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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] Tiffany Sauder: how can we use what's happening in our lives to teach our kids about money and how they can be smart about that, not only at the stage they're in, but how are they equipped so that when they have a gajillion decisions to make and it all feels so confusing, some of this feels a little bit simpler.
[00:00:16] Tiffany Sauder: I'm Tiffany Sauder, entrepreneur, wife, mom, to four girls and a woman figuring it out just like you. Come on, let's go build your Life of And.
[00:00:27] Tiffany Sauder: this is kind of like another Tiffany Unscripted a little bit where I just want to share some things on my heart around this topic of finance. And I have kind of been collecting these little vignettes through my life over the last couple of weeks around, I think, just restating my own conviction that financial literacy is so incredibly important.
[00:00:47] Tiffany Sauder: And, um, in my business, we've got some really cool things going on that have required really strong financial literacy in our family as we're sending one off to college next year, starting to talk about that aspect of financial literacy. And it's just like really a big deal. And so, I'm just gonna go a little Tiffany Unscripted on you and share what I see in my life and what I'm learning and what I think is important, and I'm just, I guess, prayerful that you'll learn from that.
[00:01:12] Tiffany Sauder: Um, but before I do that, I have to sort of get out of the way. We're in back to school season, like of the most, and this is my kids' first week back. And, um, it's gone a little medium, honestly, for family. it's been a little clumsy. I don't really mean from a routine perspective. I mean, like actually the kids being back in school.
[00:01:29] Tiffany Sauder: So as you might imagine, uh, it went the best for my senior and it went the hardest for my kindergartner. Um, and I'm just kind of surprised a little that Quincy, Q Bear as we call her, um, that she's been struggle busing a little bit. Um, I don't know. I don't know why exactly, and maybe I don't really need to know why.
[00:01:47] Tiffany Sauder: Maybe it's just a big change. But she was at preschool. I joke she's sort of raised in the wild, like we're always out and about. So I'm a little surprised that she's struggling, but maybe if I went and like inventoried all of the minutes of her life on the planet, she's probably been with one of us or our nanny, you know, that was like very, very stable for her.
[00:02:08] Tiffany Sauder: So, um, I think she's pretty unnerved by the lunchtime vibe. pretty much burst into tears when she got off the bus the first day. I was heartbreaking. So, uh, anyway, we're picking her up from school right now. By we, I mean I, um, at basically noon. I mean, kindergarten is 16 minutes long, so. Um, all right.
[00:02:26] Tiffany Sauder: Well, that's what's going on in my life and probably going on in your life at some level too. So okay, um, one of the things that I do at Element Three, so if you're unfamiliar, Element Three is the agency that I founded, uh, right about 20 years ago.
[00:02:43] Tiffany Sauder: I don't run the day-to-day of that anymore. I stepped out about three years ago. But one of the things I still do, and the team has been really just thoughtful about keeping going, is I do a history of Element Three. So it's a one-hour presentation, in air quotes, kind of meeting, storytelling session that I do with all new hires, and I do it about once a quarter.
[00:03:05] Tiffany Sauder: And in that, I just talk about, like, how did this company, how did we get to here? Because they walk in the front door of the office, and this version of Element Three is the only thing that they know. And our history is what informs what I care about. It informs the questions we ask. It informs the processes that we see as, like, completely vital in, in the, the mistakes we made, the fears we had, the, I don't know, just like, just like your own past makes up how you view today.
[00:03:35] Tiffany Sauder: The same thing is true of a company and a culture and of its leaders. And so I tell a fast-forward version of that story. So I did that yesterday And in it, I often talk about how, you know, how do you become an entrepreneur at 25 years old? Like, that's a question I often get inside of this meeting 'cause that's how old I was when I started Element Three.
[00:03:57] Tiffany Sauder: And I said, "Well, to understand that decision, you have to understand how I grew up." And because that informed how that didn't seem like that crazy of a decision, actually. it was pretty normal in the environment how I grew up. So my dad, grew up in a agricul- I mean, I grew up in an agrarian environment too, a small little town in Indiana.
[00:04:17] Tiffany Sauder: And he did not grow up in a family that had very much financial literacy. His dad filed for bankruptcy at least once. and it was not something that he grew up around. It was not a well-resourced environment financially. It was not well-resourced environment as related to the conversation around money.
[00:04:35] Tiffany Sauder: and I think in a lot of ways, talking about money can be seen as, like, bad. That's rude. You shouldn't talk about how much money you make. And he, that was the thing he was, he was, like, determined to change in his own life. he bought his first farm at 16 years old, and so at a very early age was beginning to understand debt and revenue and the cost of inputs and how much you could sell something at the market.
[00:05:03] Tiffany Sauder: And all of that fluency, or at least putting himself in the environment of financial fluency, began at a very, very young age, and he surrounded himself with people like, he had an uncle that was an entrepreneur that was very successful. He had people in his life, books he read, stuff he did to put himself in a place where he could learn about money even though he was not born into a place where he was gonna naturally learn about money.
[00:05:29] Tiffany Sauder: And his choice to do that and the way that he decided to, I would say, weave our culture as a family as I was growing up, created a tremendous starting point for me and my siblings as it related to financial literacy because he was determined to change that conversation for himself and as a result for us, um, kids.
[00:05:49] Tiffany Sauder: And my life has been greatly blessed by it. That's why you get to the place at 25 where you're like, "Oh yeah, totally, I can buy a business. I understand balance sheets and income statements, and I understand the vocabulary of business." So of course I thought I understood it way more than I actually did at 25, but you have this hubris that comes from a starting point of knowledge, and that is my own, I would say, like, beginning and genesis of I don't know, just being exposed to financial things.
[00:06:17] Tiffany Sauder: My dad nev- did not, uh, never went and got a college degree, but went back and took classes at Purdue University for accounting and finance and econ, and the things that he knew were gonna be important in the way that he thought about the world. So this was before you could learn everything through, you know, AI, which we can do now, but in online courses.
[00:06:34] Tiffany Sauder: But in that time, that's what you needed to do. So why do I share this with you? I think I share it with you because whether you are like me, where I, I, I said this, I think, in the episode with, um, Pete the Planner and Nicole Loritz, was like, "I feel like I was born on third as it relates to financial literacy," because there was so much vocabulary around business and risk and personal budgeting, and, like, it was just, like, in the fabric of my environment.
[00:07:04] Tiffany Sauder: I thought that was very normal. and so I feel like I was born on third as it related to financial literacy. So if you're like me, and that's the case for y- you've been born around these words, amazing. We do have a head start. But if you weren't at a place where that was where you were born, that's not the vocabulary environment, you can be the one that changes it, and you can be the one who starts this conversation so that you not only create different opportunities for yourself, but you create different opportunities for your kids, for your nieces and nephews, for the people who are around you who are looking to learn from you.
[00:07:37] Tiffany Sauder: my dad just turned 70, and, um, I gave a little speech 'cause I love to s- give little speeches. And I said, "To know my dad is to learn from him," because he is such a voracious learner himself, and there's nothing that delights him more in life than to share with others what it is that life has taught him.
[00:07:56] Tiffany Sauder: And so if you're gonna be by him, you will learn from him because he just can't not say, "Oh my word, you'll never believe what I learned," or what I read, or what I saw, or this thing. And, um- I, I think we each have an opportunity to play that role in our communities as it relates to financial literacy. in that, I guess, sort of vein, um, Element Three just announced its first acquisition.
[00:08:17] Tiffany Sauder: I'm so proud of the team. I'm just, like, dying inside with pride and excitement for them. And for me, um, I don't work in the business every day, but I still do own a majority of it. And so, it's exciting to see the team that I said, "Hey, go forth and do this," actually do so well, and, uh, it's really exciting.
[00:08:36] Tiffany Sauder: But in that, we went and got a, a, a bank loan to help us not only finance the purchase of the business, but also to finance some improvements that we need to make in the business. So, and the next, one of the next episodes we're gonna launch is actually kind of a deep dive into that transaction, how we financed it, what that looked like, so that I can help bring you into even where we're, growing and learning in how I'm using financial tools to help create a wealth for our family, opportunities for the people who are running this business, um, and opportunities to grow so that we can serve our clients better.
[00:09:12] Tiffany Sauder: So kind of exciting, I think also, um, in, in that vein.
[00:09:19] 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.
[00:09:33] 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.
[00:09:41] Tiffany Sauder: Other things going on in my financial life, kind of stuff in my head, is my, our oldest is gonna be a senior. Here we are. Um, is a senior, Sam helps me remember, is a senior. We're in our first year. Yeah, first week of her senior year. She's a senior. She's gonna be the best senior.
[00:09:59] Tiffany Sauder: I mean, firstborn daughters, I just feel like you... I joke. You don't have to worry about them. Like, they're gonna be fine. They might have nervous breakdowns from their internal striving for perfection, But they're not actually gonna probably screw things up. So she's gonna be the best senior.
[00:10:13] Tiffany Sauder: She's gonna launch so well. I just have so much confidence in that. But we've been talking to her about college, and, um You know, obviously it's where do you wanna go, but it's also how much is it gonna cost to go there? And, we have sat down with her. We started 529s for, I think it's like, it's one account and it's kind of parsed into like four sub-accounts for each of our girls.
[00:10:35] Tiffany Sauder: But my understanding is 529 is you can actually use it for any kid. It's not actually designated to Aubrey, but we've kind of carved out an amount that we've sat down and told her, "Look, this is the amount that we've saved for you, and this is how this works." And so 529s are taxed advantage dollars. And so we've talked to her about what does this mean?
[00:10:56] Tiffany Sauder: So kind of this thread of continuity of financial literacy and how do we get it for ourselves and how do we share it with those around us. We are starting to get really intentional with her in particular about talking about things like her 529, when we started funding it, how we're doing that, how those dollars have been invested on her behalf, how those have earned and, and, gained interest.
[00:11:21] Tiffany Sauder: talking to her about that so that when she starts to get to a place where she has decisions to make about where her own W2 dollars are gonna go, she can start thinking about, "Okay, some of this is going to taxes. What are the tax advantage programs is that I can put my dollars towards?" Her, experiencing the benefit as an 18-year-old of the discipline her dad and I had to save for her college so that she doesn't have to go into debt, um, if she doesn't want to.
[00:11:51] Tiffany Sauder: We've talked to her about like, "Hey, if you decide that you wanna go to Vanderbilt and you don't get a bunch of scholarships 'cause the- we're giving her around $100,000 for college, just like sharing that number. I don't know if that's helpful. w- but if you're gonna go to Notre Dame or Vanderbilt and it's like 80 grand a year, then we're gonna have to figure out a different mechanism for that.
[00:12:08] Tiffany Sauder: And it helps her think through, "Is it worth it for me to go to some of these premium priced colleges at least for what I wanna do, and, and have maybe some financial skin in the game?" Because if, if they all are the same to her, so we're in state at Purdue University, amazing education. She can go room and board all in for like right around $20,000 a year.
[00:12:30] Tiffany Sauder: Or do you wanna go to a place like, you know, one of, uh, a different college environment that's gonna cost a lot more? We want her to think about that, not just which campus was the prettiest, which professor did I like the best, but hey, there is a financial impact to this choice, and we need to talk through the risk you want to take as you step into your young adult life and whether or not you wanna enter that with a little bit of debt, a lot of debt, what kind of scholarships are available to you, and thinking and talking about the financial mechanism of that too.
[00:13:02] Tiffany Sauder: So it would be way simpler to just be like, "Hey, honey, literally close your eyes, throw a dart, and we'll send you to wherever you want to, uh, on the, you know, in the world for college." And even if we could do that financially, our perspective is that that is not, that is not equipping her with how to think about this choice of going to college.
[00:13:20] Tiffany Sauder: So again, this is less about whether or not you have a 529 for your kid and less about whether or not you're gonna pay for college and more about how do you take what's happening in your life and in your kids' lives and really talk about them not only in the context of what's happening, but what is the financial backdrop to the moment?
[00:13:40] Tiffany Sauder: Um, other examples where we're doing that I, I think well is, um, our older two that are, Aubrey's 17 and a half, and then Ainsley just turned 15. They both have a green light, which is how we do their budgets. Um, and in that you can invest your money. Uh, I, I don't say money in air quotes. Like it's actually a bank account.
[00:14:03] Tiffany Sauder: It's an FDIC-insured bank account, and their funds are there, and it gets invested like in a money market account. So they see in their deposits every single month they get some interest. It's like $12, $27. And we got to have a conversation on what does that mean? What's happening? Your dollars are at the bank, they're in a money market account, and you're getting interest back.
[00:14:21] Tiffany Sauder: So you're not doing anything but keeping your money there, and you're getting the equivalent of one hour of babysitting, two hours of babysitting. Two hours of work is getting-- you're getting f- paid for free, essentially, because your money's working for you. Again, how can we use what's happening in our lives to teach our kids about money and how they can be smart about that, not only at the stage they're in, but how are they equipped so that when they have a gajillion decisions to make and it all feels so confusing, some of this feels a little bit simpler.
[00:14:52] Tiffany Sauder: one of the other things I just set up, and this feels fraudulent that I'm kind of, I'm just doing this in the last 75 days, but my banking for Life of And is with First Internet Bank. And the operating funds that I'm not using, like essentially every single day for payroll or whatever, I can put those in a connected money market account that pull automatically.
[00:15:16] Tiffany Sauder: So for example, maybe I have $7,500 in my monthly operating account, and then I have a connected money market account that just pulls automatically into the operating account as I need it. So then there's maybe 75 grand that's set in the money market account, and it just pulls in. So I'm g- I'm generating interest.
[00:15:36] Tiffany Sauder: And First Internet Bank has made it so easy to set those accounts up, to link them on my own. I got a little lost in the sauce on a piece of it, and so I had to call their help desk, and literally I was off in like three and a half minutes. So if you're looking for a way to just take a first accessible step, I would say go to your bank, or if it feels frustrating and you have to be there between the hours of 9:00 and 4:00 when the com- when the commercial banker is in the office, which they never are.
[00:16:05] Tiffany Sauder: And I'm not just saying this because I-- First Internet Bank is a sponsor of me. I am not kidding, the number of hours that I have wasted driving to a bank because I needed to get a tax check written. I needed to get distributions, a wire transfer done. I needed to set up a new account so that I could have, you know, park some money that I was saving.
[00:16:26] Tiffany Sauder: Going to the bank to do those things makes me crazy. I'm an Enneagram three, and so I'm full on like just ruled by efficiency. And so being able to do all of that whenever I want to from wherever I am, especially now that I'm picking my kindergartner up most days at 2:15 in the afternoon. Like I gotta be able to get stuff done from where I am and not bring myself to you.
[00:16:52] Tiffany Sauder: And so First Internet Bank has been such a wildly productive, not only financial partner, but just like life hack, um, because their, their operators, like c- customer service people are online until 9:00 eastern time. Like that's insane. My kids are in bed by then. So I can get work done, any kind of work done for such a long period of time, and that has been so, so, so, so helpful to me.
[00:17:17] Tiffany Sauder: I know we're in a season of back to school. I know we are in a season of, okay, I'm trying to get, at least for me, trying to get my bearings back to like a schedule and knowing how to use my mornings, my afternoons, my evenings, and know what has to be done where. But this conversation around financial literacy is literally never going to be urgent until you're in trouble.
[00:17:40] Tiffany Sauder: And so I want you to be reminded from this conversation, it is literally like every other area of your life that you're wanting to make progress in. A little bit over a long period of time is all you need to do. And so listening to this 20-minute podcast episode, step number one. If you haven't listened to our other episodes on this sort of money conversation, Sam's got them linked in show notes for you.
[00:18:03] Tiffany Sauder: Go through those. The next is find someone who you know also is trying to pursue this area of their life, and once a month, schedule time with them for an hour and a half and go on a walk and just practice the conversation of money. You know what has been so interesting to me? This is related, but not.
[00:18:21] Tiffany Sauder: I see my hairdresser like once every five to six weeks to get my hair colored, and it is insane how close I am to her because I sit down and I talk to her for almost two hours every five to six weeks. It is insane. We know so much about each other. Hello, Alandra. I love her dearly. But the other thing that has made me, is like that is about how much time it takes to make progress on a relationship.
[00:18:44] Tiffany Sauder: You know what I mean? It's crazy. If you did that with one person around one topic over the course of a year, I mean, I'm five years in with this girl in my hair and this color brown, you know, and look how much progress we've made. But I just feel like that's all it takes. It does not have to be this Herculean thing where you have to enroll in a college university.
[00:19:02] Tiffany Sauder: That's not what has to happen. But I just beg you, I beg you, I beg you, I beg you to take this conversation around financial literacy really serious in your life. Because money is not the point, but money is an imperative tool in the world that we live in, and money is the vocabulary of influence. We talked about that early.
[00:19:23] Tiffany Sauder: I saw this thing on Instagram I wish I could give credit to who it was 'cause I can't think of her name right now. But she was saying, she was like, let me convince you that money is actually the vocabulary of influence." And she showed that clip of right after Elon Musk had bought Twitter and all of these great big advertisers had pulled out.
[00:19:43] Tiffany Sauder: Because they hated him, they hated what he was doing. They felt like this was a hostile takeover. It was all, you know, remember all this sort of cultural brouhaha that was happening. And he literally was like, "They can F off," was his response to it. And the reason he could say that and do whatever he wanted to is because he has more money than everybody And so he gets the biggest vote.
[00:20:05] Tiffany Sauder: And I am not saying you're for Elon Musk, against Elon Musk, I don't really care. And she didn't really care either. The point was that convince me money isn't the vocabulary of influence. It just is. And so I don't really care about impacting the world on that kind of a scale. I do care a ton about impacting the world for my kids, about impacting the world for my church, about impacting the world for my friends, about impacting the world, just what I want to do and what, what I want to build in my community and the schools and this incredible place that we live.
[00:20:38] Tiffany Sauder: Like I do care about that. And so to do that and to have extra and to be able to give and to be able to share, I have to have some excess in my life to be able to do those things, and so do you. Thank you for tuning in to this week of Life of And. If you enjoy this episode, go on a walk with a girlfriend and listen to it together and talk about money.