Transcription
Transcriber: Tarig Eltom
Reviewer: Manlin Fang
Congratulations to half of the people in this room. I'm here to talk a little bit about money and to half of you in this room today. Congratulations. Because you're going to inherit some part of $30 trillion in the next 5 to 10 years.
Half of you in this room. I’d like to tell you a little bit about my 16 year old self. So 1986, I’m 16. You can do the math. You can figure out how old I am. Let me just say, best decade of music ever. Hands down, we can debate that in the lobby later. 1986 I'm growing up in Texas, living my best life. Little bitty town, small town girl, climbing trees, riding horses, loving life. And when it comes to money, well, let’s just say my family, our values. Faith. Family. Hard work. Integrity. That’s what it was all about. But we live paycheck to paycheck. My dad had a blue collar job, and on the weekends, he was pastoring a church. So I got lots of time to practice on this stage, by the way. When you're the PK, eyes are always on you. But nobody ever told us anything about money. And quite frankly, Mom and Dad didn't even have a college degree. So I didn't know anything about the stock market or budgets. And in our household, money was just a subject you just didn't talk about. You just didn't talk about it at all. Kind of a taboo, which I've come to find out pretty common these days.
And at the end of the at the end of me being the woman and the only girl, I was for oldest and daughter only daughter. You know, there were really traditional roles about men and women. Dad made the money. Mom took care of the house. She did the the housework and took on odd jobs just to put food on the table. So I’m here today to talk to you, to the women in this room and to the men who love the women in this room. I'm here to talk to you about the great wealth transfer, $30 trillion that is in movement today, that will actually be mostly in the hands of women in the next 5 to 10 years. And we’re just not ready.
Now, let me see if I can get this clicker to work. Maybe. Maybe not. There we go. So. financial literacy and empowerment. Well guess what? Just because you have money doesn’t mean you know what to do with it. And just because you have money doesn’t mean that you have power. And so today, I want to talk to you a little bit about what it means to have financial education, financial literacy, which will lead to confidence, which leads to power. We have to come to a place at this time in history with this much money in movement, where the women in the room are confident about what they are supposed to do with that money. Because let's face it, up till now, money has been a man's game. It wasn't until 1900 that women actually had the right to keep their wages or own property. And Wall Street been dominated for men for as long as I can remember. And honestly, we're getting better. But we’ve still got a long way to go.
And why do I care about this? Well, because today the women are the breadwinners. Almost half of all women in traditional households, earn They are either the primary breadwinner or they’re earning as much, if not more, than their husbands. They're the business owners. Right now, more women start businesses than men. They're the heirs. We’re the daughters we’re the sisters we’re the caregivers, and we live longer. That money's going to be in our hands, and we need to know what to do with it. By 2025, 35% of the global investable wealth will be in the hands of women. I call this the Lone Woman mountain, because here’s a crazy statistic: Only one out of three women are confident investing, even some of their wealth. This is a this is a very recent number, very recent study. That scares me. You know why it scares me? Because we're in the midst of this great wealth transfer. $30 trillion. The baby boomers, the nose to the grindstone, that that just hard work and put food on the table. That money is in movement right now. And it’s moving to a generation where two thirds, don’t know what to do with it, aren't willing to invest it back in our economy. So just think a minute what it looks like, If two thirds of that wealth are taken completely out of the market. It's it's under a mattress. It's buried in the backyard. That’s going to affect all of us. That’s going to affect your kids, your grandkids and generations to come. There won't be a future wealth transfer. So we've got to figure this out. How do we get women confident and excited about inheriting this wealth and what they can do with it?
Well, let's talk a little bit about why they don't step into these roles. And let's just expel some of these myths. Right? Right off the bat, I've heard time and time again, well, you know, women are just scared. They're risk averse. Well, what if it’s just being level headed? What if it’s just. Hey, I need more information. Did you know that women don't invest as often as men? But when they do, they actually outperform. And the reason is because they're really consistent. They don't trade a lot. They stay in the market and they go for the long game. A lot of women don't know that. But if you just have the right information, you can make good, wise decisions and you can move your money forward. Should we invest like men? No. You know why? Not only do we live longer, we only make $0.85 on the dollar for what every man makes. And in addition to that, we take breaks, so we're out of the market. We take breaks to have children, take breaks to take care of mom and dad. So as it turns out, we actually have to be more aggressive in our savings. We have to be more thoughtful about what our money is doing for us. Too inquisitive?. That’s just a fancy word for saying we asked too many questions and we talked too much. Guilty. Sorry. I was that little girl that just, you know, they had to tell her to be quiet a lot. But you know what? You can never have too much information. And it's okay if you don't know. And no question is a stupid question. Ask it. Talk about it. Because in my world, we're all about connecting money with your heart. Where your money is, is where your heart is. Show me your credit card statement and I can tell you what you care about. So ask all the questions. Have the hard conversations, talk it out.
That were not the decision makers. Well, in my household. My mom paid the bills, she did the grocery shopping. And I can promise you she knew how much the diapers cost. I'm just saying she may not have been choosing how many how many shares of Apple stock to buy, but I know she knew where the money was. She knew what the bank account balance was. So how do we bridge that gap? We have to do the work. We have to bridge the gap. And then one size fits all? Well, let me just say to you, I’m not going to tell you what cup of coffee to drink in the morning, If you don’t tell me what cup of coffee to drink in the morning, because I like mine with nothing in it. And I know there’s a bunch of people out here that like all those fancy things, you know? So one size fits all? No. Money’s personal. It’s very personal. And at the end of the day, there is no one size fits all when it comes to how you handle money and the decisions that you make, because it’s all about what you care about. It’s about who you love. It's about what you want to do in this life. It's about the legacy you want to leave. There is no one size fits at all. Because at the end of the day, money is very emotional.
So I want to leave here today, and I want you to have an answer in your head. What are you going to do to do? to take one step forward in your in your financial journey? Because I’ll just tell you, there’s shame, there’s envy, there’s loss, there's pride, there's fear, there's anger. Because just for a second, take a minute and remember. Who is your first memory about money as a child? Was it the first quarter that somebody put in your hand? Was it your first allowance? Maybe it was overhearing that fight between mom and dad. There’s a lot of emotional baggage that goes with money that keeps us from doing things. And I think that’s true for women, because a lot of times they just haven't had the exposure. They don’t have the knowledge. No one said you’re going to have to do this. So today, where are you? What is your financial reality? If I walked up to you and I said, hey, how are your accounts titled? Do you know where all your accounts are? What did you spend last month on groceries? Could you answer that question? Most of the time, people can't answer that question. When I ask women what happens when your spouse dies? What happens if you die? Like, it's a hard conversation, but we got to have those conversations. We've got to talk about it. A lot of times people can't answer that question. What does financial success mean to you personally? I got people that can live on $50,000 a year, and I got people that cannot live on $2 million a year. So where are you in that range? What decisions are you making today that fit with your values, with the way you want to live and the legacy you want to leave behind? And then what in the world will you change to get there? Because none of us move forward without some sort of change.
Because let me fast forward you to the 54 year old self. So at 19, I left home determined to get out of that little town. I found myself working two jobs. Student loans paycheck to paycheck. Because I think in some ways, we're all destined. We're all destined to repeat our story of origin if we don't step in and interrupt that pattern somehow. I found myself married with a baby at 20 and by the time I was 29, three babies. Failed marriage, failed businesses. Flat broke. Trying to figure out how I was going to make life work. Reinventing myself. And I had to go back to school. I had to put those babies to sleep at night, stay up until 2 a.m. doing class work. But guess what? I stopped and I said, you know what? I got to figure this out. This is not I'm not going to live paycheck to paycheck for the rest of my life. I don't want to live like that. I don't want to try to figure out how to put food on the table. So I went back to school, learned about business, started a business, sold a business, opened multiple businesses, own another business now. And at the end of the day, as I stand here as my 54 year old self, for those of you that didn't do the math. And I realize that we have to be an advocate for women. I'm standing here for all the women in this room, and all the men that love the women in this room and saying, as a 54 year old with three daughters. Advocate for yourself. Do something. Do not walk away from this room today without taking some action. And don't be that two out of three women. Please join. Join the woman on the mountain. I would love to see that slide someday. With three women arm in arm, locked in. And I’d like to hear that statistic be that every woman is confident about her wealth and her financial future. Thank you.