Empowering Women Investors: Part One | Navigating Financial Success Together

Two weeks ago, we held another successful week of AdvisorFest - an annual, week-long live-streaming event where we cover some of the most pressing issues Financial Advisors are presently facing. This year, we decided to host a live panel discussion about the experiences women have when creating long-term financial plans, and asserting an equal amount of authority in the handling of their household finances. 

Our very own Andrea Loin, Associate Director of Marketing, led a discussion along with financial advisors Diana Bacon, CFP®, CDFA®, MBA, and Joyce Bloomquist, CDFA®, of Apella Wealth. You’ll find some genuinely moving stories of challenges faced, and overcome by women investors here. We hope you find this episode to be insightful. Enjoy.

If you have any questions or would like more information, reach out to us at https://symmetrypartners.com/contact-us/

You can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn. As always, we remain invested in your goals.

Symmetry Partners, LLC, is an investment advisory firm registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm only transacts business in states where it is properly registered, excluded or exempted from registration requirements. Registration of an investment adviser does not imply any specific level of skill or training and does not constitute an endorsement of the firm by the Commission. No one should assume that future performance of any specific investment, investment strategy, product or non-investment related content made reference to directly or indirectly in this material will be profitable. As with any investment strategy, there is the possibility of profitability as well as loss.

Due to various factors, including changing market conditions and/or applicable laws, the content may not be reflective of current opinions or positions.

 

Please note the material is provided for educational and background use only. Moreover, you should not assume that any discussion or information contained in this material serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice.

 

Transcript:

00:00:07:01 - 00:00:37:17
Speaker 1
Hello and welcome back to Unfiltered Finance. I'm your host, Tom Romano. Two weeks ago, we held another successful week of Advisor Fest, an annual week long live streaming event where we cover some of the most pressing issues financial advisors are facing today. In part one of this special episode on Women investors, our very own Andrea Loin associate director of marketing, leads a discussion along with financial advisers Diana Bacon and Joyce Blomquist of Apollo Wealth will discuss some cautionary tales that can help investors learn which mistakes to avoid on their financial journey.

00:00:37:19 - 00:00:41:09
Speaker 1
We hope you find this episode to be insightful. Enjoy.

00:00:41:11 - 00:01:06:15
Speaker 2
Welcome everyone to the final session of our third Annual Advisor fest. Empowering Women Investors Navigating Financial Success Together. We're thrilled to have you here today as we embark on a journey to explore empowerment of women in the world of investing. During this webinar, we want to shed light on the unique perspectives and experiences of women investors and provide practical insights on how to effectively engage and support this growing demographic.

00:01:06:16 - 00:01:30:05
Speaker 2
Graphic It's important that we promote awareness and understanding of the specific challenges and opportunities faced by women investors in doing this, we hope to foster an inclusive environment and equip advisors like yourselves with the knowledge and tools to better serve women investors, which will ultimately lead to their financial success and empowerment. I have with me two financial advisors that work with Capella wealth, one of our sister firms.

00:01:30:05 - 00:01:44:08
Speaker 2
We have Diana Bacon. She's a CFP and a CDPHE and she has years of experience working in this very wonderful demographic. And we've Joyce Bloomquist, who is a cafe as well, also an advisor with Pell Wealth. Welcome.

00:01:44:09 - 00:01:47:00
Speaker 3
Thank you. Glad to be here today.

00:01:47:01 - 00:02:07:21
Speaker 2
Thank you for joining us. I read a statistic in doing research for this whole thing that really it surprised me because I'm a woman. I work in an investment firm. So I just assume I know all there is to know, but I don't. So about 39% of women have no retirement strategy. That seems like a very high number to me.

00:02:07:21 - 00:02:29:11
Speaker 2
So I looked it up and I was like, So what percentage of men don't have a retirement strategy? And it's only 25%. So there's a big gap there. It was shocking to me. And then I just assumed, right, we're in the 2023. Things should be the same for everybody, but they're not. And so coming together to discuss how do we to we do we grow that number or actually shrink that number down to be less.

00:02:29:11 - 00:02:46:17
Speaker 2
We want more women to have a plan for retirement. So, Diana, what are some strategies that you have that you use when addressing women investors with the challenges that are faced by them? How do you give them tools and tips and tricks to help them close that gap?

00:02:46:21 - 00:03:19:05
Speaker 3
Women in general, and you know, this is not some little niche. This is a huge market segment. We are 51% of the population To say women are all like X is very decent, enormous. However, we do see continuing themes over and over. The first is women. And we were raised this way, especially in the Western world. Well, actually, I would say while we're global globally, we never put ourselves first.

00:03:19:05 - 00:03:42:02
Speaker 3
And when I hear the statistic of the number of women who don't have a retirement plan, what do you have to do to have a retirement plan? You have to save. You have to invest. You have to be thoughtful of yourself. Make sure you either have that income stream or the assets to support you. And so the first thing that I work with a client is to change their money mindset.

00:03:42:04 - 00:03:48:22
Speaker 3
They need to put themselves first. I'm going to use the S-word. We got to be selfish.

00:03:49:00 - 00:03:53:12
Speaker 2
And that's really hard. Especially especially for me. I would have a hard time doing that.

00:03:53:14 - 00:04:12:17
Speaker 3
And it is. Yeah, yeah. I mean, think about it. Like having to say, I'm going to give my adult kids less as they're launching in life, but I want to do all this for them. I love them. You know, I have nurtured them, but I'm going to do less for them because I have to do for me for that.

00:04:12:17 - 00:04:32:05
Speaker 3
You know, I want to save for their college so they don't have to go through the things I did. All those things are prioritizing yourself. That is extremely difficult for women. So they got to start in that word, start to be selfish, and then get away with the H word shame.

00:04:32:10 - 00:04:46:18
Speaker 4
That is such a good point. I love it because I'm in this open space now. My kids are 20 and 22 and they see when do we let them go and be adults and when do we start saving like we should for.

00:04:46:18 - 00:05:01:11
Speaker 3
Ourselves that say And so many women start off because we have some credit card debt or paid too much on our car loan or, you know, just all these things that come up and we just put that shame on ourselves and then we don't deal with our finances.

00:05:01:13 - 00:05:19:10
Speaker 2
I like that you put the shame part of that and getting rid of the shame because I think being selfish is hard enough. But then you start to feel bad when you start to look at things. For me, it was matching my 41k, right? I'm like, Well, that takes away from money coming into the family. And and then I started realizing, No, it doesn't.

00:05:19:12 - 00:05:27:00
Speaker 2
It helps the long run. I'm doing it for me. I have to watch out for myself. So taking the shame out of it, that's probably harder than being selfish, to be honest.

00:05:27:02 - 00:05:32:18
Speaker 4
Yeah, We're caregivers, right? That's where we're moms, first and foremost. And it's hard to let that go. Yep.

00:05:32:21 - 00:05:51:13
Speaker 2
Caregivers is a good thing. Diana, your you did a webinar recently on closing that career, the career change and how to approach that career change. And I thought it was a great webinar. Not a lot of women think about that when they're leaving the workforce. I left for a couple of years, went back and not a lot of women think about what happens when you go back.

00:05:51:13 - 00:06:04:12
Speaker 2
And I think your webinar really opened up, you know, how to get back into the game and then how to be, again, selfish, how to focus on you to put yourself in a better space in life, in a better spot when you're trying to get back into the game.

00:06:04:14 - 00:06:32:12
Speaker 3
That's another area to that employment because so many women are underemployed to better support the family. Mm hmm. And the shame of saying, No, I want to do this. I want to have more of my earnings, particularly if, say, maybe your marriage or partnership isn't as steady and strong. The first thing when people are like, oh, I'm taking it, or when women are thinking about getting divorced, I'm like, Get a job or get a better job right now.

00:06:32:14 - 00:06:33:15
Speaker 4
Don't wait.

00:06:33:17 - 00:06:36:02
Speaker 3
Don't wait. Do it right now.

00:06:36:04 - 00:06:53:06
Speaker 2
See how that goes back to that, that shame and that self. Right. And be something I would find hard to do. But my husband is that I am what he calls the breadwinner of the family. And he tells all of his friends about it. And for me, that when I started to take on more, I felt like I was letting my family down.

00:06:53:12 - 00:07:09:06
Speaker 2
Right. You have to make that choice. And I realized I wasn't financially. I was helping my family, my 41k is growing, our family's growing, his 41k is growing. We're all working together. But I had to focus on me and make sure that I did that side of it, too. You actually hit on a great topic, Diana, and Joyce.

00:07:09:06 - 00:07:33:08
Speaker 2
I'm going to I'm going to start with you on this one. But a lot of the marriages might not be as solid, right? So I was divorced young and didn't even know that there was an option for me as far as financial planning goes. But can you explain how you would approach addressing the potential impact of divorce or even what would a heart a change in a lot of part of a big part of your life on a woman's financial situation?

00:07:33:10 - 00:07:48:12
Speaker 2
What makes it unique and different for that? Because I didn't even know what a CDF was until about five years ago and realizing that as someone who went through divorce, I could have had someone helping me too because I didn't realize what I was going through was unique.

00:07:48:14 - 00:08:09:02
Speaker 4
Right. And I have some input on that. You know, I've been through a divorce, too, and I think some of the things that are hard to wrap your arms around are when you're starting, you're kind of going from being with a partner to being by yourself. I mean, I think Diana's first point out of, you know, get back to work if you can and if it's possible, you know, we we want that to be the ultimate goal for the person.

00:08:09:04 - 00:08:26:07
Speaker 4
Why? It might not seem like you're making much at the time. I mean, maybe you got daycare costs and all that and maybe a lot of that money's going to their daycare costs and there's things in your mind or maybe you're saying, why am I even doing this? I mean, when I'm actually take it home isn't much after I pay all these people, but you're participating in Social Security.

00:08:26:07 - 00:08:53:19
Speaker 4
So that's important. You probably get your own health care. That's important, and that might make all the difference in the world by stepping into the workforce. At that point, you got to start accumulating those things for yourself. At this point when you go from where to me. And so that's something to really consider. Might not seem like you're bringing home that much, but you are benefiting from the benefits from the workplace, maybe for one K, maybe some free matching as little as you can contribute to the plan.

00:08:54:00 - 00:09:01:20
Speaker 4
There might be some pre matching that you need to consider as all these things are so important to get started back to you when you're going through that process.

00:09:01:23 - 00:09:24:07
Speaker 2
Makes perfect sense. And as an advisor, how do you educate not just women going through these these life changes, but how do you educate women on things that they need to know about their financial, about their finances, about that for one K, about going back to work? And though you think you're not making an impact with what you're making because it may be less than you want to at the time, how do you educate them?

00:09:24:07 - 00:09:35:01
Speaker 2
What are their tools and resources out there for them? Are there ways that you approach it that are different than you would, you know, approach a normal planning client? Are there tools of resources for them?

00:09:35:03 - 00:09:59:21
Speaker 3
I found that women are not educated when we're growing up on money matters the same way that men are. So first is getting the basics and we have the Internet now. So Internet and podcasts are wonderful. So it's like learning a new language. You have to just start jump in. There's a certain lingo to it, so you need to pick that up.

00:10:00:03 - 00:10:31:07
Speaker 3
So starting to listen to podcasts, you might not understand much. The first few try a bunch of them buying a new pair of jeans. You got to make sure it's a fit, you know, try ones. Once you hear things over and over again, will start to click, go on financial websites, read, you know, nerdwallet, Wikipedia, you know, all of these things where you can just start to learn the lingo and then talk to your friends.

00:10:31:09 - 00:11:13:21
Speaker 3
Men are talking to each other about money. We need, again, a sage word shame. Women don't want to talk about money. They don't want to make. They don't want to feel bad that they don't know something. But many women have found that financial services providers can be a little condescending. And that and that's a real struggle. And once you've been spoken down to getting that courage up again, to put yourself out there and ask questions and feel like someone's going to think you're you're not intelligent because you don't know, but how would you know if you never learned it or or.

00:11:13:21 - 00:11:27:23
Speaker 4
If you weren't married? And maybe the husband had it with his responsibility to take care of the finances. And maybe now you're by yourself, You're maybe you're divorced, or maybe you're widowed, and now it's all on you. So where do I start over with all this?

00:11:28:01 - 00:11:48:16
Speaker 3
Yeah. I've sat down with widows who are like, I don't even know where our checkbook is. I don't know how the, like, bill gets paid. I mean, all of these things where they really put it off on someone else, I will say, being involved in your finances, looking at your tax return, a lot of people don't even look at that.

00:11:48:16 - 00:12:10:17
Speaker 3
Look at your tax return. And I am absolutely biased. I will admit it. I'm a financial advisor. I am a certified financial planner. And I think working with a planner as early as you find one that suits you is really a big step in that.

00:12:10:19 - 00:12:28:00
Speaker 1
Thank you very much for joining us today. If you're a financial professional and you'd like to learn more, check the link in this episode's description to view all of the presentations from Advisor Fest 2023. As always, you can listen to all of our past episodes anywhere you get your podcasts. Thank you very much and we'll see you soon.

00:12:28:01 - 00:12:52:19
Speaker 5
Cemetery Partners LLC is an investment advisor firm registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm only transacts business in states where it is properly registered or excluded or exempted from registration requirements. Registration of an investment advisor does not imply any specific level of skill or training and does not constitute an endorsement of the firm by the Commission.

00:12:52:21 - 00:13:22:18
Speaker 5
No one should assume that future performance of any specific investment, investment strategy, product or non investment related content made reference to directly or indirectly in this material will be profitable. As with any investment strategy, there is the possibility of profitability as well as loss due to various factors, including changing market conditions and or applicable laws. The content may not be reflective of current opinions or positions.

00:13:22:20 - 00:13:38:13
Speaker 5
Please note the material is provided for educational and background use only. Moreover, you should not assume that any discussion or information contained in this material serves as the receipt of or is a substitute for personalized investment advice.