You Don’t Have to Be Wealthy to Start Building Wealth

Money is one of those things we’re all supposed to know how to manage… despite the fact that most of us were never actually taught how.

And for women in particular, I think there can be so much should wrapped up in our finances.

I should understand investing.

I should know where my money is going.

I should have started sooner.

I should have more saved by now.

So instead, a lot of us do what my guest on this week’s episode of This Mother Means Business, Roxanne Zalucky, calls the “ostrich head in the sand” approach.

We don’t look.

And I get it, because I’ve been there too.

For years, my approach to business finances was essentially: Is there enough money in the account to cover everything? Great. We’re probably fine.

I didn’t grow up worrying about money, but I also didn’t grow up understanding it. Investing, credit, debt, building wealth—these weren’t things I really knew how to navigate.

And as Roxanne reminded me during this conversation, that experience is incredibly common.

 

 

Roxanne is a personal wealth strategist who works one-on-one with women to help them grow their net worth.

But her career path is WILD.

She started out on Wall Street, at one point working her day job Monday through Friday and then running to a waitressing job until 2 a.m. just to make rent. After a boss essentially told her she was replaceable because she didn’t know how to code and didn’t make money for the firm, she took that information and ran with it.

She learned to code. Went to school at night. Earned a master’s in computer science while working full-time. Eventually, she landed a trading role and became only the second female trader in the history of a major hedge fund. She later worked on Bay Street with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board before returning to Wall Street.

Eventually, though, she burned out.

And this is where our stories collided in a way I wasn’t expecting.

While Roxanne was wondering whether she could leave that career, start a business and do it all as a mom, a friend sent her the first couple of episodes of This Mother Means Business.

Listening to another mom talk about entrepreneurship made her realize it was possible.

Excuse me while I cry forever.

A few months later, she left her job. And after noticing how many smart, successful women were coming to her because they had nowhere else to turn for unbiased help with their money, she realized that was the business.

 

 

One of the biggest misconceptions Roxanne hears is some version of:

But that’s backwards.

You don’t need to already be wealthy to start building wealth.

You can start with $5. Or $20. Or $100.

The important part is starting to understand what you have, where it’s going and what it could be doing for you.

Because waiting has a cost, too.

We spend a lot of time worrying about the possibility of losing money when we invest, but Roxanne pointed out something I think we talk about far less: the opportunity cost of never starting at all.

What could $20 invested years ago be worth today? What happens when you keep waiting another five years? Or ten?

Time matters. And starting small still counts.

 

 

Another thing I loved about this conversation was how practical Roxanne made wealth building feel.

This isn't about finding some magical get-rich-quick investment.

In fact, one of the first things she talks about is income.

If you’re employed, that might mean being intentional about increasing your salary and learning how to negotiate.

And if you own a business?

You need to pay yourself.

As entrepreneurs, we can get so focused on revenue, expenses, growth and keeping the machine running that our own financial wellbeing gets pushed to the bottom of the list.

Roxanne’s perspective is that, just as an employee might ask their boss for a raise, business owners need to look at their businesses and ask what it would take to give themselves one.

 

 

This might be the biggest takeaway from the entire conversation.

You are not supposed to know everything.

You weren’t born understanding credit cards, investments, taxes, interest rates or retirement accounts.

And being successful in one area of your life doesn’t automatically make you an expert in another.

Sometimes the answer is education. Sometimes it’s taking one tiny action. And sometimes it’s getting help from someone whose expertise fills a gap in yours.

Roxanne’s approach with her clients starts with understanding what they actually want their lives to look like in five years, ten years and at retirement. From there, she looks at the full financial picture—assets, liabilities and net worth—identifies risks, helps create a stronger financial foundation, and importantly, helps clients actually execute the things they’ve been putting off.

Because knowing what you should do and actually doing it are two very different things.

And I think we can all relate to that.

 

 

Toward the end of our conversation, I asked Roxanne what she ultimately wants to accomplish with this work.

Her answer was bigger than helping individual women build their net worth.

She wants women to become the people the next generation calls when they have questions about money—their mom, their aunt, the women in their lives.

She wants more female millionaires and billionaires because she believes financially successful women reinvest that wealth into their children, communities and the people around them.

And I freaking love that.

So if you’ve been avoiding your finances because you think you should know more, have more, earn more or be further ahead before you start, this episode is your invitation to look.

You don’t have to figure everything out today.

But you do have to start somewhere.