“Investing has allowed me to take on projects I am passionate about instead of doing work because I need the money. I don’t have to do things out of desperation,” says Mowry-Hardict.

Knowing how to invest has provided Tia with the flexibility and freedom in her career to be authentic. The roles she has played represented characters or situations that she could relate to in real life. For example, she played the role of madly-in-love medical student Melanie Barnett on the TV show The Game. In this show, Melanie marries her long-time boyfriend Derwin Davis.  Mowry-Hardrict had practice walking down the aisle at the time because she experienced her real-life wedding in 2008 to husband Cory Hardrict. “Life imitates art and art imitates life so wherever I am in my life, I gravitate toward that.” Now that Mowry-Hardrict’s family has grown, cooking has become a part of her daily routine, which is seen on “Tia Mowry at Home” Cooking Channel show.

Now Tia gets to relive the lifestyle of a military family in the movie, Indivisible. She plays the role of Tonya Lewis, a military wife who has to deal with the emotions and challenges war can create in a family.

“What attracted me to this movie is that it honors military families and their home life,” says  Mowry-Hardrict who was born in Gelnhausen, Germany, and grew up in a military family. Her mother, Darlene, is a retired US military veteran who rose up the ranks to become a Drill Sergeant. Her father Timothy is also a retired U.S. military veteran who trained soldiers for the Gulf War.

Tia credits her longevity in the entertainment industry to the values her parents instilled in her. “My parents taught me to stay true to who I am. No matter what business you are in, there is pressure to conform. There will be people trying to mold you into something you are not. Your integrity, your character, and your authenticity are most important. I credit myself for that. What you see is what you get.”

Tia explains how investing has allowed her to take ownership of her career. Surprisingly, becoming an investor is simpler than many people think “You don’t have to be a millionaire to invest,” says Mowry-Hardict. She adds how people can start with $5 or $10 to start their journey.

“Investing teaches you about savings and priorities. I learned how to prioritize my dollars. You don’t have to spend it all. If I only have $20 now, I ask myself ‘what do I really need?’. It all comes down to priorities,” says Mowry-Hardict. “Investing gives me a piece of mind for my future.”

You don’t even need a thousand dollars on hand right now.

You can take your $100 that you were going to use on a new pair of shoes to start your investing journey.

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According to a Federal Reserve Report, more individuals in the top income brackets are exposed to the markets. This makes sense. The more money you make, the more discretionary income you will have available to invest.

But the misconception that you need a lot of money to invest is keeping the bottom 50% of earners away from the markets. Less than one-third of families in the bottom tax brackets own stocks while 94% of top income earners owned stocks in 2016, according to the Fed.

How can we improve the number of people who view investing in the stock markets like shopping at the mall?

Here are 4 ways you can start your investing journey no matter how much money you have in your account: 

Start Where You Are

How much money do you have in your pockets right now? How much do you have in your bank account? If you want to start investing, start allocating money towards your investing goals. Grab a $20 bill and put it on your investing vision board right now. This money can go a long way if you are consistent.

Pay Yourself First

Build your investing portfolio by paying yourself first. Before you pay your bills, set up an account where you can automatically pay yourself. Don’t take money out of this account for shopping “emergencies”. Set a specific amount or percentage that you can pay yourself every time you get paid.

How much should you pay yourself? Well, how much do you think you are worth? You can start by paying yourself $20 every time you get paid and give yourself raises as you progress on your journey.

Pay Yourself the Most

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Do you value yourself? If so, you would be willing to do what it takes to pay yourself more money than you pay anyone else.

How much do you pay for cable, internet, and lights every month? It may be important to watch the latest episode of the Real Housewives every week but your habits are making them richer, not you. Add up how much you pay each month for your least expensive bill. You should make sure you pay yourself more than you pay for that bill. Then work your way up to paying yourself more than you pay for your most expensive bill.

Aren’t you worth it?

Diversify Your Income

If you think it’s impossible to have money available to invest, you have to find ways to reduce your expenses or increase your income.

How many sources of income do you have? If you only have one source of income, you might be in trouble. What would you do if you lost your job? You should never put yourself in a position that leaves you financially dependent on one person or job.

Find ways to do what you naturally do to gain more income towards your investing pursuits. If you enjoy promoting brands and products, you can earn an extra $100 a week doing brand ambassador work a few hours. That would give you an extra $400 a month to start investing. Now you can put your money towards a variety of assets such as REITs, dividend stocks, or precious metals.

How to Start Investing

There are apps like Robinhood that have lowered the barriers to invest. Use this link to gain access to the RobinHood App and you’ll get a free stock! Buying a stock using Robinhood is as easy as buying a pair of shoes on Amazon. Similar to the shopping cart on Amazon, you have a watchlist on Robinhood that allows you to add stocks to your list that you may want to consider buying in the future.

If you want to get access to stocks you can add to your watchlist, sign up for Wealthy Women Weekly below.

Disclaimer: Wealthy Women Daily is solely educational and informational, and is not intended to give investment or trading advice of any kind. Not all asset classes are suitable for all investors. Wealthy Women Daily is a research academy that provides you with the data and analysis you need to make an informed investment decision. It is your responsibility to talk to an expert to understand how specific investments will impact you during tax time. 

While society applauds our ferocious climb, it’s simply not enough. We lack the resources to build our own roads to success. Climbing the corporate ladder is a great way to increase our income, but we need to go further in order to create an impact for future generations.

The next step is building wealth: the ability to provide capital so that we can have a direct stake in the advancement of women.

Unfortunately, no matter how many degrees or certifications we achieve, we haven’t graduated in the wealth building needs of our communities.

Here are a few reasons why most women aren’t wealthy:

Most Women Don’t Understand Money

Do you know where money comes from? Most women work for money but have no idea how money works. There’s more to money than transactions. Transactions are the purchases of goods and services in the marketplace. But there are other sides of money that less women are familiar with. For example, capital is the type of money you use to fund a business. Capital is money that is allocated for business purposes. Many women are not distributing their money in a smart way.

Most Women Don’t Pay Themselves First

For some women, paying yourself first is a foreign concept. You were taught to be a “responsible citizen” and pay everyone else on time while neglecting yourself. You’re even more comfortable paying more for housing than you pay yourself every month. If you pay $1200 in rent but can’t even afford to pay yourself $300 a month (25% of rent), that’s a sign that you are diminishing your financial value.

Here’s the truth: If you pay yourself last, you will always be behind. If you pay yourself first, you will always be ahead.

Most Women Don’t Know Anything About Investing

Most women know nothing about the art of multiplying the money they worked so hard to make. You will never fully live up to your financial potential if you don’t know anything about investing. Investing is about learning how to make your money work for you instead of working for your money all the time. The only thing most women know about investing is paying thousands of dollars for an educational service that will help you accumulate or enhance your skills in the marketplace.

Most Women Waste Time With Timid Thoughts

Women have great ideas but less than 25% come to fruition. Why? A sense of doubt and fear takes over that leaves women procrastinating, waiting, and delaying their ideas. Being timid is a waste of time. You have to be bold enough to just do it, embrace the process, and learn as much as you can.

Most Women Seek the Approval of Others

Women often need validation from others before they boost their brilliant idea. And it possibly stems from childhood. Women have been rewarded for following the rules. Women need to get over the state of mind that you need to have the wisdom of crowds in everything you do. The reason that men have been so successful throughout history is that they didn’t ask for permission; they created the approval standards that have allowed them to rise.

Most Women Are Afraid of Failure

How do you know how tall you can stand if you’ve never given yourself permission to fall?

Women have to stop being afraid of failure. Failure is feedback. Men understand that failure is not the end of the world. Women have to think “if you fail, what is really going to happen to you?”

As a woman wealth warrior, we have to understand success is fearless and we are its master.

Most Women Would Rather Be Owned Than Own

Most women are confusing security with ownership. You’re not being secure when you stay at a job you don’t like; you’re being owned. You would rather someone else tell you what to do versus create a game plan for yourself.

The wealthiest women in the world create their own path through ownership and/or having a seat at the table. Other women wait for someone else to direct their careers and determine if they are ready for the next level.

There are also women who buy liabilities and allow those debts to control them because you have to work harder to pay them off. It dictates your lifestyle and how you live every single day.

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Disclaimer: Wealthy Women Daily is solely education and informational, and is not intended to give investment or trading advice of any kind. Not all asset classes are suitable for all investors. Wealthy Women Daily is a research academy that provides you with the data and analysis you need to make an informed investment decision.