Jeanette Moeller is a financial professional and CPA with over 20 years of experience in the banking industry. She has been a Chief Financial Offer for over 7 years. Jeanette is a dedicated leader with a strong passion to succeed. Her transparent and collaborative leadership style has allowed her to build strong teams to achieve financial goals and objectives.

Reach out to Jeanette on Linked In

Money Talks are hosted by Lisa Clements, owner of Clear Springs Wealth.

Lisa is a financial strategist and investment manager who specializes in helping professional female leaders secure their financial future. She builds ongoing relationships with her clients, helping them save money in taxes, build wealth through investments, and make sound financial decisions for the future.

Lisa can be reached at: lisa@clearspringswealth.com

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Full Transcript:

Interview with Jeanette Moeller

[00:00:00] Jeanette: Life is short and you should not take anything for granted. I got blindsided, like I said, five years ago with that cancer diagnosis, and it just puts a whole new perspective on life. And so I think you really just have to not take yourself too seriously and make sure that you spend time with those that you love.

Yeah, sometimes work is a little bit overrated.

[00:00:24] Lisa: Welcome. I'm Lisa Clements, founder of Clear Springs Wealth. Money Talks with Female Leaders aims to break taboos surrounding women and money and boost your own financial confidence. You'll hear powerhouse women share their personal and professional experiences with money. They tackle questions spanning from why money is important, how money has shaped their careers, and how much they spend on a bottle of wine or a one week vacation.

I hope you enjoy.

Hello, Jeanette. Thank you so much for joining today.

[00:00:55] Lisa: Hi, Lisa. It's great to see you.

Good to see you too. I [00:01:00] will just dig right in. And I would love for you to tell us your current age, social status, and if you have any pets.

[00:01:11] Jeanette: All right I am 49, soon to be the big 5 0 coming up here next year. And I am married to my wonderful husband, Tory, and we have three girls that are age 14, 13, and 7.

And we have one dog, Ruger, and he's a black lab, good family pet.

[00:01:29] Lisa: Oh, Ruger?

[00:01:31] Jeanette: Yeah.

[00:01:32] Lisa: That's awesome. I love it. Okay. And then tell us your career experience, like years of experience and maybe some career highlights.

[00:01:43] Jeanette: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm a CPA by trade and also been in the banking industry for about 27 years now.

So I went to the University of Nebraska, started out in public accounting and worked toward my getting my [00:02:00] CPA license and everything. So I was in public accounting for about five years. And when I was in public accounting, I always focused on financial institutions as my clients. So at one point I decided, hey, I'd like to be on the other side of the table and actually work for a bank.

And I left public accounting and started working for a bank up in Omaha, and that's been the road of my career. So I've been in banking now 25 years and in various roles from internal audit all the way up now to CFO at the current bank that I'm at. So it's been quite the journey but it's been a great ride.

And I've really enjoyed just being in the banking industry and learning all that I can about that great industry.

[00:02:45] Lisa: Is it a regional bank, a national bank? How does that, I'm not as familiar with the banking industry.

[00:02:51] Jeanette: Oh, sure. It's a small community bank. I guess what I would say. We only have offices in Omaha and Lincoln, and it's a family owned bank. [00:03:00] So and we're supervised by the FDIC.

[00:03:02] Lisa: So what I'm going to do is I am going to divide our questions up into three sections. I'd love to know a little bit about money in your past and then money with your career and then money and how you spend it today.

So first question I love to start with is why is money important to you?

[00:03:26] Jeanette: Money to me really is what allows my family to live a good life and to be able to go out and enjoy all kind of adventures and things.

We love to travel together and go see the sites and go to national parks and do things like that. Vacations and that. So I see money as a tool that allows our family to do the things that we love.

[00:03:48] Lisa: Oh, I love that. Okay. When you were growing up, was money talked about at home?

[00:03:54] Jeanette: No, that was something that was very taboo.

Money was always considered, [00:04:00] like to me, I thought of it as a private matter that you don't ever talk about it with anybody. So that's the old school approach to money that I grew up with.

[00:04:10] Lisa: Okay. So would you say there were any... Any self-sabotaging messages about money or building wealth while you were growing up, like it wasn't talked about.

Was it inferred that it was a bad thing, or just neutral like, no value or weight necessarily assigned to it?

[00:04:33] Jeanette: Oh, I would say that there was value put on it. From a very young age, I can remember going to the bank and putting money in my savings account and learning how to reconcile my little checkbook and make sure I knew how much money was in my savings account.

So there was always, Mom and Dad involved us in that, in terms of going to the bank and telling us that we should be saving our money. And we got to keep track of that ourselves. So I think, it was [00:05:00] talked about in that regard that it was something that you should definitely be doing and thinking about.

But I don't ever remember any self-sabotaging messages with it. It was just more of a private kind of thing that we kept to ourselves, but that we learned how to save and live within our means essentially.

[00:05:18] Lisa: Okay. Okay. I love that. Do you have any current day money beliefs?

[00:05:27] Jeanette: I think a lot of it, it comes from my, the frugal upbringing that I had.

We didn't have a lot of money when I was growing up. My dad worked hard. My mom stayed at home. We lived a very simple life. And I never felt like I lacked for anything, either though. So I can always remember my parents saying things like, "money doesn't grow on trees," and "you have to work for it," "nothing's free," and all of that kind of stuff.

So those kinds of mantras, I think I still, they echo in my mind quite often. But yeah, those are a few of the things [00:06:00] I thought about.

[00:06:01] Lisa: I love that. I hear embedded in that a little bit of your work ethic. So I want to transition a little bit to talking about your career. How clearly from, becoming a CPA to working in the banking industry to being a Chief Financial Officer, you've had a very demanding career.

How have you managed finances?

[00:06:25] Jeanette: I think for me, looking back on my career, I always had it a goal at some point to be a Chief Financial Officer.

[00:06:34] Lisa: Oh, really?

[00:06:35] Jeanette: The first, from the first business class I took in high school, I was like... and when I got into my career, I knew that I wanted to be a CFO and that was a goal that I had set for myself.

So I was just constantly working through that over the last 25 years. I've been a CFO now, let's see, seven years, out of my 27-year career. So [00:07:00] I think that drove a lot of my decisions relative towards money and what I wanted to achieve, cause I was constantly trying to find new positions that would challenge me more in my various finance roles that I was in, that would take my salary to the next level.

But I will say that sometimes I feel like in hindsight that definitely comes at a price, right?

[00:07:26] Lisa: Really?

[00:07:26] Jeanette: Because, yeah, because there's so much work required to get to the top, and sometimes your family suffers because of that, or you suffer mentally because of all the hard work and long hours you put in.

So I think I'm starting to realize now that you have to find that right balance. You've got to find that career that you're passionate about that motivates you, but that doesn't drive you into the ground, so to speak, in terms of the workload and everything, it's hard [00:08:00] to find that right balance.

I think I, I'm still working on that even this late in the game. It's just part of the journey.

[00:08:07] Lisa: What was it about the CFO role that when you were in high school, you said, that's what I'm going to be?

[00:08:15] Jeanette: I think I just really liked the business accounting side of everything. And so the debits and the credits... You know that I have a twin sister, and Jennifer is a nurse.

And so we always joke that Jen does the blood and guts, and I do the debits and credits. And it's just been something within me that I just really enjoyed and had a passion for doing was accounting related work. And I saw the CFO was the pinnacle of a career that understands all of that.

And so that was my goal.

[00:08:48] Lisa: I'm curious if money played any role in wanting to be the top dog, or was it the top dog because that's the best?

[00:08:59] Jeanette: I do all the [00:09:00] Gallup strength, surveys and stuff like that. And so I'm an achiever based on that. So part of that is just innate in me to climb that corporate ladder I feel, and get to that point.

But money certainly played a part in that. Tory and I had specific goals that we wanted to achieve, whether it was to, to buy the acreage that we lived on for 15 years or maybe to have a second home at some point. We had different goals that we wanted to achieve as a couple, and I think my career allowed us to do that and achieve some of those things as well.

One of the questions you asked about what was your favorite milestone in your career? It was making the six figure mark, right? Like I had that a goal for myself to do that. So I was able to do that because I took risks to take different positions that allowed me to expand my knowledge and experience professionally. And that, what would give [00:10:00] me the salary was an added benefit, to all of that. But yeah, I also consider myself to be a lifelong learner. And that's something that I feel like suits CPAs very well because you have to have 40 hours of continuing education every year.

So I got to do that stuff anyways, right? So I'm constantly investing in myself in terms of going to seminars and trainings every year for the last 25 years to get those 40 hours of continuing education and just to expand my knowledge and help me be a better professional and a better leader in my role.

[00:10:35] Lisa: Did you, when you were moving through your different positions and transitioning from accounting to banking, did you negotiate in your compensation, in the offer process?

[00:10:49] Jeanette: Yes. Yes. And always. I think you have to do that as a woman. I think you have to fight for yourself and you have to go to the table with, [00:11:00] what your expectation is for a salary and try to go for that.

Even like negotiating moving expenses, bonuses for things like that. If you're having to move cities or states far away, and that's something you need to think about.

My company that I work for now is pretty small. We have a little less than 250 employees, so they don't have big relocation packages like some larger companies typically do. So that was something that I just negotiated for myself when we moved because we had to up and move the whole family from Omaha to Lincoln.

So those are different things that I've tried to negotiate into my compensation when I've made some big career moves.

[00:11:40] Lisa: Okay. How did you know to do that? I'm curious. How did you even have the, not necessarily the gumption, to use a goofy word, but but like, how did you even know, " Okay, I need to fight for myself. I need to advocate for myself."

[00:11:57] Jeanette: I think it's just my [00:12:00] experience, and what I've witnessed other people do over the course of my career when they've accepted more significant roles in the C-suite. And just visiting with friends about, different things that they've negotiated in the industry.

And that's what drove me to try to negotiate for those things for myself.

[00:12:18] Lisa: I love that. I love that. I think that's so critical that we talk more with our peers who are in similar like jobs to understand the components of their compensation package, if there's deferred compensation, if there's, bonus payouts for certain performance benchmarks, et cetera.

That's so helpful. What for you brought about your biggest pay increase?

[00:12:47] Jeanette: When I worked at a large bank in Omaha, I took the risk that was a brand new bank, and I had to start that accounting department from the ground up. And so it was a [00:13:00] scary endeavor, but I followed a CFO that I used to work with and I worked underneath her at the new organization.

And it just gave me so many great opportunities to learn from the ground up on how you create a banking entity. And it was an amazing experience. And I think that's one that I would say really helped me take my career to the next level is because I got so many great experiences

through taking that job.

[00:13:31] Lisa: Okay. All right. Have you ever needed or wanted or tried to do a side-hustle to boost your income?

[00:13:40] Jeanette: I have not.

[00:13:42] Lisa: Okay. I can't imagine when you would have had time to do it, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

[00:13:48] Jeanette: Yeah, exactly. I just definitely don't have time for that.

[00:13:51] Lisa: Okay. So let's transition a little bit to money and you're spending today. Have you ever [00:14:00] experienced an unexpected financial setback, if so, what was it? And how did you recover from it?

[00:14:10] Jeanette: For me, I have not like personally myself experienced it, but my husband has. And so I consider that, it's our family unit, right?

My husband lost his job. He got laid off three years ago. And so for us, we were the dual income, flying high with all of that. And then wham, it was all gone. And so that was something that we knew could potentially be on the horizon. And so that's why I took the job that I did as CFO, because we wanted to make sure that our income could stay at the same level, even if Tory lost his job, we would still be okay.

So from that perspective, I think we were forward-thinking and preparing for the worst in case the worst [00:15:00] happened. And a year after I accepted my job, that did happen to us. But we were able to work through it without any real major hiccups, I would say. And I think it all goes back to the comment that I made earlier about, you really just have to live within your means, no matter how much you make. And if something significant happens, where there's a loss of a job or maybe a health issue that takes you out of your position for a while, you have to readjust. You have to live within your means. Don't spend more than you need to.

You have to, maybe back away from some of the things that you were doing before. It's not a forever decision, right? But you have to be able to effectively manage your financial situation the best you can. And if that requires making sacrifices for a period of time, in the whole scheme of things, that's not too bad.

And you can do that and you can get through it. [00:16:00]

[00:16:00] Lisa: Yeah. What did you and Tory have to give up when he lost his job? What, what had to change?

[00:16:10] Jeanette: So daycare, for example, our littlest one was four years old. And so we took her out of daycare and stopped paying for that. And Tory was Mr. Mom, and so we saved the money there.

[00:16:23] Lisa: I would say that we just kept a lot closer tabs on our finances. So we changed the things that we could, as far as the daycare, some of the charitable donations that we used to give. We adjusted the 401k contributions that I was making.

[00:16:40] Jeanette: We backed those down to more reasonable amounts rather than maxing those out as an example. We moved those to what I could get the employer match with, and that was good enough for that time period. So we just tried to do whatever we could. We looked at our monthly budget and looked at all the different things that we could [00:17:00] change that would help us save money during that time frame. And those were the adjustments that we made.

[00:17:06] Lisa: Okay, got it. What have you and Tory outsourced in your life?

[00:17:14] Jeanette: We had to outsource the child care there. For the longest time when we were both working, our girls were in daycare like all the time, so that was hard because sometimes you just felt like you weren't spending enough time with your kids.

But at the same time, they got a good education at the particular daycare that we were at. They went there all the way through for preschool, so that was good. We outsourced cleaning the house, take that out of, I don't have time to do that stuff, take that off the list, right?

Yeah. There was a period of time when we had a cleaning lady come in to help us out. Really? That's about it though. We tried to do most of it ourselves.

[00:17:56] Lisa: Okay. All right. Have you and [00:18:00] Tory had a particular bogey for retirement? " Okay, hon, once we hit this magic number, we're getting the RV and we're taking off for the sunset."

[00:18:12] Jeanette: Exactly. That is our goal. We would love to be able to do that. We gauge our retirement based on Mackenzie's age, seven. So when she graduates from high school, we will be 60. And so that is our goal. We had that little gal late in life. And so we peg everything off of what, what grade is Mackenzie in?

But I think, I feel very blessed. I told Tory I was going to put a plug in for him here because I married a math major, finance minor or finance major, math minor. So he is all things finance and he loves to create spreadsheets and track our goals for our retirement, and he does all of that for us.

And he does our [00:19:00] tax return and I review it. We make a good team from that aspect because we both are very finance oriented and honestly, I can't tell you the number. We have a number, but he's got that number memorized and it's in a spreadsheet somewhere.

[00:19:15] Lisa: I love it. What would you say are some key financial goals that women in their thirties, forties, fifties

should have?

[00:19:28] Jeanette: For me and the things I've experienced, definitely setting just some basic savings goals for yourself. If you've got a specific thing that you're wanting to purchase, say a house and a down payment you need, things like that.

Investing in life insurance, that's something I did before I got married, and I am so thankful that I did it. Five years ago, I went through breast cancer and can't even get life insurance anymore now. And so I'm so [00:20:00] thankful for the fact that I made that decision for myself to get that life insurance at a young age. And now they have that policy,

that can't be taken away from me.

[00:20:09] Lisa: Did you do like a term, a 30 year term, a 40 year term policy?

[00:20:13] Jeanette: I did a whole life policy.

[00:20:15] Lisa: Oh, okay. So you're building up a cash value in the insurance policy as you go.

[00:20:22] Jeanette: Yeah. Tory's used life insurance.

His parents bought him a policy when he was very young, and he used that cash value to help him put a down payment on a house. And so those are some of the things that if you're in your thirties, maybe not married yet, in your late twenties or something like that... investing in certain kinds of policies like that could build a cash value that could help you get to one of your savings goals or purchase goals.

I think that's an important thing to do. Also maxing out your 401k. That's something that I've taken advantage of every time I've had the opportunity to invest in a [00:21:00] 401k, at least contributing, the lowest amount to get the employer match. But if you have the ability to contribute more than do more because you can help lower your tax burden by doing that.

[00:21:12] Lisa: Okay. Yeah. Do you and Tory come up with a plan for how much to put in pre tax versus Roth?

[00:21:22] Jeanette: A little bit. We have a nice mix of both in our portfolio. So there for a while I was doing all of mine just pre tax, but now I'm doing more of it Roth. So we evaluate that split on a pretty regular basis and adjust it if we feel like we need to.

[00:21:42] Lisa: Yeah. Yeah. Got it. All right. This has been so wonderful. I am now in the final section of the interview. Are you ready? Speed round.

[00:21:56] Jeanette: All right.

[00:21:57] Lisa: Okay. So I'm going to just go [00:22:00] through and ask you questions. I'm going to try to ask them quickly. Even though you've seen the questions, you don't know what order I'm going to ask them in.

And I'm trying to get your gut reaction to them. What is one thing you'll splurge on?

[00:22:15] Jeanette: A nice dinner.

[00:22:16] Lisa: Okay. What is one thing you're super frugal with?

[00:22:23] Jeanette: I would say clothes.

[00:22:26] Lisa: Ooh, okay. What do you think is the right percentage to tip?

[00:22:32] Jeanette: 20%.

[00:22:33] Lisa: 20%? Is that what you said?

[00:22:35] Jeanette: 20.

[00:22:36] Lisa: Okay.

[00:22:36] Jeanette: Yes.

[00:22:37] Lisa: Perfect. What is the right amount to spend on a car?

[00:22:42] Jeanette: I think that depends. It depends what you're buying. Cause we just bought a huge SUV, to fit five people. And there's, it's a big price tag on that.

So I would just say it depends on what you're looking for and what your need is.

[00:22:54] Lisa: Okay. What is the right amount to spend on a bottle of wine?

[00:22:58] Jeanette: 20 [00:23:00] bucks or less. I'm cheap.

[00:23:04] Lisa: No! That's all right. What's the right amount for a one week vacation?

[00:23:12] Jeanette: I had $5, 000.

[00:23:14] Lisa: Okay. All right. How much would you spend on a purse?

[00:23:19] Jeanette: Usually $100-$200..

[00:23:22] Lisa: Okay. What's the most extravagant purchase you've ever made?

[00:23:29] Jeanette: It was a gift that my husband bought me, but it came out of our bank account. But it was my Tag watch, the diamond watch that he got me.

[00:23:37] Lisa: Ooh. Oh, I love that. I don't think I've seen it.

[00:23:41] Jeanette: It's very dressy, so I wear it every day for work and love it.

[00:23:46] Lisa: I love that. It might go missing next time I visit. If you wonder where the Tag watch is, yeah check Lisa's purse. All right.

Do you have a favorite money [00:24:00] related quote or mantra?

[00:24:02] Jeanette: I don't have anything fancy with that besides like, "work hard, play hard."

[00:24:08] Lisa: Is there anything you wish you knew 10 to 20 years ago that you know now?

[00:24:19] Jeanette: Life is short and that you should not take anything for granted. I got blindsided, like I said, five years ago with that cancer diagnosis and it just puts a whole new perspective on life. And so I think you really just have to not take yourself too seriously and make sure that you spend time with those that you love. Yeah, sometimes work is a little bit overrated.

[00:24:44] Lisa: Yeah. I was gonna say, I know we didn't plan to talk about it, but I am curious, how did the breast cancer diagnosis and your battle with that and victory over that, how has it impacted how you've managed your [00:25:00] career?

[00:25:02] Jeanette: It was one of the things that actually got me through my cancer journey was having my career.

[00:25:08] Lisa: Really?

[00:25:09] Jeanette: And that's something that surprises people, when I tell them that, I would go to chemo and then I'd go back to the office. Like I worked full time through all of that cancer battle and it was just what I did. That's how I survived it.

And I was fortunate enough that the negative impacts of the chemo drugs and things were not as severe as some people have, and so I was able to manage it, and that's I think, how I got through it was trying to keep my normal routine. But like I said, it does really change your perspective on what you're spending your time on and who you're spending your time with.

And it just helps you really reprioritize that and make sure that you're you're living life to the fullest. [00:26:00]

[00:26:00] Lisa: Last question. This is really the last question. I promise. What is it that you're most looking forward to spending your time on or time doing or time with in the future?

[00:26:12] Jeanette: I am just so looking forward to being able to travel with my husband when we retire. We have that goal. Like you said, we're going to get in the RV and we're going to go stay in the RV for a month. Just to get out in nature and go see God's creation and just be on our own time schedule and do whatever we want to do. That's what our goal is and somewhere hopefully close to mountains is what we would like to do.

[00:26:39] Lisa: Oooh, I like that.

[00:26:42] Jeanette: Yeah.

[00:26:42] Lisa: Yeah. All right. This has been so enjoyable. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this, to talk to us. I am so excited about how your story and what you've shared will help other women learn and be advocates [00:27:00] for themselves. So thank you.

[00:27:02] Jeanette: Oh, you're so welcome. It was a pleasure to do it with you, Lisa.

[00:27:05] Lisa: Thanks for listening. Money Talks are hosted by myself, Lisa Clements, owner of Clear Springs Wealth. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone you think could benefit from talking more about money. Make sure you leave a rating, a review and subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find show notes at clearspringswealth.com/moneytalks. Thanks so much.