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The Calgary-based personal finance educator, podcaster and founder of The Wealth Building Academy shares tips on spending, investing and more.
Janine Rogan, who is a Chartered Professional Accountant, recently crunched the numbers on the gender wealth gap for her first book, The Pink Tax: Dismantling a Financial System Designed to Keep Women Broke (Page Two Books, May 2023). But she’s no newcomer to advocating for financial equality—in 2020, she launched The Wealth Building Academy, an online educational platform that teaches women about investing and financial independence. While Rogan’s book makes it clear that we’re a long way from closing the gender wage gap, she wants women to smash the patriarchy one invested dollar at a time. (Read an excerpt from The Pink Tax.) Below, Rogan shares why she swore off impulse buying, the worst money advice she’s ever received, and more.
The women who run The 51 created a venture capital fund that focuses on companies that have a harder time accessing capital. They are really changing the landscape for investing and creating more opportunities for the underserved.
Baking, reading, playing with my two-year-old and planning travel.
Living somewhere warmer! I’d love to live in different cities around the globe for a few months at a time. I’d also probably start a charity to support single moms.
Starting a lemonade stand with two boys from down the street. It’s actually the first story in my book, The Pink Tax, but the gist of it is that I pretended not to know the difference between a loonie and a quarter and made sure that once the day was done, I had all the loonies in my pile. My dad would later correct this, but I like to think I was fighting the wage gap early on.
Probably five-cent candies with friends or a pop music CD.
After being a babysitter, my first job at a company was hostessing at a restaurant near my house. I don’t remember what I did with my first paycheque, but I do remember being surprised by the taxes. I probably spent it at Starbucks.
That money does, in fact, run out. I wasted a lot of money from my first few jobs by spending it on whatever I wanted, when I wanted it—so many clothes and purchases that were really impulse purchases and didn’t add a lot of value to my life. Once I stopped the impulse buying and was actually able to accumulate wealth, I was a lot happier. Getting clear on what’s important in your life when it comes to spending is pivotal in anyone’s financial journey.
Invest for the long term. With social media it’s really easy to see trendy stocks and hot finance tips or to panic when the market drops, but I think it’s important to keep a long-term mindset. The general trend of the stock market is up.
Pay off all your debt before you start investing. While high-interest debt is definitely concerning and should be prioritized, I think it’s important to start building your wealth while you pay down your debt. Time is on your side. With the power of compounding interest, getting started 10 years earlier than you would have if you only focused on paying down debt may mean that you retire substantially earlier.
I guess it depends on how much it is. Getting a lump sum would probably mean being able to have more impact now, and I’d be able to turn that money into more through investing. That being said, it would be fun to try and plan out what to do with a smaller amount of money that comes every week for the rest of my life. I feel like I would spend more of it, if it was a smaller amount every week, so I’ll stick with my initial answer of lump sum.
Automate everything. We have so many decisions to make every single day of our lives, having to manually transfer money to different accounts and remember to pay each and every bill is exhausting. Automate as many of your financial tasks as possible. Your future self will definitely thank you.
That you need to have a lot of it to get started. I walked into a bank at age 19 with $100 and started investing in mutual funds. Each month I would add $25 to this investment, and while it seemed abysmal at the time, it really wasn’t about the amount, it was about the habit. I had no idea what I was investing in, but again it was all about getting started.
I really try not to frame decisions I’ve made as regrets, and I try to tell myself that I made the best decision I could with the information I had at the time. I’ve paid penalties on over-contributions to my TFSA, I’ve had investments that I should have sold earlier, and I’m sure I’ve overpaid for things or purchased things I didn’t actually need. But at the end of the day, we are all human, and we all make money mistakes—each and every one of us is still learning.
Value to me is something that is going to bring me joy. Travel has always been something that I have loved spending money on, partly because I get to explore and experience new places, and partly because of the people I’m travelling with. I think my answer, though, is connection. I never mind spending money when it comes to spending quality time with someone I love, so we can form amazing memories and develop a deeper connection.
Vehicles. I loathe shopping for them, and I’ve had to purchase two in my adult life. They are so expensive and never hold their value, so there is definitely fear that I’m going to choose a vehicle that is going to end up with a ton of issues. This probably also stems from the fact that I am not trained to really understand what makes a good vehicle, or how to fix one, so I have to rely on information from others to make those decisions.
I’m neutral on debt. I think our society so often paints debt as something that is horrible and that you are a bad person if you have it. The reality is the richest people in our societies use debt to get ahead, to buy properties and invest in companies. Debt can be a great tool that can help you build wealth, but it can also be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.
A dinner with my best friend at our favourite (very bougie) sushi restaurant in Vancouver. Worth every penny!
I don’t actually read a lot of money books. I focus more on economics and feminism, so I’m currently reading Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work by Reshma Saujani.
My credit card or my ID. I don’t have a big wallet, just the one on the back of my phone, so I only carry around three cards. That being said, all of my purses have a Marriott Bonvoy hotel key card that I likely forgot to give back.
It’s a simple one, but you’ll catch me always wearing a Melanie Auld necklace with the initials of our family on it. Whenever I’m stressed or missing them, it reminds me how much they mean to me and helps me make decisions that are best for our family.
I’m really focused on building my business—The Wealth Building Academy—right now so I would say getting that to six figures in revenue.
Rent. I really don’t like owning a home—it’s so expensive and things can always break. But not many cities in Canada are designed to have affordable rentals that allow kids and families to flourish.
Lease. I’d love to be able to give my vehicle back right as things start to go wrong.
Invest. I love building wealth, and investing is my favourite way to do that. Your money works way harder when you invest it than if you are just saving.
Not—but in reality, we all kind of have to budget. I love being at the point where I don’t have to obsess over the numbers each month, but rather take a high-level look at what we are spending.
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