Suddenly You: Women Owning Money Moments

Money gets real when it’s suddenly you—the first 401(k), a partner’s illness, an inheritance, or the day you finally ask, What does risk actually mean for my family? We invited Kathy Karlic, founder of Suddenly You, to share a clear, compassionate path for women to own money decisions without jargon, shame, or guesswork.

Kathy takes us from quiet kitchen tables to confident choices, breaking down the difference between finance and investing: planning for the expected versus preparing for shocks. She explains why traditional benchmarks don’t tell the whole story when you’re caring for four generations, and how redefining “winning” around cash needs, time horizons, and resilience leads to steadier outcomes. We dig into practical moves couples can make today—shared passwords, account maps, RMD steps, and bill flows—so a bad day doesn’t become a crisis. We also surface the behavior edge: teaching kids compounding with real incentives, using gifted shares to learn how to sell, and resisting buy-now-pay-later traps that quietly tax your future.

Along the way, Kathy shows how community lowers the barrier to entry. Small-group workshops, friendly language, and real-life examples help women ask better questions, set agendas with advisors, and move from hot tips to durable plans. We talk executrix checklists, selling an inherited home, and why Social Security can be viewed like a bond-like income stream when thinking about asset allocation. The throughline is purpose: aligning money with what matters, from emergency funds to philanthropy, without letting market noise dictate your next move.

If you’ve ever felt behind, this conversation offers a reset that is warm, direct, and immediately useful. Subscribe for more candid episodes on investing, financial literacy, and family wealth, share this with someone who needs the nudge, and leave a review with the one “suddenly you” moment you’re preparing for next.

For more information:

https://suddenly-you.com/

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Disclaimer - These podcasts are not intended as investment advice. Individuals please consult your own investment, tax and legal advisors. They provide these insights for educational purposes only.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Steve Davenport 0:26

Hello everyone and welcome to Skeptic's Guide to Investing. Today, um, Clem Miller and I are fortunate to have guests. Katherine Karlic is a former associate of ours at MT Bank. And we knew each other then, and we've kept in touch with each other through the years. And one of the reasons I thought that Kathy would be great to have on the podcast is her work on a new um platform called Suddenly You. And it talks about financial literacy for women and trying to help them because most people realize that you know women tend to live longer than men. Women tend to, you know, be somewhat involved or not much involved in the finances of the family. And so when something happens and it's suddenly you, then you she wants all women to be ready and to be able to step in with confidence and feel you know what is going on with her money is according to their plans and maybe not the broker or the advisor or you know, it's it's gonna be a unique time in the next 20 years as billions or trillions of dollars are transferred to women in these different situations, , and it's a great opportunity. So we're really happy to have her today. And I guess, Kathy, I'd start with how um how or why did you get started with suddenly you? I mean, it seems like a great idea that somebody else would have already been doing, but it feels like you're kind of on your own going through, you know, this area, and I I think it's exciting.

Kathy Karlic 2:16

Well, I love the fact that you already picked up on a suddenly you comment in the introduction. Thank you so much for that. Um, it's a really interesting concept because of the women focus that I have on the firm. I um believe that most of the information that we share, which is finance, investing, some spiritual and wellness as well, um is out there. But if you look at all the different methods of distribution of this information, it is male-dominated. You see a lot of men, you see them as the household leaders. Um, you don't really see a lot of advertisement shows, CNBC contributors, you could go down the list, mentors in your career that are women. So I've taken some basic concepts, brought them down to even more basic, so there's no jargon or acronyms, and I've decided that our website, our use of words, our friendly writing style is really um attractive to how women want to learn.

Growing Up Without Money Talk

Steve Davenport 3:27

That's great. I guess when you were like, I I'd love to know kind of more about what makes Kathy tick in terms of like I I remember when I was growing up, you know, my father would sit there with the Wall Street Journal, and you know, if I tried to take a section, he would look at me like I was a you know a criminal. How did you grow up in your household in finance? Did your father and mother share some of the money ideas with you? Do you try to get involved and they you know flapped your hand and said, no, this isn't for you? Or how tell us a little bit about what it was like um and how you've kind of evolved to where you are. Sure.

Babson, Early Career, And Mentorship

Kathy Karlic 4:12

So um I think I grew up in a household like many, many households. No dialogue was around the kitchen table, the dining room table about salaries or finances, or hey, we just bought a new car, or hey, we can't afford the new car. It was silent. And it's actually a piece of how I developed this friendly approach is what would you have liked to have heard at your kitchen table growing up? Um I knew growing up that we were not wealthy. I knew that we had a couple of issues with um finances at times. My parents got divorced, it made it a little bit tougher. But in high school, I love numbers. And um I think my dad always wanted three boys. He got three girls, and actually, all three of us took on these really tough, I would say male-dominated fields. I went into finance. Um, my sister to this day teaches math at the high school level, and my younger sister is a chemical engineer. So you can see this imprint um on our careers. And um, so I chose numbers from the investment world. In high school, we had this really great economics class, and you're going, you took economics and you liked it in high school. I did. I was not a history, I wasn't a history buff. I also took four years of Latin. So I think my analytical brain was just cranking way back then. And in economics class, we had to choose from the Wall Street Journal, probably, three, three different stocks that we had to track. And I went, oh, this is kind of interesting. You can make money off of this. And I wish I knew, I wish I knew what those three stocks were that I picked in high school. I'd have to probably go back in that memorabilia box. But um at the time I was also picking a college, and I did not really want to go to a liberal arts college. I sat with a buddy in economics and he told me about Babson College, and I looked it up and I'm like, that's for me. That is a business school, talk strategy, it talks, you know, the hard courses, accounting, economics, um, business management. And um, I went and I loved it. And gosh, I got my first job during a recession.

Steve Davenport 6:42

Yeah, I mean, Babson certainly is entrepreneurship, and you know, being from New England, I kind of have heard a lot of great things. And I guess as a woman, when you went to Babson, did you find that there was no like I'm not looking for trouble, but I'm look I'm just trying to help understand like what made you fear in this space? Because people can exist in a space, but you've obviously existed and excelled. And I guess if you were to talk to your younger Kathy again and go, boy, I wish you you know did this, this, and this. This is what I learned from my journey. And people behind me, this is how you know I think you need to think about it in terms of how to how to achieve, how to excel, how to be happy. Because finance can be a very um, I don't know, talk about performance, talk about you know, things that we really have very little control over. And I think that people think it's very quantitative and precise. And in reality, as Lem and I discovered yesterday, there can be bombs falling around you when the market goes up. And so it's not always as clear and precise as we think, right?

Women, Math, And Confidence Gaps

Kathy Karlic 8:01

Well, let's let's let's separate finance from investing because what happened yesterday was about investing. You know, finance does have some answers when you think about um either balance sheets, income statements, you know, a strategic plan for a company. Let's go back to Babson for a minute, because I think that's a really important piece in my development. It had only gone co-ed about four years before um I went to college. And I don't think they were truly prepared for having women on campus. In fact, um, back when I went, our dorms were co-ed because there was no separate housing facility for the women on campus. Um I was never an athlete in high school, but I have two varsity letters from Babson because we had sports for women, and of course I went out for the basketball team and the volleyball team. Um, tips for my younger self. I probably I had no mentors in high school, so I didn't really know what I was getting into. I was the first person to graduate in my family from college, and I had really nothing to lean upon as what is this college experience going to be like? So if I had to think through, I would have sought more advice from either the senior woman on campus or found a trusted guidance counselor, somebody else to help that journey. Um, I learned enough. I got my first job. Um, I was an overachiever because as soon as I got my first job, I went, okay, what's next? What's next as a master's? Again, my brain is very analytical, and in the early stages, I never wanted to be left behind as a woman in any kind of job environment. And we we still see that we don't have a workforce that's evenly allocated in woman leadership versus men leadership. So, of course, I get a master's and I get a master's in accounting. Um, again, just very number oriented, which is why making the distinction that you had talked about, investing is about preparing for the unexpected. Accounting and finance is actually planning for things that you do think are going to be expected. That's what is the basics, I think, of some of the investing that we all do.

Clem Miller 10:54

Were there at Babson, coming back to that, were there any clubs or anything like that at the time that you could have participated in investing clubs or finance clubs or accounting clubs or no, not really.

Rethinking Risk And What “Winning” Means

Kathy Karlic 11:10

You know, not really. And maybe there were, but again, because my world was so small, I grew up in a small town, my class in high school was small. I really didn't know about um many of those opportunities. Now, I have a daughter who went to college and she has her business degree, and a lot of the advice I wish I had I had given to her, like pursue this, get on a sports team. She was, you know, a super fast runner and won trophies, and um lots of different records were broken by her speed. So I could pass those stories on to her. But no, Babson, Babson back then was really being part of the beginning of women getting into the business world. And it was also one of my first board roles because once I got into management and a hiring role in in the investment world, I saw so few women coming through. So I went back to Babson and figured out well, how best can I get more women into the investment world? And by changing some of the policies and the practices and fostering for more women at our business schools, um, I felt that was the best use of my talents and my knowledge and the ability to be a hiring manager, you know, some internships, really important pieces for women in their careers that I was able to make a difference.

Clem Miller 12:43

Do you find you find that women are much less interested in finance and investments than men are? Um Or you think there's an equal interest in finance and investments? It's just that the opportunities are not there, or I don't know, the directions are not available, or however you want to put it.

Kathy Karlic 13:09

All right. So I'm gonna I'm gonna answer that in a couple of different ways.

Clem Miller 13:14

Okay.

Kathy Karlic 13:14

Um, and first of all, this basic information has formed some of the thesis for why suddenly you were created. Okay. Um there are studies that show that girls start pulling away from mathematics in their 11, 12, early 13 years, you know, the middle school years. And there have been studies that show when teachers are in classroom, girls raise their hand, boys raise their hands, the boys are called on more. So girls have a way to kind of pull back a little bit, and they pull back from math, which has been studied. So when I talk about suddenly you, I say, is it by design or was it by choice? So do girls turn away from math because of choice or by design? I don't know. Like, did somebody design it for them that they're not going to get into numbers? As I said, myself and my two sisters, we're not the examples that you can hold up to. We all went into number-oriented professions. And, you know, um, so we we are not the standard. Um it's a tough field. You don't have a lot of friendships. Um, we used to call the trading room the testosterone pit because you walk into a room, and if you're the only female, you're trying to find, you know what it's like to network. When you walk into a place and you know nobody, you're looking for a friendly face, a hand to shake, a way to break into a conversation. So I think if you don't see women, you don't see women, you shy away a little bit. But I went, , . This is a really good profession to be in for women. It pays you well, it pays you for your skill. It's not some goal that they say, hey, you got to bring an XYZ, whatever XYZ. You have a grid, and I like the grid, and we got paid, um, I think very, very equitably in our field.

Steve Davenport 15:14

So that okay, go on. Did you have like it seems like all of you, you and your sisters had this movement towards, you know, something that many women are, you know, supposedly step back from because they're afraid. And I and I I guess I would say is is it was it your parent? Like, how does somebody who's a mother and has three kids now that are girls create the environment that you had when you were growing up? Was there something unusual about talking about numbers at the table? Was your dad an accountant and everybody you wanted everybody to know about numbers and business? Or like, what do you think contributed to the three of you doing this?

Kathy Karlic 15:55

I I just think you know, the parents wanted us to succeed, and we all went to college. And despite the fact that um, you know, there really wasn't all that much money in the family to go to college, we all got scholarships, we all got loans, we all did extremely well. Um, you got to talk about this with your girls and your boys. I mean, I have a girl and I have two boys, and we want to foster their skills the best that we can, and they're they're all three very different. Um, so I want to go back to something else, though, for the suddenly you, because you asked me why women don't go into finance. I want to just talk about a little bit on the suddenly you story that my woman friends all asked me the question. So there's no lack of desire to know what's best for them. It's learning techniques and the right questions and feeling confident, and I could share so many stories of the questions that women have asked me. And I'm like, geez, these like you gotta know this information. This is really critical to your future and the future of your family as well.

Teaching Kids Saving And Investing

Steve Davenport 17:07

Well, that's great. I mean, in in the financial literacy I've worked in the past, there was just there's a lot of challenges for women, right? They tend to live longer, which you know, I can't imagine my wife living without me. But then you also have um, you know, potentially wages that are less than a similar man. You have disruptions in your life to take care of your parents and your children. So the career span and the able the ability to save for longer. And then also the last thing is women tend to be a little more conservative with their allocations and they tend to be more, you know, risk aware, and sometimes that means that their returns are lower. So when you look at suddenly you and you see all these different challenges, I guess where do you where do you think you could have the biggest impact? What's the you know, if I could do one thing for all women and it would help them understand that they don't have to be quite so cautious. Like I was watching a video on YouTube yesterday, and it was talking about the value of Social Security is just like having a bond portfolio that pays you income. And you know, it it if you take an asset allocation view like that, then maybe you should have a lot more equity in your portfolio that's not social security, you know.

Practical Steps For Partners And Passwords

Kathy Karlic 18:30

So there's there there's so much in your question, Steve. I mean, so much. So let me let me give a couple of examples um to help the audience. First of all, when I started this, you and I and Clem, we all went against a performance benchmark. Whatever it is, you have to beat the SP 500, the portfolio's got to have XYZ risk dimensions. Women don't think like that. And when I started Suddenly You, I thought about if I had one thing to tell them, is to look at the portfolio performance and see if you're winning. But what I discovered is winning for women is not about outperformance in a simple portfolio. And I've structured this in how Suddenly You was set up to think about I'm I'm part of a four-generation family. So my mom, me, my daughter, or my three kids, I should say, and then my five grandkids. So when I think about what my portfolio is to do, it's not just to be better than the S P 500 or some benchmark. I'm thinking about the four generations of my family. And in that, you may not want to take as much risk, and you may want to have a more conservatio because that money may need to be there for a grandkid. It may need to be there for a medical expense, as I have found in my family. It may need to be there for something that's a catastrophe. And money is so tight in America right now for so many families that that little bit of safety is a really important ingredient that I have found in working with my women friends is a more important to them because we're nurturers. We are we are the nurturer in the family. So we're we are thinking about, you know, the elderly, us, and then the next two generations. That's a really important distinction. Um I have a sister who didn't invest a lot in equities because she worked hard as a school teacher in California. And it wasn't until recently that she felt comfortable even going into the stock market. So that feeling of women working hard and earning money is a real psychological factor of maybe why they don't go into the stock markets, as you know, a lot of other people like us have gone into it.

Steve Davenport 21:03

Yeah, I mean, I think that you you brought up the word that I was going to mention next, which is women's nurturing nature. I mean, , we have a a foundation in Atlanta for financial literacy, and we're made up like most CFA societies, 80% men and 20% women. And but when you look at the volunteers in our organization, the volunteers are 80% women and 20% men. So even though they represent a minority, they love the idea of, and I think that you know there is a lot of testosterone in the finance and investment industry. And I think that a lot of women would prefer that it was more nurturing and it was more cooperative, and we didn't have this kind of mentality, and so that's where I think financial literacy gives you that step up where you don't get overwhelmed by others' aggression. You start to say, like you're saying, let's look at what affects you and what's important to you, and then look at how the money helps advance those causes. Um, I guess how tell me more about suddenly you and what you're doing, because I I guess I'd love to figure out how we can support it, how we can help it, and how you know, I mean, nobody listens to Clem and I expecting really to get, you know, nurturing advice. We usually just yell at so we yell about who's right or wrong. And I think it's a little bit um kind of nice to have more of a discussion about hey, this is what we found helps people go from I'm nervous and I'm unsure to. I'm an active investor and I'm doing what's important to me and my family.

Building A Friendly Literacy Platform

Kathy Karlic 22:47

All right. So this is what I'm going to give you a couple of great instances. Um I'm starting with the basics. I have a blog on our website that has to define what is the SP 500, what is the NASDAQ, why would you follow a hot stock tip? I mean, real basics to understand, you know, what would you do with a portfolio? So suddenly you's name is all about that suddenly you moment. Suddenly you have your first 401k, suddenly you want to buy a house, suddenly you have to write a will, suddenly you inherit like we all have our suddenly you moments. And um I was working with a young woman in Texas, and I said, Hey, do you have a Roth, you know, IRA? She goes, Yep. I'm like, oh, good, that's great. That's what I want, you know, people to understand the advantages of such a um investment um opportunity. I said, What did you pick? Uh I had my boyfriend pick it. I'm like, you need suddenly you. This is not, this is why I set up suddenly you. Here's a moment you do the right thing, but the investment decision was left to a partner. And a lot of women in um, you know, the suddenly you circles are all about, oh, my husband does it, my partner does it, I have a financial advisor. And I'm always asking, so where are you gonna step into this process? As you said, Steve, we live longer, um, we will be the nurturers of these four generations, and suddenly you is about this wealth transfer that's coming. So I, you know, you asked me early on, what would I do? What is my one big moment? My my moment I'm thinking about is I do say in my intro video, I want to touch one million women. And that's a lot of women, but there's a lot of ways to touch this one million women because just think about it. If you take any of the information today and how you could be helpful, you're gonna touch more of your women viewers because they're gonna pick up a tip. And in this wealth transfer that's coming, one, it's what the heck are you gonna be? And what are you gonna get? Well, you might get a boat. I understand people that leave their animals, their pets, you know, in their wills. I'm like, if somebody left me their dog, I would be, what would I do? You know, like what if a family member came to me and said, Hey, would you take fluffy? I'd be like, Well, and I have done a fluffy with my brother in the past because I had to move. And I did um ask him if he would take care of a pet. Um, you might get you might get a house in a different city, how do you or a different state? How do you sell an inherited piece of property? Um, we wrote about housing. Um, I had my real estate friend write an article and come to find out some real estate agents are certified to work with um the elderly population in selling a home. And there's you know different rules, there's elderly care, there's ways to approach those. Selling a house where you celebrated holidays, you celebrated a graduation, you know, you had the family meals around the kitchen table. So this is the kind of stuff that I could pass along in what suddenly you're all about.

Steve Davenport 26:15

Do you think that is there is there any like you, you know, we need resources or people to do like videos slash materials for your, you know, for your delivery to your your universe? Is it exclusively women helping women, or do you occasionally like, you know, a gentleman like myself, not Clem, but you know, somebody who's really you know more polished and kind involved in this process too.

Events, Community, And Reducing Shame

Kathy Karlic 26:51

Well, you know, it it really is, it really should be a two-way street, and I'll give you an example here as well. I'm liking the questions that you're asking me because it from we haven't planned this, these questions, and my research has prepared me to answer your questions. So let's talk about how men could be helpful. Two of my close friends, two have um husbands that have been ill, two of my friends had no understanding of passwords to get into any of the um financial or investment information. That is not healthy. And a lot of people think about what we're talking is only about death. And I'm like, no, it's about an incapacitation. It could be, you know, a temporary suspension of being able to get into an account. And so a message to the male audience is ensure that your spouse has the appropriate information because it is going to reduce the chaos if it were to happen, she's got to go and find passwords or go pay a bill or take a look at something in the brokerage account, or know how to sell shares if you got to raise cash for some reason, or if you're in your um 70s and you're drawing down on your traditional IRA. What do I do with this capital once it comes in? What bank account is it in? And these are real life examples. I don't have to go to any AI database and say, hey, come up with examples that are somewhat real life. No, these are real life. I don't do AI questions and I don't do, you know, AI answers because life is giving me the materials that we need to share. So that that one, Stephen Clem, is really important is that just let let your wife in on what that financial situation is for the family. It will prevent a lot of chaos. Um, if you happen to be sick, if you're away, if something needed to be done in a , you know, in a very quick contemporary moment as well.

Kindness, Community, And Closing

Steve Davenport 29:04

Yeah, I would say that I I mean I have clients and families, and I would say that that is the core of what frustrates women is that they don't feel as comfortable if something were to happen. And I think it's very hard to sit down and have the different ways we communicate kind of coalesce around here's what you need to have, and here's how you would do X, Y, Z. And I think it's a you know, I try to do it once a year around tax time because you get all your papers out, you got everything, you know, let's everything's out. Let's look at it and let's look at what's what's helping and what's hurting, and you know, what if you know what's our next step in our plan? Do we want to put more money to vacations? Do we want to put more money into our you know, Roth conversions? It's it's about decisions that you make together that I think make them more easy to agree to because we can say, hey, yeah, we're we're not gonna, you know, we just did the deck, , we're not gonna do a trip this year because we spent so much on this and we both enjoy it. And I I I think talking, you know, like I find it frightening that families don't talk about money. They don't they don't talk about it to kids, they don't really talk about it. I don't remember my parents sitting down and talking about money. I remember, you know, I mean, all these papers in the tax time on the table, but they were like sacred. You couldn't move this here to the because everybody was on edge. And I look at that and say, why do we feel such anxiety on money? Well, geez, as a society, you know, I don't know, sex, drugs, you know, politics. I I think that money is is in that top four of things that you just you're you you you get chills when you think about what if I was to have to talk to people about this. And I I think it's you know, who else with the people around you that love you are you going to share your money story with and money help? And if you're not helping each other, I don't know who you know, like hey, I'm gonna be the best, you know, what is it, the the the cobbler's kids who have no shoes?

Kathy Karlic 31:29

That's right, right, right, right. Well, to you know, to that point on kids, a couple of things that we've done over time, and I'm gonna get back to another question you asked me about how you can help. So with our kids, when they were growing up, , we gave them allowances and we were like, how do we talk to them about saving some of that money? Because one kid would go out and buy, you know, spend the $10 they got, and then another one wanted to do another chore, so they got a couple extra dollars, but that would all go um, you know, to something they wanted to buy. So in the end, when we upped their allowances, we said, hey, if you put any money into the bank, and it could be birthday presents, you know, anything that you got as a gift, if you kept it in the bank for one year, we'll give you a 50% bonus. Now that's pretty generous, but you know, on a hundred bucks, you know, it's 50 bucks. And for the kids are like, wow, that's really good. Well, my daughter then figured out well, if she kept $150 in from year one, she would get the compounding effect, you know, another 50% on top of that 150. And so the kids then all of a sudden started changing their framework of spending to savings. So starting early with children in ways that impact, you know, their thinking and their thinking around money, and that's a really simple example, but it worked because all of our kids now have savings and they know the value of you know an emergency fund. Like we ask our kids, do you have $2,000 in case you have an emergency? And we know most Americans don't. Um, so then we segued into how are we gonna teach them about investing? And I started out with a paper portfolio, and they did pretty good and when they wanted to sell and what they could take out if they had a gain. But then I said, okay, enough of this paper portfolio. Here's shares. Here, here's shares. I'm gonna give you some shares. Um, yeah, you know, again, this is not going back into the most practical way to give shares when, you know, if I die, they get a step up basis. But that's not the lesson I'm teaching them. I'm teaching them when you have shares, when are you gonna sell? Are you gonna sell? Are you gonna sit on that? And, you know, we have a great example in the market the last couple of months, up and down, up and down, up and down. And um it was very interesting because you and I probably listened to some of the same shows and all the talking heads and tell you you should be buying this and you should be buying that, and this is good, and you know, the AI trade is dead or not, who the heck knows yet? Um, and so lo and behold, in my daughter's portfolio, um, because of a gift many, many years ago, she actually had shares of the two top performing stocks last year. She had Sand Disc and she had Western Digital. And I'm like, holy crow! You know, nobody even predicted those are gonna be winners. She had a small position, and I'm like, Katie, this is now gonna be your portfolio moment. Are you gonna hold them? You're gonna buy more, or are you gonna sell some? And about um two or three weeks ago, she sold both of her positions out because she went, you know what? I've earned my money, I am gonna go and diversify, and this is a much better way to prepare for some um expenditures that she has coming up in the next couple of months, like a car. So it's valuable when you give kids a paper portfolio, but it was really more valuable for them to own the shares and call the shot on the sell. And I think we all would agree buying is easy. The sell decision in a portfolio, a repositioning decision, is so much harder than saying I'm gonna buy something.

Steve Davenport 35:19

Okay. Clem, do you have some questions or ideas or things?

Clem Miller 35:24

Well, I you know, let me just say I totally agree with you that that selling is a lot harder than buying. Uh, and that's something that I think all of us need to learn. It's a really hard thing to learn. It's not natural to think about selling. You know, if you you know, a lot of people just run with their gains. And , you know, I had my recent experience where I had a lot of gold, I let it run up, and then as soon as I start seeing start at fall, it it it was something that I I sold you know pretty much right away. Uh so I had to make a quick call, and I I think I made the correct call, but stuff on that on that point. But I've certainly made my mistakes too. I actually have standisc in my portfolio right now, and I'm seeing it plunged. It's too late to get out of it. Uh so I I need for it to or too late.

Kathy Karlic 36:18

Buy some more. I don't know.

Clem Miller 36:20

Uh I don't think I'm gonna buy any more, but it's certainly a great stock. So I want to see it um pick back up again. So um maybe a little risky, but we'll see. No, I I think you know, Kathy, what you're doing is is really fantastic work. And it I think you know it it has to be done. It's it's stuff that you know clearly there's a need for for more information, for more guidance, , for more mentoring, right? That's essentially what you're doing, is you're you're packaging mentoring, right? And um you know, you've got that emotional barrier, and it really is an emotional barrier, I think, for many women. It's it's to say, well, I can't, you know, maybe some folks say, well, I I don't have the ability to do this, or I don't um you know, somebody else can do it a lot better for you know than I can do it. Um I think a lot of people make that mistake, you know, in a lot of areas, not just finance, but you know, in a lot of areas we say, well, we'll just leave it to somebody else to do. And you can get you can get in trouble for that. Like, you know, you have a a broker or or somebody you might go to and the broker might, you know, they're self-interested, right? Uh and so you know, you gotta have at least enough knowledge to be able to ask the questions. You gotta be able to ask the the tough questions and say, well, why should I buy this thing? What are the pros and the cons? And if all you're hearing are pros, then forget it. Right? You don't want to hear just so I don't know. What do you I mean, it it sounds like what you're doing is very important work and and valuable work, and I think it's um you know it's a real benefit to society.

Kathy Karlic 38:10

Well, thank you for that. You know, we have a website, we post a new blog every Friday. Uh we're we're we're right in this little basic area still. Um, I have a really interesting presentation at our Sedona Library on the 14th, and we have limited it to 12 people, most of the seats filled up over the weekend already. And I have some really cool handouts to the point, Clem, that you were just making. I'm using smiley faces like math makes my head hurt, math brings me joy, I don't want to lose money, I'm okay with volatility. I mean, I'm trying to get them to think about what their investment personality is. And then the last thing I want to um point point out in this, what information, how you could help. Any ideas that you bring to me, either to be a guest writer, somebody wants to be a guest writer, is great. I'm doing another presentation in May, and it's to a woman's group in town, and women from every single different walk of life that you can imagine, because Sedona is a real melting pot, is that as far as that's concerned? I got 40 responses back immediately on nine questions. There is no trend. Every single topic I wrote about, women want to know. What should be, what do I have to do as an executrix? Demystify all this jargon. How do I get my financial documents in order? What are the basics of the stock market? I mean, there were nine different categories, and I thought I would take the top three, but I said circle everything you might have interest. Then they circled, circled, circled, circled. So the demand for this information is extremely high. The answers all exist. You and I could write all the examples. I mean, we could write all the answers, you know, if we sat down and had a session for the next three hours, but it's the delivery technique that's really different. And if you look at my website, it's it's it's not like any other financial website that you'll see. And I have no affiliations, which is good. I have no products that I'm selling, I'm putting the information out there. I think if women are more knowledgeable, their partners help them. Honestly, the results that I would like is yes, those four generations are taken care of. Yes, philanthropy has, you know, more generous donors. I think that's really important. It's what I've done with some of my wealth is to put it into causes that really matter. And three, the amount of stress that financial issues cause, it's the number one um source of stress, financial topics. And so if women and men could leave healthier lives by reducing the financial stress because they're learning something through the suddenly used society and our website, isn't the world a better place?

Clem Miller 41:13

Yeah. No, that's great. Do you do you advise also on um on the spending side in addition to the the investing side?

Kathy Karlic 41:25

No. Well, I say no. I don't want to get into budgeting and you know, like putting together a basic budget, but we did write about the dangers of by now pay later loans and what it does, you know, to your um budgeting. We talked about looking at your interest rates on credit cards, you know, unbeknownst to me, one of my major department store cards had a 33% interest rate on. And I'm like, holy crow, that's crazy. Um, so I write topics like that, but I'm not gonna advise on how somebody should do their budget. I think I would go down that route and not be able to talk about what I really want to talk about is stronger investing, what it means to be an executrix, what are you gonna do when you inherit this stuff from your husband? You know, as Steve, you pointed out, we live longer. We're gonna get a bunch of stuff. And it may not be all clear. And, you know, the inventory. I just did an inventory sheet for people to use of all these different things where all your money is, all your assets are. It goes on and on and on and on and on. It is not a short list of stuff we all have.

Steve Davenport 42:35

No, I think that you're approaching it the right way, which is every situation is unique. Um, I look at people and I say, you know, I mean, there is no silver bullet. There is no one way to, you know, okay, I'm gonna try to invest 20% in metals and 30% in bonds and 50% in stocks, but I'm only gonna invest in international because there's nothing but chaos in the US. Or I don't believe what's happening in the rest of the world, I'm gonna invest only in the US. It's everyone has a flavor and an experience of their lives that that colors some of those things. And I think one of the things I would rather do is let's talk about what and why you're doing it, and then figure out a way to satisfy. Because the biggest detractor we found when we talk about families in this in this industry is you know, they make a mistake and they sell when it's you know low or market down, and then they don't buy one, you know, we buy high and sell low. And if we can just get people to feel comfortable and happy with what they're investing, all of a sudden they become, instead of one or two year investors, they become five, six, seven. Yeah, and once you start stretching out that time period, they start to see success. And so I almost think that you know we we try on the podcast here to focus on time and patience and in general, not trying to hit the home runs, but hit a lot of singles and doubles, right? And yeah, I I I I think that what you're doing is is putting that into people's lives, which um you know, if we can be of help, yeah, let us know because we kind of try to help in whatever way makes sense because the more we promote you know the more um good things happening in society, yeah. I mean, it helps Clem and I feel like hey. This podcast has meaning.

Kathy Karlic 44:44

Yeah, I totally agree. Totally agree. And you know, if I could share the website is suddenly-you.com, if you put that in the comments, and then you could follow us on Facebook, sign up for the newsletter. Um, I'm hoping to do classes come the second half of the year because I'll have everything packaged up and I'll have like again, these are basics. How do you start a brokerage account? Um, and I really think that presentations, so you know, the quick ideas are Steve, let's do something in Charlotte and Clem, let's do something in Baltimore, let's get a group of, you know, women together. There's so many different ways to do it through colleges or churches or social groups or, you know, our old work associates that are now part of different affinity groups, um, have missions, have um giving circles. There's a lot of ways to put people into, get people into the same room, and then work on these basics. And in my intro video, I talk about we have to reduce the shame and the embarrassment that women feel feel in asking the questions. And we're talking women who have college degrees that have said to me, I walk into my advisor's office and he says, Hmm, how much risk would you like to take? And she's like, How the heck do I even answer that question? How much risk? What does that mean? So I think there's so many collaborations that we could come up with in person, you know, another video, , looking at the websites, adding more literacy, documents onto my website for women. Yeah, finding good guest writers, that would be awesome.

Steve Davenport 46:30

Okay, it's um suddenly-you dot com. Um, Kathy Karlick, um, it's been great to have you on. And Clem, I don't know if you want to go last or we leave Kathy. Um just tell our listeners, you know, in in in your finale here, what you know, what and how do you think we're missing as a you know society that we could find again? Because I think there's a lot of disconnect and a lot of tension, especially now. And I think that acts like these and groups like these are really bringing us back to what I consider to be, you know, some of the core parts of um America, you know.

Kathy Karlic 47:17

So sitting in Sedona, I'm gonna I'm gonna leave with what can we do? What can be brought back? Um kindness. I think kindness, speaking from the heart, you know, really caring for that person sitting next to you. It's really easy to think that can't possibly be true. Are they struggling? You know, we don't know. We don't know their stories. And in my work on my not-for-profit, um, there's a lot of people struggling out there. I work with a lot of people across the country in my not-for-profit work. So I would say kindness and I would say community. Um, when I get groups together, , we make simple blankets, but um 12 women sitting around making blankets, the conversations start, the connectivity, the commonality, you know, is found. And I'm hoping that some of that same experience feeling emotions, we can take this world that's difficult, um, shame fulfilled sometimes, um, and oftentimes taboo of finance and investing, that we can just find a common ground to talk about it. Hey, hubby, give me help me out. Am I on your, you know, help me out? Where are those accounts?

Steve Davenport 48:36

So I think that's great. Kindness and community. Um Kathy, I really appreciate having you on, and we'd love to have you off. Thank you. I think your work is wonderful, and , you know, I I hope we can do something to promote and help you succeed because I think the world needs more kindness and community.

Kathy Karlic 48:56

Thank you so much. I appreciate the time. It's been great.