VLP Spotlight Women s History Month How Women s Financial Power Has Evolved

Women now, they own 42% of businesses, which before was really impossible because you couldn't take on debt in order to start the business. So that's one way that women have evolved throughout the years, and I see that as a really great thing. This is an exciting one we get to do every year, and we really gather all the women of VLP, the financial advisors, and kind of run through an evolution of what's happened for women, certainly between women and wealth, and we've got some really cool things we'll talk about, some things that the group has put together and has hosted, which I think is just great. But we talk a lot about how things have transitioned, how things have grown, and I thought it was a good time with just going through Women's Month last month to bring together and kind of talk about how things have evolved for women financially and kind of where we are and what we've seen and how it's really changed. So I thought it'd be kind of great. So I'm Rose Price, partner in Certified Financial Planner here at VLP. I'm Elizabeth Williams, a financial advisor. And I'm Sarah Avila, a Certified Financial Planner here at VLP. And I'm Cindy Alexander, Certified Financial Planner here at VLP also. All right, so let's start with looking back. What I thought was really interesting as we were pulling these facts together is that some of us, like when this act was passed, were just born. And so to think about this 50 years ago, and in the 70s, women couldn't even make major financial decisions, right? So it's really kind of evolved. So why don't we talk a little about the Equal Credit Opportunity Act that happened in 1974? Yes, and by the way, I love this topic. And I love that we get to talk about women and their independence and how it's progressed throughout the years. But yeah, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, that was a turning point. It was a game changer. Because prior to that, women couldn't take on debt. They couldn't have credit cards in their name without a male co-signer. They couldn't build credit history. They couldn't have a mortgage, if you think about that. Couldn't own a home. They couldn't. And you think about the effects that that have. A lot of people use their home to build wealth over the years. But not only that, when women, if women became widowed or they got a divorce, while they might be able to inherit the asset, they couldn't inherit the financial system that was required to sustain that asset. So sometimes they had to sell the home because they simply couldn't refinance in their name. Just crazy. Think about that, just 50 years ago. Really interesting. Yes. No, I mean, I just think about it and how subjective it was. I mean, if you're sitting there across from a loan officer, I mean, they're just basically discriminating on your identity, as opposed to once this act passed, it's now based on the objective, fair type of factors that go into credit lending. As opposed to, oh, okay, do you work? Are you gonna have children? All these questions that honestly were not fair. Yeah, they were not fair at all. I love this topic also because it just makes me so happy that women have so much more opportunity now than they used to. I mean, I can't imagine walking into a bank and someone's discriminating me because I'm a woman, because I'm divorced, or for any other reason that shouldn't be. Yeah, pregnancy was another one. Pregnancy was another one. They could discriminate on pregnancy. Right. And it's notable that even if women made the same income or a higher income than their husbands, they still could not get the debt in their name. The husband still had to co-sign. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. And that's even interesting too. I mean, one of the things that was, there was limitations on the types of jobs women could have, right? They were typically in more secretarial, administrative. And we'll talk a little bit about later how much that's evolved over time. I just have to share a personal story because I know I bring up my mom a lot, but she's been a big influence in my life. And she shared with me in 1972 when she started showing she had to take a leave of absence from her job. Oh, wow. That's, yes, I mean, just right, a little over 50 years. We should feature your mom. Her mom is a rock star. So maybe we'll have her back for next year's episode. And she can teach, yes, all the business classes to all of these young people, all of our, yeah, the next generation. I have a personal story too. So my grandmother was a single mom. She had three kids, one of them being a baby, and it was in the 50s. And she lived in the projects in New York City. And she didn't have a credit card, obviously. So what happened, she was a beautician, so she didn't make that much money. My grandmother was one too, in Nashville. Yeah, so she had to really rely on her community. And she had to build relationships with the shop owners and be like, okay, I'll pay you back later. And this is what they had to do. Just establish really good relationships with the people around them and rely on the community as a whole. And I think we don't do that much anymore because there's not as much of a need. Because access to credit and having their own personal financial scenario is a viable option. So that's a great segue. Let's transition to where we are today. So first is, we can own all these things. We can take on debt, whether that's good or bad. So let's talk a little bit about that. Yeah, so where we are today and how we've evolved. So women now, they own 42% of businesses, which before was really impossible because you couldn't take on debt in order to start the business. And I see that as a really great thing. Not just great for women, but really great for everybody. And just in thinking about other things, women can now, women invest now in 401ks, they're able to build wealth a lot easier now. They just have more opportunity than they used to. Now there's still some confidence gaps that we can talk about a little bit later. But women have certainly come a long way in where we are today versus where we used to be. Just in education, just looking at college enrollment alone from when I went to college to now, I mean, there's more women in college than young men. And I mean, and with that, it isn't just education and nursing, which are all very admirable. But yes, we have a huge push for young women to be in STEM. And that's just really inspiring that young women are being encouraged to go into finance, go into engineering and realize that they can do it all. And I think that's a different theme in our generation is that we can do it all. Yeah, it's interesting. I was just reading statistics from the CFP board. Still only 28% of lead financial advisors are women. But what was really intriguing is what they were doing, the study of those who were entering the CFP programs, it is now starting to see an increase, which is almost over 50% of women, which is staggering. Because I think this is a fabulous business for women to be in. As we know, we've got a great team here. But it's really interesting to see how that has started too. Because I think, again, all these things we're gonna talk about is the confidence now that women are having about being able to manage their own finances. And there's a wave coming. We'll talk about what that looks like. But we're seeing it here. We see it all the time. Certainly because women tend to outlive men. And so we're seeing this generational transfer of assets. And a lot of it's going to the spouse, which is typically, not always, but a lot of times it's the woman. But before we move on to that part, let's talk a little bit about what's still kind of holding us back, holding back women as they continue to evolve. One that's always been out there as a headline, I'll just kind of throw it out, is the gender pay gap. That is something that we tend to see. I've seen it shrunk massively. Story I had, back in the day when I was managing a restaurant, after I graduated, before I got into this business, I was in for my meeting. The general manager had left over in the pay book of the other assistant general manager, on purpose, to show me how much more he was making than me. And I looked down and was like, oh my Lord. I had been there longer, I had worked there longer, I had acted as the assistant general manager. So it was kind of shocking, but it gave me leverage. And when I had the knowledge, which I think is one of the things that is a strength now for women, is there's so much information out there. You got Glassdoor, you can go and search what's the average pay for this position. Women are now empowered to be able to go and negotiate for themselves, which they couldn't do in the past. That's a really good point. I like to just bring up this personal story. I have a twin brother. We both started in the financial business in 1998. He's still with the same firm, back in 1998. So yes, talking about kind of the differences, he's now been in the same career, building wealth, and he also has an incredible partner who has supported him along the way. And I have taken time out for kids. I've had years where I haven't been able to contribute to retirement accounts and just other roadblocks along the way. And so I think that that really hits home for me. And every time you take a step out, then you are taking a step back in terms of pay. More pause. Yes. I think that's a really great story to bring up because I think a lot of women can relate to that. Your brother had a straight, direct path to where he is, whereas your path was more winding. Yes. Another thing I think that is important to bring up when we talk about this topic is the fact that representation of women at the entry and mid-levels is usually pretty strong, but it's when they get to that leadership point, that's where the women drop off. So, and that's part of the reason where we see that pay gap. You know, and of course there's a lot of reasons for that. And, you know, a lot of that too is, you know, women want to maybe stay home to take care of their kids, or maybe they have a sick relative like a parent where they want to take time out of the workforce or go part-time. So there's lots of decisions that are made along the way, you know, but the fact still exists that this is the way that it is. Currently right now, women make 82 cents on the dollar that men make for the same job. That has closed, used to be in the 70s, but there's still clearly, there's lots of room for improvement there. Right. But you both brought up good points that women tend to take leave of absence or they have to balance, you know, whether it's sick family members, you know, parents, or raising the children, and that tends to limit, you can't work 10, 12 hours a day if you need to get the kids to school and get them home and those types of things. So it does a lot of times provide, you know, a roadblock to those scenarios. Definitely. I've seen a lot of husbands stay at home these days, which is nice to see, you know, we haven't seen that over the years. So I have a really good friend who she's an attorney and her husband stays at home with the kids, has raised the kids. So it's really nice that things are changing. And so we just have to keep going on that trajectory and kind of just be the people that we want to see out there. I think that's a really good point. And I was doing a little research before this podcast on the percentage of women that are the breadwinners in their families. And it's so 16%, which is up from 5% back in the 70s. But 16%, I mean, there's still a ways to go because what's happened is even though legislation has changes that allow women these opportunities they never had before, the cultural changes take a lot longer to change. And I think that women are still expected culturally to take care of kids or take care of aging parents. So I think that that is part of the challenge that women face is just that cultural expectation. But the studies do show that it's 40% of women that have children. So if you include single moms and co-breadwinners, then 40% of women then in that case are the breadwinners. Oh, wow. I love hearing this statistic. Yeah, they're on the rise. I'm a numbers person. So I like to hear the numbers. Good thing we have Sarah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting that you bring that up about just parents and taking a step out of the workplace. But because when I talk to my female clients, they're very selfless. They don't wanna just focus on themselves, but they typically bring up, well, concerned about my parents and their health or they're concerned about their children. And it's just interesting because I appreciate it because they're sharing with me what keeps them up at night. And the conversation is just very fluid. And I think that that really hits home to me because, I mean, I feel the same way. My family is everything. And it really, I think leads to why financial planning has been a perfect role for women. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and I think another thing that we talk about, the rise in divorces in an area that Sarah actually specializes in is working with divorced women. That, and you can speak to it, that's a big, when you have that divorce, there tends to be a financial shock. And a lot of the clients that I've worked with, I know, again, we've all had experience with divorced clients, whether it's male or female, but splitting assets, it's easy. When you have two pulling the card, it's a little bit easier than one. And that tends to also bring up a scenario where you have to kind of rethink about the planning. And again, they're still faced with these tough decisions and pulls of caring for ailing parents and the kids. And that usually becomes a scenario where it can be a setback. It can be. And for those of you that don't know me, so I have my CDFA, which is a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst designation. And so I do work with a lot of divorcing clients. And so I see different scenarios and I see scenarios like what you were just explaining play out where women are getting divorced, women and men are getting divorced, and women are still responsible for caring for the kids. And so it becomes a challenge to try to figure out how she's going to support herself in this new role as a single mom and also be the primary person responsible for caring for the kids. So it can pose a lot of challenges there. Yeah. Hence the reason why there's not as many women in leadership roles and because we're doing all these other things, a lot of hard things for women to face. And being a financial advisor is such a perfect opportunity to be that support. And that's what I love about being a financial advisor, just being that anchor when somebody needs it and just helping be a sounding board for whatever it is that they're going through. If it's divorce or, you know... Life transition. Life transition or like an ailing parent. Yeah. So it's a great opportunity to help people. Yeah. But we all know that, right? Yeah. So let's transition over to what the opportunity is right now. Yeah, there's a lot of tools out there. With the evolution of the internet, you can pretty much... And certainly AI, you can get any detail you want right now at your fingertips. But what we're seeing is there's, again, there's this growing resources and some resources that a lot of the team has built here. So why don't we talk about that? Liz, let's talk about your book club. Sure, yes. I mean, I think this really speaks to relationship building. And I had a couple of clients last year who were forced into retirement and we always talk about the numbers. How much do we need for retirement? And this one client said, I know I'm gonna be fine. We have pensions. We have 401k. I don't think we're gonna run out of money. We did the plan to confirm that, but at the same time, she said, how am I gonna make this transition? Yeah, I mean, my life has been my work. And so we talked about how do we transition into retirement, move from our workplace being our social, social place, as well as our workplace, and then have purpose. So we started off with, what color is your parachute in retirement? Right now, we're reading a book called Women Who Spark After 50, which is just phenomenal. And it's inspired me because I think, I'm over that hump and I thought, okay, gosh, am I closer to retirement? And reading this book makes me realize, I've got decades. Well, you're gonna see me for a very long time. Good to know. But yeah, it's been an incredible support group and people are openly share their trials, their concerns. And so I feel like it's been a safe place for people to talk about, how are we going to move from years of working or raising children? And where do I go from here? Yeah. And your book club is fabulous. And I know you've had a lot of very enthusiastic participants. So because retirement isn't always about the numbers, the dollars and cents, it's about everything else really. So I think it's just absolutely fabulous. There's a lot of things that we can do as women to support other women with this financial evolution that we've been talking about. And just listing a few of those things, in terms of taking action. As women, we can be mentors to other women. I think that's really important. We can buy from women owned or women led companies. I think that's important. And then when it comes to kind of bridging that generation, talking to our kids, our daughters and our sons is really, really important. Sometimes I think money is a taboo subject in a lot of households. We don't talk about the family finances because that's something between mom and dad. Kids don't get involved in those conversations, but why shouldn't they be? I mean, they should be part of that. I mean, it doesn't mean you have to talk about everything you own and the amount of money you make, but they can be a part of those conversations to help prepare them for life as an adult, financial life as an adult. And I think, especially for young women, it's very important. Yeah, I spent a lot of time with two girls, one who's a fully launched adult and one we're getting ready to launch. And I spent over Easter, that was everybody get out your computers, log into AdviceWorks. My kids are also in AdviceWorks here in our portal. Everybody make sure your paper list is on. But we went through where are your accounts, where are your next investments gonna be? Because one is getting ready to move and we were logistically, never really had a budget because she was in college and she was an athlete and everything was covered. And so talking about what's Frank gonna look like and how are you gonna pay that? She's been paying her right now because I'm a big advocate when they move out. I give them the money and they have to figure out how to do things. But it's the conversation we have. I've always been, one of the things I've always did with my kids is when we would go shopping is, I'll say, here's your budget and I would give them the money. You can get three really good things or you can get 10, I don't care. But you only have this amount of money. And it's amazing. We did this one time with my daughter and a bunch of her friends. It was like a mommy-daughter shopping trip, very odd but fun, for Kayla. Kayla was the only one who had, all the other parents were like, oh, the mom's like, I can't believe you gave her that much money. I go, at the end of this experience, when we all get back in the car, let's talk about how much you spent versus how much I spent. But Kayla had to go in and figure out, do you really like this thing? Or, oh, this was on sale or that was on sale. And then she would decide what she got. When we got back in, every other mother spent more than Kayla because you just swipe a credit card. You don't think about it, right? So it was really interesting. So as a result, that was a good opportunity to teach her how to budget and what the costs of things are. Because I think a lot of times, we don't have that experience. We don't teach our children that. And then we're surprised when they're not good with money. And you go, well, you have to give them those tools and have those conversations on how you can do that. Budgeting is a great one. Yeah, I've learned that too, having two that are in college. And they inspired me to put together just Money Management 101. Because I kept saying, you don't want to put money on credit card. And then I told them, but you need to open up in a credit card because you need credit. And so explaining that to them and really need just a high yield savings account for now and contribute to the Roth IRA and really kind of building that pyramid so they understand what's my foundation. But I think also hearing it from somebody like the three of you would be a bigger impact. And so sometimes bringing in a third party is really critical. And that's, I love that because I tell my clients all the time, I'll spend 15, 20 minutes talking to your kids. And they've probably already said the same thing to them. But right, hearing it from mom. Absolutely, mom and dad don't know anything. And by the way, your kids don't. Yeah. I mean, I do that exercise, but when it comes to other stuff, Kayla calls someone else at the firm because she doesn't want to share everything. Although for the most part she will, but when she has some other discussions, she probably doesn't want me involved. And I'm like, call Andrew, call Chris, call one of the girls, they'll spend time with you. It's great they have access to the information. Yeah, but if you don't have access to a team like this, it's great that you now have other tools. I mean, you can go online and there are podcasts, like we have a podcast here on various topics. There's lots of good information out there from financial professionals. Well, the mindset though, which is really interesting to me is they're following the big stocks, right? And they're looking at the numbers and I keep going back to, okay, but what are we saving for? And so I think that that's really what's changed and why women are doing so well in this profession because we're not stockbrokers. And we talk about how are we gonna meet your goals? And that's what's so interesting is my, just talking to my son, he's like, well, you didn't even talk about the trends or AI. And I said, no, we're trying to figure out how you're gonna purchase a car and you're gonna one day purchase a house. Yes, and it's not about just picking the stocks. Yeah, so that's a good point. I think when we talk about the opportunity is women have access to, everybody has access, but it's a good opportunity for women to use these resources where they can get access to planning because it really is, and women are better planners. We've always been, right? Who plans the dinner party and that kind of stuff? It's typically women, right? And so having that access to say, to your point is what are the goals? Because once we understand what's important, and again, it's not always monetary. It can be, I wanna be able to spend time with my grandkids when I retire. I wanna be able to do, I wanna travel. I wanna do these things. Yes, some of that's gonna take money, some it's not gonna take money, but if we understand the goals, then picking out the investing, figuring out the investing is the easy part. It's really trying to nail down what does that, what does it look like? What are we working towards? And then really that's where the planning comes into play. So I think it's, I think because we have more access, whether it's through various platforms, a lot of everybody who works typically has a 401k plan. There's great tools inside of some of these plans that people don't take advantage of. We know we go out to do 401k meetings with our clients and I'm always bringing up like, you have access to a planning tool. It's right here. Here's how it works. And then you have access to the advisors in that scenario. So having them use those resources and accesses, I think are just phenomenal and phenomenal opportunity that most don't always take advantage of. It's important to mention too, and I know this has been said before, so this may not be new information, but women have different planning needs than men. So women do tend to live longer, so that means that their money has to go farther. Women tend to earn less over the years, which means they have less money saved in their 401ks and they also have lower social security benefits. That's why women's needs are just a little different. If you start early, it should be, yeah. Exactly. Even if you're starting late, it's fine. It's just start. That's the biggest thing. We see a lot of people walk through the doors here right around 50 because that's how it inevitably happens. They're coming around and they go, ooh, I'm gonna be closer to retirement than I was five, 10 years ago. And they're really starting to think about what's this gonna look like? And they come in and say, here's what I have. I don't even know what it means. What does this picture look like? And that's really where we see a lot of that planning start. Sometimes it's later. Everybody evolves at different stages, but we tend to see right around 50 to 57 is that prime. People are starting to seek advice scenario. Let's talk about what they should take advantage of. We talked a little bit about starting early if you can. I tell all of my kids' clients, my kids, as soon as you have access to save money, save. Certainly the 401k, if they have a match, you gotta do it. Out of sight, out of mind, it's easy. Start there, so talk about that. Leveraging the 401k benefits. Health savings account. Yeah, it's a big one. Yes, I've spoken about this so many times in the last couple of months. But also, just this morning I spoke with somebody and she has a substantial amount in her health savings account. I'm talking thousands. And she never realized that she could invest it. So understanding that, yes, that you have an investment piece to your health savings account and then you have your cash account for any of your near-term expenditures. But yes, taking full advantage of that because one thing's for sure, healthcare costs aren't going down. And I would say too, just don't delay getting started. I think sometimes women tend to be less confident than men when it comes to investing. So they might delay on starting their 401k simply because they're not really sure what to do or how to invest. Or they put it all in sort of the stable value or the cash-to-money market or bonds because they're. An interesting statistic is that women are typically better investors than men. Mainly because they don't trade as frequently. And that actually produces better results over the long run. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Got it. Time in, not timing. Exactly. So yeah, so just getting started. If you're not really sure how to invest, usually with your 401k, there's someone you can reach out to to help. Oftentimes there's a target retirement date fund that you can put your money in. It's a good start. It's definitely a good start, yeah. But the point is to get started. Yeah, and I think also if you're in a household where your spouse does the primary financial decisions, get involved, just understand. One of the biggest things we see when there's been a death in a family between a couple and one of them wasn't involved, it is just shock of they're scrambling to figure out A, where everything is, how they pay bills. And not only have this loss you gotta deal with, now you have to figure out how you're gonna survive. And that's from a sudden shock. Now when someone's ill, you might have a little bit more time to planning, but even then you don't always. So it's get involved, just understand where the things are on the basics and have that open communication. Education and conversation and putting it all on the table is so important because without that, then you don't know what's going on at all. You might be in a situation later that you don't really like because you didn't address some things. So it's better not to stick your head in the sand. Absolutely. Joining our women in wealth book club. Yeah. All right, so wrapping up, I think this is a great conversation. Always great pieces we can come away with. It is amazing to see how things evolved, even certainly here. I've been at VLP now 25 years and there was two male advisors and two support staff. And to think now we've got nine advisors of which almost four of them are women. I think it just shows you how even the industry has evolved, which has just been phenomenal. And also just seeing, again, we've talked a lot about what we're seeing with clients and more and more of them are women or leading the discussion as women, which I think has just been a phenomenal transition or an involved. Even 25 years ago when I started here, it was more male led. The husband did most of the, or did a lot of the investments and the meetings. And now we've seen that really change. I think that's just a wonderful dynamic. Well, I just want to make a plug for VLP because this is the first time I've had this type of group. I've been able to collaborate, learn. We support each other. It's a very different dynamic than anywhere else I've worked. Culture matters. It does. I agree. And with that, we have great men here too. Yeah. We do, but it all adds to the culture. It all adds to the culture. And they support us too. They do. Yeah. I mean, the founder, he's a big proponent of women. I mean, Bruce has been phenomenal and Dan and instrumental in my career and all of our careers. So I think it's a big shout out to, part of it also, we talk about women and opportunities and leadership is having the support by leadership to encourage you to take on those roles and to promote you and to mentor you and those types of things. I think that's just massive. Yeah. And that leads back to culture. All right. Anything else you guys would like to add before closing? No, I'm just so excited for women today and the opportunities ahead. There's just, we've come a long way. There's still maybe some space to go, but it's just so exciting seeing it all unfold and seeing what the future holds for women and for men. We're a team, but I mean, it's just, it's exciting for me to see it. Yeah. Our grandmothers would be excited, Cyndia. We're all so proud. Yeah. I'm excited about just the next couple of decades helping to mentor and guide these young people, not just women, but, and be able to give back through my experiences. So yeah. So any VLP clients that wanna have their kids get some financial literacy, they should reach out to us. Absolutely. All right. Well, thanks for joining us today. If you have any questions, certainly if you like this topic, we have our link to our YouTube page in our comment section. And feel free to reach out if you have a question or would like to see a consultation which are also complimentary. Thank you. Security is offered through Satara Wealth Services, LLC, member FINRA, SIPC. 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