If the mere thought of this sends a little shiver down your spine, please know that you are not alone. Even the most high-flying career women I work with can still struggle with this at times. We tend to be far better at advocating or negotiating for other women than we are for ourselves.

The unavoidable truth is that women typically negotiate for less equity than men, perhaps explaining in part why women in the United States still currently earn about 18% less than their male counterparts, and why the gender gap is still so prevalent.

This is not only due to any lack in negotiation prowess, but also a propensity for women to want higher salaries over more equity, since that is the safer route to take. But long term, this can have damaging implications for wealth accumulation.

By not negotiating for themselves powerfully enough, women routinely leave money on the table – as much as $1 million on average.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. I am passionate about helping successful women like you feel powerful in your professional and financial lives. And a major factor that can guide the trajectory of both, is the power of negotiation and how it impacts remuneration.

Understanding Equity Compensation

Equity compensation (also known as equity grants) refers to non-cash payments offered to employees, which could include stock options, stock appreciation rights, performance shares and restricted stock. Effectively it’s a stock reward given to employees in addition to their usual salary.

Broadly speaking there are three main categories we deal with at WealthChoice:

• Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP): This provides the option, within a specific period of time, to buy a set quantity of shares in the company if you choose to exercise this right. In my view, the best approach is to exercise your options and sell at the same time, in order to realize the money value and avoid being out of pocket.
• Restricted Stock Units (RSUs): These are based on a vesting schedule, which determines when stock ownership rights are activated (for instance based on the number of service years or performance milestones), a company can grant employees a specific number of shares. The big difference between RSUs and ESOP is that RSUs are usually worth something and you know the value of the position, whereas – with ESOPs – a share price drop before you vest could mean your investment is worthless.
• Employee Share Purchase Plans (ESPP): The company gives employees the chance to buy stock at a discount to fair market value at specific times of the year, often with a cap on the quantity.

Each option gives you the potential to enjoy a slice of ownership of the firm in which you work. But each comes with specific requirements, which may include vesting schedules or meeting performance metrics. Inevitably there are tax considerations too, which should be carefully discussed with your tax professional and your financial advisor.

Why Equity Compensation Is Important for Women Executives

I regard equity compensation as a potential ticket to financial freedom, one which does not distinguish between color and gender, and helps women increase their net worth by participating in the success of the company they have helped to build.

By harvesting the value of equity compensation, women executives are free to invest in other ways, which builds more wealth, more peace of mind, and creates more options for the future.

Figures from 2018 tell us that American women receive about 25% of the equity compensation of men. So when it comes to generating wealth and building professional equality, negotiating equity is critical to closing the gender pay gap and evening out the business playing field.

For women, taking up these grants is also a prized opportunity to claw back some of the financial disadvantage resulting from time away from careers due to family commitments, as well as the need to plan financially for longer lifespans than men and the resultantly higher cost of retirement and health care.

You Are More Valuable than You Know

Offering equity compensation is a proven strategy used to motivate staff, incentivize employees, help to retain and recruit talent, and also as a means of conserving cash (particularly in the start-up phase). So you have a bargaining chip.

A 2022 report from Morgan Stanley noted that, “Nearly one in three decision-makers (32%) said the top goal for offering equity compensation is to attract and retain talent. Nearly half (47%) reported their workforce attrition in 2021 was higher than in 2020.” As a result, “Nearly one in three US decision-makers are looking to expand their equity compensation programs”.

Clearly employees are on board with this approach, with the same report noting that “84% of employees agree that equity compensation is the most effective way to motivate employees and keep them engaged”.

In short, equity compensation has unlimited upside potential. That is, if you approach it with a strategic mindset and a willingness to negotiate.

Negotiation Tactics and Guidance

The full benefit of equity compensation can only be truly achieved if women executives and their advisors consider all the implications upfront. For instance, negotiating the length of your vesting schedule is as important as knowing the market value of the stock and the type of equity grant being offered.

As an example, a long vesting schedule could leave a female executive feeling ‘locked in’ to her current company and limited in her career goals; so a shorter period might offer more flexibility. There are also issues of timing to consider, which will have tax implications and impact cash-flow requirements.

As with all things in life, trade-offs are inevitable, but by planning carefully and preparing a negotiation strategy up front, it is possible to extract maximum value out of this opportunity in order to create value across your financial portfolio.

When I’m presenting to female executives I always encourage them to carefully lay the groundwork upfront when it comes to equity compensation. As a guide, I routinely suggest following these 11 points:

1. Research the role you are negotiating. What is the pay scale for the role? How much equity is typically granted for this role?
2. Companies typically put their best offer up front. Remember that you have the highest amount of leverage to negotiate on the initial offer.
3. Try to negotiate equity with your future boss, rather than a recruiter. The boss is more invested in the position and in you.
4. Lead with love. Start the conversation about how excited you are about the role and your future growth, but make it clear that you want a part of the upside.
5. Take your time to negotiate. Communicate by email to slow the pace.
6. Practice your pitch. Come prepared. Have notes. Practice your pitch in the mirror if it helps.
7. Introduce your competition. Let them know you are speaking with other employers.
8. Know your worth. Have a full and complete picture of what you are leaving behind at your current employer. You want a match, or an improvement.
9. Find easy wins. Take less in salary, but more in equity. Give and take where it matters most to you.
10. Craft a third offer. If the employer gives you two options, create a third yourself.
11. Follow through. Keep the momentum going. Confirm your equity compensation is on the docket for board approval.

Get Yourself a Negotiating Cheerleader

At WealthChoice we want women to be confident enough to advocate for more. So much so that I wrote a book on it! If you would like to discuss the WealthChoice approach to negotiating equity compensation, then I invite you to get in touch.

Whether you are considering the tax and financial planning implications of your equity compensation, or negotiating a new role with new financial opportunities, we’d love to help you take all the money you can off the table!

The post The Benefits of Equity Compensation and How to Negotiate for It appeared first on WealthChoice.

In fact, this question has become so prevalent, that I would say it has become the number one concern for our clients in tech. These women are thriving in their careers and have been rewarded accordingly, but now the crucial step is to make the most of this opportunity by creating a strategy around their stock awards that will help capitalize on this financial benefit.

So What Are Stock Awards?

Stock awards are a form of stock-based compensation. They have become an increasingly popular way for highly competitive technology firms, both large and small, to hold on to in-demand talent, and are usually awarded after a set duration known as a vesting period.

This is essentially an incentive program that provides benefits when you have contractually fulfilled a specified term of employment with the company. As well as stock awards, the benefits can also be other assets, such as retirement funds.

The vesting period or schedule can be based on length of time employed after the grant date and/or on meeting specified performance goals. Once the grant vests you own the shares outright (in a public company). You can then choose to hold, sell, donate, or gift the shares as you wish.

This means you are locked in to your position until you are able to receive your shares, which helps firms reduce employee churn at a time when the battle for talent is still in full force and it is projected that talent shortages could hit 85 million people by 2030.

These retention strategies have been dubbed ‘golden handcuffs’ by some, but they can also lead to significant windfalls if there is a jump in the company’s share price or if a lucrative merger is on the cards. Conversely, there are implications if the stock price dips. Either way, there are important personal financial planning strategies for you to consider.

What Should You Do with Your Stock Awards?

As busy high-earning women in tech, stock awards can make your financial landscape a more confusing one to navigate. However, with strategic planning to avoid unnecessary tax liabilities and ensure the options contribute positively to your overall wealth strategy, stock awards can provide a powerful earnings boost.

Understanding the Purpose of Stock Awards

The key issue with stock awards is that they are really just another way for companies to give money to employees,in a way that is easier for the company than issuing cash.

Stock awards serve as a placeholder for cash, and are then used to create cash. They are a non-cash incentive that are not intended to stay in their stock form. Our job as your financial advisor is to turn the stock awards into cash, and then invest it based on your unique financial goals.

Diversification Is Essential for Growth

Your stock awards are essentially like a seed. As nice as it is to have, you can’t live off a seed, but if you plant it well, it will grow and nourish you for years to come. Holding on to vested stocks from your employer provides tremendous concentration in one company, and is generally a far riskier investment.

After the vesting, you could have substantial amounts of your personal wealth tied up in just one stock. An important part of financial planning for just-vested shares is understanding the risks of holding them and the need for diversification.

We’ve all seen how quickly a stock price can plummet. That’s why diversification is essential for success here to spread your money across multiple investments in a diversified portfolio. At WealthChoice we help our clients build long-term strategies around the vesting of their stock awards, utilizing diversification for maximum growth of your investments.

Types of Stock Awards and their Benefits

It is important to know and understand the type of stock award you are receiving. There are a variety of reward frameworks frequently used in the tech sector, each with different characteristics:

• Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)
• Non-Qualified Stock Options (NSOs)
• Incentive Stock Options (ISOs)
• Stock Appreciation Rights (SARs)
• Employee Stock Purchase Plans (ESPPs)
• Employee Stock Options (ESOs)

Each type has its specific advantages, underlying strategies, and tax considerations. Developing a well considered strategy to achieve your goals, manage risk, and minimize taxes are critical components to your future success when it comes to monetizing your stock awards.

At WealthChoice, most of our client stock awards are RSUs, ESPP, and ISOs. But by far, RSUs are the stock awards we see most often. We help our clients form a strong awareness of the type of award they have received, and how best to utilize that.

It is incredibly rewarding for us to help the women we work with transform their stock awards into diversified investments that, if managed well, can be far more lucrative than simply holding on to their awards in their basic form.

The Financial Implications of Receiving Stock Awards

Navigating company-awarded stock holdings, diversifying creative solutions, and making tactical financial planning decisions are complex tasks. But with the guidance of a financial expert experienced in working with women in tech, you can optimize your position as an executive, maximizing financial benefits while mitigating the associated risks.

The financial issues we focus on here at WealthChoice are:

Having a Sell Strategy

When shares vest it’s vital you put that cash to work towards your goals, most often by adding to your diversified portfolio. Selling RSUs is different from selling common stocks. You must choose whether to keep or sell the RSUs and the best timing to do so. Therefore, it is best to have an RSU selling strategy for this.

Having a Tax Strategy

Given the financial and tax implications associated with stock awards, WealthChoice takes a considered approach to dealing with these compensation perks, building in well considered tax strategies to protect your wealth as it grows.

When RSUs vest, for example, this shows up as income on your W2. Companies normally only withhold 22% for federal taxes, which is below what most of our clients need to pay. This means you need to be holding cash aside to be ready to pay the additional taxes you’ll have.

Not Counting the Stock Awards as Income

Stock awards should never be used for the purpose of covering expenses. This is a slippery slope that leaves you financially vulnerable. When a company stops issuing stock awards, or the price of stock awards drops, if you are counting on this money to cover important expenses you can be in big trouble.

Work with an Expert to Capitalize on Stock Awards

It’s an incredibly exciting time in the world of tech, and we’re seeing more and more women build thriving careers on the cutting edge of the tech sector. We love watching smart women do incredible work moving the tech world forward, and want to ensure you have all the tools you need to help capitalize on this success.

If you’re a woman in tech looking for expert guidance on how to handle your stock awards as part of a holistic financial and wealth management plan, then please do get in touch.

The post How Smart Women In Tech are Strategizing Around Stock Awards appeared first on WealthChoice.

The gender pay gap sees women paid about 82 cents to every dollar earned by a man, according to analysis by the Pew Research Center in 2022. This pervasive divide is driven in part by gender and racial discrimination, workplace harassment, job segregation and a lack of workplace policies that support family caregiving, which is still most often performed by women.

Women who leave work to raise their children face decreased wages when they return. They also face very real biases about being less committed to their work, which can lead to a lack of growth opportunities. Age is another factor that is wrongly synonymous with “worth.” For women aged 45 and over, the pay gap extends to 73 cents for every dollar a man makes at the same age. When looking at race, the gap only grows.

As well as seeing my clients battle with this, I’ve experienced the gender pay gap firsthand.

After repeatedly confronting the unique financial challenges that women executives face, I knew I had to go my own way. WealthChoice was created as a place where I can do the work I love in a way I know will have the most impact, and that I am fairly compensated for.

It seems like the most basic request: to simply be paid the same as men who do the same work as us (or sometimes even less!). And yet a gender wage gap has been recognized in a shocking 94% of occupations, stretching all the way to the C-suite. The gender wage gap continues to permeate our professional lives, impacting the health, wealth and well-being of women across the whole of the US.

So What Can Be Done About the Gender Pay Gap?

My job is to advocate for the betterment of the lives of the women I work with. I take great joy in watching them find empowerment and satisfaction in their financial lives. So it really galls me when I hear of the unequal pay or stifled professional development they experience at work.

While I can’t change the numbers on their paycheck, a major way I can help my clients is by ensuring they use the money they do earn as wisely as possible. And the good news here is that there are certain wealth strategies we can put in place that will cushion their financial plan from the negative impact of the gender pay gap.

I recently took on a new client, a woman who is a top tier executive in a large tech firm. When discussing her income I sadly wasn’t surprised to learn of the pay disparity she experiences, despite her senior position.

We spent a lot of time chatting about how this affects her at work, and the mental and emotional toll it takes when feeling so overlooked and underappreciated by her male peers. Then – with an admitted glimmer of “We’ll show them!” – I set about telling her how I will help her work to negate this wage gap as much as possible through well considered and impactful financial choices.

Pay parity is a hugely important element we factor into our planning processes with our clients at WealthChoice.

After all, the earning power of women dictates our ability to live the life we want – and that is the hallmark of our approach to financial planning and the management of women’s wealth.

Working closely with our clients to understand their dreams, goals, ambitions and areas of personal fulfillment is integral to how we operate. Having a plan to maximize your income is critical for any executive – male or female – but it is a really important consideration for female executives, business owners and professionals who are battling an uneven playing field.

The Importance of Knowing a Woman’s Worth

When you’re not getting paid what you’re worth, you don’t get the opportunity to save as much as you should. That translates to lost incomes, lost social security benefits (which are scaled on your pay), and lost portfolio growth over time.

While we’re all familiar with the fact that women executives are paid less than men for doing the same jobs, a lesser known fact is that the average woman executive leaves a million dollars on the table over the course of her working life, simply by not knowing how much she is worth, or asking for what she deserves.

How is this possible, you ask? It starts with knowing your professional value. Where men generally have no problem asking (or overasking) for what they are worth, women seem instinctively averse to it. Moreover, women executives often don’t know the market value of their work. Women report salary expectations between 3 percent and 32 percent lower than those of men for the same job.

Failing to negotiate plays a significant role in wage disparity. A study from Carnegie Mellon University revealed that 8 times as many men as women graduating with a master’s degree negotiated the starting salary of their first job. The first job sets the tone for your earning potential over your entire career. By not negotiating, a woman stands to lose over $500,000 by age 60.

What Does the Gender Pay Gap Mean for Our Economy?

Gender equality around pay has long been an issue in the US labor market. June this year marked 60 years since the passing of the Equal Pay Act, which “prohibited discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages”.

Yet the situation in the US is still only slightly better than the world average – where most women are paid around 20% less than men – but 18% less can still make a significant impact to a well-structured financial plan. This has a persistently negative impact on the American economy as a whole.

According to Moody’s Analytics, we can expect to see an additional $7 trillion injected into the global economy – that is about 7% – if the pay gap between men and women is narrowed more rapidly. The problem is, at the current rate, the gender pay gap will only be closed in about 132 years.

However, if women in the US were to receive equal pay, then it is anticipated that this would cut poverty among working women and add in the region of $482 billion to the American economy.

For example, in the state of California, where we have a number of clients, pay equality would equate to a significant economic boost. “If women were paid the same as comparable men in California, the state’s working women would have earned $51.8 billion more dollars, an earnings increase that, by itself, is greater than the entire economy of South Dakota ($45.9 billion)”, wrote the authors of briefing paper for The Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Heidi Hartmann, Jeff Hayes and Jennifer Clark.

How Does This Impact Women’s ‘Wealth Gap’?

As I wrote in my book, Corner Office Choices, no matter what industry you work in, being a woman in that industry will bring unique challenges that men don’t have to deal with. The response isn’t to resign ourselves, nor is it to get overly caught up in fighting for systemic change. Instead, the most constructive approach is to identify what those challenges are, and get the resources you need to overcome them.

Over the past two decades, very little has been done to fundamentally shift the status quo. This means more women play a juggling act with their time and their money, but with fewer opportunities to invest more into their own financial futures.

Just recently, the Center for American Progress think-tank released a paper determining that persistent gender pay gaps had cost American women $61 trillion in financial resources since 1967, when the Equal Pay Act was signed. While all women are impacted, Latina and Black women workers continue to be worse off.

The personal upshot of this is that women continue to be caught in a ‘wealth gap’, unable to catch up with their male counterparts. As Rose Khattar, Director of Economic Analysis at the Center for American Progress, said about the report’s findings: “That’s lost wages that could have been injected into the economy in the form of consumer spending. That’s wages that women could have used in terms of investments to build up their wealth.”

Just consider these three personal impacts that the wealth gap might be having on your own financial planning:

• Retiring in Style: The long-term implications of the gender pay gap are particularly noticeable when you start drilling down into the retirement income women can expect versus men. Since earnings over the course of a woman’s life are below that of a man, they receive less in pensions and Social Security which means that when it comes time to retire they can expect to have 70% of a man’s retirement income. Worryingly, many women go into retirement with less income than they had when they were working; making it impossible to maintain their standard of living.
• Emergency Fund Savings: As a female breadwinner, or as a working woman contributing to the family finances, some believe it is important for women to save even more into their emergency funds. This is, in part, due to the household demands on women and their more precarious standing in the labor market. And yet they have one hand tied behind their backs as they build up these savings.
• Investing in Stocks: Earlier this year a report by BNY Mellon noted that if women invested in the stock market at the same rate as men, there would be – at very least – an extra $3.22 trillion in assets under management. The gender pay gap was just one of the factors behind this imbalance highlighted in the report, the others being financial confidence, education around investing and less disposable income (which is where the pay gap really bites).

The Benefit of Women-Focused Advisory Firms

Many of the issues impacting how women accumulate wealth can be linked to personal preferences for investing – since traditionally women tend to be more conservative and have lower risk tolerances – but also because the financial world is geared towards men and, by and large, continues to be male dominated.

However, having a female financial advisor in your corner also makes a big difference. After all, women have unique financial needs and often find themselves handed cookie-cutter advice that might suit a man, rather than benefiting from crafted solutions that help them live their best life.

Women want more than just accepting what is pushed across the table at them, they value honesty and transparency, relationships built on trust and access to investing information that aligns with their personal values. Many women find they can get this by using a female advisor.

It’s important for women executives to recognize that no matter where they start, there’s only so much time they have left, and only so much money they can make within that time frame. It is vital to understand the long term implications of how they choose to use their resources.

My job is to help women executives understand that their current way of life is a choice, and to help them see what other choices are available to them. What do they need for their own life? What does quality of life mean to them? And what is involved in creating it?

At WealthChoice we tailor-make our clients a financial plan that not only takes the issue of gender pay disparities into account, but seeks ways to counter these issues and provide sustained financial stability and growth.

Please do get in touch if we can help you navigate any gender pay gap issues you’re experiencing. We stand as your advocate, support system, and ultimate cheerleader as you head to work every day and learn to bridge the gaping wage divide until the day eventually comes when we no longer have to. Until then, we’re here for you.

The post Women Executives and the Gender Pay Gap. What Can We Do? appeared first on WealthChoice.

A recent conversation with a client brought up a wonderful analogy for this unique time as we discussed how best to prepare for what is likely to be a financially uncertain 2023: the unknown unknown. ‘Unknown unknowns’ are those unidentified and challenging risks which are hard to manage and even harder to predict; but they have a profound ability to derail carefully made plans.

There will always be things in life that we can’t quite grasp and events that throw us off guard. There is always the possibility that new ‘unknowables’ are just around the corner. Known as the Johari Window, this concept was created by psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in 1955. Designed to help people better understand their relationship with themselves and others, it’s a useful tool for understanding the importance of risk planning in personal finance.

The Financial Known and the Unknown

Life is filled with knowns and unknowns, and starting off a new year in acceptance of this fact means we can approach it with grace, but also – and more importantly – we can prepare for uncertainty and enable ourselves to remain steadfast no matter what the new year brings our way. In no area does this become more important than that of our financial lives.

Right now we are living through a time of ‘unknown unknowns’. On the outer edges of a global pandemic, our economy may be in turmoil, but this doesn’t mean your financial life needs to be. If we are prepared to lay down the right foundations, we can navigate a clear path through this ambiguity and anxiety with careful, mindful and meticulous planning.

Always Plan for the Unknown

‘Unknown knowns’ – like a bank or currency collapse – are rare, although we know in theory that they are possible, which is why strategies like diversification are so important. It is also absolutely possible to mitigate against ‘known unknown’ risks by making provisions for things like sickness, technology disruptions, or market shifts.

And, of course, ‘known knowns’ ask us to pay attention to saving, having insurance and a balanced portfolio. Even those true surprises – the ‘unknown unknowns’ – won’t hit you as hard if you have a plan in place.

During times of uncertainty, a plan is your best friend. It provides peace of mind and the comfort of knowing that you’ve built in some level of protection. With that surety beneath you, you can step out into each new day with the confidence to live life to its fullest, and on your own terms.

Women, Planning and Flexibility

The mistake we as women executives, business owners and professionals can often make, is that we view our financial plans as “an all-or-nothing proposition”. This is a common issue I address in my book, Corner Office Choices.

If we stray from our financial plan, we believe all progress has been wiped out. We treat it like a weight loss program or fitness regime. We’re hard on ourselves and become disillusioned if the clear road ahead starts twisting and turning before our eyes.

This adds huge mental stress at a time when the best advice is to hold true to intentions of the plan, to let the built-in protection mechanisms do their work, and recognize that the path to financial success is long and winding.

Throughout my career I’ve come to appreciate that real wealth comes down to living life on your terms. But it also means being flexible enough to know what you can’t control, such as:

• The Economy: Our economy is riding a tumultuous wave right now. In fact, the entire global economy is weathering a storm of historic magnitude.
  Effects of Covid-19: Bloomberg calls the pandemic “a catalyst for lasting economic change” in the US, from remote work to automation and a growing wealth divide.
• High Inflation: More rate hikes on the cards by the Federal Reserve.
• Unemployment and Job Losses: Right now, we are working with clients who have lost jobs, who are unemployed and who are deeply concerned about their future and that of their families.
• An Erratic Stock Market: Many of our clients are worried by the erratic performance of the stock market and the impact this is having on passive income.

These are real and understandable concerns, which impact people and livelihoods, but fortunately it is exactly in these conditions where financial planners can make a difference. By providing guidance in uncertain times, and by making sure that all our clients have the protection of a well-crafted plan, we can help you ride out this storm and thrive – even in uncertain times.

Your Best Support Against the Unknown

Our goal at WealthChoice is to help our clients live full lives. We do this by offering a holistic approach to financial, career and personal planning. We understand that the women we work with are fascinating and multifaceted individuals – and that each one is truly unique.

So, we focus on achieving an alignment between professional and personal goals. To do this requires time. Time to talk things through, to explore all the options on the table, to build a relevant financial plan, and design a tailored approach.

If you’ve just lost your job in tech, if your company is downsizing or your business is struggling. If – like so many Americans – you’re worried about your retirement, tax implications, rising debt, the cost of healthcare and college expenses, then help is at hand. We can work with you by putting your existing financial plan on the table, delving into the solutions, and unpacking the steps to get you back on track.

Over the years I’ve seen how women with clear financial plans have better money habits, peace of mind, in-built back-ups and emergency funds than those who don’t. So, I know this approach works.

Working together we can tackle the unknowns of the new year and beyond by putting the right plan in place and helping you make the best financial choices. Start the new year on the right foot, and give us a call today.

The post How to Live with Confidence, Despite Life’s Uncertainties appeared first on WealthChoice.

Understand your priorities and make time for yourself.

We’re all so busy trying to make it through the day that it can feel like there’s no time for ourselves. However, taking the time to better understand our priorities and set aside a few minutes to do something for ourselves can greatly improve our productivity, ability to care for others, and ability to handle unexpected challenges. Spending a few moments each day taking care of yourself will pay dividends in the long run, so take some time now and learn what is important to you. Get started with our Passions & Pursuits worksheet.

Set boundaries with your children and parents.

Establishing boundaries in your relationships with your children and parents can be especially challenging, as you always want to be there for the ones you love the most. However, it’s crucial to ensure that everyone is on the same page about what’s acceptable and what isn’t. Start by clearly setting expectations for yourself, and then for your children and parents, making sure to communicate openly with your loved ones and ask questions to get a better understanding of their point of view as well. Be sure to think about financial boundaries as well. If you are willing and able to help support your aging parents financially, be sure to have a clear understanding of what your capacity is for helping without seriously affecting your own financial security.

Don’t try to do everything — delegate and ask for help when needed.

Everyone has limits and trying to do everything yourself might seem tempting, but oftentimes it’s just not possible. Recognizing your own limitations is invaluable — delegating tasks to others or asking for help will maximize efficiency and allow you to work smarter, not harder. Not only that but relying on others can bring valuable perspectives from outside sources and make room for collaborative problem-solving. If you reach out for help when needed and make use of the resources around you, you’ll be able to tackle any challenge that comes your way. You can read our blog on the power and benefits of delegating here!

Find a support system of other women in similar situations.

Every woman goes through unique situations in her life that can often be hard to tackle alone. If you are ever feeling overwhelmed or unsure about something, it is a good idea to find a support system of other women who may be going through similar experiences. By sharing your feelings and stories with one another, you can help lift each other up, offer empathy and advice, and give emotional and moral support to help cope. As a member of Equita, a financial network by women, for women, this is something I can personally attest to. Reaching out for this kind of support is a wonderful way to stay connected in times of need and can be truly empowering for everyone involved. For more on the value of community, check out my book, Corner Office Choices.

These tips are a great starting point, but they are by no means an exhaustive list. What’s important is that you find what works for you and make time to prioritize your own well-being. Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish — it’s essential if you want to be there for your loved ones in the long run. Get in touch with us to continue the conversation!

The post Strategies for Women Who Are “Sandwiched”: Managing Children and Parents appeared first on WealthChoice.

The balance of assets and liabilities is a significant challenge for any small business owner. Moreover, you’d consider a small business owner who wasn’t precisely aware of their cash flow to be incompetent, correct?

But what happens when we look at our personal finances in the same way? Making sure our income outweighs our outgoings is something we all do – whether we sleepwalk through it, firefighting as we go, or budgeting down the last penny.

We are constantly navigating through cash flow challenges, day in and day out. And when your professional life also impacts your finances in subtle and sometimes unnoticed ways, the need to have everything efficiently organised comes into even tighter focus. But managing cash flow doesn’t come naturally to everyone.

Identify and Manage Your Cash Flow Challenges

The failure to manage cash flow challenges is one of the four clear derailers for a professional woman’s life. Completely understanding your cash flow is one of the fundamental building blocks of your financial plan, taking care of the everyday, here and now expenditures as well as facilitating the long term goals, dreams and aspirations. So, necessarily, it becomes one of the first steps that I take with new clients.

Most of my clients are very high-earning women, but I see their money causing them stress and worry. It’s weighing them down. They’re not enjoying their lives as they ought to be, their spending is chaotic and not knowing where all their money is going every month causes them stress, worry, and shame. Some of my clients realize they are vastly overspending in some areas, and underspending in others. They are not able to enjoy their money in the way they want and deserve to.

By spending some time working on their cash flow challenges and becoming aware of where and how their money is being used, my clients gain a sense of security and control that they hadn’t previously been able to benefit from. Having this increased awareness of your cash flow means that you can make positive changes to your spending habits, and start ticking off those goals. You are not just taking control of your money right now, but for your financial future too.

The First Step to Cash Flow Management

When I sit down with a client, the first thing to do is to create a snapshot of their financial landscape. I want to see exactly where they are now, and that way we can more successfully plot a roadmap to where they want to be in the future. But that snapshot isn’t immediate. Rather, it’s like taking a picture with a really slow shutter speed, that takes in all the more light.

I ask my clients to make no immediate changes to their money and their spending decisions. I ask them to carry on exactly as they are, earning, spending, and saving as much as they are accustomed to doing, and I ask them to do that for two months. I have some personal finance tracking software at my disposal, so we hook up their accounts and away they go. Then when those two months are up, we can look through exactly how and where they spent their money.

My clients are high achieving women, being compensated well for the work they do. However, they are busy. What this first exercise of money tracking often shows us is that they have been unable to keep track of how and where they are spending their money. That signals one thing to me. It shows me that they are highly unlikely to be spending their money where it is most meaningful to them.

Free Up Funds to Finance Your Goals

This is a hugely important part of your financial plan. You simply must be spending your money funding the things that are important to you, to enable you to live the life you want and the life you deserve. You must be able to spend your money on the things that you hold to be most important – and you need to have a very clear idea of what those things are. Not having a sharp focus on those most important goals, wishes and desires is another derailer, and is so often overlooked.

So the second stage of tracking money habits, after we have just spent some time monitoring spending over a few weeks, is breaking down those expenditures into two categories. We look at fixed expenditures, and then we look at discretionary spending. Fixed expenses are the ones that are pretty much exactly the same every month. It’s your mortgage, your bills, your basic grocery spend, your car or transport costs. For most people, these won’t fluctuate much or at all from month to month.

Then we look at discretionary expenses. These are the more frivolous expenses – anything that you don’t absolutely have to spend money on to get by each month. When I want to identify the money available to fund a client’s goals or wishes, I start by looking at their discretionary spending. We absolutely need to find money to fund my client’s goals, and this is where we’ll begin to find it. We can start to close that discretionary spending down, shifting the funds into more meaningful areas of the client’s life, be it retirement saving, kids’ education, travels with family.

Once we have brought some awareness to their discretionary spending, we can look at their fixed expenses. Can any changes be made here? These may feel like more drastic changes; you may want to consider downsizing your home for example, to lessen the monthly mortgage payment. Or you could relocate to a cheaper neighborhood. Often you may find you can save some money by running a cheaper car or looking at ways to cut your bills. There’s often savings to be made on your fixed expenses; once again, this money can nearly always be used in more meaningful ways.

The Facets of Business Cash Flow Challenges

If you’re a business owner, you have to deal with cash flow issues in duplicate. Firstly, you will be managing your business’ finances, tracking income against outgoings with the aim of creating as much profit as possible, in turn using some of to reinvest and grow the business further. (And again, there are plenty of parallels here with managing your personal financial affairs.)

However, in addition, you will no doubt come across some expenses that blur the lines between personal or business expenses. You need to keep a close eye on these and make sure that your business, or your work, isn’t costing you more than it is worth.

You need to constantly be aware of whether you would be making a purchase or spending on meals out, travel and events if it weren’t for your job or career. You may well consider these necessary costs to get you to where you want to be professionally, and that’s okay. It’s the acute awareness which is important to keep you on track.

If you are a business owner, you can also think in terms of fixed and discretionary expenses. After all, any cash that you can prevent being spent is going to drive your profit margins up, and increase your take-home earnings from your business.

For example, I have a client whose business has hit some tough times recently. It’s meant that she wasn’t able to fund her retirement strategy and had badly fallen behind. We went through some cash flow exercises with her personal finances, stripping unnecessary discretionary and fixed expenditures away. Then we turned our attention to her business finances.

We were fairly savage with both her discretionary and fixed business expenses. We minimized her rental costs by finding cheaper rent. We found a way that she could run her business with one fewer employee. This saved thousands of dollars, and this significantly moved the needle; her business was now operating comfortably and generating more income to fund her goals.

A Cash Flow Strategy – A Must-Have for Any Financial Plan

By identifying patterns in your spending habits, you can see where you need to, and can, make the most meaningful and impactful changes to your financial situation. Ensure that you are spending only an appropriate sum on the more frivolous things such as clothing and entertainment – this will allow you to prioritize funding your most impactful goals.

This is about living YOUR best life. What does that best life look like for you? What do you need to fund to create that best life? Make spending decisions which reflect what is important to you, and make sure you are spending your money most meaningfully.

You need to employ an effective, efficient cash flow strategy so you can make the most of your money and make it work for you into the future. If you can just about get a handle on your budget issues now, but investing for your retirement feels like a challenge, or if freeing up time and money to pursue other professional goals, then maybe you would benefit from a session with a financial advisor.

At Wealthchoice, we do our best work with executive and professional women because, from our own career experiences, we understand fully the challenges you face. Budgeting and financial planning is often last on the list of priorities when you are keeping so many plates spinning. If you feel you would benefit from our financial expertise, from planning a budget to managing your retirement finances, please do get in touch. We’ll be only too happy to help.

The post Solving Cash Flow Challenges For Female Executives appeared first on WealthChoice.

A recent study showed that 77% of all American employees will experience burnout at some point, and that on average only 74% of work is done in the workplace – the rest is taken home and done out of hours. Work is invading our lives. It is stressing us out, making us miserable and unhealthy. We just can’t seem to get that work life balance right.

The Work Life Balance Problem: Why Is It Harder for Women?

First, let me just say, I’m not going to patronize you and dwell too much on the obvious stuff. I’m not going to stereotype all modern men and husbands either. We all know that it takes two to run a household, but that the majority of housework and family-related chores still fall to women. So the demands on female executives who are also family women are astronomical, but we know this bit.

Women executives are seriously inspirational people. They are bold and driven, courageous and fiercely intelligent.

They are often at the helm of a successful business at the same time as steering the ship of their homelife as well. They are often commanding a serious salary, and living an expensive lifestyle. But it’s certainly not all luxury travel and cocktail parties.

The women I know really put in the hours to get where they are and where they want to be, and it often comes at the expense of another element of their lives. It might be their health; they may be struggling with stress which can lead to serious health consequences. Additionally, unfortunately, with increased work hours comes increased dependency on alcohol or substance abuse.

But it might be their personal life that suffers. While women executives may well be meeting and sometimes wildly exceeding their career goals, their personal ones aren’t even on the radar. For nearly all the professional women I meet, a good work life balance is elusive. But it really doesn’t have to be that way. There are just three things that any professional woman must do to achieve that seemingly impossible work life balance.

#1. Identify Your Passions and Pursuits

When I first meet a client, one of the tasks I set them is to identify their passions and their pursuits. Passions are the things that really make them tick, the things that they care deeply about, the things that can bring them joy. Pursuits are the achievable, more practical milestones that they want to tick off, such as paying down a debt, hitting a certain retirement savings goal, buying a vacation home.

I have a worksheet for this that I hand to clients, and it’s also included with my book; it’s that important. It helps my clients to picture their ideal life, a life that they are entitled to and that they are able to achieve. When a client of mine can outline exactly what she wants to achieve in both these areas, she can strip out the unnecessary stressors and drill down into the detail of their true picture of perfection. It is the first step towards a healthy, positive work life balance.

All that’s important is that the client really scrutinizes themselves and their ideals to be totally authentic to themselves. It doesn’t matter if the important aspects of life that they identify are simple – for example, being able to come home to cook a nutritious dinner for themselves and/or their family, instead of grabbing something quick between meetings. Or maybe it’s freeing up time every year for a family vacation or a trip, or devoting some time to a hobby, sport, or the local community.

#2. Set Yourself Goals

Once you’ve identified your passions and pursuits, you need to set yourself some goals. And write them down – you’re significantly more likely to achieve goals when you’ve written them down. Set yourself an ideal timeline, with incremental steps to make sure you’re on course to have everything as you want it. This will help you to identify realistic goals over fanciful ones, as well as separating short term goals from long term goals, more urgent milestones and ones that you can take some time over.

Although it might not seem immediately related, goal-setting really is a fundamental step of achieving the right work life balance. It keeps you on track. It keeps you in the mindset of monitoring how you are spending your time and how you are spending your hard-earned money.

But remember: these are not immovable goals. These goals need to be flexible, because people’s priorities often change. You need to periodically review both your ideas about your passions and pursuits as well as your goals to reach them. It’s okay to change course from time to time, as long as you do it with intent.

#3. Create a Robust but Flexible Financial Plan

The career of a female executive is riddled with challenges and it’s a lifestyle that demands you make sacrifices and compromises all the time. And once you have identified your passions and pursuits, and set your goals, how do you get there? You need the solid foundation of a financial plan.

So how does a good financial plan help to address the work life balance problem? The first thing to be aware of is that not all of them do. I don’t believe that conventional financial advice works for most women. Executive women face different challenges, and their financial plan needs to recognize that. Their financial plan needs to accommodate for all the stress points in their life, and provide solutions.

If their passions involve travel, they must make sure their financial plan accommodates it. If my client’s idea of a great work life balance involves working for themselves, their financial plan must facilitate them being able to set up on their own. This might involve some additional expenses in training, extra qualifications and upskilling, or investing in a retail space to pursue a commercial venture.

If a client feels overworked and on the brink of burnout, their financial plan may well need to accommodate a reduction in income – my client might do much better if they work just four days a week, and have an extra day of leisure time. Sometimes that helps them to strike an ideal balance for themselves. It really is about identifying where things are going wrong, and how to put them right.

Use Your Finances to Get Your Perfect Balance

My clients use their passions and pursuits to build their ideal life for themselves. It empowers them to say yes where they want to, and they can learn to say no when they need to. My clients can set boundaries as to their work hours and their work expenses, to make sure that they are devoting enough time to other aspects of their life that can imbue it with meaning and purpose.

Striking the right work life balance for you means looking at and listening to exactly what is important for you, and looking at your entire financial landscape. It means taking control and making adjustments where necessary. Sometimes it means putting your health or your happiness first.

I love seeing the transition in my clients. I meet them as busy, frenetic women executives with too much on their plates. They come back to me, a short while after our first meetings, having made some tiny adjustments, and they are living truly transformed lives. They are still ambitious and driven, still achieving their professional goals. But they are living fulfilled, well-rounded, happy lives.

If you need to address your work life balance, don’t wait to get in touch. I’ll be delighted to help you.

The post Three Things Women Executives Must Do to Get a Good Work Life Balance appeared first on WealthChoice.

Education is the greatest predictor of longevity.

We learned this at a recent talk called A Long Bright Future by Laura L. Carstensen, PhD, and Director of the Stanford Center on Longevity.

In the past, it was believed that income and the subsequent improved standards of living were the most important factors for a long life, but it turns out that education is actually far more important.

Why does education have such a significant effect on longevity?

Better education leads to better health-related choices. Chronic health diseases are largely attributed to lifestyle choices. Increased education, that in turn results in better health choices, leads to a longer, healthier life. What’s more, this holds to be true in countries across the globe; as education increases, longevity increases as a result of healthier lifestyles.

In the United States, half of all children born since 2007 can expect to live to be 104! This longevity can be both a blessing and a curse. From a financial planning standpoint, this is a number to be reckoned with. Retiring in the 60’s when you can expect to live another 40 years makes saving for retirement a huge endeavor. It also prompts us to change the way we live.

Dr. Carstensen suggested we change the way we look at life given our longevity. She proposed we embrace our longevity and offered some suggestions on how best to live our gift of a longer life:

Spread events out over the course of your life.

Rather than cram “life” into the years before your 60’s, consider your entire, long life to experience the myriad experiences in life. If we are living to 100 does retirement have to be at 65? Perhaps consider working fewer days a week. This allows for more time now for experiences, rather than delaying for a time in the future when you’ve “retired.” Perhaps consider working longer in life. With a long life, you might consider different careers at different points in your life. It’s a shift to our thinking, but the variety can offer a richer life.

Design your life.

Plan your life so you make good choices. We know that education is responsible for healthy choices. Meal prep, planning ahead for your meals, is just one way you can life a healthy life. Add time to exercise, make times for friends. All of these choices lead to a healthier, longer life.

Diversify your life.

This might be your career, your food, your portfolio. In the past when life expectancy was 50 years old, we didn’t have much to diversify. Before we knew it, life was over. Now, with a hundred years to live for many of us there is an opportunity to use time differently, from a four day work week to spending more time with friends and family.

Always be learning.

Better yourself by enriching yourself. Take advantage of opportunities to learn. With so many online courses available, learning is super accessible. Invest in yourself, your family, our children, and our community so that all share the gift of longevity.

We love the idea of a longer life; more time with loved ones, more time to experience life, more time to try different careers.  But we also recognize how important planning becomes as we live longer.  If you’d like to learn more about how we help businesswomen plan to live the life they want, contact us.

The post There’s a New Way of Living Thanks to Longevity appeared first on WealthChoice.

We know we need our money to grow in order to reach our goals, but this meant investing without regard to how the companies we invested in made their money. If we chose to invest in socially responsible organizations, we often sacrificed investment performance, and reaching our goals could be compromised.

But a full 70% of women surveyed in 2014 by TIAA-CREF Asset Management were interested in Socially Responsible Investing strategies.

Obviously, this is something of great importance to women investors.

What is socially responsible investing(SRI)? SRI refers to an investment strategy that seeks to consider both financial return and social good. SRI covers three main advocacy issues: social, environmental, and corporate governance. SRI is implemented mainly through investment analysis and portfolio construction, shareholder advocacy, and community investing.

By using social screens fund companies are able to filter for securities that are consistent with each portfolio’s social issue criteria. Screens might focus on activities such as gambling, tobacco, alcohol, pornography, production of landmines and other weaponry, child labor, or business conducted with specific regimes, such as the Republic of Sudan. However, these screens result in a reduced number of securities in a portfolio. On average, SRI funds hold approximately 145 securities. This has been one of the challenges in investing in this space in the past. Fewer securities in a portfolio means less diversification, which in turn may mean less risk management.

Over the past decade, SRI funds have grown as a result of rising institutional and investor demand, legislative mandates for public funds, regulatory developments, the rise in environmentally themed offerings, increased shareholder advocacy, and the growth of community investing. In addition to the growth of demand, there has also been a growth in offerings in this space, but performance has lagged. I was thrilled to learn that there are options in this space that are worthy of consideration.

At a recent conference I attended, I was very excited to learn about some socially responsible options that fit the criteria we have at WealthChoice for inclusion in our investment portfolios. We will be utilizing some of the SRI options provided by Dimensional Funds, who have been investing in this space for many years. We are thrilled to have these funds as options for our clients. Finally, we can not only use our money to reach our personal goals, and to live our ideal life, but also to impact the world around us in a way that reflects our personal values.

Are your investments aligned with your values? To learn more about how we incorporate Socially Responsible Investing in our client portfolios, please contact us.

The post Investing in Line with Your Values: Socially Responsible Funds appeared first on WealthChoice.

We are excited to introduce you to Affinite Magazine by Sashi Whitman.

Sashi Whitman, Editor of Affinite, a free digital online magazine, was recently introduced to us by a mutual resource. We had a chance to speak with Sashi to learn more about her and Affinite and are thrilled to introduce you to this unique resource.

Affinite is a digital online magazine focused on being a resource for Christian professional women. Sashi launched the magazine in mid 2014 with the goal of helping to create relevant connections, provide professional and personal resources, and support for working women with families. The concept came about when Sashi was speaking to several of her closest girlfriends, all experiencing multiple issues ranging from raising kids going through middle and high school, friends going through separation and divorce, and women trying to figure out their next career move—not only one that would fit their financial needs, but a career that would make their heart sing.

Sashi knew that there were several existing organizations in San Diego that could help her friends, and other women, going through similar struggles and challenges, and she wanted them to know about these resources. She also knew that if there were one place for women to share their story and for women to reach out and connect, that a resource-based magazine site would be the ideal platform. Affinite has that goal, and achieves this through monthly blogs and a resource list that can be reached on any device with internet access.

Sashi and Affinite share our mission at WealthChoice to empower women through education, encourage collaboration with one another, and effect positive change in the lives of women and those we care about. We encourage you to explore the Affinite website and blogs and add it to your list of helpful resources for women professionals.

You can find more excellent resources to empower women on the Resources page of the WealthChoice website.  And if you have resources you’d like us and other women to know about, please contact us and we’d love to include them on our website.

The post A Resource for Professional Women: Affinite Magazine appeared first on WealthChoice.