books in circulation, talks about her book, Women & Money: Be Strong, Be Smart, Be Secure, and shares advice for pharmacy professionals feeling overwhelmed with their student loan debt and managing their financial plan.

Suze shares her journey of being a waitress until she was 30 years old and going through a loss of $50,000 from an investment through Merryl Lynch in a three month time period. This is where her passion for personal finance began. Suze landed a job at Merryl Lynch, quickly began rising in rankings and eventually started her own firm. Suze became an advocate to ensure other people’s investments make more money than she’s earning. 

Suze says it’s important to have a healthy relationship with money and that there is no shame big enough to keep you from who you are meant to be. She shares that fear, shame and anger are the three internal obstacles to wealth. 

In regards to student loans, particularly for those with the biggest debt loads, Suze says that first and foremost you have to understand the ramifications that unpaid student loan debt will have on your life. She suggests following the standard repayment plan to minimize the additional interest and amount added on the end of loan (if following an income driven plan), and the taxes to be paid if the loan is forgiven. After paying off your student loan debt, Suze says that you can start dreaming. If an employer offers a 401(k) or 403(b) with an employer match, Suze suggests to contribute to the retirement account only up until the amount of the match. 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Episode Transcript

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:00] TU: Hey, everybody. Happy holidays. Tim Ulbrich here, and thank you for listening to the YFP Podcast, where each week we strive to inspire and encourage you on your path towards achieving financial freedom. 

This week, our team at YFP is taking off an annual tradition for us, as we reflect on the year behind us, plan the year ahead, and most importantly, spend time with family and friends. Since our team is on a break this week, I’m bringing back one of our most listened to episodes of all time. That’s an episode from July 2019, where I had the pleasure of interviewing the one and only Suze Orman, a number one New York Times bestselling author on personal finance with over 25 million books in circulation. 

On the show, we talked about one of her books, Women & Money: Be Strong, Be Smart, Be Secure, and the advice she has for pharmacists, as it relates to managing their finances. Now, Suze has been called a force in the world of personal finance and a one-woman financial advice powerhouse by USA Today. She’s a number one New York Times bestselling author, magazine and online columnist, writer, producer, and one of the top motivational speakers in the world. Orman was a contributing editor to the O, The Oprah Magazine, for 16 years, the Costco Connection magazine for over 18 years, and hosted the award-winning Suze Orman Show, which aired every Saturday night on CNBC for 13 years. 

With that said, it’s without question and honor to welcome Suze Orman to the YPF Podcast. 

[INTERVIEW]

[00:01:28] TU: Suze, before we jump in to discuss how pharmacists can be more intentional with their financial plan, I want to give a shout-out to one of our avid listeners, Amanda Copolinski, who is a super fan of yours that said, “Tim, you need to interview Suze on the podcast. Her message will resonate so well with your listeners in the financial issues that pharmacists are facing.” So while you have impacted millions of people, Amanda is one of those. Because of your work, your message will now impact thousands more in our community. So thank you so much for coming on the show.

[00:02:00] SO: You’re welcome. But, Tim, I just have to say one thing about Amanda, seriously. Amanda asked, and because she had a voice, because it is so important, particularly, that women have a voice, and they ask for what they want, and because she asked for what she wanted, even though it was for the good of all, it obviously was also good for Amanda. She got what she wanted. So if we can just learn to ask for what we want, I mean, what’s the worst thing that could happen? I say no. So then it wouldn’t have mattered if even – Do you see what I mean? So, Amanda, you go girl, you go girl, you go girl. All right, we can go now.

[00:02:41] TU: So before we jump in and talk more about your book, Women & Money: Be Strong, Be Smart, Be Secure, I’m curious and want our listeners to know as well a little bit more about your background into this world of personal finance that has led you to transform millions of people on their own financial journey. Were there a series of events or an aha moment for you that set you on this path, on this journey to teach and empower others about personal finance? 

[00:03:07] SO: Yeah. It was a very simple story, actually, where I was a waitress till I was 30 years of age in Berkeley, California. Having been a waitress for seven years, making $400 a month, to make a very long story short, I had this idea that I could open up my own restaurant because I made these people a fortune with all my ideas. My parents had absolutely no money. My mother was a secretary. My father was sick most of his life, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the customers I had been waiting on lent me $50,000 to open up my own restaurant. 

So I’m, again, making a long story short. They had me put that money in Merrill Lynch, which was a brokerage firm. I had a crooked broker. Within three months, all $50,000 was lost. Now, I didn’t know what to do, and I thought I know I can be a broker. They just make you broker. Because during those three months, I really loved starting to learn about a world that was so foreign to me. I didn’t even know what a money market was or Merrill Lynch was. 

Anyway, I went and applied for a job at Merrill Lynch because I knew I wanted to pay these people back that lent me $50,000, and I wasn’t going to do that at $400 a month, which was my salary as a waitress. They hired me to fill their women’s quota. While I was working for them, I realized what my broker did was illegal, and I also had been told that women belonged barefoot and pregnant. They had to hire me, but they would fire me in six months. So while I was working for them, I sued them with the help of somebody who worked for Merrill Lynch who told me what had happened to me was illegal. Because I sued them, they couldn’t fire me. 

During the two years until it came to court, and they then settled outside of court because I was their number six producing broker at the time, but what happened was during that time, those two years, I realized, oh, my God, how many people out there don’t have the money to lose? Like all right, I was young. I could have somehow come back. But what if it were my parents? What if it were your parents? What if it was somebody who that was every penny they had to their name? 

Even though I was a financial advisor, in terms of serving people at that time, I became an advocate to make sure that every single person that invested money, that their money meant more than the money I was going to earn off of them. I put them before me. People first, then money, then things. It was those people that mattered because I was one of those people. Before you knew it, I just rose and rose in the ranks, started my own firm, and here we are today.

[00:06:20] TU: Indeed. I think that’s a good segue into talking about your million-copy, 

number one New York Times bestselling book, Women & Money: Be Strong, Be Smart, Be Secure. As you may or may not already know, the profession of pharmacy is made up of a majority of women, approximately 60-40 split, two-thirds, one-third of graduates today, roughly speaking. So I think this message in your book is certainly going to resonate with our audience. 

You start the book with a chapter titled Imagine What’s Possible, and there’s a passage in there that I want to briefly read that really stood out to me. You said, “Women can invest, save, and handle debt just as well and skillfully as any man. I still believe that. Why would anyone think differently? So imagine my surprise when I learned that some of the people closest to me in my life were in the dark about their own finances. Clueless or, in some cases, willfully resisting, doing what they knew needed to be done. I’m talking about smart, competent, accomplished women who present a face to the world that is pure confidence and capability.” 

So why, Suze, is this topic of personal finance, even for well, smart, accomplished women, such as the pharmacists listening, and heck, regardless of gender, I would say this is true. Really smart people that often can’t effectively manage their money. What are the root causes for them?

[00:07:42] SO: Yeah. You just used the word can’t. Oh, they can. Women have more talent in their little fingers, I’m so sorry to say, more capability than most men have in both hands, really. I don’t say that as a put-down to men. It’s just that women hold up the entire sky here in the United States. They take care of their parents, their children, their spouse, their brothers, their sisters, their employees, their clients, their patients, everybody, their pets, their plants. When it’s all said and done, when they’re 50 or 60 years of age, that’s when, for the very first time, they start to think about themselves. 

You have got to remember that women have the ability to give birth, in most cases. They have the ability to feed that which they have given birth to, in most cases. So a woman’s nature is to nurture, is to take care of everybody else before she takes care of herself. So it’s not that she can’t. It’s she doesn’t want to. She doesn’t want to. She wants to make sure that her kids, in particular – A woman will do anything to make sure that her children are fine. That is not true with men. That is not true with men. 

I used to think that it was until 2008 came along and when people were laid off of their jobs. They lost their home. They lost their retirement. They lost everything. Women would go back to work, working three or four jobs, a waitress, a cocktail waitress, anything, just to put food on the table. A man, if they had a $200,000 job, would not go back to work if all they were offered was $60,000. They weren’t going to do it. 

Again, it’s not putting men down. Please, men, don’t think that because I don’t put you down. It’s the socialization effect of the difference between a man and a woman. So a woman just will do it all, but she won’t take care of herself. She chooses not to. In any aspect, she’ll only take care of her household expenses. You know why? Because her house holds everybody that she loves. That’s the only difference. That’s the only difference, boyfriend. That’s the only difference.

[00:10:06] TU: Which is a good segue to talk about healthy relationships with money because in the book, you mention that in order to build a healthy relationship with money, there are attitudes that women need to get rid of, with the first of these being these weights or burdens that you referenced that are commonly carried around, one being the burden of shame and the second being the tendency of blame. Can you tell us more about this concept of blame?

[00:10:29] SO: Yep. You know, in the book, I talk about truthfully that there is no blame big enough or shame big enough to keep you who you are meant from being. There just isn’t. Sometimes, we’re ashamed that we don’t know about money. Sometimes, we’re ashamed that we don’t have the money that we need to be able to give our children what they want. 

Now, what I just said was very heavy, believe it or not, because it’s really difficult. I mean, I just experienced it. I had my niece here. In fact, I had all my nieces here, but one in particular that has a five-year-old child who loves Pluto more than life itself. He literally thinks Pluto is alive. He said to me, “Aunt Suze, how do I get a real Pluto?” I mean, “You mean a dog?” He said, “No, really. I want this Pluto to be alive.” You could just see, you want to give this kid anything this kid wants because he’s so fabulous. Not that – All your kids are fabulous, to you, anyway. 

So a mother feels, especially if she’s a single mother, that she has to make up for the loss of a father figure or another mother figure or parent figure, and she does it usually by purchasing things for her kids because when they go to school, oh, but this kid has this cute backpack, and this kid has this, and look at these watches, and look at this iPhone. So it becomes very interesting that a lot of times, you’re ashamed of what you yourself don’t have. You’re not proud that you have anything. You’re ashamed of what you don’t have, and you blame it, usually, on somebody else. Or you blame it on yourself. 

It’s – Fear, shame, and anger are the three internal obstacles to wealth. They just are. I have people – I know you’re talking about the book right now, but my true love at this moment in time is the Women & Money podcast because it’s on the Women & Money podcast that you can hear. You can hear via the emails that are sent in the shame and the blame that women feel, the anger that they have at themselves for staying in a relationship that they don’t want to be in, but they don’t have the money to leave, the confusion that’s out there. A lot of these women are so powerless because they’re not powerful over their own money.

[00:13:10] TU: In the book, you go through a detailed financial empowerment plan, which I think is incredibly helpful for our listeners to hear more about since we know many pharmacists are struggling with spinning their wheels financially, graduating now with more than six figures of student loan debt, the average about $166,000, having many competing financial priorities with home buying, starting up a family, building up reserves, saving up for retirement. The list goes on and on. So the question is where does one start when they are looking at so many competing financial priorities, and it can feel so overwhelming?

[00:13:42] SO: You start by, number one, really understanding the ramifications that student loan debt that goes unpaid will have on your life forever. So your number one, bar none, is your student loan debt, and you have got to understand the difference between paying back student loan debt on the standard repayment method and the income-based repayment methods. You have to understand that in your head, if you think, “Oh, I have all this debt. I’m just going to pay back a little bit because I don’t have that much of an income, and they’re going to forgive it in 20 or 25 years. I’ll be OK,” no, you won’t. 

You won’t because if under the standard repayment method, your monthly payment should be $1,500 a month, and under income-based repayment, you’re only $750 a month, that $750 difference gets added onto the back end of your loan, plus interest. When they forgive it, when a debt is forgiven, you need to pay taxes on that, as if it were ordinary income. It is possible that if you do that over 20 years, you’re going to end up owing more than you even started with that they’re going to forgive.

So you have to be realistic here. If you’re going to go in this industry, if you’re going to become a vet, if you’re going to become anything with massive student loan debt, then you have to put your priorities in place. Your first priority is your student loan. After your student loan, hopefully, on the standard repayment method, it is paid off, then start dreaming. Ten years isn’t that big of a deal. It will come, and it will go. But don’t try to do it all at once.

[00:15:45] TU: Yeah. That’s really timely. I know for many pharmacists that are listening to this, they’re looking at, as I mentioned, six figures of student loan debt, $160,000, $170,000, $200,000 of loan, unsubsidized many of those, interest rates that are at six to eight percent. So obviously, those interest rates and the growing interest and the baby interest can have an incredible negative impact on their financial plan. 

That being a good segue, I think, into the conversation about loan forgiveness, which has gotten a lot of attention with the upcoming presidential elections, and we’ve had some discussion with Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, have forgiveness plans that are out there. Not even getting into specific candidates or politics or the individual policies, I think it brings up an interesting discussion around loan forgiveness and the positives and benefits of that, relative to what people learn through the process of paying off student loans. 

I know, for me, individually, going through the process of paying off more than $200,000 of student loan debt, there was a lot I learned and that my wife and I learned through that lesson in terms of budgeting, working together, setting goals. But I also understand that for many, and certainly would have been the case for us as well, not having that debt would have been fantastic. So how do we reconcile forgiveness relative to being able to learn through that process?

[00:16:58] SO: First of all, let’s talk about student loan debt to begin with and the viability of it. Is everybody crazy that we should have to pay, our children should have to pay $200,000 for a college education?

[00:17:13] TU: Amen.

[00:17:14] SO: Like is that, just to begin with, the sickest thing you have ever heard in your life? So while everybody’s dealing with the debt that we have, what we also should be dealing with is why are we paying that kind of money? Listen, if that’s what these financial institutions need to keep the buildings and the teachers and everything going, maybe we need to go to online universities that are fully credited that everything is done online because the burden that these kids are leaving school with is so heavy. It is the number one question that I am asked. What is so sad, it is the number one question that I do not really have an answer for because they will not let you discharge it in bankruptcy. They do not –

I mean, it is crazy that you pay the same amount of money to get a master’s in social work as you do an MBA. Really? So tuitions, number one, should be based on the area that you are specializing in. Hey, if you’re going to graduate and you’re going to make $200,000, $400,000, $500,000 a year, fine. Then you start spending money that then subsidizes those that are going to make $30,000 a year because they want to be a teacher. Or whatever it may be. But I do think what’s going to start to happen is that people are going to have to start going to community colleges for the first two years or so, and then probably switch over. But then, you have to be crazy if you go to a school that’s $50,000 a year. 

Now, with that said, I get when you want to be a vet, when you want to be a pharmacist, when you want to be a doctor. That’s what they charge. So if you know, if you know beforehand that that’s what it’s going to cost you, and you have an unsubsidized loan, which means that it is growing while you are in school, can you at least pay the interest on that loan while you’re in school? 

I know everybody’s going to say, “But, Suze, I’m working full-time at school. I can’t.” Oh, yes, you can. I had to put myself through school. I worked until 2:00 AM every morning. I started at 7:00. I worked seven days a week for four years straight. Don’t you dare tell Suze Orman you can’t do it. You most certainly can. You just don’t want to. When you have debt that you can’t pay back, this is not a choice if you can or you can’t, if you want to or you don’t want to. You have to, and it’s – I don’t mean to sound harsh to you, but you’ll thank me years from now that at least you haven’t accumulated an interest rate on top of everything else.

[00:20:02] TU: Suze, one of the most common questions that I get and I’m sure you get all the time as well is how do I balance paying off my student loan debt relative to investing and saving for the future? As we think about pharmacy professionals specifically, many of them have gone through lots of education to get where they are. They may have four years of undergrad. They have four years – Likely, some people more in terms of getting their doctorate degree. They may go on and do residency training. 

So here they are, and they look at the clock and say, “Yes, I’m young. But I also know I need to aggressively save, and I keep hearing the message of I need to be putting away money for the future. But I’ve got $160,000, $180,000, $200,000 of student loan debt, unsubsidized loans, six to eight percent. So how do I balance the two of these?” What advice do you give people to help them think through that?

[00:20:48] SO: I would not not pay a student loan under the standard repayment method in order to then save in a retirement account. Obviously, if you work for a corporation that gives you a 401(k) or a 403(b) or whatever it may be, and it matches your contribution, then you have absolutely no choice whatsoever but to absolutely at least invest up to the point of the match. After that, your very first bill that has to be paid before you can decide anything is your student loan repayment. 

After you know what it’s going to cost you to pay on your student loan, then you have to make a decision. Oh, do I have to move in with six or seven kids and all live together in order just to do whatever? What do I have to do after that payment? Is there any money left over? If there is, what will it allow me to do? It may only allow you, I know you’re going to really think I’ve lost it, to move back in with your parents for a number of years.

[00:21:53] TU: You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

[00:21:54] SO: You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. For all of us to make it in today’s society, we have to either really enhance the nuclear unit and nuclear family, and really help each other. Or if we can’t do what we’re born into, then create our own nuclear family, whereas five or six of you get together and you go, “Okay, we have this problem.” It’s not like communal living, but it’s how do we solve this problem? So rather than you each have your own individual apartment, you each have your own car, you each have all of this stuff, what can you do as a group of people? Uber and Lyft and Zipcars, all of that came, especially Zipcars, about people who couldn’t afford to have their own car. 

Again, I don’t mean to be Suze Smackdown here. But I do want you just to be realistic about your life and the independence dream, living on your own, having all of these things. Nothing will give you more pleasure than having money versus things.

[00:23:08] TU: Yeah. My wife and I talk often, as we think about our own financial situations, that we felt some of that pressure in our mid-20s of wanting to live up to the lifestyle that our parents have gotten to after 30 or 40 years. So I think really reshifting expectations and thinking about specifically today’s pharmacy graduates just really has to be intentional with their financial plan and change some of those expectations to set them up to be successful in the long run. 

Shifting gears a little bit, I want to talk about planning for the future, and we recently had on the show Cameron Huddleston, author of the book, Mom and Dad: How to Have Essential Conversations with Your Parents About Their Finances, an excellent book that has me thinking more and more about the significance and importance of healthy and open financial conversations with family about money and ensuring that the estate planning process is well thought out and is in place. 

I noticed that you offer a protection portfolio that is meant to help people take the worry out of protecting themselves, their assets, and their family. So tell us a little bit more about why this process of having a protection portfolio in place is so important and what information is compiled in a portfolio like this.

[00:24:19] SO: What’s really important is for everybody to understand that we have no control over the things that happen to us. Are we going to be in an accident? I mean, really, just the other day, Tim, you know I live on a private island, and I’m driving down this road. I mean, there are no cars on this private island. There are only golf carts. There were only like – There’s 80 homes. There’s nobody here most of the time. I’m driving back to my house, and I come up on a golf cart that overturned on these four 20-year-olds, and they were seriously hurt, all right? I mean, five minutes before then, they were on this private island, having a fabulous time. Now, I’m like, “Oh, my God.” 

So anything can happen at any time, and every one of you needs to be protected against the what ifs of life. May you always hope for the best, but may you plan for the worst, whether it’s an accident, an illness, an early death, whatever it may be. The number of emails I get from 40-year-old women, 50-year-old women, 30-year-old women saying, “Suze, my spouse died. I have three kids. I never expected to be in this situation.” They go on and on and on about it. 

This is also, what I’m about to tell you, very important if you have parents. Because if you have parents, the question becomes like – My mom lived till she was 97. If something happens to your parents, they lose their mind, so to speak, they have dementia, they have Alzheimer’s, and they can’t write their checks anymore or pay their bills, who’s going to take care of them? You can’t do anything for them, unless you have what I call the must-have documents. Not only a will, a living revocable trust, an advanced directive, and a durable power of attorney for healthcare. You must have those. 

But most of the time, lawyers tell you, “All you need is a will.” Oh, give me a break. The less money you have, the more you need a living revocable trust because wills make it so that in most cases, if you own a piece of real estate or whatever it may be, your estate has to go through probate. Guess who gets the probate fees? The lawyer that told you all you need is a will. So a living revocable trust not only passes your assets from one person to another within a two-week period of time, no fees, nothing. But in case of an incapacity, it will say you can sign for so-and-so. So-and-so can sign for you. It sets up your estate every way you want it, and it also helps you because minors cannot inherit money. 

So if you have young children, and both you and your spouse are killed in a car crash, something happens, the money can’t go to your minors. If you left your money to them via your will, good luck. It’s going to end up in a blocked account until they’re 18. So with that said, most trusts, if you go to see a trust lawyer, first of all, you have to know there are good trust lawyers. Most of them are not, are at least $2,500. Every time you make a change, $500, $1,000, you’re just sitting here talking to me about you don’t have even have enough money to pay your student loan debt. Where are you going to get $2,500 to do a will, a trust, an advanced directive, a durable power of attorney for healthcare? Every time you need to make a change, where are you going to get the money to do that? 

So years ago, with my own trust lawyer, I created what’s called the must-have documents. These documents are my documents. If you were to look at my trust, my will, everything, you would see these. But I wanted to do it at a price that every single person could afford. So we created over $2,500 worth of state-of-the-art documents for approximately $69. What’s great about these documents, not only are they fabulous. Every time the law changes, they automatically get updated, but you can change it as many times as you want. 

So if you go from one kid to two kids, you go back to your computer, you change them. So you never have to pay for it again. If you’re interested, really, in that offer, you can just go to suzeorman.com/offer. Through there, it’s $69. Otherwise, you’ll see it sold for $100, $90. They’re sold for all over the place. But these documents have changed the lives of millions and millions and millions of people over the years.

[00:29:28] TU: Yeah. I think it’s also important for our listeners just to consider the peace of mind of having all of this together. When you think about all of the things that are found in estate planning documents, and my wife and I went through this process we’ve talked about on the podcast before, where you put together insurance policy information and where your accounts are at and birth certificates and all of the papers that would need to be readily accessible, in addition to all of your estate planning documents. To get there and the conversations you have and the peace of mind it provides is incredible. Again, suzeorman.com/offer will get you there. 

Suze, I want to wrap up our time together by talking about legacy, and I’m fascinated with learning more about what drives very successful, highly influential individuals such as yourself to take on the life’s mission and work that they do. So for you, as you look back on a career that is undeniably wildly successful and that has positively transformed the lives of millions of people, what is the legacy that you’re leaving?

[00:30:31] SO: I hope the legacy that I leave is that women in particular, but men as well, but women in particular really know that they are more capable than they have any idea, that they will never be powerful in life until they’re powerful over their own money, how they think about it, how they feel about it, and how they invest it, and that every one of them, one of them, has what it takes to be more and to have more. They just have to want to. 

I don’t really know. I don’t know how to answer that because I never think about what I’m going to leave. I only really think about what I’m doing. I can tell you right now, like one of my friends said to me, “You just can’t help yourself, can you, Suze Orman?” So with the Women & Money podcast, people write in their emails. I keep saying, “I’m not going to answer them. I can’t answer all these emails.” Now, I’ve answered almost every one, except four. I’ve got four left, and then they’ll mount up again, and blah, blah, blah, blah. 

But I have such a desire for every single woman and the men smart enough to listen, but really for every single woman to get the right advice, the best advice, to start to educate them so that they become smart enough, strong enough, secure enough. So they can start educating their daughters and their sisters and their aunts and their moms and their grandmas and everybody. So that we start really teaching one another because I’m just so afraid of where this world – Truthfully, the hatred in this world that we are experiencing right now, I am very afraid of where it’s going to take us next year. So I hope I leave a legacy of love and power. That’s what I really hope I leave.

[00:32:45] TU: Yeah. What really stands out to me, Suze, the work that you’re doing, and you alluded to this, is the generational impact that it’s having, and that will forever go on. I mean, that’s an amazing thing, when you think about transforming somebody’s personal financial life. Let’s say they’re a mother, and they pass it on to their kids and their friends and their cousins and their network, and that gets passed on to another generation. That is incredible transformational work that will forever have impact. So I thank you for that work, and I know it’s had an impact here on me in even having the opportunity to talk with you today. 

To our listeners, as Suze mentioned, she responds to her requests as it relates to the podcast that she has each and every week, the Suze Orman’s Women & Money podcast. So if you have a question for Suze that we did not touch on during today’s show, make sure to reach out at [email protected]

Again, as a reminder, make sure to head on over to suzeorman.com, S-U-Z-E-O-R-M-A-N.com, where you can learn more about Suze, including her blog, the podcast, comprehensive resources, live events that she hosts, and books and products that are designed to help empower you in your own financial plan. 

Suze, again, thank you so much for coming on the show, and I’m grateful for what you were able to share and the impact that it will have on our community. Thank you very much.

[00:34:04] SO: Anytime, boyfriend. Anytime.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[00:34:07] TU: As we conclude this week’s podcast, an important reminder that the content on this show is provided to you for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide and should not be relied on for investment or any other advice. Information in the podcast and corresponding materials should not be construed as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any investment or related financial products. We urge listeners to consult with a financial advisor with respect to any investment. 

Furthermore, the information contained in our archived newsletters, blog posts, and podcasts is not updated and may not be accurate at the time you listen to it on the podcast. Opinions and analyses expressed herein are solely those of Your Financial Pharmacist, unless otherwise noted, and constitute judgments as of the dates published. Such information may contain forward-looking statements that are not intended to be guarantees of future events. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. For more information, please visit yourfinancialpharmacist.com/disclaimer. 

Thank you, again, for your support of the Your Financial Pharmacist Podcast. Have a great rest of your week. 

[END]

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Special Update: Student Loan Announcements from the Biden Administration

Special Update: Student Loan Announcements from the Biden Administration

This is a special update with more information about the student loan announcement that was announced on August 24, 2022, from the Biden Administration. We know this update is top-of-mind for many pharmacists in the Your Financial Pharmacist (YFP) community and will update this post as we know more. 

Check out this special update YFP podcast episode to learn more. 


 

Let’s jump in with the updates: 

1. Another Extension of Administrative Forbearance

It’s been almost three years since student loan payments were put on hold, and borrowers now have another extension that pauses both payments and interest. 

The extension of the administrative forbearance will continue through December 31, 2022, with payments expected to begin starting January 1, 2023. 

Although the forbearance has been extended in the past, we do think this is the last extension. 

As before, all $0 payments will continue to count towards PSLF (Public Service Loan Forgiveness).

Announcements from student loan servicers should come out sometime between now and the end of October 2022. This communication should include payment amounts, employment certification requests if needed, and other information. 

For pharmacists that graduated in the last 3 years, this will be the first time student loan payments will be made. Those pharmacists that were already making payments and had a pause in doing so will have to start making them again. 

Student loans are a big part of the financial plan for the YFP community so payments restarting will impact other aspects of it.

2. Providing Targeted Debt Relief to Low- and Middle-Income Families with Debt Cancellation

Debt cancellation has been a hot topic since the presidential election. President Biden discussed canceling $10,000 of student loan debt, however, borrowers weren’t sure if this would happen. 

On August 24, the Biden Administration announced that $10,000 of student loan debt would be canceled for those that have less than $125,000 (single) in Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) or $250,000 AGI (couples/households). 

Borrowers that have Pell Grants can receive an additional $10,000 of student loan debt canceled. 

For good reason, many questions have been raised with this part of the announcement: 

How do I receive the debt cancellation?

How do I know if I’m eligible for it? 

What’s the process to get student loan debt canceled? 

What year will AGI be taken from?

From the latest information the YFP Planning team has seen, there will be an application that needs to be submitted for debt cancellation. The form should be available by October and submissions are encouraged by mid-November. AGI will come from your 2020 or 2021 tax return.

It’s likely that there will be a 4- to 6-week processing time for applications and applications should be available for one year. 

The application is valid for undergraduate or graduate loans and Parent Plus loans, Direct loans, and some FFEL loans will qualify (note that not every FFEL is under a federal loan servicer and private servicer loans are not an automatic qualification). Clarification is needed here.

3. New and Improved Income-Driven Repayment Plan

A new and improved income-driven repayment plan hasn’t formally been announced, however, we do know that the biggest benefit is that it’s going to decrease the overall amount of required minimum payments for those that choose this plan. 

Here’s how the income-driven repayment plan currently works:  

Payments are based on a percentage of your discretionary income. From the federal government’s perspective, your discretionary income comes down to two things: your adjusted gross income and the U.S. poverty guidelines for your family size. For the current Income-Drive Repayment plan, discretionary income is your adjusted gross income minus 150% of the poverty guidelines. From there, your payment under this repayment plan is 10% of your discretionary income. 

With the updated plan, your discretionary income will be calculated this way: adjusted gross income minus 225% of the poverty guidelines. With this updated plan, your payment is decreased to 5% of your discretionary income.

If you have graduate loans or a combination of undergraduate and graduate loans, a weighted average will be taken. 

Calculators will be made available before payments start in January so that you can estimate your payments.

We should expect to hear something about this new plan and when to apply for it in the coming announcements. 

It’s important to remember that while this may benefit many, it doesn’t mean that choosing this plan is the best for your personal financial situation as you would need to recertify your income based on your 2021 taxes if you haven’t recertified in a long time.   

So what should you do while we wait for more information to be announced?

  • Get prepared to start making payments in January and estimate what that payment amount will be
  • Find out if you have a Pell Grant by visiting studentaid.gov 
  • Make sure you can log into your loan servicer, especially if you are pursuing PSLF
  • Once you submit an application for cancellation when the time comes, be sure to check your balances to ensure that it happens
  • The temporary waiver for PSLF is scheduled to be in effect until October. Make sure to recertify your employment if you haven’t already so that it picks up all possible payments that you could be eligible for.

Still have questions? We can help.

We know that navigating student loan repayment with or without changes to the income-driven repayment plan and the announcement for debt cancellation is overwhelming. 

Now is the perfect time to get a handle on your student loans and determine the best strategy to tackle your loans.

Your Financial Pharmacist offers a Student Loan Analysis with one of YFP Planning’s Lead Planners, Kelly Reddy-Heffner, CFP®, CSLP®, CDFA® or Robert Lopez, CFP®. During this analysis, they’ll evaluate all of your options and decide on the best repayment plan and strategy for your personal situation.

Get all the details and purchase your student loan analysis with Kelly or Robert here

Have additional questions? Email [email protected] and join the YFP Facebook group

 

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NFTs 101 for the Pharmacy Professional

NFTs 101 for the Pharmacy Professional

The following is a guest post from Samantha Boartfield, PharmD.  Samantha Boartfield is a pharmacist in Phoenix, Arizona, who also writes for women and mother entrepreneurs (Mamapreneurs) on her site at SamanthaBrandon.com.

Disclaimer: This post is intended for general, educational purposes only. This post and the information herein are in no way meant to serve or act as a replacement for professional investment advice. Investing in cryptocurrency or NFTs may be high-risk with high losses and should be done at the investor’s sole risk.

If you’re scanning your newsfeed in the morning, I’m willing to bet you’ve seen NFTs making their headlines more often than ever these days. Watching people pay millions of dollars for an NFT and high-profilers like Marc Cuban endorsing them had me scratching my head until I finally took the time to understand the basics.

Because really. What exactly is an NFT?

This is a question that is being asked more and more in the pharmacy community. With unprecedented student loan balances and financial futures to secure, many of us may be wondering if we should be jumping into the digital world of cryptocurrencies or NFTs. It seems like all healthcare professionals have been trialing at least one online side hustle or another to generate some extra income.

If you’re looking to gain foundational knowledge of the NFT space, this article is meant to provide a high-level overview. Now, let’s start with the basics.

What is an NFT?

To define an NFT, you have to have some basic understanding of blockchain and cryptocurrency, as NFTs are built on the blockchain and often paid for by cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain

Blockchain is, simply put, a public digital ledger. Everyone in the world has access to it. When a transaction is made, such as Person A sending cryptocurrency to Person B, the details of the transaction are packaged up into code, put in a digital “block,” and then added to the end of a blockchain. Because this is a public ledger, everyone in the world sees this purchase (so you can’t dispute it), and once a block is made, it cannot be altered (doing so would be caught by the other millions of users who would recognize the alteration).

I like to think of blockchain as a giant poster in a public square, where everyone writes their trades for everyone to see. When a transaction is done in front of the entire town, you can’t dispute it and say you didn’t receive or send the money. Now just digitize this experience and amplify it on a global scale.

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrencies are digital money that utilizes the blockchain to trade directly. You likely know the popular versions such as Bitcoin, Dogecoin, or Ether. Each currency has its own blockchain standard and is a decentralized method of exchange.

Another important note is that crypto is “fungible,” which means each coin is just as valuable as another coin. Think of this as the U.S. dollar; a $20 bill is just as valuable as another $20 bill.

If you would like a better foundation of this, I recommend reading Cryptocurrency 101 for the Pharmacy Professional first for a more in-depth review.

That leads us to an NFT, which stands for “Non-Fungible Token”.

These tokens are not interchangeable like bitcoin, but rather each token is unique or “non-fungible.” And that’s because each NFT is attached to the URL of a digital or physical asset.

So instead of just having the simple details of a crypto transaction (like the sender, receiver, and the amount), an NFT will include other details such as the URL of the product you are attaching. Therefore, each NFT acts as a unique identifier of a digital asset that is secured on the blockchain.

The Smart Contract

Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t fully explain how the NFT can be transferred and packaged into the blockchain, and that answer is simple: through the use of a smart contract. Essentially, a smart contract is a bit of code that is written to automatically execute a contract when certain conditions or terms are met.

In the case of NFTs, the contract will include the URL of the digital file, as well as any other details that should be included, such as the seller, buyer price, and any royalties that could be owed.

To summarize: A smart contract operates under certain conditions that when met, will automatically execute its contents (in our case selling/giving away coins).

I think I’m following you. Can you give me an example?

As a recap, an NFT is a way to transfer a digital or physical product from one person to another, with this transaction being done on the blockchain and often purchased or sold through cryptocurrencies.

Now, as I mentioned, you can attach virtually anything to NFTs. Digital art and collectibles have by far been the most popular. CryptoPunks is one of the most popular collectible NFTs. Bleeple, a very well-known digital artist, created a collage of 5,000 original artworks and is the most expensive NFT sold to one owner, just shy of $70 million. Major brands have also jumped into the scene, including Disney, Louis-Vuitton, and Coca-Cola.

And NFTs are not limited to artwork. Since you can attach anything (including physical products), they have been used for entertainment purposes such as Coachella tickets to selling the first home as an NFT in Florida.

So, if I purchase an NFT, that means I own whatever product is attached, correct?

Okay, this is where it can be a bit complicated. Just because you purchased an NFT does not mean you have full rights to the product. 

Ownership does not equal copyright, and many people confuse this.

What you own depends on the contract terms of the NFT that you purchased, and each may have its own degree of what extent you can use it.

Here’s a relatable example: Let’s say you purchased a physical, collectible copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. Does that mean you own the copyrights to Vitruvian Man? Can you make more copies of it and distribute it? Surely, if you have a physical copy that you purchased and a printer. So you have the capability to distribute it as you please?

We all know that the answer is, of course not. Just because you own a copy of Vitruvian Man, doesn’t mean you own the copyrights of the product.

So I don’t get a physical product. I don’t own the copyrights. What’s the point?

At this point, you may be wondering, what’s the point? I don’t have a physical copy to hang up. I don’t own the copyrights. What do I do with an NFT? 

There are many ways to enjoy an NFT. First, you can display your NFT digitally in many ways including social media accounts or digital frames. Like any other collectible, you can hang on to it as an ‘investment’ and resell it later.

The better question yet is, what is the appeal of an NFT?

The biggest appeal to artists going the NFT route comes down to one word: Royalties.

If you’re an artist wanting to sell a photograph or artwork you have two options. You can go the traditional route and sell that printed photograph to the highest bidder. Or, you can turn your photograph into an NFT and attach royalties. This means that every time the artwork is resold in the secondary market, the artist can receive a royalty that they have predetermined (typically anywhere from 5-10%). 

As you can imagine, this is very appealing to artists, as typically subsequent sales tend to be much higher than initial sales.

How Do You Buy, Sell, and Trade NFTs?

One of the biggest obstacles to making NFTs mainstream is that there is quite the learning curve, particularly when it comes to buying and selling them.

To purchase or buy NFTs, you will need a few things:

1. Cryptocurrency

NFTs are almost always bought and sold using cryptocurrency. The majority of NFTs are made on the Ethereum blockchain, so you will need to purchase some Ether via a crypto exchange such as Coinbase or Gemini. Solana is another blockchain that has been rising in popularity for NFTs.

2. NFT Wallet

Next, you’ll need an NFT wallet that’s capable of trading NFTs. From one of these, you’ll be able to sell and receive your NFT, as well as view your assets. You don’t actually store your NFTs in this wallet, because remember, your NFT is stored on the blockchain with access to a URL for your product. 

There are two types of wallets: “hot” or software wallets, and “cold” or hardware wallets. Software wallets, such as MetaMask or Trust Wallet, are popular ways to trade NFTs. However, because they’re connected to the internet it leaves them susceptible to hacks. Therefore, it’s recommended that you always backup your NFTs with a hardware wallet, which is not connected online and will protect them from hacks. 

3. NFT Marketplace

This is where you will buy and trade NFTs (think of this as eBay or Etsy). Some are more exclusive, where they individually curate the NFTs that they present on their marketplace. Others are open-access marketplaces where anyone can buy and sell on the platform. Some popular NFT marketplaces are Opensea or Nifty Gateway.

Other companies have also created their own marketplaces such as NBA Topshots, which sells NBA NFTs exclusively. Veve Marketplace has also partnered with Disney to release its Golden Moments collection.

What Are Some of the Potentials of NFTs?

NFTs are such a new field that only time will tell if this is going to be the future of the way transactions are done or if it’s a short-lived concept. Here are some reasons that NFT technology may be here to stay:

1. Cuts Out the Middle Man

NFTs are stored on a blockchain, which means that there is no need for a third party such as Paypal to facilitate the transaction. This also eliminates fees that come with using a third party (but replaced with blockchain fees).

2. Transactions Without Borders

Since NFTs are stored on a blockchain, they can be traded with anyone in the world as long as they have cryptocurrency. This makes international transactions much easier than traditional methods, which involve wire transfers and banks.

3. Royalties for Artists

As we mentioned before, NFTs have the potential to revolutionize the way artists are paid for their work. By attaching royalties to their NFTs, artists can receive a percentage of every sale made in the secondary market.

This could create a whole new stream of income for artists and help support them financially.

4. The Metaverse & Gaming

The Metaverse is a term used to describe the virtual world that has been up and coming. NFTs are being used in the Metaverse as a way to represent ownership of virtual property and assets. As we see the Metaverse expanding, NFTs will likely have a role.

Play-to-earn gaming is another gaming industry that’s on the rise.  It’s a model where gamers can earn rewards by playing video games. NFTs are being introduced into P2E gaming as a way to reward gamers for their achievements.

5. Brand Expansion

Luxury brands are taking notice, and have jumped into NFTs to increase their brand marketing strategies. Also, it’s an easy way for them to generate sales as the costs to create are very low, with a high marginal profit percentage.

What Are Some of the Downfalls of NFTs?

1. Hacks and Security Concerns

Even with an immutable blockchain, scams and hacks are still rampant. Hackers may not be able to change the code on your NFT, but they certainly can attempt to empty your NFT wallet and run with your assets. And because there’s no central authority, if this occurs, then there’s not much you can do. It’s important you store anything valuable on a hardware wallet to prevent this from happening.

Also, how do you know the NFT you are purchasing is legitimate? It’s similar to buying a fake designer bag, you need to know what to look for when you’re purchasing to protect yourself from getting scammed.

2. High Transaction Fees

Another potential downside of NFTs is that transaction fees can be high. Whenever you make a transaction that has to be added to the blockchain, there is a fee for doing so. This fee is also not standardized and fluctuates hourly depending on how many users are on the network.

3. Regulations, Regulations, Regulations

The world of NFTs is still largely unregulated. Governments have only just begun to take notice and it’s unclear what their stance will be on NFTs. How will NFTs hold under the Copyright Act? Only time will tell.

4. Volatility

As I’m writing this, NFT sales have plunged and are flatlining. NFT investments are very volatile, so it’s important to only risk what you’re okay with losing.

In Summary

At the end of the day, it’s important to see what NFTs are for what they are: a novel piece of technology that can transfer digital or physical assets across the blockchain. They have the potential to change many industries by simplifying transactions between parties, but they are still in their infancy. Do your research and invest carefully.

 

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Cryptocurrency 101 for the Pharmacy Professional

Cryptocurrency 101 for the Pharmacy Professional

The following is a guest post from Samantha Boartfield, PharmD.  Samantha Boartfield is a pharmacist in Phoenix, Arizona, who also writes for women and mother entrepreneurs (Mamapreneurs) on her site at SamanthaBrandon.com.

Disclaimer: This post is intended for general, educational purposes only. This post and the information herein is in no way meant to serve or act as a replacement for professional investment advice. Investing in cryptocurrency may be high risk with high losses and should be done at the sole risk of the investor. The following post contains affiliate links through which YFP may receive compensation.

I used to wave off cryptocurrency, thinking it was an online currency fad exclusive to techies and gamers. It seemed like one giant experiment (and I’m no gambler), but I think you could argue that we’re already in phase III of this currency trial with millions of users already testing the waters. Are we in the 1990s of the internet, and will crypto become a revolutionizing technology that changes our entire financial system? Or is this going to be the digital tulip craze 2.0?

Only time will tell, but before you get caught in the hype, it’s more important to understand the foundations behind cryptocurrency to make that determination for yourself.

Let’s start from the beginning with the history of money.

The Origins of National Currency

It’s hard to understand cryptocurrency without understanding the simple concept of money. Why do we as a society put any value into the U.S. Dollar? After all, it is a piece of paper that doesn’t serve a single human need like food or shelter (a house made of dollar bills certainly doesn’t seem very stable).

It all started in the early days of bartering. You know, I’ll give you five tomatoes in exchange for a kilo of flour. The trouble with that is you can’t grow a large society based on that type of trading system. How many tomatoes would it take to buy a house? What if you still wanted those tomatoes, but the tomato producer needed olive oil instead?

That’s where currency comes into play. It acts as a medium of exchange so that indirect transfer of goods can be made. Instead of trading direct goods, we exchange currency that has a unit of measurement. Fast-forwarding the history of a few millennia (salt, seashells, metal coins, gold, paper notes), we now find ourselves using national currencies.

Fiat Currency

No, I’m not talking about the Italian car driving down the Amalfi coast. Investopedia defines fiat currency as “government-issued currency that is not backed by a physical commodity such as gold or silver, but rather by the government that issued it.” The reason the U.S. Dollar has value (and other countries’ currencies) is because it is backed by the United States government. That’s why if you go to another country and try to spend your dollars, they may not accept it or give you a funny look. Your dollar bills aren’t worth anything in their economy since there’s no guarantee from their government that those specific paper bills will hold any value tomorrow, next week, or even next year!

Since leaving the gold standard, fiat currency has had its benefits, including being traded as a widely accepted legal tender, the relative stability for short-term and long-term investments, and a central authority to help manage the economy.

The Pitfalls of Fiat

Taking a step back, there is one crucial aspect we need to remember about the history of currencies. There has always been a transition to a newer currency because the newer currency met a need that the former did not. Gold trumped silver thanks to its scarcity of resources and its chemical stability. The gold standard gave way to fiat because it couldn’t keep up with the demand.

So what about the pitfalls of fiat money? Although it’s hard to fathom a world not operating on the dollar, I believe if you asked your parents or grandparents if they believed the majority of transactions would be done with a phone or plastic card, they would laugh at you. It would have been unfathomable to not be using physical dollars and coins.

And now we find ourselves asking if fiat currency will give way to cryptocurrency due to the pitfalls we are facing such as:

  • Inflation or Hyperinflation: This article couldn’t be timed better as we all have felt the effects of inflation. If you keep printing money, then money loses its value. Milton Friedman said it best, “Inflation is taxation without legislation.” Check out Episode 239 on the YFP Podcast where Tim and Tim talk more about inflation. 
  • Rise of the “Bubble”: Remember the mortgage crisis in 2007? Central banks weren’t able to prevent it.

This is a good time to transition to what is cryptocurrency, and if it can solve some of these problems we’ve discussed.

Step Aside Printing: It’s All About Mining and Staking.

BlockChain

Let’s first discuss the technology behind cryptocurrency, which is blockchain digital ledger technology. A digital ledger is a way to record transactions using code. When you hear people talk about “the blockchain,” they’re referring to the fact that these digital ledgers are chained together.

In simple terms, this is how it works:

A transaction is made and verified by computers in the network. The transaction is then stamped as a block and added to the end of the chain. Once it’s added to the chain, it cannot be altered or removed.

The best part about this technology is that it doesn’t require a central authority to manage or verify these transactions! So what does that mean for us?

Well, let’s say you wanted to buy your friend a coffee with cryptocurrency. The transaction would go something like this:

You and your friend’s computers would communicate that you want to make a transaction.

Your transaction is verified by the network of computers, and once it’s verified, it gets added as a block to the chain.

Your friend now has his coffee and you have your cryptocurrency. Yay!

Consensus Mechanisms

Now, all blockchains have this foundation, but they may differ slightly. One way they differ is with their consensus mechanisms, which are essentially the way that the network of computers agrees on the validity of a transaction.

The two most common consensus mechanisms are proof-of-work (POW) and proof-of-stake (POS).

Proof-of-Work (PoW)

With PoW, also known as mining, transactions are verified by computer nodes that solve complex mathematical problems. The first node to solve the problem gets to add the next block of transactions to the chain and is rewarded with cryptocurrency for their trouble! This is known as “mining” cryptocurrency.

Proof-of-Stake (PoS)

With PoS, instead of being rewarded for solving math problems, nodes are chosen randomly to verify transactions and add blocks based on how much cryptocurrency they have “staked” or put down as collateral. This system is said to be more energy-efficient than POW because there is no need for every single computer to solve the same mathematical problems as they race to be the fastest.

Which consensus mechanism is better? They both have their pros and cons.

The big thing to know is that PoW requires a lot of energy because you have thousands of computers working on the same problem. This is what makes PoS mechanisms more appealing.

Now, what exactly is Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is digital or virtual currency that uses blockchain technology. Each cryptocurrency will use a slightly different form of blockchain. A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are not issued by any central authority like fiat currencies – which means they are decentralized! Cryptocurrencies are sent directly from person to person over the internet without going through a financial institution.

The Basics

We need to spend a moment discussing how to buy, sell, or trade crypto.

Where to Buy, Sell, and Trade

Cryptocurrency exchanges are websites where you can buy, sell, or trade cryptocurrencies. You’ll need to create an account on the exchange and then deposit funds into that account to buy crypto. Some popular exchanges are  Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken.

How to Store

You can definitely keep your coins on your cryptocurrency exchange. For example, if you bought some Bitcoin through Coinbase, you don’t need to do anything else. 

But seeing as the main focus of crypto is to be one hundred percent decentralized, many users want to secure their own coins. This is where you can place them in a software wallet like MetaMask or MathWallet, which has its own password called a “seed phrase.” This seed phrase is similar to a PIN for a debit card. 

How to Secure

If you have invested a lot of money into crypto, you don’t want to leave it up to hackers to steal it. Unlike a bank account, there’s no one to get you your money back if it’s stolen. That’s where “cold” wallets come in. Trezor or Ledger are the most popular, and you can think of these as a USB drive that stores your coins offline.

How to Keep Track

Once you’ve started to invest in cryptocurrency, it’s important to know how much money you’ve invested, which is easily done through a cryptocurrency portfolio tracker. 

Don’t forget that regulations have now been passed to help you easily report any income you’ve made from crypto gains. You’ll probably want to check out crypto tax reporting software as well. 

Types of Crypto

Today, there are nearly a thousand different types of cryptocurrencies out there. Let’s break them down.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency, and it was created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency that uses PoW consensus mechanism to verify transactions.

Altcoin

Altcoin is short for “alternative coins,” AKA any coin that is not bitcoin. You can sell and buy altcoins similarly to Bitcoin. Here are the most common Altcoins:

  • Ether: Ether is used on the Ethereum network and is very popular as it’s the crypto of choice for buying and selling NFTs. It was a PoW, but will fully transition to PoS by the end of 2022.
  • Dogecoin: Dogecoin was created as a joke, but it quickly grew in popularity. Dogecoin is a decentralized, peer-to-peer digital currency that allows you to send money online.
  • Solana:  Solana is another proof-of-stake consensus coin and promises to be more scalable than other blockchains.

Stablecoin

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency that is pegged to an asset with a stable value, such as gold or the U.S. dollar. The purpose of a stablecoin is to avoid the volatility that is common among other cryptocurrencies.

The most popular stablecoins are:

  • Tether (USDT): Tether is pegged to the U.S. dollar and it’s one of the most popular.
  • USDC: USDC is another USD-backed stablecoin, and it’s available on many different cryptocurrency exchanges.
  • DAI: DAI is a decentralized stable coin that aims to stay as close to the U.S. dollar as possible.

The Good and the Bad

Hopefully, by now, you understand why money plays a vital role in society, and our large-scale economies could not operate without it. You can understand that the tool we use as a medium for exchange also evolves as technology changes. So the question remains, could cryptocurrency play a parallel role with fiat money or could it be something that replaces it altogether?

The Crypto Advantage

Crypto has many unique advantages that can solve some of the problems we have with fiat currency.

  • Lower inflation risk: In a fiat currency, the government can print out more money. Not Bitcoin. Only 21 million can be mined and that’s it.
  • Money without borders: You can transfer Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency to anyone in the world without paying any fees, and it will arrive in minutes.
  • Fraud prevention: Another advantage of cryptocurrency is that it can help prevent fraud. With traditional methods of payment, it is easy for someone to commit fraud by using a stolen credit card or bank account.

The Hurdles

What could stop cryptocurrency from being adopted worldwide? Well, quite a few things, as there are tons of concerns that we have seen arise. 

  • Ease of Use: There’s quite a learning curve when it comes to buying and selling crypto, so I don’t see it becoming more mainstream until this process is streamlined and people have an easier way of understanding crypto.
  • Volatility: The value of cryptocurrencies can rise and fall quite quickly, making them a huge concern for investments. Stablecoin may help with this in the future.
  • Government regulation: Government regulation will have a huge hand in dictating the future crypto. We have seen what happened with China when they banned cryptocurrency exchanges. This caused the value of bitcoin to drop by over 50%, but I don’t see the U.S. banning cryptocurrency. Recently, the U.S. has already given some guidance on how to report it, and now there’s crypto taxing software to help you.
  • Company adoption: We will need to see the market begin to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment.

Crypto Crystal Ball

In the end, only time will tell what the future holds for cryptocurrencies. Maybe we’ll become the crypto century, or maybe not. That’s for you to evaluate.

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