Shang Saavedra: Growth Mindset and Financial Independence

Episode 36: Shang Saavedra (@savemycents) is the voice behind the popular financial-literacy blog, Save My Cents. Having achieved financial independence at the age of 31, she aims to share her money expertise with those who need it most, empowering others to change their lives, on their own terms, for the better.
In this episode of the Why You No Doctor Podcast, Shang and Dominic take a deep dive into some of Shang's most treasured pieces of wisdom that shaped her life for the better: the abundance mindset, the act of doing it scared, and of course, the pursuit of financial independence.
Show Notes:

• 1:14 - Introduction to Shang and her work on helping others achieve financial freedom with mental health
• 2:53 - Abundance mindset — adopting a growth mindset over a fixed mindset and having agency in your narrative
• 4:39 - Being jealous about other people's success, and revising goals to improve them
• 6:04 - Shang and how she viewed intelligence as fixed, but changed her mindset to believe that grades are not a fixed indication of her success
• 9:09 - Meeting people who grew up in neighborhoods that grew up in debt and believing that debt and financial instability is normal
• 9:53 - Born in China, moving to Switzerland and the Netherlands before moving to various places in the States. Her parents' background with the Cultural Revolution and how it impacted Shang's upbringing
• 14:33 - For those with huge debt, usually there is something in their upbringing that affected their view on money. Working away from the Asian-American upbringing of being cheap and frugal
• 20:50 - Realizing the importance of frugality despite its restrictions
• 23:26 - Value based spending —discovering where your top values are and using it as a guide to spend money
• 27:50 - Do it scared but do it anyway — help people get over their fears to improve financial literacy or self-advocacy
• 33:30 - Having confidence and belief in yourself even if others' seem smart and vocalize their success
• 35:25 - Achieving FIRE at age 31 and becoming work optional, but choosing to work anyway because of other priorities
• 40:01 - What Shang spends her time on — being a mom, developing courses, and helping others on financial literacy
• 41:45 - Defining what retirement means and analyzing people's lifestyle to give people a direction on their financial health
• 44:02 - Discussing different ways to achieve financial freedom depending on who they are and their situation
• 48:28 - Favorite places Shang has been: Japan, Ireland, New Zealand, and Italy
  50:10 - How to contact Shang (Instagram) + parting words

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