Table of Contents

1. Introduction and Overview
2. Discussion on 529 Plans
3. Interview with Heather Manley of Ninja Duds
4. Closing Remarks

Introduction and Overview

Madison: Hello, everyone, and welcome to Not Just Numbers, Honest Conversations with a Financial Advisor and Lawyer. I am Madison Demora, and I am here with Mike Garry. Mike is a financial advisor and a CFP and the founder and the CEO of Yardley Wealth Management. He is also an estate planning lawyer, and his law firm is Yardley Estate Planning. Hey, Mike.

Mike: Hey, Maddie. How are you today?

Madison: I’m great. I’m great. So we actually got some feedback from our audience, our listeners here, and they requested that we talked a little more about 529s. Right?

Mike: Yep. That sounds great.

Discussion on 529 Plans

Madison: Okay. Alrighty. So let’s get right into it, Mike. What is a 529 plan?

Mike: A 529 plan is a way of saving for college. And there’s two kinds. There’s the more popular education savings plan, and then there’s a prepaid tuition plan.

Madison: All right, so what are the key differences between education savings plans and prepaid tuition plans in a 529?

Mike: Sure. So there are big differences, actually. The education savings plan is a way where you can open an account. So, first, the 529s are all done through states or state agencies and mutual fund companies. And so you don’t just open an account at your local Schwab branch. You would open an account with the state of Pennsylvania and whoever does their 529 or the state of New Jersey, and that’s the education savings plan. And in that account, you put money towards it, and you buy from a range of choices, usually mutual funds, or cash. And the earnings from that are not taxed as long as it goes towards qualified educational expenses. And so. And in Pennsylvania and other states, you can get a deduction for that, too. So in Pennsylvania, you would get a state income tax deduction, so you don’t pay tax on that money that goes in. Right. So you deduct up to the annual gift amount, and if both spouses are working, you can double that. Right. So that winds up being like $36,000 now, will be deductible. And you invest, and when you pull it out, as long as it’s used for education, it’s not taxed. And then a prepaid tuition plan is usually, states will have those, and they’re mostly for schools within their state, like state schools. And then what you do is you put money in. You’re buying credits for the future at today’s prices. So you’re assuming that price is going to get more expensive in the future. And if a credit cost $500 and you put $500 in, you have, like, one credit paid for whenever Johnny or Janie goes to college in the future. So we don’t see them as much. But, you know, if you, you know, and they’re a little bit more restrictive because you have to go to a school, a state school, in your state generally. But if you take a look and the rules are ones that you think you’d like to follow, then it could be a great way of locking something in, you know, at today’s prices.

Madison: Okay. What is the primary purpose of a 529 plan?

Mike: I think that the reason they came into existence all those years ago was to get people to save more for college. And so if you want to get people to change behavior, give them tax breaks for doing it. And there’s usually pretty effective ways. And so, it really can save a good amount of money if you do it. Because if you were to put money into other investments and use those for college, there will likely be higher tax consequences. That would probably even more than offset what might be the added cost of investing in the 529.

Madison: Okay, so at what age should a parent start a 529 for a child?

Mike: Well, they need to be born. They need a Social Security number. But then, yeah, if you are pretty committed to the idea that your child will go to college, then starting early is the thing, because then that gives the money time to compound. If you spread that savings out over that 18 years until they start or the 22 years until they’re done, that’s a lot easier than, than, say, their four years of high school. And it gives time to grow. And if you’re putting money in monthly, you take advantage of dollar cost averaging. So when the market’s down, you buy more shares. So, of course, a lot of parents, especially first time parents, don’t have a lot of extra cash. Right. But a little bit helps. Even if you could do $50 a month or something, um, to start until things, you know, all those initial expenses start to go down, then you encourage your, um, friends and family, you know, for birthday gifts or other holidays. We just made a gift for our nephews. His birthday was the other day, and he turned six. Crazy thing is, the other thing he wanted was a Wawa gift card. I cracked up at that. So we got a Wawa gift card and put money in his 529.

Madison: He probably could care less about the 529. He’s like, give me that Wawa gift card.

Mike: Yeah, give me that Wawa card.

Madison: He’ll be thankful in the future.

Mike: Hopefully.

Madison: Yes. So how does a 529 plan work? Mike, can you explain the basic mechanics of how a 529 plan operates in terms of contributions, investments, and withdrawals?

Mike: Sure. So you open an account with, with whatever plan you look for. Back when I did it, I don’t know if it still is, but there was a college, a website called saving for college. And the guy who wrote that was Joe something I think was his name, would have, would get, would rate each plan for, like, cost and choice and the deductibility within the state and things like that, and would put caps on it. So instead of like a five star rating, it would be a five graduation cap rating. And so. And that’s how we found Iowa all those years ago. It was probably like the late nineties when we did it. And then you open an account and you could connect your checking account so you can make automatic contributions to it. The one parent is the owner, one child is the beneficiary. So that account opening stuff is pretty easy. Then you have to choose how it will be invested. You could do a static portfolio, like I’m going to do 60/40 stock bond, or a lot of them will do an age based portfolio where when the kids are really young, it’ll be most aggressive and will become less and less aggressive over time. And then they have options of whether its age based aggressive or age based moderate or age based conservative. And so there’s a lot of investment choices. And then that’s it. You decide to put in contributions when you want, or you could set it up to go automatically. I think the automatically is a great idea. And then if you get other people make contributions to it, that’s a really helpful thing. And in most of the choices, you don’t even have to worry about rebalancing, because if you pick a static allocation, it will stay at that static allocation. And if you pick a age based one, it will do it. So your main goal then is putting money in. And then when it’s time to take money out, when little Johnny or Janie gets to college, you know, they make it easy. So you could either send money directly to the school from the account, or I always did was send it right to our checking account. And then I would make the decision because there wasn’t always enough to go into. Like, I would have to supplement it with our other savings. And so, and then that makes it real easy. Like, you set it up so that it could come out and usually takes a couple of days. So just like if you’re taking money out of the stock market, they have to sell the holdings in. That takes a day or two to settle and then takes a day to move from another one financial institution to another. And so it’s really, really mechanics of it are not very hard. I mean, the hardest thing really, is coming up with the money to save and deciding to do it.

Madison: Can 529 plans be transferred to another state?

Mike: Yes. So if you, if you open up the Iowa plan and you decide, hey, I want the Pennsylvania plan instead, yes, I believe you’re allowed like one rollover every twelve months. I think it’s calendar years. So if you decide you don’t like the state that you’re in, you can move into a different state, or a different state has, like you find has a better plan. Or like if your own state has some things that are good, like we never did it, but found out later that the amounts in a Pennsylvania plan aren’t subject to inheritance tax. We never moved it because of that, but I know some people might.

Madison: Okay, how can individuals compare different 529 plans?

Mike: Yeah, well, I think the easiest is look at a website like that, saving for college and there’s probably others too. I think that they get all of the basic information and they compile it and then you could just go and you could compare, I think, side by side. So Alaska versus New York and say, okay, well this one’s a little bit cheaper, but this one has better fund choices. Then you go on the websites and see if it’s easy to navigate, easy to get help.

Madison: How are 529 plans related to tax advantages, and why are they considered tax advantaged saving plans?

Mike: Sure. Because if you put money in those plans, any dividends, capital gains or any amount that you take out is not subject to tax. And that as long as you use it for qualified educational expenses, and that amount could really add up. So most investors have dividends and capital gains of a couple percent per year. And then if you’re going to, especially, so another big thing is for college savings, If you’re going from an aggressive portfolio when the child is born to a conservative one when they’re 20, you’re going to have to be selling things along that way. And so you’ll be paying taxes at multiple points. But in the plan, it’s not subject to tax. And so you have that practically a generations worth of tax free investing. And if you have the resources to adequately fund the plan, it will save you, in just in one child’s life, it could save you tens of thousands of dollars in taxes. Another part, like if you are, you really have the means, you are allowed to front load your annual exclusion. Right. So if you make a gift to somebody, you could give a gift to anybody, up to $18,000, and it’s not a taxable gift for you, it comes out of your estate and that they have it. In 529 plans, you can do the first five years of gifting all at once. So you could put $90,000 in an account the month that your child is born. It’s not subject to tax until you take it out. That $90,000 will almost certainly grow to be more than what that child is going to need for college. So say you put $90,000 in and it grows and Janie goes to college, and then there’s still $35,000 left in that account. Well, now, starting in 2024, because of the Secure Act 2.0, you could transfer that $35,000 to a Roth IRA for her. So somebody in their early twenties could have $35,000 that would be growing tax free for the rest of her life. That’s one option. If that winds up being more than that. Right. So you could move that $35,000 out, but say that winds up being more than that. You can save that money for one of Janie’s children to have a second generation of tax free compounding and growth. So 529s are a nice vehicle for most middle class people. But if you are really wealthy, 529 could be something you could use to your advantage to help your family for generations to come, you get a huge amount of compounding. There are some tax and estate and gift tax rules that you need to be aware of and follow, which we don’t need to go into for this conversation, but it could be a giant tax bonanza for people. If they really have a lot of money.

Madison: Yeah, that was my next question. You know, if someone finishes college and there’s leftover, so if they are saving it for the next generation, can it stay in that 529? You don’t have to move it into the rollover. You could just keep it in that 529.

Mike: So you could keep it in that 529 indefinitely, and then when you have that grandchild be born, could move it into the account for the grandchild. If that child, there are a lot of tax free relatives that you can move the account to. So say you really put a lot of money in your oldest child’s account, and your oldest child doesn’t go to college or doesn’t need it. If you have more children, you can move the money from that child to one of his or her siblings. You could also do nieces and nephews. You could do grandchildren. So there’s a lot of flexibility if you don’t wind up using the money. I think one of the biggest fears people have when they open an account is, well, what do I do if they don’t go to college or they get a scholarship? And those fears aren’t entirely unfounded. Not everybody goes to college. Some people do get scholarships. And so it’s hard enough to save for so many other things in your life, and you know you’re going to need to retire. Right. So that’s a sure thing. So it’s hard sometimes to separate money out for something you don’t know is going to happen. But, you know, the more money you have, the less that becomes a real reason for not doing it. Because if you have more than you need, the tax advantages of the 529 for you, your children, and so on are really worth looking into. Not saying it’s necessarily a slam dunk that you’re going to do it, but sometimes the math can be compelling.

Madison: Yeah. Okay. What are the potential costs associated with 529 plans, and how do they vary?

Mike: Sure. So you have the cost of the underlying funds from the fund families, and then you have the cost, the state or the state agency takes a little bit out of it. And sometimes you have ones that are sold by brokers, they’ll take a commission from it, too. Um, and so I think that the costs vary a lot. And so when you’re looking up to see which one you should use, that’s a big consideration, because those costs, compounded over a long time, are going to add up. If you pay, If one plan charges a half a percent and another plan charges 1%, doesn’t seem like a whole lot. But if you compound that over all the money you put in for the 10, 15, 20 years that could be in there or longer, the difference could be substantial.

Madison: Yeah. Okay. What are the key rule changes for 529 plans set to take effect in 2024, according to the Secure 2.0 act?

Mike: Yep. Yeah. So that was what we had talked about before. So now that the person, if there’s money left over at the end, you can roll up to $35,000 in that beneficiary’s name. So it’s got to go to the beneficiary, not the account owner. Right. So not the adult, but the child. And the account has to be open a long time, like 15 years. So it’s not something where you can just open an account. Like, I can’t go and open an account for Amy, put $35,000 in it, and then, like, roll it into a Roth IRA for her. Well, maybe I could, because the account has been open, but there’s nothing left in it now. She’s out.

Madison: Yeah. All right. What factors might make a Roth IRA a valuable tool for young adults, especially those who have 529 plans?

Mike: Yeah. You know, if you have that money left over and then that young adult has $35,000 in an account that’s not going to be taxed. And they’re in their twenties, that money could become worth a whole lot, even if soon after they have it, they make too much to be able to contribute to it, to a Roth. But $35,000 in your twenties, that could be worth a million dollars when they retire.

Madison: Wow.

Mike: Without even having to put a lot in after that. So, yeah.

Madison: So how can incorporating 529 plans into a family’s financial strategy contribute to the creation and preservation of generational wealth.

Mike: Sure. It’s just one of the buckets, right? So you have the various things that you need to do in thinking about your family financial plan, and education is one of them. You know, the people who are relatively better off in our society overwhelmingly have a lot of college graduates. You know, it’s not everybody has to go to college. It’s not the right idea for everybody. But, college education is pretty highly correlated with higher incomes and higher wealth. So it’s part of the overall plan.

Madison: What factors should be considered when making decisions about the allocation of funds within the 529 plans?

Mike: So is that question like, how much should you put in the 529 compared to other things or the allocation of the funds in there? So we’ll answer both questions.

Madison: Okay. Yeah, perfect.

Mike: So you know how much you’re going to contribute to the 529 depends on how much you can afford your other things. Right. Because your child isn’t going to pay for your retirement. So you need to make sure that your retirement is set, or the right path, not set, but you’re saving enough for it that you’re saving enough for your other goals, that you have enough for what your living expenses and emergencies funds. Like, how much to allocate towards the 529 is part of the overall plan. Then the allocation within the 529 really depends on the person’s risk tolerance because it’s something like retirement. Most people’s retirements are going to last more than 18 years. And so you can have an aggressive strategy for retirement, and it’s okay if it’s down a couple of years, you’re still going to be okay. You still have some bonds or cash or whatever. But the 529, there’s only 18 years between when someone’s born and when they go to college. And so if the stock market is really bad right before you go to college, that could really seriously impact what you’re doing if you have it all in stocks. So I would recommend, like, an allocation that gets more conservative over time. But I would, I would recommend one to be pretty aggressive up till they’re like ten or twelve or something, or 14 even, and then become a little bit more conservative than, you know, you don’t want to have a situation where you have not much left or it’s going down a whole lot, and then you’re stuck paying for it.

Madison: All right. So beyond 529 plans, what other financial strategies or investment options should families consider when aiming to grow and protect generational wealth?

Mike: Investments in the stock market. And so instead of opening a 529 account, you could also have, you buy a fund or some funds for a child that will grow outside. So then the advantage is, it’s not tied to education. So if the child doesn’t go to college, it’s okay, doesn’t hurt. You don’t get the tax advantages, but there are a lot of tax advantages for investing in stocks or stock funds. For the most part, dividends aren’t that much, if you buy, like, when we help clients invest outside of 529s for children, we buy an ETF that is globally diversified. So it captures, like, the whole of the world stock market, just about, or at least the parts that are worth investing in. And then that’s something that they could have forever. Right? So they don’t have to necessarily have a capital gain when they turn 18 and go to college. And there’s not a lot of dividends or capital gains from it. So it’s taxed pretty efficiently. So, I mean, that’s the other main thing. And then a lot of kids, not for generational type wealth, but for others, a lot of people do save cash set aside for their children for, like, cars or down payments for homes. Right. So depending on what your means are, there may be a lot of options for you helping your children.

Interview with Heather Manley of Ninja Duds

Madison: Yeah. We are joined here today with Heather Manley. We stumbled upon Heather in the Yardley Living magazine, which highlighted some background about her and her family and also featured her growing business, Ninja Duds. So, Heather, let’s start from the top. Would you like to explain to our listeners what you do for a living, a little background about yourself?

Heather: Sure. Well, first of all, thank you for having me, and I’m so glad that you stumbled upon us. My business is called Ninja Duds. And basically it is a consignment, a local consignment business. I was going to say a Facebook based business. But we’ve actually just rolled out a brand new website. So it’s actually not only limited to Facebook. So, yeah, it’s exciting. It’s, you know, it’s challenging, but definitely a lot of fun. So basically, yeah, we consign for, gosh, now probably 350 local families. And I work with three of my closest friends, which is awesome. And I’d say we’ve been in business about four years now. And our office, we call it HQ, is over in Washington Crossing.

Mike: Okay, so tell us about Ninja Duds. How does it work?

Heather: Well, so let’s see. So again, we’re kind of in a transitional time because of the website rolling out. We’re sort of, you know, rebranding. Not rebranding, but like, you know, changing the way it works. But basically, we have our consignors and they will bring us clothes, gently worn or sometimes new, oftentimes new, because, you know, these kids grow so fast, they’ll bring them to us, and we actually have an editing team that will go through the items that they drop and, you know, based on some parameters that we put out. You know, like I said, gently worn items, things that are in good shape, brands that people are excited about. And our editors will go through those items and then they send them to myself or three of the other gals that I work with. And we sort of stage them. We take pictures and post all the information. Before, it was in our Facebook group, and now it’s on our website. And people can go in and browse, they can filter by brand that they like or size, and they buy them. And then our headquarters, like I said, is in Washington crossings. So we have office hours or pickups several times a week, and basically they can come over, grab their duds and off they go. So it’s pretty cool, I have to say. It’s kind of, like, grown and changed over the years. Like we used to, I mean, it cracks me up to even think about it but when we first started, it was in my dining room and my girlfriend’s dining rooms. When people would buy things, they would come over and leave cash under the mat, which at the time was, you know, that was what we did, but it worked. It’s like, I really think back sometimes at all the things that have changed over the years, and it’s pretty remarkable. But I’ll tell you, it was great. Cause we had cash on hand at all times, whereas now, good grief, I’m scraping the bottom of my purse to send in lunch money, you know, so. So, yeah, that’s kind of the long and short of it. You know, we basically, um. When we started, it was September of 2019. And if you read the article in Yardley Living, you kind of know the gist of the background. But Covid, in March of 2020, while it certainly was, you know, not good, but for our business, it really was terrific. And we took off really quickly because people weren’t able to shop. And we also had no contact pickup. Again, it cracks me up to think about it, but we used to bring all the bags of clothes that the people would buy, and we’d lug them out to our curb and set them up in bins, and they’d drive over and pick them up. So we really, you know, we had a contactless pickup before that was really even a thing, which is kind of cool. Also kind of crazy. I can’t even fathom going back to that. But, yeah, so, kind of need to think back on it.

Mike: When people buy stuff, how do they make payment?

Heather: Okay, so now, well, that’s sort of what’s exciting about the website. And before, when we were Facebook based, they would Venmo us. So, for example, you might be shopping in the dad album and see a great Under Armor hoodie and say, oh, great, sold. Right? So I would see that. Terrific. And then you, in turn, would Venmo me, which, in theory, is delightful. But, you know, oftentimes you might be distracted, and off you go. You forget to Venmo. I’m trying to scroll through Venmo to see if you paid. As we kind of became bigger, it just became like an unbelievably enormous amount of work. Right. And, you know, people would pay the wrong amount, or they would pay the wrong person. Like I said, I work with three other gals, so, you know, you might say, oh, right, and pay the wrong person. We called it clickety clack. Right. Lots of clickety clack. We would have to check this and check that and send a message on Venmo, and then they wouldn’t get.. even thinking about it gives me a little. Put me in a place. So now our website, you can pay with Venmo, you can pay with PayPal, you can pay with a credit card or a debit card. And we’re going to be rolling out Apple pay, which makes me feel extremely hip. Within the next couple of months. We’re hoping. So yeah. So now it’s, you know, I hate to say legit, because I feel like it always was legit, but it was just, you know, so much more work on the on the ground level. So this is pretty exciting.

Mike: Yeah. And I get that. We’ll be in business 18 years on Saturday, and there are different milestones, you know, that do make you feel more legit. You know, even though, you know, you have a good business or service right from the start, there are different milestones that happen or changes that happen, you know, sometimes that you can’t foresee that are, I don’t know, good, you know. When people buy, is there like, set prices or is it like a bidding or auction?

Heather: No. So there’s definitely set prices. You know, if we kind of, I mean, I like to say I have a sense for what something, you know, someone will be comfortable paying and also what will be a fair price for the consignor. You know, I won’t say it’s a gift, but I do feel like, you know, I kind of have a good feel for it, as did the other girls that I work with. But it’s trickey, because some people, I don’t know how to say it, I don’t mean it in a snarky way, but, you know, people, if they spend a lot of money on their clothes, they’re wanting to recoup some of that money. But unfortunately, you know, if you follow the Facebook marketplace or, you know, people who are selling in different groups on social media, you oftentimes, or most of the time, are not going to get back what you spent. So I guess when I kind of had this concept. So, again, I don’t want to go into too much detail, but I was a teacher for many years. I taught fifth grade, and when I had, I have an older daughter, Maggie, who is 14. And after she was born, I went back to teaching pretty quickly. I have a lot of energy, and I just sort of was ready to go back to work. And then when I had my twins, I have twins who are going to be ten years old. I also went back after they were born, but we had some crazy, crazy chain of events. My little daughter broke her femur maybe three or four nights, three or four days before I was about to go back to work after having been out on maternity leave. Yeah, she was in a body cast, so that was wild. And we made it through, and all’s well that ends well. But that year, my son, her twin brother, was also diagnosed with level three autism. So we just had our hands full. And I’m sure you guys know, teaching, it’s a terrific job. But my grace, it doesn’t stop. You don’t clock out. You’re working around the clock. And I just really didn’t have the enough emotional energy to give to my class. And also with my kids, we really just needed me at home. So, like I said before, you know, I am not one to just sort of sit around. And I kind of was figuring out, you know, what could I do in the meantime? What could I do while I was home with my kids? You know, how can I bring in some money to contribute to our household? And it sort of dawned on me that while I was working, there were so many times I needed help. I needed someone to swoop in and go pick up the dry cleaning or go grab, you know, run my kids instrument to their school, whatever it might have been. I just kept thinking, you know, there’s like a gap filler, someone who could come in and help busy people who really just can’t do it all. So I kind of, I winged it a little bit. And I did. And I was doing all sorts of crazy, crazy jobs helping people grocery shop, I was chopping people’s vegetables for their meal prep, I was dog sitting. I mean, any number of things, like, really nothing was off the table. It was pretty crazy. But what happened was I ended up doing a lot of organizing for people. People would say, can you help me with my kitchen? I need to get some order here. And I really just took to it. I had an act for it. The more and more that I did it, everyone I work with had clothes. Oh, my gosh. Bins and bins of clothes. And they just didn’t know what to do with them. And like I was saying earlier, you know, they wanted to make a little bit of their money back. They, you know, and so there they sat. So I started selling for people, and it kind of just morphed into this, into Ninja Duds. So, yeah, so it’s pretty crazy. I can’t even remember what the original question that you asked me was, but that was, that was sort of what happened. And then it just took off, you know, and it checks so many boxes, and. I don’t know.

Mike: It’s always fascinating to me how many different ways there are to make a living. Right? So you started off with, like, one of the most common things, like, when little kids want to be teachers, right? And so you started that way, but now you’re doing something that you wouldn’t have known was a thing when you were going to school to be a teacher. It wasn’t a thing yet, probably.

Heather: 100%. And I try just with my mindset and living, I try not to have any regrets, but sometimes I’m like, oh, man, I’m really good at this. I’m good at marketing. I have a knack for this and that. And it’s not to say that I can’t go back to school, but I kind of can’t. I’ve got my hands full with my family, and I’m happy with that. So it’s interesting, cause Heather, when she reached out to me about doing Yardley Living, and by the way, she’s just wonderful. I know that you guys are fans. She is a doll. She had said, I want you to do January, because it’s sort of like a fresh start. And her angle was with clothes and with purging, people cleaning out their closets, and organizing. And it kind of morphed into this, like you know, you can sort of be anyone who you want. You can re-imagine yourself. It’s just like you said, I literally went to become a teacher when I was in school because I like kids. I’m good with kids. And I kind of just went with it, and it had its great benefits, and it’s wonderful things, too. But right now, I’m so happy. I wake up every morning just excited. I love, there’s just so many different things I can do with what I’m doing now and so many different connections to make, and it’s just inspiring. It motivates me. Like, I wake up, like, ooh.

Madison: Yeah. So, what’s your day to day like? Like, is every day kind of the same, not the same, or is it different every day?

Heather: It is definitely different every day. You know, obviously, there are common threads, but I think the best thing you know about Ninja Duds and about what I’m doing is that I really am in control of what I do every day. You know, and again, I’ve said this several times, but I’m definitely not one to just sit and loll around the house like I’m always going and doing. And my Ninja gals call me Tornado. That’s my nickname, and I kind of love it. So the day to day is different, you know, and my kids, like I said, they’ve got tons of things going on and even, you know, even on a week that there’s not much going on, there’s rides and there’s this and there’s studying and there’s, you know, my daughter almost missed the bus today. I’m like, oh, my goodness, I have my podcast today. You just never know what’s coming around the bend. And my husband, his job doesn’t really allow for that kind of flexibility. So we are a good team in that sense. You know, if the kids have the holiday store at school. This past holiday, well, actually, to this date, all three of my kids go to different schools. So, you know, there’s three field days and three Christmas parties. You know, there’s all always something going on. And the beauty of it is I can go and it doesn’t really, you know, there’s no harm, no foul in that sense. So typically on a perfect day, the kids are all off to school and I will head over to HQ, which is our headquarters in Washington Crossing, and, you know, do a little bit of organizing. We may have office hours where people can come in and try clothes on if they’ve been eyeing them up on our website. Yeah, it’s exciting. Or sometimes, you know, we have dollar Dud sales where things that maybe didn’t sell after so much time will take down and the moms can come over and kind of get a good deal and then I’ll just work on listing new inventory. And the great thing is I clock on out at 2:45 and get home in time for my son, who gets dropped off at home a little bit after three. And then it’s phase two with rides and dance and dinner and all the things, but I kind of love it. So that’s kind of the day by day. We’re trying to get a little bit more of a set schedule over at HQ just because, like I said, we’re trying to do more of an office hours. We don’t have a brick and mortar store. You know, it’s not where people can come in and, like, browse through racks or anything, but if things are listed on our website, they can come over and say, hey, you know, I really like the look of that sweater, can I take a peek at it? You know, my kid’s fussy. They might not. They want it to be soft. You know, they’ll just. It’s like a great way to interact with people. And, of course, I don’t get a lot of work done because I’m chitter chattering with them the whole time, but I’m working on that. So Yeah, so that’s pretty much what my day looks like. But again, if, you know, on Friday, I have to be somewhere. We had my son’s first IEP meeting at his new school on Friday, and we got to do a classroom visit, you know, and we picked him up. Like, I can do that without, you know, without really any issue. Whereas when I was teaching, it’s definitely a family friendly profession, teaching is. But, you know, there was still lesson plans, and, you know, there was just a lot, a lot to it. So this is, like the best of both worlds. You know, I can kind of do both and really feel like I’m doing a great job at both which is really satisfying.

Madison: Absolutely.

Mike: That’s great.

Madison: Yeah. It sounds like almost everything happened for a reason. You know, you said you were getting ready to go back to school, and then, unfortunately, your child got injured, and then it was one thing after another, and then it led you to the path that you’re on today.

Heather: I think so. And, I mean, not to sound too corny or hokey, but I definitely feel like I live by that, you know, that mentality. You know, I do think things happen for a reason. And, I mean, I feel very grateful for, you know, my husband, what he does for a living. He’s in in pharma, and he works his. You know, he works very hard. And without him, I wouldn’t be able to do this. And I think we. make a great team because of it. But I do think so. You know, I would never want to see that the body cast situation was one I don’t ever want to relive. But again, I do think things happen for a reason, and I feel very grateful for that.

Madison: Absolutely. So what do you like best about what you’re doing?

Heather: I don’t know. There’s so many things that I like, and it’s funny because, you know, I’m not like a closed horse. I’m a pretty, I’m a very laid back person. It’s not the clothes that I love, I feel like for me it’s just this awesome sense of community. Like, we have almost 3000 families in our group. I’ve become friends with so many of them. This is going to sound silly, but we went out to the Ashlynn Distillery a couple of weekends ago with some friends that were getting to know and I think there were maybe three or four different moms that came up to me and said, hi, you know, I’m so and so from, I know you from Ninja Duds. Because we do all kinds of live videos and I tend to post pictures with photoshopped heads and it’s a lot of fun, Ninja Duds. I kind of get to express myself, which is, you know, good, but also a little bit crazy. So it was just funny because, you know, they’ll come up and say, oh, I know, you’re the Ninja lady or you’re from Ninja Duds. And it’s so silly, but it’s just so much fun. You know, it was such a hoot to be on the cover of Yardley Living. We just were at a 50th birthday party this weekend and it was friends that live in Ambler, so not local. And they, you know, had a copy of it out on the table and everyone was goofing with my poor husband, you know, oh, hey, cover, you know, just, I don’t know, I don’t take things too seriously and I just, I don’t know. I’m going to sound silly, but I’m just so, I’m so happy and grateful. I just, I love where we live. I love meeting new people. I’ve been excited about meeting you guys since, you know, you reached out to me initially. You know, it’s just I feel lucky to be in this position where I can make lots of moms happy. I mean, that’s another thing. That’s a great thing about Ninja Duds. Like, you know, I might not be a closed horse myself, but some of these moms, I mean, they are very excited when, you know, the Janie and Jack comes out in the vineyard vines, you know, and it just, I don’t know, there’s just not a lot of downsides to me. I feel really excited about it and I’m, you know, I have some ideas and some dreams about where to take it, you know, and that’s exciting, too. That’s another fun part about it. There really is no, it’s not drudgery. You know, there’s no, like, oh, where’s my pension. I’m no offense to teaching because, I mean, for some people, it’s definitely, it’s definitely, you know, perfect for them. But for me, I just love the different opportunities that this presents and I love making them and thinking, well, why don’t we try this, you know, and some things don’t work, and some things have worked really well.

Mike: I think a lot of the attitudes you have just displayed here are a big reason why you’re successful. And I think why, you know, I think having that gratitude is a big thing. Right. I mean, we’re all pretty lucky to some extent. And, you know, it’s good to remember that, right. And keep that, a lot of things that, that have been hard in our lives could have been worse, right. You know? Yeah. I mean, we’re doing this for a living right now. It’s pretty lucky, you know, I could be working as a lawyer full time. You know how bad that would be.

Heather: Well, with all due respect to lawyers, right. You know, but, yeah.

Mike: I am one, but I don’t want to do it all the time.

Heather: I totally agree. I feel, you know, that is, again, there’s like, there’s a list of benefits to what I’ve been doing. And one thing, you know, there’s no, we can’t really deny that it is a tough time right now, you know, financially for some people. And, I mean, just go to the supermarket every week, you know, I’m like, hyperventilating when we’re checking out. And that’s another nice thing. You know, there have always been people who have been into, like, sustainable, sustainability as far as clothing goes, you know what I mean? Like, in fact, Madison talking about everything happening for a reason. My mom, who is looking down from heaven now, when I was little, she worked at a thrift shop and she volunteered for a thrift shop. And, you know, it wasn’t hip, I guess then like it is now. And she would bring home, you know, I wanted the new labels or, you know, you wanted to fit in with this and she’d bring things home. And I never really, like, understood it or grasped. And then as she, you know, as I got older, she would do some things with consignment shops, she’d bring some of our stuff. And, I mean, I never, it never even made a dent with me, you know, it was never something that I thought, oh, wow, that’s so smart, mom. Or, oh, that’s great for the earth mom, or look at you, you know, you’re ahead of the times. And it’s just so wild to me that this is what I end up doing. And, you know, I wish so badly that she was still alive and she could see it because she’d be so excited. And she really, you know, that was definitely her thing, for me whether it’s clothes or whatever it is, the clothes worked out, but I just think it’s so wild that she was doing this. And now all the things that she was doing then are just so important right now. People were always into the environment and sustainability, but now it’s extremely crucial. And I love the fact that we’re able to give clothes a second 3rd, 4th, sometimes even life. It’s so fun. The moms will post pictures of their kids wearing what they bought, and someone will say, oh, that was mine, or, oh, I recognize that, which is awesome. And I know that what I’m doing, it really does delight people and it helps them save money. Sometimes they’ll comment on a post in one of the groups, oh, have you tried Ninja Duds? I get all my kids clothes from there. I save so much money. And that just makes me feel so, I’m so grateful that I can do that. You know, it’s not, it’s not the first thing that I was going for, but like, that just, that just gives me such a great feeling about what I’m doing. So, yeah.

Mike: I can tell you personally, we have three daughters, and we have three nieces who are younger than them. And so all our daughters are on their twenties now. And when I would see one of our nieces wearing clothes, I knew we had bought for one of our daughters, I love that. Something that was probably reasonably expensive, more life, you know, it was great.

Heather: Oh, that, that is this to the t. And it’s funny because the other thing is, a lot of moms are very sentimental, right, about, you know, oh, they wore this at their, you know, fifth birthday, whatever it might be. And then I always say, okay, I know, and you have wonderful pictures, but now, you know, you’re going to see that that beautiful dress that you had is making someone else, you know, equally happy. And sometimes they need a little, you know, a little nudge in that department. But I do think it gives people just sort of like, you know, a little bittersweet feeling. I don’t know, it’s just there’s. Again, like I said, there’s just so many benefits to it, you know, when I think about it like this, I don’t spend a lot of time, you know, thinking about it and talking about it, but when I’m sitting here talking to you guys, it really is just, it’s delightful.

Mike: Oh, that’s so great.

Madison: Very nice to hear.

Heather: And we have a lot of fun. You know, that’s another thing, it’s nice to be able to work with my friends. They’re great. And we’ve made so many friends doing it, so, you know, just tons of upsides.

Madison: Yeah. So, with all this success, you have achieved, what is the biggest challenge you have faced or are facing?

Heather: Well, at the moment, I think the biggest challenge we’re facing is getting people to sort of adjust from the way we used to do things, which, like I told you was, you know, I mentioned the clickety clack. We kept track of everything that we sold in a notebook. Like, literally, like a marble notebook with columns. You know, here’s the consignor, here’s the item, here’s who bought it, here’s if they paid, here’s if it’s packed. I mean, and when we weren’t selling a ton of things, you know, that was sustainable. But when we wrapped up and fully transitioned to the website, I mean, I was selling sometimes up to 100 things a day. So I was like, you know this old lady by the lantern at night, writing, writing. We all said, you know, the turn of the page of the notebook, like, gives us PTSD right now, because it was just. We did it willingly because that was what we did. But now we have had software designed for us. It’s built from the bottom up. It’s pretty amazing, the opportunities that that has afforded us. And I’m so grateful. Talk about grateful, I can’t even put, oh, it’s amazing. But as you guys probably know, change is hard.

Mike: Sure. That sounds like a pretty legit step, though, having software made for you.

Heather: It is amazing. I didn’t even realize how amazing it would be until I started to use it and see that everything, like, when we do our consignor payments, I think I personally have 100 plus consignors of my own, and most of them sell things every month. Before it was an excel spreadsheet entering in all the. And now I just push a little button, like, I mean, I’m so grateful, I don’t know if I’ll ever lose this feeling of gratitude in this sense. And I see how much I owe everyone, you know, like, it’s these things, they just make for so much more efficiency, you know, and just even in the sense that now I have more time to post more clothes so people can buy more and we can, you know, get them what they want. But like I said, I won’t go into it, but change is hard. You know, we’ve learned that throughout. You know, even when we change from picking up on the porch and putting money under the mat, that was tricky for some people. So, I think they’ll come around. But, you know, sometimes you get a little seed of doubt and you worry, oh, you know, so right now we’re kind of in, like, it’s go time, you know, we’re all, like, all in. And you’ll probably be seeing us poking around, you know, now that we’re connected on social media, just because we’re really trying to you know, we know what we have as a service that works on so many levels, like, really for so many different people. It’s just getting the word out, making people understand how it works because, you know, it’s, once you get it, you get it. But, like, you guys were like, how does it work? Where do you pick up? You know, what do you do? How do you pay? And it’s tricky to, in this fast paced day and age to really sit down and take the time like we are right now to explain it. But hopefully, you know, I’ll share this for sure and then maybe some people will say, oh, wow, that is pretty cool, you know, but for example, if a gal who lives in my neighborhood, she said, you know, I think I’m going to buy some things, how does it work? I said, just buy them, you know, and we’ll go from there. So she bought a few things, and I happened to be over at HQ, so I packed them all up, brought them over within an hour, they were on her porch. She said, oh, my goodness. Well, I’m a Ninja. You know, that was not the norm. But, you know, we try to do as much as we can, make it easy for people, you know, like, oh, your kid goes to my kids school. I’ll send it in with my kid. Here you go. Like, we call them Ninja Buds. My kids, both my girls dance at Dance Arts of Yardley competitively, so they’re there all the time. So a lot of moms from there buy. So, like, I’ll come in with all my bags. You know, it’s, again, it’s just, it’s fun and people are like, oh, wow, this is really cool. You know what I mean? So the challenge would be just getting everybody on board with this higher tech situation we’re in, but we’ll get there.

Mike: Well, it does seem a lot better than 100 people trying to leave cash under your mat.

Heather: And then, not for nothing, my husband works from home, so he’s sort of in our little den area where the window is out to the front. There’s people. Who are these people? The Ring camera is my worst enemy. You know, he’s like, people were dropping off old. I’m like, oh, it’s just, you know, never a dull moment, but it’s, it’s definitely better than hundreds of people leaving, leaving cash under my mat.

Madison: Yes. So whether if it’s new customers or customers you’ve already had, what are some of the reactions?

Heather: Well, hmm. I mean, I would think that it’s interesting because I was actually just talking to our developer yesterday about, like, a way to get feedback from people that is productive. You know, without going into too much detail. You know, we’ve had some. We’re humans. You know, we are moms. We all have a full plate, but we are busting our butts to deliver and to make this happen. And I think sometimes people maybe forget that. There have been some comments made about the change from the Facebook group to the website that maybe have hurt a little bit. And we always say we want to be kind, always. And sometimes it’s hard, but we try to be. So there have been some people who have reached out with very, very politely and said, hey, you know, I’m confused about how to do this. Can, can you help? And I was like, oh, I didn’t realize that that’s what you see on your side. Let me take it to our I.T, our I.T department and let’s see if they can fix it. And that’s the cool thing, is we have made so many changes in just, I think we officially rolled out in January, but we’ve been, you know, kind of a soft, a soft opening since November. And the changes that we’ve made already based on feedback are huge, you know, so keep checking in. Work with us. And I’m so happy to say that so many moms have worked with us, you know, and they’ve been our cheerleaders and they’ve been saying, I love it, but just maybe, you know, could you at some point implement this? And I say, oh, yes, I can. So, you know, I’m not a business person by nature, I didn’t go to business school. I don’t have a hard, steely exterior that I can just not be affected, you know? So it’s sort of a lovely balance of that, of being tough and strong and taking constructive criticism and turning it into something that benefits us and our clientele. So, you know, I guess that’s what it is. It just keeps me on my toes, all of this. Hey, okay. We had one day in particular that people really, a couple people, really let loose on us, and not in a kind way, you know? And I don’t think that they meant any harm when they were talking about what they thought about our new website, our baby, you know? Our baby. Things about our baby, you know? And at the end of the day, you know, we said, listen, our baby got even better today. We said, we changed this, and our developer is, like, on it. He changed so many things that day that made things run more smoothly. And we had to say, hey, was it worth it? Yes. It was hard, but, you know, we got through it. And now the people who are by our side and who are our cheerleaders and who are, you know, are grateful for us, because we do hear that a lot. You know, we’re so grateful for you. Someone said something to me the other day, you know, I wish I could remember it verbatim, but it was something just saying, like, we were showing other moms that you can be a mom and do something like this. You know, because, listen, none of us are slacking around, our kids, we love them all, but, you know, they are, someone’s always getting sick. Someone’s doing this. Like I said, you know, like everyone. So it’s definitely not this easy nine to five, roll in, roll home. It’s never without some distraction or complication, but we make it work, and that in and of itself is just something to be proud of, you know? I love hearing that from people. So I guess those are the kinds of things, you know, that we’ve heard, and they’re not always positive, but overall, I’d say it’s been a really positive, encouraging climate of our local moms.

Mike: Well, that’s great.

Madison: Yeah. Mike, this reminds me of our, our interview with the Vault. So they were going through some changes, and, you know, some, like you said, some people are okay with change and some people aren’t. And, you know, they give their constructive criticism, and you just have to kindly say, you know, we thought about that, but, you know, this is why we don’t do things this way.

Mike: Yeah, we had the conversation with Scott, Scott Burney, and I think in a lot of businesses, you know, you do things a certain way because you’ve thought about it and it seems to work, and there might be things that you’re not thinking about that could be good constructive criticism that could make the changes like you had with your developer. Like, things got a lot better that day. And then there’s a lot of other things that people will say without really knowing why you have something there. And as long as they’re trying to be helpful or nice, it’s a totally good interaction. You know, Scott says at the bar sometimes, but people might have had a couple drinks and they’ll make a little snarky and, like, that’s a little bit harder. Then he’ll just, you know, he’s a pretty calm guy, and he’ll, he’ll just, like, shake his head and say, okay, and let me think about that. But, yeah, it can be challenging and you deal with, you know, you’re dealing with a lot of members of the public and doing something that really hasn’t been done a whole lot of times. Right. There’s some big places that will sell, like Poshmark or something and other things like that. You’re doing it in a local area. You really, there’s no manual for doing this. You and your three partners are doing your best to try to figure it out. And I do think most people probably understand that most of the times, but sometimes you’ll catch somebody when they’re having a bad day and something doesn’t work with your site and, yeah, you just have to roll with that and, you know, try to make the best of it. Right. Like, take it as constructive criticism and see if something needs to be changed. Yeah.

Heather: You just nailed it, like, across the board. That’s exactly it. Like, I, you know, I think back and we joke, we, we oftentimes say we’re not Old Navy. You know, we’re not Old Navy. We don’t have a team. I’m literally like, okay, hold on, guys. Maggie, watch the twins so I can run over to HQ to grab that. You know, it’s like, we try our hardest to, you know, prioritize the business for sure, but, like, we just are moms. I don’t want to say we’re just moms because I definitely don’t mean that, but, like, we’re moms like you are. You know, you need tap shoes because your kid has dance class and you forgot to buy them. Well, my kids at dance class, and I’m in the parking lot. Like, the thing is, though, like, what comes out of that for me and what’s, like, what you just said, what rings true to me is, like, you have to communicate. Like, if someone, you know, calls, is snarky about it and just sort of, you know, my developer used an expression that just sat with me, poisons the well. You know, if they poison the well, like, there’s no good that comes of it, you know? If I love the Vault so much that I’m going every night, I’m certainly not going to go poison the well. All right, you’re opening a new place. Okay, great. What are the hours? Or can I be there? Oh, I would love that. You know, like, giving them feedback from your perspective. Because especially with us with the website, like, I don’t know what it looks like on your end. I don’t know. Even, like, I’ve been trying to, you know, make helpful videos. I’ve done some, but a few are hard because I can’t see what you’re seeing, you know, because I’m a seller. Like, it. It’s just tricky. So when people are upfront but also kind, it means the world. You know, a gal was helping me with some things yesterday. I don’t know if you know, Caroline Thompson. You know, she’s a friend of ours and she had some wonderful feedback. She’s been very involved in the Yardley Borough council and everything. She had this great feedback and she offered to be a sounding board, you know. You know where I am. Like, supportive, you know, that’s just.

Mike: That’s great.

Heather: Right. It’s so wonderful. And, I mean, I feel that for the most part, that is what we deal with every day. And, you know, like, sometimes I think we all are so caught up in our own, what’s going on in our own lives that we don’t say, hey, you know what, you guys, thank you so much for having me on your podcast because I normally would never have a chance to get all of this out and to explain this so intricately because we’re all just going and going and going and going. It’s important, I think, to stop and say, you know what, you guys, I really appreciate you doing this for me because this is a great thing for my business, and you are both so kind and have been so wonderful to me. Same with Heather, you know, like, she gave us, the funny thing about Heather too, when we were at this party this weekend, some people said, how did you get on this? What happened? I said, well, you know, it was really a work thing initially. And when Heather reached out to me, I was joking, and I said, oh, my gosh, I’m so glad you reached out. Every time this magazine comes in the mail, my little daughter says, when are we going to be on this magazine? And I’m like, well, come on. And so I told her that story, and she said, oh, well, we have to put you on the cover now. And I was like, honey, husband. And they were great. My 14 year old and my husband were totally rock stars with it. But, you know, it’s nice to be on the cover of Yardley Living and have people, you know, and it was a wonderful experience. And that’s the thing. Like, I’m so grateful to Heather, but, you know, do I stop and send her a thank you note? Do I, like, we’re so busy that I think we all would be, you know, could be, would be smart for all of us to stop and say, you know, I need to show people how grateful I am and how thankful I am and what a good job they’re doing.

Mike: Yeah, that’s a great idea.

Heather: Yeah. All good things.

Mike: Thank you for taking the time to spend the time with us. Learn about it, maybe share it, let people know.

Heather: I love that.

Mike: Maybe buy some things.

Heather: Oh, we do have mom and dad albums, you know, with some pretty great stuff. I love it. And, you know, something interesting, too. I have a long time buyer who has been with us on Ninja Duds since the beginning, since the putting money under the doormat days. And she’s a mom of three, a local. Her name is Christina. And she at one point reached out to me and said, hey, you know, I’ve been consigning kids gear, so, like, strollers and pack-in-plays and toys, and immediately I’m thinking giant things. We don’t have a big warehouse that I can store bikes. But people have asked us many, many times over the years, oh, do you guys take cribs? No, no, we can’t. We just don’t have the storage. So she approached me and asked would I be interested in working with her so that she could use our platform that we’ve been developing for all these years to to consign for members of our community. And, you know, she would give us a cut of her profits. So then it started to really seem like, oh, okay, this is our hard work off paying, you know, and it has been amazing. Like, she’s just been wonderful to work with. You know, I don’t want to say I’m her mentor, but, like, we have a great relationship like that. She found something she can do. She has three young daughters, I think her oldest is five. So, as you guys can imagine, there’s not a lot, there aren’t a lot of job opportunities for people who have three daughters under five. And on the flip side, putting three kids into daycare, unless you’re making a billion dollar salary, that doesn’t make sense. So it really, again, to what you said earlier, Maddie, about coming full circle and things happening for a reason. This was the position I found myself in when my twins were home. I couldn’t get a nine to five. I couldn’t wait tables. I couldn’t work at night. How am I going to contribute to my family financially? So this works. And my dream, or what I’m hoping and we’re starting to implement, is other moms, dads, I don’t mean to just say moms, but that only have, you know I’ve got a 4 hours on Tuesday and 2 hours on Friday. Anything that, you know, I could help with? Yeah. Yes. You know, and I have to figure out how to really implement that model. But, like, with Christina, with the two of us working together, you know, it’s starting to seem like it could really be a reality. You know, I could say, like, okay, great. You only have a couple of hours, but, you know, you want to make some money and sort of feel like you’re doing something for yourself and something fulfilling. So that’s sort of the next frontier with this. Like, once the website is up and running, like, I’m hoping to be able, because God knows I have so much clothes. Like we have. Oh, my husband, if he was here, he would tell you. I mean, it’s everywhere. The girls and I are constant. Like, it’s like, multiplies. So there’s no reason why I couldn’t have other people doing what we do. There’s no reason why we can’t have delivery people. There’s no reason why, you know, in the long term, we couldn’t work with other moms to sort of brand, you know..

Mike: Franchise.

Heather: Yes, franchise. But, you know, why not? Like, it makes so much sense to think of, you know, the concept of a stay at home mom is just kind of crazy. Like, my accountant the other day, we got our taxes done. He said, yes. Stay at home moms, man, you got the worst, the short end of the stick because you’re working nonstop, but you don’t get a paycheck. You know, you should be getting a huge salary, you know, but you don’t. And, like, the idea of giving them some sort of way to make a business that can be very successful and also have all those great benefits we talked about, that’s like a real heady thought to me. Like, I just love that idea. So, you know, it’s a little something to dream about, you know, again, it’s. It’s going to be a slow one because we’ve got so much going on in life in general, but why not?

Mike: Yeah, we can’t wait to see it happen Heather.

Madison: That was one of my last questions is what is next?

Heather: Yeah, I mean, I don’t know if it’s next necessarily, just because, like, you know, it’s taking a while, because, you know, we have to, right now we definitely need to get our buyers back. You know, we need to get that. Like, you know, we can’t even, we don’t have enough room for all the bags over at HQ. We need to get back there where people are comfortable. They understand how to use the website. They’re not intimidated by it, you know, and we’re doing that. And then once that’s up and, you know, up and running, then I can start to, what are the next steps? You know, but I’ve got so many great ideas, and I’ve got so many people in my life that I think, you know, I’ve had a lot of people reach out and say, hey, you know, if you ever need help or if, you know, there’s anything I can help you with. And that’s tricky because it’s like, well, I mean, I need tons of help, but I don’t know how to frame it or how it to work. Once I can wrap my head around that, I think it’s definitely doable. So, yeah, so that is next.

Madison: All right. We know your time is incredibly valuable, and we greatly appreciate you spending time with us. For those watching and listening and want to learn more about Ninja Duds, where is the best place for them to learn more?

Heather: You can just go to Google and Google Ninja Duds, and there’s our website. And as soon as you’re there, you’re there. Now the challenge is going to be, how do you figure it out? You know, like, right now we have to make the website easy to manipulate and to see, oh, the pickups are here. And, oh, this is how I pay. So I would say for people listening, if they are interested, to do just that to Google Ninja Duds, they can also go to our website, which is www.ninjaduds.shop.com. But again, I don’t even know who enters websites anymore. You know what I mean? Like, if you Google Ninja Duds, you can hop right on our website. And one of the things on my to do list for today and this week is just to start sharpening the specifics to make, you know, when you do happen upon it to say, oh, oh, wow. Okay, so if I buy this, I just go to Washington Crossing. What’s the address? 1084 Taylorsville. Awesome. When do you have pickups? You know, I always say to people, once you get the hang of it, it’s a breeze. And everyone agrees. But if you can’t quite grasp it, we have so many people say, yeah, I just don’t, I don’t know how to figure it out. So that’s one of the next steps, too, is just to sharpen that, to say, oh, it’s simple. Here’s how to do it. You know, just check this out. And, you know, we joke, too. People don’t read. I mean, myself included, you know, it’s how do we get to people without them having to read any rules or directions? You know, these are the things that keep me up at night. But I would say for anyone who was interested, just pop on Google and Google Ninja Duds. You know? Again, my, if you read the article, my mom, who I talked about, she always called clothes duds. Some people say ninja dudes? Ninja dude? No, no, duds. Like, I guess that was like a slang term for clothes. You know, get your duds. Grab your duds, hon. And then my girlfriend, when I was doing my little filling in the gaps, random task ninja, that came out of a friend of mine talking about her nanny at the time and how I think she had called her and said, you know, should I cook the chicken or whatever, she was asking a lot of questions. And my girlfriend said, I need a ninja. I just need someone who comes in and gets it done. And I was like, huh? I don’t want to be your nanny. I love this concept of, like, no problem, I got you. I can do this. Just tell me what you need and I will take care of it. I make those executive decisions, and I will get it done. So that’s sort of where Ninja Duds came from, and that’s kind of what we’re doing, you know?

Mike: Love it.

Heather: Yeah.

Mike: That’s a great backstory for the name.

Heather: Ninja duds. Not dudes. So if you’re going to Google it, you know, make sure it’s duds. Ninja Duds.

Closing Remarks

Madison: All right, thanks Heather, it was so nice to meet you.

Heather: That was a lot of fun. Thank you. Really nice meeting you guys, too.

Mike: Same here.

Madison: So for more information on Yardley Wealth Management or Yardley Estate Planning, you could visit our website at yardleywealth.net or yardleyestate.net. You can also follow us on socials at Yardley Wealth Management. This podcast has been produced by Madison Demora and Mike Garry with technical and artistic help from Poe Productions.