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The Life of And podcast is for high-achieving women and working parents who are ready to stop living a life of “have to” and start designing a life they actually want. It’s a space where we talk honestly about the things we’re often afraid to admit — even to ourselves. The exhaustion. The ambition. The loneliness. The joy. The tension of wanting more without losing yourself in the process.
If you’re in the thick of it — feeling stretched, tired, hopeful, driven — this is your invitation to take a breath, get real, and find your way back to your own Life of And.
[00:00:00] Nicole Lorch: How do you distill this idea of a non-traditional bank into a couple of words that will resonate with people? And we always talk at the bank about the only constant is change and, and we admonish people again saying, well, that's the way we've always done it. And I think that this idea of imagine more, it kind of captures the imagination because it's not just saying, don't do it the old way, but it's saying.
[00:00:27] Nicole Lorch: Envision a better way.
[00:00:29] Tiffany Sauder: I'm Tiffany Sauder, entrepreneur, wife, mom to four girls and a woman figuring it out just like you. If you're tired of living a life of half to and finally ready to build a life of want to, then you're in the right place. Come on, let's go Build your Life of And.
[00:00:53] Tiffany Sauder: If you are successful in your work and your life, but still feel unsure when it comes to money, then this episode is for you. If you've ever thought I should understand this better, or I know I could be smarter with my money, but I don't know where to start, then this conversation is for you. Too often when women talk about money, we focus on budgeting and spending less or just being more disciplined, but that's not where real change happens.
[00:01:19] Tiffany Sauder: Real change happens when women become fluent in the language of influence, when money stops feeling intimidating and starts feeling useful when understanding capital becomes normal. Not exceptional. Today I'm sitting down with Nicole Lorch, not to talk about her title, but to talk about what she has learned leading at high level and how financial fluency expands when women can build support and invest in themselves and one another.
[00:01:45] Tiffany Sauder: Because whether we like it or not, money is the vocabulary of influence. And if you want more influence over your life, your work, and the causes you care about, the people you care about learning that language matters. Welcome back to another episode of Life of and this episode kicks off a new ongoing series in partnership with First Internet Bank.
[00:02:05] Tiffany Sauder: Together we are creating a space for honest, practical conversations about money, influence, and leadership. Today I'm joined in the studio with Nicole Lorch. Welcome Nicole.
[00:02:15] Nicole Lorch: Thank you.
[00:02:16] Tiffany Sauder: President of First Internet Bank, though wildly impressive, we are not going to use our time together to walk through her resume.
[00:02:23] Tiffany Sauder: Instead, we're gonna talk motherhood, influence and why so many capable women feel uncertain when it comes to money. Nicole, welcome to the studio with me today. Thanks for having me. I am really looking forward to our conversation, but before we double click into that, I wanna provide a little backdrop of my own.
[00:02:42] Tiffany Sauder: Personal sort of starting point with money, and then I'm gonna ask you to do your same. Absolutely. And then we'll kind of walk from there.
[00:02:47] Nicole Lorch: Okay.
[00:02:48] Tiffany Sauder: I wanna talk about why this topic matters so much to me. My dad grew up in a home without strong financial literacy. His dad filed for bankruptcy and that experience shaped him deeply.
[00:03:01] Tiffany Sauder: My dad is not formally college educated, but was incredibly committed to understanding money, not to be defined by it, but to use it as a tool. A tool for growth, freedom and the ability to give generously. And that commitment that he made changed my upbringing. I was learning balance sheets and income statements.
[00:03:19] Tiffany Sauder: In middle school, I hired my friends to work and my sister and my small business selling mulch on the side of the road. We filed our own 1040EZs at the library. We'd go get the little form that we filled out, and money was never treated as something scary or secret. It was something to be understood.
[00:03:36] Tiffany Sauder: But as I've gotten older, I've realized how unusual that experience was, especially for women, especially for young girls. My dad taught my sister and I to the same capacities he taught my brothers, and when women get together and talk about money, we often talk about what we bought, not what we invested in.
[00:03:51] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm. My husband gets called far, far more often than I do with investment opportunities. And even though we have access to the exact same bank account, and this tells me something. We have a responsibility, we have work to do in helping women become fluent in the vocabulary of money. Helping women get access to the ability to invest, not just to earn and to not just spend time talking about spending, but also about saving.
[00:04:15] Tiffany Sauder: Well, so this is not a financial podcast. Nicole and I are not financial planners, but we are women who have created careers around understanding money. Nicole, helping to share that with business owners like myself. And I really want this to be a place where we can normalize the conversation, normalize the questions, and better understand the tools available to us as women so that money can support the life we want and not define it.
[00:04:40] Tiffany Sauder: Nicole? Um, I guess I wanna ask you sort of what was your. Childhood, like I think oftentimes that imprints the way that we think about money, whether we have a positive relationship with it or a negative whether we had it or we didn't. So what did that look like for you?
[00:04:55] Nicole Lorch: I think that's a really important point, Tiffany, that we do have a relationship with money and it is formed when we're young.
[00:05:02] Nicole Lorch: I was born just at the time that my father was graduating from grad school. So in the early days of their marriage, my parents didn't have two nickels to rub together. You know, they were, they were living on what my mother brought home and what they, they also had a second job that they did, and they were very disciplined about the way they spent money and very accountable to one another.
[00:05:25] Nicole Lorch: Mm-hmm. And so, from the way they treated money, I learned that money was something to be saved. Um, because you needed to have, you needed to not spend it all.
[00:05:36] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm.
[00:05:36] Nicole Lorch: Um, and so I, I think that, um, there was just a scarcity idea that I grew up with that didn't maybe teach me to appreciate what you can do with money, but it was really why you need to not put it all out into the world.
[00:05:54] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm. So when did you start to understand, 'cause I mean, as a. Being in the world of banking, part of the way you guys make money is lending it.
[00:06:02] Nicole Lorch: That's right.
[00:06:02] Tiffany Sauder: To entrepreneurs like myself who then take on the risk of that debt. And when you come from a heavy saver culture, that's like a blasphemous thing to do.
[00:06:13] Tiffany Sauder: So who in your life or what, what did you see that helped you sort of see there's a balance to that? 'cause saving in and of itself is smart and wise alone, it can maybe be lopsided in its approach. Vice versa, living off of debt and leveraging yourself into, you know, craziness can also become a dangerous way to live.
[00:06:35] Tiffany Sauder: So where did you sort of see the balance of that?
[00:06:37] Nicole Lorch: I have seen the balance of that. I've worked for an entrepreneur since I got out of college and a very different mindset with respect to risk and reward, and that's where I started to see that. It, there's no point in just saving for, for a rainy day if you don't have intentionality behind it.
[00:06:58] Nicole Lorch: Mm-hmm. So long-term wealth I have seen is derived from. Having assets that produce revenue, and so whether it, it is just a 401k or if it's an investment property or another business, the idea of putting your money to work and not just, you know, obviously not stuffing it in a mattress or, or under the bed, but really putting it to work.
[00:07:23] Nicole Lorch: I have seen business owners do that time and time again and that multiplies the effect of saving.
[00:07:29] Tiffany Sauder: So I wanna actually start, this is gonna be sound like an advertisement and it is an advertisement and there will be an advertisement. But literally in the first 10 minutes of you of you, I want you to help my listeners understand your money market account and how if the only thing you can do.
[00:07:46] Tiffany Sauder: Taking a class on how to invest in real estate or buying a company or all, all of that feels very complicated. If you're not from that vocabulary, that world, but you guys have a money market account, it's a very accessible way for people to get their money to work for them. Can you share what that is, how that works, and how it's a little different than a cd because I think if, if you do nothing else.
[00:08:10] Tiffany Sauder: This is an amazing place to start with getting your money to earn while you're doing nothing but going to work and doing normal things.
[00:08:17] Nicole Lorch: That's a great point. And with a money market, it is like a high yield savings account. The name money market in and of itself sounds terrible, fancy, right? No, I, I can we not just call it a high yield savings, but even then it people get mystified by a PY and percentages and the idea behind it is it is a savings account.
[00:08:39] Nicole Lorch: There's no, there's nothing magical about it, but it is a higher yield than you will earn in most brick and mortar banks because brick and mortar banks have to put so much money into their operation of all those locations. Every branch has to have at least three people on staff at all times. Kaching, kaching.
[00:08:56] Nicole Lorch: Kaching. That costs, that costs a great deal of money. So we don't have those, those brick and mortar billboards as I like to think of them. Mm-hmm. But we put our money back into our customer's pockets through our money market savings. We do have CDs, but you're locking up your money in a CD for a period of time with a money market.
[00:09:15] Nicole Lorch: It's yours to withdraw when you'd like to. But what I like about. The way you can think about money and, and savings is, what are you going to do with that? You put a really great point on it. When we were first talking about if you know that you're earning a certain amount of interest, that may just sound nice.
[00:09:36] Nicole Lorch: I mean, three 30 is higher than 0.25. Mm-hmm. That's easy math, but. What can you really do with that? And I think we've tried to highlight on our website how that really adds up into differences into real dollars and cents. But then what could you do with that money? How could you put it to work if, if you're not just, you may save the principle for a rainy day.
[00:10:00] Nicole Lorch: Mm-hmm. But you could use that interest. Maybe you'd like to hire somebody to clean your house, or maybe you'd like to send your laundry out, or maybe you want. A pair of shoes or a bag or something you've saved for, but really put your money to work. Put 10,000 in that savings account and watch that interest start to grow.
[00:10:19] Nicole Lorch: Mm-hmm. And then do something with that interest.
[00:10:21] Tiffany Sauder: Totally. Or that becomes what you, um, yeah. Put that into your kids' Roth IRA and let it like, earn interest. Like there's all kinds of creative ways that you can, so literally myself and First Internet Bank in some way, we'll have a monthly conversation I wanna bring.
[00:10:38] Tiffany Sauder: The financial acumen to the feed. When I, when I was sitting across from Nicole an event, I sort of lit on fire and I was like, one of the things I'm so frustrated with is that when I go to dinner with my friends, we, we literally talk about where we spent money, what vacations we've gone on. Yes. What car we just bought, what bag you're holding.
[00:10:58] Tiffany Sauder: That becomes the financial fluency of women. And to ask one of my friends, how much did you make on that investment? I have a few friends where I can have that conversation, but we don't talk about it that way. And in some ways we, we treat it as a scarce resource culturally in the way that we interact with one another.
[00:11:17] Tiffany Sauder: Instead of me be like, holy cow, amazing Nicole, great investment. That's awesome. Right now what are you gonna do? How do you. You know, roll that forward. What else are you gonna buy? Like that's not the language. And so I wanna bring that to the feed. I want there to be conversations where women are starting to say, maybe I can talk about this with my friends.
[00:11:36] Tiffany Sauder: Maybe I can listen to this episode with my girlfriend on a walk and help bring really everyday vocabulary to this really important conversation. Money is so important. It is the language of influence. That's not about getting power. I'm gonna say my language and then I would love to hear yours, but money influence to me is not about getting power, it's about influencing change.
[00:11:59] Tiffany Sauder: That's what I would say. Influence. How would you describe influence?
[00:12:03] Nicole Lorch: I think you're onto something with that because there is this idea that, you know, in the corporate world as you move up mm-hmm. For instance, or as you amass more wealth, that that leads to power. And power is the ability for me to say, I need this report to be done by Tuesday.
[00:12:21] Nicole Lorch: Period and expect that it's done.
[00:12:23] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm.
[00:12:23] Nicole Lorch: But influence is about getting other people to willingly go along with the idea to give more of themselves, because you have that. That certain je ne sais quoi, you know, it's that idea that you have that lights them on fire and makes them want to contribute more. Mm-hmm.
[00:12:44] Nicole Lorch: So I think influence is so much more important than power because we, we don't get anywhere alone in this world. Mm-hmm. And, and it's the idea of. People wanting to be a part of it.
[00:12:57] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm.
[00:12:57] Nicole Lorch: And so what money can do with influence is change minds and change hearts. Mm-hmm. And not just get things. Mm-hmm.
[00:13:06] Tiffany Sauder: And change communities.
[00:13:08] Tiffany Sauder: I mean, you see that Yes. In so many ways. When. Right hearted people get into leadership. When communities have investment that's sustainable, real life can thrive and live. So I guess kind of a adjacent topic to this idea of influence. You are a bank president as a woman, which is an atypical thing to say.
[00:13:28] Tiffany Sauder: It's very incredible. Talk about. I have a lot of women who work in what they would say, like male dominated industries, banking, insurance, manufacturing, construction.
[00:13:40] Nicole Lorch: Mm-hmm.
[00:13:41] Tiffany Sauder: Where they feel massive headwinds sometimes culturally, and feeling like they can make a difference. They can get to sort of the highest role if they do want to continue furthering their career.
[00:13:53] Tiffany Sauder: What has that looked like for you to. From the outside, sort of the stereotype is to be so successful in a traditionally male dominated industry, and what advice would you have? What does that journey look like? What can you share around that?
[00:14:07] Nicole Lorch: My dad from a very, from when I was very young, always said, you're living in a man's world, and he didn't pull any punches.
[00:14:14] Nicole Lorch: And I knew that I would have to be as good or better in order to get ahead. And so we learned to dot every I and cross every t. There is almost a perfectionism in that that can be. Counterproductive. But I, I knew from the outset that whatever I was going to go into there would be headwinds. When I was 10, I wanted to be the first female president of the United States.
[00:14:42] Tiffany Sauder: Really?
[00:14:43] Nicole Lorch: It was ambitious. I wouldn't want the job for anything now. Um, but
[00:14:46] Tiffany Sauder: that was in your spirit,
[00:14:48] Nicole Lorch: that was even as young. Young, yeah. And it had to be the first woman president. It wasn't just president.
[00:14:53] Tiffany Sauder: Wow.
[00:14:53] Nicole Lorch: Um, I was gonna break some glass ceilings. Because I think I, I, I'm super competitive if that's not abundantly clear and my dad telling me, you're in a man's world.
[00:15:04] Nicole Lorch: I thought, well, we'll just see about that. I'm gonna change that. Did your mom have that same fire to like kind of go like. Conquer or not so much? My mom is a very driven woman. I always say she's a force of nature. She was out to, to help people. She was a teacher. Um, she is largely responsible for the fact that I know which fork to eat with at the table, and I know to sit up straight.
[00:15:31] Nicole Lorch: Mm-hmm. And,
[00:15:32] Tiffany Sauder: um, she was very good about raising us to be out in the world. So you have been very complimentary of your relationship with the founder at First Internet Bank. So maybe talk a little bit about him, the culture he's created and just your relationship. 'cause I'm, I'm imagining he's been a massive advocate to you in your career and so
[00:15:50] Nicole Lorch: Oh yeah.
[00:15:50] Tiffany Sauder: How having. That relationship, I'm not saying helped you get to, it was a asset in getting to where you are.
[00:15:57] Nicole Lorch: Oh, 100%. David Becker is the founder of First Internet Bank. He was also the founder of other, what are now called FinTech companies. That phrase didn't exist. Um, when I came to work for him, he hired me right out of college and I was mighty impressionable.
[00:16:13] Nicole Lorch: Um, and so I think in the 30 some years that I have been following him, that. I have watched him and to some degree will emulate him. Um, but I also adapt to what is my style because he's an entrepreneur. I think that that element of risk is probably in his blood in a way that it's not in mine. But I think in that respect, we compliment each other very well.
[00:16:39] Nicole Lorch: So he has the idea. I have the plan for implementation.
[00:16:46] Tiffany Sauder: I wanna take a quick moment to thank my partners at Share Your Genius. For the past four years, they have been an incredible part of my journey. Behind the Microphone, Share Your Genius is a content and podcast production agency that helps leaders and brands bring their message to life.
[00:17:00] Tiffany Sauder: So whether you're trying to find your voice, develop a content strategy, or get your leader behind a microphone, they're. Gonna help you make it simple, strategic and impactful. So one of the core tenets to First Internet Bank is this concept of imagine more. Can you tell us a little bit about what that means and.
[00:17:19] Tiffany Sauder: What that means for people who are interested in banking at
[00:17:21] Nicole Lorch: Absolutely. It was an evolution. Um, and I, one of the smarter hires I have ever done was bringing our chief marketing officer Nick aboard because he challenges me. I came out of a market I didn't even know this
[00:17:35] Tiffany Sauder: advertisement for you, Nick. Any fans in the crowd?
[00:17:37] Nicole Lorch: Nick's in the house.
[00:17:39] Nicole Lorch: From a very early age, I was taken with marketing. There are stories in my family of them wheeling me around Kmart when I was 18 months old and I was singing the Kmart jingle. Mm-hmm. So we, I've always taken to advertising and taken to marketing. So I thought that that's what my career should be. And despite the fact that I never actually took a marketing class, but having Nick aboard really challenged me to think about things in new ways and working with an agency.
[00:18:07] Nicole Lorch: We tried a number of concepts. How do you distill this idea of a non-traditional bank into a couple of words that will resonate with people? And we always talk at the bank about the only constant is change and, and we admonish people against saying, well, that's the way we've always done it. And I think that this idea of imagine more, it kind of captures the imagination because it's not just saying, don't do it the old way, but it's saying envision a better way.
[00:18:37] Nicole Lorch: Mm-hmm. Envision more. And it's a challenge to want more for yourself, to want more for your business, for us as employees, to want more for the organization. Um, so I think it's that it's, it's an empowering message giving us the permission. To envision something differently than we ever had before.
[00:18:56] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm.
[00:18:57] Tiffany Sauder: So, um, how is it, how has it looked for you to live, imagine more?
[00:19:03] Nicole Lorch: The important thing for me about Imagine More is that it's aspirational, but it's also a little outside the box. And life is not linear. It's not a series of promotions. And I go from. You know, entry level position to junior manager to manage your life just doesn't work that way.
[00:19:25] Nicole Lorch: Careers don't work that way. And so imagine more, I think it, it gives us the freedom to appreciate what we have, but at the same time to be a little idealistic. Mm-hmm. About what else that could be. You know, I came to being a mother very late in life by many standards. I was 38 when she was born. And that kind of rocked my world.
[00:19:50] Nicole Lorch: Um, at 37, you, you kind of have things in a groove, right? Yeah. Especially when it's just husband and wife. And we had, we had a routine going and so to throw a new human being into that mix who wanted a lot of attention.
[00:20:05] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm.
[00:20:05] Nicole Lorch: So I think this idea of imagine more I to, to go out and, and change it up at that age.
[00:20:12] Tiffany Sauder: Yeah.
[00:20:12] Nicole Lorch: I think I was living imagine more before I ever even. Before we ever put it into words.
[00:20:17] Yeah.
[00:20:17] Tiffany Sauder: How does that connect to this Life of And oh, how does this partnership,
[00:20:22] Nicole Lorch: well, I feel like you saved me when I, when I heard Life of And, and I saw, I saw the, the thumbnail and there you were in your pink jacket.
[00:20:33] Nicole Lorch: And so right away I knew that's for women and Life of And I thought. I like, and I had a, I had a boss that used to talk about the, the miracle of, and which meant I want you to work late and do your best work. Um, so I think that, um, that word, and I liked Uhhuh and so I thought, well, let me give that a try and.
[00:20:58] Nicole Lorch: You put things together in such a way, it was that idea of having a life you want, not a life of things you have to do. And so I was hooked from the very minute that I, that I first heard your voice. And then because we have a a, a woman's. Employee resource group back at the office. I thought I have to tell more people about this because so many of the women in our office are balancing career ambition and caregiving responsibilities, whether it's an aging parent or young children or animals, or all of the above.
[00:21:33] Nicole Lorch: And it's a balance. Mm-hmm. And it's not, it's not a, somebody explained it to me once, like a teeter-totter and you're never at this equilibrium, or if you are, it's a fleeting moment. Mm-hmm. Right. Usually it's up and down and you're trying to find the balance, but it's never perfect. Mm-hmm. So. When I started to hear some of the topics you were discussing and some of the shows that you had, I thought, I have to take this back to the office and share this with other people because I'm not gatekeeping.
[00:22:02] Tiffany Sauder: Yeah. Well, you've been such a sweet partner, but I do think there's such a connection in the ethos of what First Internet Bank. I mean, it's important for listeners to understand you were literally the first bank. Chartered, is that the word By the FDIC First State
[00:22:16] Nicole Lorch: Chartered FDIC
[00:22:18] Tiffany Sauder: insured financial institution that did not have retail institute.
[00:22:22] Tiffany Sauder: Right. Retail locations.
[00:22:23] Nicole Lorch: Right. That was a heck of an application to say branch locations. None.
[00:22:27] Tiffany Sauder: Zero
[00:22:28] Nicole Lorch: vault, none. What?
[00:22:30] Tiffany Sauder: Yes. And I think to have a bank be founded by an entrepreneur also is an and that rarely exists together. And I think there's an energy and an ethos to what. First Internet Bank is doing, I mean, you're fairly young bank as it relates to
[00:22:43] Nicole Lorch: in the scheme of banks.
[00:22:44] Tiffany Sauder: Yes,
[00:22:44] Nicole Lorch: yes. Many banks are 150 years or more.
[00:22:48] Tiffany Sauder: And here how many?
[00:22:49] Nicole Lorch: 27.
[00:22:50] Tiffany Sauder: Yeah. So it's not like yesterday they rolled out. We, we've also told Nick that Internet's kind of an old word. He might have to change the name of the bank someday,
[00:22:57] Nicole Lorch: don't
[00:22:58] Tiffany Sauder: fuel his fire. But I love how mod, in spite of the, I'm teasing you guys, but, um, it's so modern.
[00:23:06] Tiffany Sauder: There's no retail locations, meaning. If I need help with something as a busy working mom who lives off my phone in my car, nobody's gonna say, you need to come into the bank to sign this. Right? And it's like, praise the Lord, because I don't know. I don't know where it, it is to find
[00:23:22] Nicole Lorch: time to do that between the hours of nine 30 and 5:00 PM right?
[00:23:26] Tiffany Sauder: Yes. And also like extended hour. I just think it's amazing how you guys are pushing the boundaries and I think we win as consumers in really important ways. So
[00:23:35] Nicole Lorch: when we launched, it was really unheard of because we didn't have Netflix. We were renting VHS tapes at Blockbuster. Um, we were not just ordering plane tickets on our phones.
[00:23:46] Nicole Lorch: We were. Calling a travel agent. Mm-hmm. And getting a paper ticket in the mail. So all of these things that we do online that seems so commonplace now. Banking was still something you did in a physical location, and we always promised this idea that you could bank from anywhere at any hour. But it really has, it has taken hold, especially since COVID, when we weren't able to go places and do things.
[00:24:12] Nicole Lorch: We have pulled forward that demand and that understanding of, of online services. But you're right, we talk about convenience. And convenience means something different to you than it does to me. Mm-hmm. But it is that availability anywhere, anytime that really puts the power back to our customers.
[00:24:30] Tiffany Sauder: Totally.
[00:24:30] Tiffany Sauder: It's amazing. I wanna hook into your daughter, 'cause you mentioned you had a baby. She's uh, she's 13-year-old, old baby now. Yeah. She's this teenager, preteen, sort of straddling
[00:24:41] Nicole Lorch: full on teenager.
[00:24:42] Tiffany Sauder: Teenager, which is a very exciting and challenging season. But when you think about raising her. With financial literacy and having her adult self be able to navigate both the saving and the spending and the investing.
[00:24:55] Tiffany Sauder: What are the things that you're thinking about teaching her that you guys are bringing forward in this season of her life? I think we all wrestle with that as parents, so I'd love to know what you guys are doing. You. Oh,
[00:25:05] Nicole Lorch: 100%. We started at a young age. I mean, I've always had a savings account for her. We have been saving behind the scenes.
[00:25:12] Nicole Lorch: For college, you know, hoping that that becomes an actuality someday if that's her path. Um, so there are things that we've always just done for her, and I tried at a, at a younger age to get her into a program called Greenlight. Which I would, I would recommend, it's not a First Internet Bank product.
[00:25:30] Nicole Lorch: Mm-hmm. But I recommend it for parents who are trying to find a way to teach their kids to spend, save, and share. And it does it very well. It's a great mobile app. You give them an allowance if they meet certain criteria. So there's that idea of earning mm-hmm. What you get. And then having the discipline to save some, to spend some and to, to give to others.
[00:25:52] Nicole Lorch: Mm-hmm. So I liked that concept. For my child in particular, I learned pretty early on she was not driven by money, and that just made my capitalist hearts mm-hmm. Get upbeat in a very, like a cold shiver kind of way. Um, because how could she not be driven by money? Mm-hmm. But I, I need not have worried because TikTok came along and it introduced her to a whole realm of things that, to all of Sephora she needed.
[00:26:17] Nicole Lorch: Yes. She has a skincare fridge. I don't have a skincare fridge. Yeah,
[00:26:22] Tiffany Sauder: I know.
[00:26:22] Nicole Lorch: Um, so I think that learning about things that she wanted, that her parents were not going to provide to her mm-hmm. Suddenly gave her some ambition mm-hmm. Behind earning money. So we've, we've kind of met her where she is, and now there's this idea of these are the tasks you need to complete in order to get your allowance.
[00:26:42] Nicole Lorch: There's no free ride.
[00:26:43] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm.
[00:26:43] Nicole Lorch: You don't get paid just for showing up. And then, you know, we have some governors over how she spends her money, but she has a debit card from First Internet Bank. Mm-hmm. Um, so I can see where she's spending it. I am, it's interesting to me how money interests and money patterns change.
[00:27:02] Nicole Lorch: I don't know about your girls, but. I have never seen so much money spent on DoorDash. It's insane. I mean, I didn't, I had to get permission to get food. I had to get permission. Somebody had to drive me to the mall. But with the e-commerce mm-hmm. It's just she orders it, it shows up and, and then I get to find out, I get to see the whole video with everybody else and find out what was in it.
[00:27:26] Tiffany Sauder: Do you have her pay for that from her money, or is that from your money? The DoorDash.
[00:27:30] Nicole Lorch: The DoorDash usually comes from her money. If it's some, you know, if we've already had dinner
[00:27:35] Tiffany Sauder: because it's like 30 bucks. I mean, I, my girls don't do DoorDash a lot 'cause it's pretty expensive.
[00:27:40] Nicole Lorch: What? Your DoorDash, taco Bell.
[00:27:42] Nicole Lorch: That's
[00:27:43] Tiffany Sauder: it. It's like a $28.
[00:27:46] Nicole Lorch: It is. In fact we, we got pizza the other night and my husband was gonna have it delivered and I said. Let's save the, I don't know, $12 or whatever. It's crazy. Just go up the street and get it. Yeah.
[00:27:55] Tiffany Sauder: Yeah. I, I've, it's like in a pinch if there's like a sitter home that Right. That can't drive or something, but I have found they, they have not door dashed a ton because it's like, it takes a pretty big chunk out of what they have,
[00:28:05] Nicole Lorch: but it makes for choose too.
[00:28:07] Nicole Lorch: Mm-hmm. This is your money. Totally. I am. I am feeding you. Or your dad is going to make this for dinner. If you really don't want that, then that's your money to spend if that's how you wanna spend it.
[00:28:18] Tiffany Sauder: Well, I had somebody gimme some really good advice 'cause I am, uh, also a very strong mom. Like you've got your, you know, and so sometimes I can just project my own tendencies and preferences onto them 'cause it just feels obvious and easy to me to do what I would like to do.
[00:28:33] Tiffany Sauder: Right.
[00:28:33] Nicole Lorch: Yeah.
[00:28:34] Tiffany Sauder: And so I, somebody said giving them their own money to spend begins to help them exercise their own choices and priorities.
[00:28:40] Nicole Lorch: Mm-hmm.
[00:28:40] Tiffany Sauder: So one of my daughters loves getting her nails done. I'm like, dude, you have to sit in that stupid place for an hour and a half and then pay 'em at the end. I just can't imagine anything worse.
[00:28:47] Tiffany Sauder: But it's a priority to her. Right. And so like door to, it's like it allows them to exercise their priorities. And I do think that's important as these young women are beginning to. Understand who they are and all of that. It's like kind of silly, but I think it's really important. It's actually not silly at all.
[00:29:04] Tiffany Sauder: It's really important.
[00:29:04] Nicole Lorch: It really is. Mm-hmm. Because there is a finite amount of money there. And if, if I were just buying her everything that she wanted or needed, what is she learning from that? Mm-hmm. There will come a time where she's off my payroll and she's out in the world and making her way in it, and she will have to make choices.
[00:29:20] Nicole Lorch: Mm-hmm. Do I wanna get my nails done or do I want DoorDash? Mm-hmm. And so early on, they're, they're starting to make these choices.
[00:29:27] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm. Let's think about our, um, our woman who's listening to this, who's saying, okay, I'm at this spot where. I'm in a job, you know, we're maybe a two career home. We've kind of in the prime of life where everything's really expensive.
[00:29:42] Tiffany Sauder: I wanna get more sophisticated about the way that I'm thinking about maybe our money financially, or have better conversations inside of our home. Where would you suggest they start?
[00:29:53] Nicole Lorch: Couple of things I at, at my heart and my core. I am a saver, so always, always make sure you have a rainy day fund. Because, um, I, I learned when I was on the board of United Way, they talk about Alice, which is, um.
[00:30:09] Nicole Lorch: Income constrained. They are working families, but they are one minor financial disaster away from things tipping the other way. It's a flat tire or broken down refrigerator, so make sure that you, you have a rainy day fund set aside. It may not be as catastrophic as losing a job.
[00:30:27] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm.
[00:30:28] Nicole Lorch: But something is going to go bump, and you wanna make sure that you're resilient for that.
[00:30:33] Nicole Lorch: I would also tell people it is never too early to start saving for retirement. But it's also never too late.
[00:30:40] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm.
[00:30:40] Nicole Lorch: Um, I, I had always heard from a very young age, social security will not be there for you. So, um, when I got out of school and I was making just enough to make ends meet, I was still putting 6% into my 401k to make sure that I was getting the company match.
[00:30:58] Nicole Lorch: So I was, I was not maxing out my contribution, but, but investing in myself from a very early age. After that. I think especially in families, I encourage transparency. I encourage families to be part of the discussion, have shared goals. Um, you know, we're at a point now where we're starting to talk about, okay, we've been in our house for a little while.
[00:31:20] Nicole Lorch: Mortgage rates are where they are. We are not moving.
[00:31:23] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm.
[00:31:23] Nicole Lorch: We're staying put, so how do we make this house? Work for us, for what our family is now versus what it was nine years ago when we moved in. And so we wanna make some changes. Well, let's all discuss that and how do we want to make those changes, and what are the real costs of that?
[00:31:40] Nicole Lorch: So I believe in, in openness and transparency and not just, there shouldn't be that kind of privacy about it. But at the same time, um, in our family, we have independent accounts so that I don't feel like I need. Permission to go buy the pair of shoes if I want the shoes. But at the same time, for the bigger things it needs to be, it needs to be a decision that we make together.
[00:32:05] Nicole Lorch: Mm-hmm.
[00:32:06] Tiffany Sauder: I think that transparency is a big part of it. Having the vocabulary. As a family to be able to talk about money and have the courage sometimes to tell our kids no. Or I think sometimes to tell our spouse no. Whether it be the woman is the primary earner that says We can't do that, or whatever that looks like, to not be able to make whoever's dreams come true right away and say, we've gotta save for that.
[00:32:28] Tiffany Sauder: We've gotta work together for that. But there's a lot that can, there's a lot of togetherness that comes just like in business when you're working on a goal that everybody thinks looks far away. Right. A lot of togetherness that comes in that,
[00:32:39] Nicole Lorch: right.
[00:32:39] Tiffany Sauder: Working and planning and yeah. Putting the puzzle pieces together.
[00:32:43] Tiffany Sauder: And I think the same thing can happen in our households. From a financial perspective. Of
[00:32:46] Nicole Lorch: course, we were just talking about spring break and you know, we haven't made plans yet. It got to a point where I said, I am uncomfortable with the amount of money that this is starting to add up to be. So let's figure out ways we can dial it back.
[00:33:00] Nicole Lorch: And that's not saying, no, it's not an absolute stop. We're not going anywhere. Mm-hmm. But it was a, let's dial it back. Let's see. You know, what other alternatives there might be. And so I think it takes a good deal of trust in a relationship to be able to say where your boundaries are. Whether it's financial or anything else, and to be able to, to have that conversation together, you know, they always say like, while holding hands.
[00:33:24] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think that's a great close to this, this idea of just together. My, my hope for this series together, this content that we put out, is that we'll start talking about things like, what's it look to have a, like a great relationship with a banker. What's it look like to get a SBA loan? What's it look like?
[00:33:40] Tiffany Sauder: To really have an open dialogue. I think sometimes this idea of banker, I was thinking about this as I was on a walk the other day, and so it of be like when you grew up and it was like the police if like the policeman was there like, oh
[00:33:52] Nicole Lorch: no.
[00:33:52] Tiffany Sauder: It's like, then you get old, it's like, doc are here to keep everybody safe and they're super helpful.
[00:33:56] Tiffany Sauder: I think bankers that can kind of be, it's like, oh no, the banker called, oh no, the financials for the banker. But they're really there to help you grow as an entrepreneur and I want our audience to listen to understand better how to do that. I found. My banking partners to be awesome advocates for us as
[00:34:10] Nicole Lorch: entrepreneurs and so.
[00:34:12] Nicole Lorch: I'm excited to share that kind of content as well. That's a great angle. David started the bank, in part because as an entrepreneur, his bankers had tried to structure and restructure the businesses that he had, and in a way that was not what he wanted to achieve. Mm-hmm. I understand, you know, the banker was concerned about getting repaid.
[00:34:32] Nicole Lorch: Mm-hmm. They always are as they should be, right? Yeah. But at the same time, there needs to be that partnership there to understand what it is that the entrepreneur wants to achieve. And it's just, there are so many relationships around money and, um, trust is the. Is the key component to having a strong relationship, whether it's with your spouse, with your banker, but anybody that you're working together to earn or save money, there should be that, that element of trust there.
[00:35:04] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm. Completely. Well, thank you all for tuning into another episode of Life of And. If you are interested in getting a little bit more sophisticated banking partner, a modern partner who is literally. I'm gonna say always on, not always on, but uh, really accessible. I hope that you'll take a look at First Internet Bank.
[00:35:22] Tiffany Sauder: There's a link, show notes, and really excited for this content this year. Nicole, thank you for joining me in the studio. Thank you for having me.
[00:35:29] Nicole Lorch: This was awesome.
[00:35:30] Tiffany Sauder: Awesome. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for listening to the Life of And. this is your weekly reminder to keep making bold choices, saying clear yeses and holding space for what matters most.
[00:35:41] Tiffany Sauder: As always, if you like this episode, I'd love for you to drop a review and share it with your friend. It's the fastest way that we can grow the show. Thanks for joining us. I'll see you next time.