154: Building Life WEALTH: How to Make Your Money work For You with Kiana Danial

KIANA DANIAL [00:00]

And you're investing and you're doing that, I'm like, it's actually, the investing part I have now brought it down to a point that it only takes me an hour per week max and I'm managing a $7 million portfolio.

[MUSIC]

CAMILLE WALKER [00:24]

So, you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business sharing your voice. How do women do it that handle motherhood, family, and still chase after those dreams? We'll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know. This is Call Me CEO.

[MUSIC]

Welcome back everyone to Call Me CEO. Today, we're talking about how to invest in your future for both yourself and your kids. We're talking about women in finance, specifically. And listen, I know when it comes to finances and investing, it can be overwhelming.

But today, we have an expert, Kiana Danial, who is the CEO and founder of Invest Diva. And her whole perspective is about setting up for success for your kids, for yourself, and into the future no matter what may come. We have a lot of ups and downs with recessions and job loss or different things that happen. But really, we can plan for the future with steps we can take right now.

So, she has also been featured on USA Today, Forbes, Business Insider, a six-time best-selling author. Her accolades go on and on. So, it is such a pleasure to have you today. Thank you so much for being on the show.

KIANA [01:37]

Thank you for having me.

CAMILLE [01:39]

I would love for you to introduce yourself to the audience. Tell us about your background and what got you into the world of finance and this passion to help other women do the same.

KIANA [01:48]

Absolutely. So, I'm actually new to the US, not that new, but kind of new. So, I came just 12 years ago. I didn't know anything about money actually. The reason why I came was because I became super fascinated about the market crisis.

So, a little bit more background. So, I'm an immigrant. I was born and raised in Iran to a Jewish family, went to Japan, studied engineering in Japan for seven years, had all these money beliefs starting from money's evil, rich people are greedy, all the good stuff that is quite international, I found out. Been in Middle East and in Asia and in America, everybody has the same kind of money beliefs. And that was my belief system as well.

Accidentally, 2008, very accidentally, I made money while the markets were crashing. And I had no idea what I did. But I was like, this is way better than engineering. I want that.

CAMILLE [02:42]

Yeah. What did you do? Because I'm like, I lost my job in 2008. I was in the mortgage business.

KIANA [02:48]

So, now, I know what I did. Back then, I didn't. One of my friends was a woman. In Japan, this was a thing. Forex trading was a thing. And I was like, the US dollar, I didn't understand money, but I understood exchange rates. You know how when you go abroad and you have to exchange your US dollar for their money? So, I understood that because I was abroad. So, I understood exchanges.

And I could hear that the US dollar is getting cheaper because of the crash and I'm like, whoa, if I ever want to convert my Japanese yen to US dollar, maybe now that the US dollar is cheaper, it's a good time. It kept going lower. And I kept talking about it to people. I was like, "How can I automate this? Keeping going lower? What can I do?"

And they said, "We can trade." I'm like, "What's trading?" They're like, "Come. Let me show you." And they did a trade for me on a very super risky, highly leveraged trade that I would never advise anybody to do. It was more like gambling.

So, it was September 2008, the dollar-yen pair, I shorted the dollar yen. That's the specific academic Wall Street bro word for it now, which means I set to sell my Japanese yen and buy US dollar as it dropped anyways.

CAMILLE [04:07]

Very cool. When you were young and you could take that risk. So, it's like, cool that that works out for you. That's awesome.

KIANA [04:14]

I didn't even know about the risk. And that's why I'm so passionate about the risk because this could have gone really wrong. But I did make $10,000. And I'm like, for kids right out of college, $10,000 is a lot of money. Whoa, I'm not doing the engineering thing anymore. This is so boring. I just push a button to make $10,000. I want that.

So, that was my whole obsession about, I was like, what did I even do? So, I want to find out what I did. And that's how I decided to actually leave Japan, come to America, got a job on Wall Street. And as an engineer, it was easy to get a job on Wall Street. And I was just trying to learn and learn as much as I could, got fired within a year, because again, I didn't know corporate politics in America. I didn't speak the language, got fired. And it was tough because you know how sometimes something bad happens, and then a billion other bad things happen?

So, that happened to me, I lost my job. I couldn't pay for rent, live in the house with five cats in exchange for rent. Not rent even, think of five cats to sleep on the couch kind of situation, boyfriend dumped me, all the things.

And that's when I became really serious. So, I already knew after a year on Wall Street, a lot of the tips and tricks about the Wall Street gimmicks and the schemes because I was working at a broker, that now I advise how to beat them at their own game.

And then I dove deeper into it. I started studying to become a certified financial planner. And then, I realized they also take advantage of people. I started studying for all these things, money manager, I'm like, oh, my gosh, what is going on? And then, I found out how it's such a male-dominated field. I found that out when I was on Wall Street anyways. But when I started working there, Wolf of Wall Street came out. And I'm like, I don't need this right now.

CAMILLE [06:14]

You already lived that, yeah.

KIANA [06:17]

What did I get myself into? But that's what it is. And it was so disturbing to me. So, that's when I decided to not go back to corporate job and start the Invest Diva movement. So, that was born 2012 on January, January 1st, it was like, this is my New Year resolution. I'm going to take things on my own hands and I'm going to help other women do the same. And it's been just a journey of me learning and then guiding others and learning more. And I've been a student and I've been learning, making a bunch of money, and helping others as well. So, that's cool. But now, what's going on?

CAMILLE [06:53]

That's so cool. I do interviews all the time. And what I love the most is when people are honest about that, that it's not like, oh, I had this idea. And it was this perfect straight line. Because it's not that way. You go through ups and downs. And, oh, I learned that and, oh, I thought this would be the thing. And it's not. And I have to reinvent and keep going.

So, what was it, I'm curious, that got you off that couch literally? What was that moment for you that made you realize you were ready to take it on in a different way and make it really happen?

KIANA [07:30]

So, the couch was a moment. I'm like, okay, this is rock bottom. It's like, do things again. So, the easy way would have been to accept another job offer that I did have, another Wall Street firm. And I think for me was the knowing, you know how sometimes you know? That I'm built not for corporate.

And I knew I was taking a risk. But sometimes you have a calling and I didn't know the road. I didn't have a roadmap. But I decided to just stick with it. And then, I think for me, it wasn't a moment because there were so many times that I wanted to quit. And it took me years to really become profitable. You know how they say 95% of companies go out of business within five years? So, I stuck through that.

I stuck through not being profitable for eight years. And then, it really suddenly boomed. So, it hasn't been a moment. It has been the accumulations of me learning and then adjusting. First, I was doing day trading. And then, I realized that I lost all my money again. And I'm like, oh my gosh, somebody lost a lot of money. I wrote a book about day trading. And now, my name was attached to day trading.

And then, I lost all that money. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm a scammer. So, it's like impostor syndrome, all the things. So, I've pivoted so many times. By the way, I do not do day trading anymore. Even though, Google my name, the first book that comes up is my day trading book. And it's published by McGraw Hill. I actually taught that at universities in New York. So, a lot of pivots.

But I think the beauty of it has been just the growth. And now, I want more. So, I had a limit. When I get here, I'm going to retire and I'm not going to do this anymore. And I got there and I was happy for a week. And I'm like, oh, no. Now, I want to go to the next level. So, that's why I'm continuing to work because, yes, I am financially free technically right now. I've retired. My husband, we're in the dream house. It's now turning to this mission. So, it's amazing.

CAMILLE [09:50]

Very cool. And that's something that's really cool, too, is that I believe if you're following this passion and you're learning and you're growing and, sure, maybe there's a book that you wrote once that is probably still helping people who want to do that that way, but that doesn't mean that you have to stay there, that you can keep growing and reinventing, too.

So where you are right now that you're at a place where you can look back and say, now, I want to help others. I think that that is such a beautiful space to be in. And that it's my favorite kind of person interview, if I'm honest, because it's that experience and the path of failure that led to success, where it's like there were so many ups and downs. But you're like, and now, I want to give back because you're looking back and seeing what you've learned.

So, for those who are listening and are now in this place with you where you're saying, okay, let me help you, where would a woman start who wants to build wealth? If you're saying don't do the day trading thing, what is the thing? What are you teaching now?

KIANA [10:52]

Right. So, oh my gosh, now, we're diving into my obsessions. So, there are so many ways, obviously, to build wealth. And what I typically offer the first step, I call it now the wealth diva ecosystem is always more complicated. But the very first step, especially for moms, especially for households, is starting to not day trading, but giving your money a job to do.

Because we are already super busy, right? And people are always asking me, "How do you do all these things? You have a five-year-old. You have a business. You're writing books. You're on TV all the time. And you're investing and you're doing that." I'm like, "It's actually the investing part, I have now brought it down to a point that it only takes me an hour per week max and I'm managing a $7 million portfolio."

So, that is what I teach. And it's called value investing. And it's like the set it and forget it kind of thing. And it is super easy. It is what Wall Street is doing. But they just make it way more complicated than it has to be. And that's why this becomes such a big passion for me because it's like my favorite thing in the world. But I do these kind of interviews or when I teach my members, the members and I in the community and they have a light bulb moment. Oh, that's what investing is like? Yeah, it's not that hard. It's like we're good at it. So, this is what it is. Are you good at, by any chance, snatching bargains at Black Friday?

CAMILLE [12:29]

Oh, yeah, it's actually online. I don't want to go wait in line. I love the computer. I'm just like, let's do this. It's a game. Yeah.

KIANA [12:38]

Totally. So, that's what investing is.

CAMILLE [12:42]

I'm in. Tell me how. Tell me how.

KIANA 12:45

It's shopping. It's shopping. It's just different going from a consumer mindset to investor mindset, but the same kind of strategy. And so, it's interesting because you know how on the media, everybody's talking about, oh my god, recession is coming, everything's going down? This is the equivalent literally of saying, oh my gosh, "Black Friday's coming and everything is going to be on sale."

Let's celebrate. I want these to be on sale. What are you talking about? So, it's just a mindset shift and understanding the majority of things that you see on TV is about clickbaits and is about creating emotions. So, what investing really is it has nothing to do with math. It has nothing to do with anything else. If you're good at shopping, you're good at investing. It's mainly emotional management.

So, what we don't want it to become is to become when you go and do shopping just to make yourself feel good. We don't want to make it become that. You want it to be strategic shopping. You want it to be the kind of shopping that you know exactly, okay, it's back to school time, let's say. And I know my kids exactly this, this, and this and that, let's go find the best place to buy them. And I have a list.

So, the same way you would do smart shopping, you would do value investing. It's the easiest way I can put it. And if you're a CEO, if you're an entrepreneur already, you have an edge. That's why I actually love working with entrepreneurs.

Because as a business owner, you already know what makes businesses work. You understand marketing. You understand what's happening. So, you understand that sometimes you could be not profitable. But you have a very good team. You have this. You have that. You're doing the marketing right. So, you can get those things. And that gives you an edge to that typical Wall Street bro who doesn't understand businesses and they're only looking backwards at numbers that are no longer even relevant.

But for people who understand marketing, that's how I do all my investing. I get majority of my investing tips from marketing books that I read for my business. Because I'm like, okay, what makes a good business? It's this kind of marketing. Why is Apple successful? So I go and study that and not only apply that to my business, I also apply that to my investments. I'm like, okay, I want to be messaging these kinds of companies. And it's a business as well. It's really cool. So, it has nothing to do with math. It doesn't take that much time because you can set it and forget it. And if you're good at shopping, you're good at investing.

CAMILLE [15:14]

Okay. It's interesting that I hear what you're saying on that because I will watch commercials or things that are coming up that's getting a lot of buzz. And I think to myself, and I do investing, but if I'm honest, my husband is primarily the person who's doing it. He's a CPA. He's a finance guy, so I just let him do the things. But now, that you're talking about it with shopping and paying attention to marketing, which is what I know more about, I'm like, okay, this sounds like something I could really get into and know more about.

So, if you have someone who is new and maybe is someone that has given it to someone else or not as experienced with it, and I know that this can be relative, so take me where you want to take it, but what do you think would be a good amount for people to be prepared to invest? Just starting out because I think sometimes we get the idea of, I can only invest if I have this many tens of thousands of dollars to work with. What is that barrier that you work with? And do you see that often? Tell me how to work through that.

[MUSIC]

I want to share with everyone that you have an amazing live event coming up, Build Your Wealth Live. Can you tell us about that and what people can do to learn more about it?

KIANA [16:36]

Absolutely. So, this is where I actually work with people to not only build investing and investments and portfolios. This is where I really go to the nitty gritty of really how I went from broker as a joke with a stroke to a $7 million net worth. I'm not talking about just income. We're talking about net worth. We're talking about portfolio.

And so, it is not just investing. It is not just making more money. It's so many different things. And it's so approachable that our members are just coming in. They're like, oh my gosh, how do we not know about this?

So it's a five-day immersive event that I'm going to be live. VIP is obviously where it's at because you're going to be backstage with me one hour extra to do Q&A. And I teach you all the things that I did from writing seven books, all these best-selling books, to running my business, to investing the money, how much to invest, where to invest.

And it's going to be we're going to talk about AI. We have some amazing guests there. So, it used to be called actually Build Your Wealth Live. It's now Build More Wealth. So, www.it's buildmorewealth.com. And so, it's five days. It starts September 11th actually.

We're doing it in the evening. So, we thought we really want to empower households and moms and dads. So, we're doing it in the evening, six to eight. So, if you have youngsters, you probably want to get a nanny. If they can be chilling or they can eat their dinner while you're doing this. And you can do it as a family, too. My nephews always come to these.

And we break everything down. We answer the questions. And again, the goal of this is generational wealth for your family. So, come with your family. Come with the whole household. It's virtual, just instead of binge watching Netflix, I think this is going to have a lot more ROI for your future.

CAMILLE [18:31]

Absolutely. If you want more information, that is the link below. We'll make sure that you have access to that. And it's going to be amazing. I'm going to be there. I hope you'll join me. And we'll see you then.

[MUSIC]

KIANA [18:45]

Okay, let's go. And can I please address the first part of your question first?

CAMILLE [18:52]

Yes, address it all.

KIANA [18:54]

That's something that I want to start screaming and banging on the window when somebody says, "My husband is in charge." And I want to pull my hairs out.

CAMILLE [19:04]

He wants to be more involved. Don't get me wrong. He's like, "Do it with me." But I'm like, "Oh, you got it." So, the fact that I'm excited to learn more about it because I do. I default and I'm like, "Okay, I'm on the kids' sports schedule and I'm running everyone around. You got this." You know what I mean? It's like it's not top of line. Yeah.

KIANA [19:22]

Totally. The thing is it's not that men are bad. But here is the thing. Number one, women live longer than men. Sorry to break that to you. It's a hard fact. That's just the truth. The average age of widowhood, I'm sorry to break this to you is 59.

And as much as our husbands are amazing, are hands-on, are doing all the finances, let me give you an example of Kobe Bryant when he passed away along with his daughter. Do you think his wife was in the mental space to go and now out and even want to find out the extension of his wealth is?

This works for both broke people and wealthy people. Especially if you have money, that's even worse, because then the financial advisors, if they see that you'd have no clue, you have no idea how many times I've seen, they've taken advantage of these people. And it's heartbreaking. And you need to prepare now.

I do it with my husband. My husband and I, we do collaborative investing, because while I'm the Invest Diva, he actually sometimes have really good tips because of his background, the companies that he works with. We talk about what to invest in a lot together. This is about becoming more involved.

So, for anybody who is listening, even if that's not an issue, talk about being a role model for your kids, knowing where your money is. This is not like, oh, let's divide our chores in the house. This is something that you need to know for your peace of mind.

And so, this brings me to your second question, how much should you start with? And this is where real work begins. While investing side of it is actually super easy, the first step that I have our members take is actually understanding how much you can calculate that. It's very, super easy.

And you can start with $50 per month. Did you know that if you start investing for your child, the moment they're born only $50 per month, only $50, and then they continue doing that for 65 years, together, you've only invested $40,000. But do you know how much that would compound to? $40,000?

CAMILLE [21:54]

Probably $1 million.

KIANA [21:55]

Exactly $1 million. $50 per month. That's why I'm so passionate about getting families involved in this. I teach my kid. My daughter is five. I taught my nephews about this. Because investing long term if you don't want to do the day trading risky thing, time is the key factor in it. And the sooner you start doing it, the easier it is. And you don't have to start with massive amounts of money.

Now, of course, if you're starting later, yes, if you now invest, let's say $5,000 per month, you're going to get to $1 million point I think in 11 years, which is still pretty cool. But again, if you don't want to start with a lot, you got to give it time.

But how much can you actually invest? So, this is super interesting, because we're like, oh my gosh, I have real low risk tolerance. Oh my gosh. Oh, yeah, I'm a gambler. I don't mind wasting money. I have a lot of money coming in. And it's fascinating to watch. We have this thing, we call it the risk management toolkit. I give it away for free to anyone who wants to go and download it. It's at investdiva.com/masterclass.

So, you can go there, download the risk management toolkit, and I'm going to walk you through to find out where your money actually is. And then, this whole risk management thing is not how you feel. That is one component of it. Your personality is one part of it. My personality changes. When I was single, ready to mingle, I had higher risk tolerance, I didn't care. Now, I have a kid, obviously my personal psychological risk tolerance is lower.

But another component that contributes to how much you should be investing is where are you at financially? Do you have money in your emergency fund? How much money is coming in every month? How much money is going out?

So, all of these things, when you put it together with your life situation, your personality, so this risk management toolkit goes not only through your psychology as a person, but also to where your money is at side of things. Combine it together, and then boom, you're going to have a number.

And a lot of people come in who thought they had super low risk tolerance. And now all of sudden like, oh my gosh, I didn't know. Actually I have a higher risk tolerance and vice versa. People were like, oh, don't worry about it. They go and look up the numbers. And they find out that they're actually broke.

I've had so many entrepreneurial friends who've made millions of dollars in their business, who thought they were rich, they're a millionaire. Breaking news, you go and you look at your cash flow and balances. And you're like, oopsie, I'm actually ready to file for bankruptcy. I've seen this happen so many times that people just think they know where the money is. And then, when they look into it, it's completely off.

They either have a lot more or a lot less. And it's calculable. And it's not rocket science. I'm not a rocket scientist. I have a phone. You have a phone. It has a calculator. You just go sum the money up and see where it is. And it's super easy, but people just don't think about doing it. And that's it. That's the first step.

And then, you're going to know and you're going to decide how much you're going to commit to investing every single month. And you want to make it a habit. You want to automate. You want to set it and forget it. Because again, you don't want this to be something that takes a lot of your time. You want your money to work for you, while you're focusing on your business, while you're focusing on your family. And that's how I do it all.

CAMILLE [25:25]

Yeah. That makes a lot of sense, especially where there can be automation set up. And having I think awareness is a big piece of that, of knowing really what is coming in and what's going out. And I think that there can be fear around that and aversion, too. If I look at it in the eye, what is that going to mean? That there can be a risk in that for people because there are so many cultural or fear-based things that go into money.

But I think what you're saying about being able to know where it is and where it's going and have it work for you, there is so much power in that. So, is there a place, let's say, that someone has not a low or a high, they're in the middle to invest, and they're wanting to start dabbling in? What is a good place for people to start? I know you said you like to research companies and different things like that. But what sorts of things do you have people look for if they're somewhere in the middle and wanting to invest?

KIANA [26:25]

Yeah. For any beginner, these are the very simple four steps you want to take. So, step number zero was understanding where you are financially and realizing, figuring out how much it is you want to go in? Is it $50? Is it $500?Is it $5,000? Whatever it is, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter.

Okay. Step number two is now going and selecting what to invest in? And yes, I understand they can be super overwhelming. They're like thousands and thousands and thousands of companies like what do you invest in? So, what I was talking about risk tolerance, I talked about the two components, right? I talked about your personality and your money situation.

There's actually a third component to it. And it's your confidence about the asset that you invest in, your confidence about in the asset you're investing in. It's interesting. A bit of a backstory here, we call ourselves Invest Divas, right? But the first investment is typically in the thing that we know the most about, your confidence goes higher the more you know about the thing you're about to invest in. Now, here's a trick question. What or who do you know the most about?

CAMILLE [27:44]

Yourself.

KIANA [27:45]

Yourself.

CAMILLE [27:48]

You should. That takes time. Yeah.

KIANA [27:50]

Wherever you go, you're going to be there. You are the value asset. So, that's why you want to invest in yourself. You want to go and learn where your money is at. You want to do that. So, the first investment is in yourself.

Second investment is on anything else that you know a lot about. So, for me, the second thing that I know a lot about is my own business. So, I actually invest in my business first. And then, the rest of it, I invest in other people's businesses that I also know a lot about.

So, you're maybe asking, okay, how do you know about other people's businesses? Let's go back to the shopping example. Are you a super fan of any particular company that you're always shopping from them, always buying from them, always consuming their stuff? It could be something that you use every day. It could be something that you buy every day? What are some of the companies that if you go to your credit card statement, you're contributing the most amount to?

And as a super fan consumer, you probably know a lot about them, you probably know, if five years from now you're still going to continue being their supporter. So, this is interesting because you wouldn't think. For my daughter, I actually asked her. She's five. And guess what I'm investing for her in?

CAMILLE [29:16]

What?

KIANA [29:17]

Favorite stuff in the world. Disney.

CAMILLE [29:20]

Yeah, I was going to guess Disney.

KIANA [29:22]

Right? We were debating Netflix. Now, this is coming back up again. Tesla, she has the small Tesla car thing that she loves, right? And so, these are the things. And then, you can go and look back into it.

So, as a business owner, for example, what is the company that I use the most, that I spend the most of my business amount in?

CAMILLE [29:48]

Apple? I don't know.

KIANA [29:50]

It's actually Facebook. I spend loads of money on Facebook ads. And this is how you can gauge it. So, there was a time that as Facebook was going down and I wasn't having results, I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm going to stop my investments in Meta, because clearly, they're having problems with Apple.

But you said Apple, if you're an Apple superfan, you know you're going to be an Apple superfan for the rest of your life, right? They have such great marketing. And then, we also have members who are like no Apple stocks, we have Android team, so they invest in Google. So, it really comes down to you only need five of these companies.

And I know there are a lot of gurus who say, oh, just go invest in an index fund. I'm extremely against that. Because an index fund is like buying these bundle fruits at a grocery store. They hide all of these like crappy moldy stuff in the middle. And it appears to be cheaper, but you're not actually selecting. I love selecting my fruit.

And you can select it, just by being their consumer. You're already buying from them. You already like that company. By investing in them, you're, first of all, supporting them. If things go down in the middle of it, so for example, I invest in Amazon, Amazon hasn't gotten really up in the past two years. And I'm not really worried because I'm like, there's no way I'm going to stop shopping from Amazon every day. So, I don't worry about it when it dips, because I'm like, I'm still a consumer. I asked my friend, "Are you still buying an Amazon?" "Yep." It's not going anywhere, right?

So, this is oversimplifying it, of course, but this is a great start. So, you create a list of five companies that you already know and love and want to support. They go with your values. And this gives you, again, more control. Because again, index funds, I don't know if you have moral values, but I do. There are things that I never want to invest in their companies that go against my moral values.

There are assets that go against my moral values, like oil. I don't invest in oil. Why? Because I'm from Iran, the whole reason the whole region is in war and I'm out of my home country is because of oil. There's a lot of money to be made there. I don't want to be part of that. So, I don't invest in it. So, you can actually choose where your money's going into.

CAMILLE [32:15]

Yeah, I like that. When you're going into it and getting started, is there a specific app you like to use? Yeah. Tell us about what you prefer and the best way how often do you need to be checking it and knowing all of those pieces?

KIANA [32:32]

100%. So, once you have your list of five, then you go and open up an account. The easiest apps out there, one of those, Robinhood, it's just an app that you download. Basically, this is online shopping. This is you not having to go to New York Stock Exchange in person. The broker is a facilitator.

These brokers are the Amazons for shopping, for buying stocks. So, you can download an app. They are TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, Robinhood, Interactive Brokers. TD Ameritrade is now bought by Charles Schwab, by the way. All great choices, all free, and you can fund them $50 to get started.

So, you go download the app, connect it to your bank account. And then, what I love doing is committing to an amount every single month. It could be $50 per month, $500, whatever it is that you decided after you went through your risk tolerance. And then, you automate that part. And then, so out of your list of five companies, you're going to find out if they're publicly-traded, because while you might love a company that is not publicly-traded, so you can trade it on these apps, right?

So, what you do is you go on Google, and you search for that company's name. And then, add stock symbol. So, let's say you want to buy Amazon. You say Amazon stock symbol, and it pops up. If it doesn't pop up, you know that it's not publicly-traded. So unfortunately, you can't invest in that directly publicly. There are other ways to go about it. It's a little bit more sophisticated. We don't want to go there right now.

But if it's publicly-traded, then you go and search for that stock symbol on your app. And when it pops up, now, the easiest way, not optimized, but still better than not investing is just dollar cost averaging. What does that mean? Every month when you fund your account, just go buy at the market price. And don't think about it, automate it, just buy every single month. You're going to be way better, even if it's high, if it's down.

This is where people say time in the market is better than timing the market. That os bare minimum, right? Then at Invest Diva, we would scale it up a notch. I'm a little bit more involved. I manage my account once a month, sometimes twice a month. And you get a little bit more sophisticated. And you actually look for bargain sales, right?

So, instead of just shopping every single month at this time, you wait for the sales to happen. And there are methods to do that. We do that. So, that can optimize your investments. But about, let's say, 10%. Overall, it's better. We have had students starting super slow and reach $100,000 portfolio 100k. These are the words behind it that we give our students $1 million portfolio right over here within a year or so just by optimizing it a little bit.

If you want to be a little bit more hands-on, and again, it's super fun, it's super easy. It's no mumbo jumbo, but Wall Street, again, makes it super complicated. If you're good at finding sales online, you're going to be good at this.

CAMILLE [35:48]

Wow. I think that this is really cool. I wish that it was taught this way in school because I feel like too often, it's very much separate of this is business marketing. And investment is only really taught to people who specialize in that field. And I feel like likening it to shopping, especially for women, that makes it seem so much more approachable of like, hey, if you're good at some detective work and getting in there and looking at things, you're going to be great at this. So, I love that messaging. I know that this is probably on your website, but what is the investment of getting involved in your course?

KIANA [36:29]

I will say that in just a second, but I have to say this, why do you think they don't teach this at school?

CAMILLE [36:35]

They didn't in my high school. I'm talking high school.

KIANA [36:37]

But why do you think they don't?

CAMILLE [36:39]

Why do I think they don't?

KIANA [36:41]

Why don't they?

CAMILLE [36:43]

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm like, because that's what I experienced. Why don't they? I don't know.

KIANA [36:50]

Why do they make it super complicated? Why do they make it so overcomplicated?

CAMILLE [36:56]

I don't know, probably to maintain control or to make it seem as though only the super elite in finance can manage that kind of thing. I'm guessing, I don't know. What I actually took a class in high school called adult roles. And it taught basically how to be a functioning adult outside of your typical standard courses.

So, we learned about balancing and insurance and a little bit about investment and relationships and parenting and adult roles and all of these different things. It was actually because of that class that I became a teacher able to teach that. And then, I went into the world of mortgage and finance. Amd I was like, oh my gosh.

And it's interesting because it was because of taking that class in high school that I was like, why is this not taught more? I want to teach this someday because it taught me so much. I didn't eventually end up going that route because I ended up becoming an online teacher and sharing things like this. So, I don't know.

KIANA [38:05]

I'll tell you why.

CAMILLE [38:05]

Tell me why.

KIANA [38:09]

It's because if money managers make it as simple as I do, they're not going to have a job.

CAMILLE [38:15]

Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

KIANA [38:19]

That's a whole system built on people not understanding them

CAMILLE [38:24]

Them not knowing. Yeah, I agree. I think that's true, and especially where you were seeing financial planners and money managers and brokers.

KIANA [38:32]

And brokers. The broker that I used to work at, literally, the reason why they had any profit bubble was because the retail traders didn't understand what they were doing. And they would go. It was like a casino. They go and lose money and the broker makes money. And they make it more overcomplicated so that they do lose money so that they make money. Straightforward.

CAMILLE [38:54]

Yeah, yeah. And, too, now that we have the accessibility of our phones, that's changed the game because I feel like before that,, it probably was more that you needed that broker, that someone in between, someone to negotiate these deals and making the calls or whatever. That's something that is very the old way of doing things, I think, like you were saying on Wall Street and everything. But now, with access to our phones and access to learning, why not? I think that that's so empowering.

KIANA [39:27]

100% And so, to answer your question, where I teach this for free, it's a 90-minute masterclass. It can achieve all of these. I explain a little bit in more details all these steps that I just talked to you guys about. And you can also download that free risk management toolkit. And so, it's at www.investdiva.com/masterclass.

Of course, if you want to work further with us, we do offer other services, but this is the best place to start because we have so many people who have gone through this masterclass alone and start their investment accounts. And they've already made a lot of money.

And so, that's the mission that I'm talking about. And that's why I'm super excited to be here with you guys as well. Because my mission for this year, we've had 100,000 people already watched our free masterclass. I want to get it to 1 million. So, I want 1 million moms watch that masterclass. I'm just putting it out there, if anybody knows how I can reach 1 million moms to watch that free masterclass.

It's life changing because it just breaks it down. And then, if you do want to get a little bit more sophisticated, as I talked about, you can come and join us in our membership groups, but that alone is going to just put you on the right track to start investing.

CAMILLE [40:43]

This is fantastic. I'm so glad that we had this conversation today. There is word, I had a neighbor just sell their house who's in banking and said, "I've seen this happen before. I don't want to go through it again." They just sold a house they built less than two years ago. It's beautiful. It was their dream house. And he said, "The writing's on the wall, the recession’s coming." So, do you believe that is true? And what are you suggesting people do to prepare for that as well?

KIANA [41:14]

Absolutely. So, I'm not Nostradamus. Everybody's saying a recession is coming from Jamie Dimon to Michael Burry. And everybody's shorting. One of my friends was hanging out with Jeff Bezos the other day is like, "Yeah, it's going to be soft landing." So the recession is coming. It's just a Michael Patten market pattern. It's nothing crazy. Every eight to 12 years, the markets, what goes up must come down. Inevitable.

And when that happens, what I say, it's Black Friday, baby, let's go shopping. So, we're super excited about the recession. It's very weird to say, but it's like, that's where the millionaires are born. That was my very first trade. Remember, I didn't know what I was doing. But in 2008, I made money during the crashing market. Now, I didn't know what I was doing before. But now, I do. And it's all about having that list of five companies that you want to buy.

Now, this is not real estate advice. It could also be real estate advice. So, how pull up those monies in and know where you want to buy and wait for the market crash. It's buy low and sell high. It's the name of the game. So, recession is a great opportunity to make tons of money, and then riding on, then exploring.

Now, that being said, though, this recession, again, this personal opinion of mine, #notfinancial advice. We already saw a pullback in some sectors, actually in 2022. So, my majority of my investments are actually in tech because of my engineering background, my husband's an engineer. So, we have a lot of tech stuff. And tech had a massive blowout. Last year, my portfolio was bleeding. It was red, red, red, red. And I rode it out.

And now, I'm super high. But that sector already saw the crash, in my opinion. There are sectors who haven't seen the crash yet. And those are the ones that are going to be impacted this time around. And I think it's going to be sector base. So, depending on what you're getting into, for example, healthcare didn't really get a lot of pullback last year. So, this time around. it might go down. So, the sector is going to be important. I covered this a lot on my social media, too. So, just go follow me there. But that's just my opinion over here.

CAMILLE [43:26]

Yeah. I appreciate it. I think this is really exciting. I like the idea of getting to know it better rather than fearing it or putting it on a shelf. I've been inspired. I hope for those of you who are listening have felt the same. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a comment, a rating, and review. Share this with a friend. Let's help get to 1 million views of this free masterclass. I think that that's amazing. Why not? And thank you so much for being on the show today. We'll make sure to put all of the links below so that you can make sure to check it out. And we'll see you next time.

KIANA [43:59]

Thank you for having me.

CAMILLE [44:01]

Thank you. Hey, CEOs, thank you so much for spending your time with me. If you found this episode inspiring or helpful, please let me know in a comment in a 5-star review. You could have the chance of being a featured review on an upcoming episode. Continue the conversation on Instagram @callmeceopodcast. And remember you are the boss!

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