Planarchy: The Womens Retirement Savings Gap

Kalin and Katherine host a panel discussion with three industry professionals. Nashira Lynton, Founder of  Renewed Wealth Therapy. Tanya Temchenko, PHRi, SPHR, Senior People Business Partner at Janus Henderson Investors. Eunice Hadley, Manager at Invesco. In this episode, this powerhouse of a panel discusses the retirement savings gap for women. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Welcome to Planarchy. I'm Kaelin Jordan, joined as always by my co-host Catherine Tipper, and today we have a really special episode. It's our first time hosting a full panel, and we pulled together three women whose work sits right at the intersection of money, behavior, and what it takes to build financial security. So Women's Retirement Security Day is just around the corner, and we wanted to mark it with a conversation that goes beyond the talking point. So today we're joined by Tanya Temchenko, Senior People Business Partner at Janice Henderson Investors in Denver, Eunice Hadley, manager of Business Support at Investgo in Houston, and Ms. Rahlinton, founder of Renewable Wealth Therapy. Welcome to all three of you. Thank you for joining us. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Thank you for having us. Thank you. This is exciting. Hey, let's we're going to ask individual questions first. And so let's go with Tanya. You talked about the real cost of caregiving when we've talked to you before. Not just the time, but what does it what does it do to your financial picture? Can you walk us through what it looked like for you to do this?

SPEAKER_05 1:18

Yeah, uh I would be happy to. And again, thank you so much for having me. I do hope that some of the experiences that I went through personally and that I'm going to share will be helpful to uh other women going through similar experiences. You know how they say that retirement does not uh you don't choose retirement but it chooses you. I want to say that caregiving is the same. It uh you don't choose caregiving, it chooses you. And you know, when it comes, it hits you with all sorts of costs. You know, it's the cost of time, it's the cost of your mental and emotional capital, and of course it's its financial costs. So um just to briefly share what I went through, uh, my parents had uh to escape Ukraine uh at an onset of the uh Russian invasion in 2022, and they they came with one suitcase between the two of them. So uh I all of a sudden just became responsible for the financial uh well-being of two additional adults uh where I had to you know start them from scratch, uh get them all of their basic necessities, um, uh from there to uh taking care of their health um needs. Um this required me to get very creative. At first, it didn't feel very much like a financial burden. Um, you know, the community came together. I can't be thankful enough to my neighbors, uh my gym crowd uh back in Atlanta uh that just came together and helped us uh you know to get things going by just donating uh things of the primary needs. But then all of a sudden, you know, the costs of um uh the the surprise costs of uh the healthcare where you have two adults without health insurance, and how do you get creative about um addressing um you know their their dental needs and uh um everything around it? Um it did require a lot of uh investment that was not expected. I do uh think it um helped that I was creative by finding things that were either discounted or donated or open to community, uh, but it certainly depleted my uh emergency fund. It went into my savings. Um one thing that I want to share, I did not ever compromise was um my retirement savings. I never stopped my contributions, uh, they were automated, they were basically the money that I never had access to, I never sold them. The moment the paycheck arrived, it all uh it immediately went into uh respective uh retirement accounts. So um while my emergency fund was depleted, um, you know, uh I was able to restore it, but I'm very happy to say that the sense of um security for for my retirement it stayed there.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Wow, yeah. It's amazing to be able to pull that off. And and you're this clearly is something you didn't choose, it chose you, and you had to respond to it in real time. Um yeah, Kaelin, any questions or we have a question for Eunice?

SPEAKER_02 4:44

Yeah, I have a question. I have a question for Eunice. Um you know, you told us that you grew up being told to save, and it sounds like you did, but at some point you realize that savings in a checking count and investing are two different things. And what helped you get to that kind of understanding?

SPEAKER_04 5:03

Sure. Well, first I'm gonna say thank you to my parents because that is something they stressed over and over, always to make sure that it was safe. But based on their knowledge, the only thing they knew was savings accounts, check-in accounts. They knew nothing about investing. But because they stressed it so much, I was always a saver from the very first job that I had. I've always been that person to save. When I started working at Investor, I gained a deeper understanding of investing and its role in long-term financial security. I figured out that having money in a savings account, um checking account, that's not going to do it for my retirement. So I realized that I have to do something different, okay? Especially with the remote interest rate. Anyone who knows or has ever put money into a savings account, you're lucky if you get maybe 0.3 interest rate, right? So I knew I had to do something different. So investing for me, it started just with Investor and I've continued ever since. And I realized that it does provide a significant greater opportunity for clones than a savings account or a checking account could ever do. I also realized that I can't rely on Social Security. Anyone who's watched the news recently, we know that the by 2032 Congress is saying Social Security may be out of money. So I know that I couldn't rely on Social Security. So I took control of all of my financial future and I focused on putting money into my 401k. I opened multiple RAs. I have other investments that I make it also in some stocks. Of course, I'm getting older, so I've pulled back on the stocks of what it is. You know, I want to be a little bit more. I need reliable um securities. So I've done that, and in the process, I've also made sure that I have an emergency fund, six to twelve months. My mom always told me that. Always have that emergency fund. But what I'm doing with that emergency fund also is instead of keeping it in a traditional savings account, I do short-term CDs with that. And I mean really short term, like three months, six months. Because of course, we know that CDs pay a better rate than a savings account with category. So that's those are some of the things that I'm doing to make sure that I secure my retirement future.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Yeah. Sounds great. You built on a strong foundation, which your parents knew the right habits, but you had to really grow in terms of what do you do with those habits when you're an adult in a society where, like you said, Social Security would be great if it keeps we've put money into it, we'd love for it, and we need it for things, but you need to be able to be realistic and really have your own accounts. So um Nashira, growing up, what what did money look like in your house and what stumbling blocks do you see that hold women back today?

SPEAKER_03 8:35

Well, thank you guys for having me. Um growing up, my parents actually came to this country, they met and had me. Uh, but one of the things that I always say is that I wish I was the person they met when they got here. Because really, they taught me how to work hard, how to um, you know, manage the household funds in terms of making sure that our bills were paid and covered, but that's as far as it went. There wasn't really anything after. Um, as long as you graduated from high school and you got a good job, there wasn't no talk about retirement, there wasn't any talk about investing, and so growing up, I decided I wanted to learn more about money, and so went to school and got a master's degree. Um, but I still was missing the conversation about what retirement could really look like for me. And I didn't have those conversations until I started opening up about my own financial situation. Um, but now I do that here at Renewed Wealth Therapy, and so while we may not be talking directly about retirement, we are talking about the emotions, the behaviors, the patterns that get in the way of them for their financial goals, whether that be retirement or something else. And so I see a lot of people who are experts in their field, they may be experts in whether it's medical, whether it's legal. And so the shame around not having their money altogether or not having a retirement creates this stumbling block. It creates avoidance, uh, it creates them wanting to talk about anything else other than their finances. And so, really opening up about my own situation or just even allowing them to share what their beliefs are about retirement, it really has helped even engage people in the conversation so that they can get to a place where they're willing and they're able to even start preparing for what that could look like.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

There's a lot of growth that a lot of people need to do, as you say, and some of it it's actually getting vulnerable and talking out loud and realizing you need to talk and uh and learn. Um Kaylin, what questions do you have for the group?

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Yeah, um, I I'd like to start with, you know, we spoke to all of you beforehand, and I feel like there was a common thread that I saw, which is the influence of the women around you, your friends, your family, your colleagues. How did they shape how you think about money? Um I I feel like the stories I've heard from everybody, it sounds like the things that you've heard from your family or from like somebody in your young life influences more about how you think about money than a lot of the professional advice you're giving, because like Nashera's just saying, it's behavioral. So I would just love to know how those kinds of people have influenced each of you.

SPEAKER_04 11:35

I did start. For me, um, when I think about the women around me, whether it's family, colleagues, friends, um, they've reinforced one key message, and that is that life is unpredictable. So it is really, really important to have financial independence. I know I've seen some of the women around me events like divorce, whether it's a loss of a job or job change, it literally completely shifts your financial reality. And that is something that I wanted to make sure that build-in options, my goal is to remain totally independent financially, especially since I have two sons, and the one thing I tell them all the time is that I do not want to be a financial grade when I get older. Um, I want to ensure, and that is what I'm doing right now, I am building financial stability because one thing I've also told them is that I want to stay in my home. I don't want to go to a nursing home. I don't want to be a financial burden on them. So that's what I'm doing. And looking at the women around me when they've had loss, I I made an admission that that will not happen to me. I am going to continue to save, put as invest, put as much money as I can into my financial future so that I am not dependent on my sons financially, and I don't want to put them in a place where they feel like they have to take care of me.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Very good. Yeah. Yeah. Um and it's what's funny is um I would say that even Tanya, you can kind of build on that kind of community thing, because you even had a gym, a gym group that helped you, helped you through a financial when I when I when you think about the people you need, you need your family and everything else. You actually had a gym group. So um that's unexpected and kind of wonderful in terms of how a community can help you out. So um don't know if you have more to add on that, but uh that that that's how it it looks to me. And I know um Yeah. I don't, you know, Eunice, do you have anything else that you oh well you that was lovely. So um so okay. So the next question is whether it's watching a friend go through a divorce, learning from parents' habits, or or building something alongside other women. What role has community played in your own financial story? Kind of similar, but community versus family. So do do any of you feel like you're in a community that's helped you too?

SPEAKER_05 14:42

I I would just maybe go first and I will share that uh the community in which I grew up taught me completely the opposite. Um and then um, you know, I grew up amongst the people that were not really focused on the financial security, they were relying on, you know, social security that will kick in once, you know, they stop working. Um they were not really relying on themselves. And um I had to relearn things when I became an adult that self-reliance is um of primary importance, um, you know, just beckon up a few things that Huni said. Um financial independence is so important in order to not be dependent on your loved ones, not to put that burden on them. Um, and uh, you know, the community that I grew up in did not really focus on that. So I had to understand that what what they were focused on was not the right way, um, and uh find the right ways for myself.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Um it's always interesting when you have to learn learn the uh really look hard on the community and what their values though, just getting here and making it work is pro possibly what they were really thinking about, but um and I say that because I have a German, I have a German mother-in-law, and getting here and having the institutions take care of you is what she still really believes in, and it's hard to watch the shift right now where we have to look out for ourselves too. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:17

Well from a Caribbean background, um I don't for us, it's all about saving.

SPEAKER_03 16:22

For me, you know, community came in when I was working in corporate before my entrepreneurial journey. Um, I had paid off $60,000 in debt as a single mom of two boys, and I really had this idea on what I wanted my financial plan to look like, when I was gonna start, you know, contributing enough to retirement. And it wasn't until a colleague, you know, I was sharing that story with a colleague who actually opened my eyes to what was possible if I made a few changes, and I started contributing a little bit more and paying attention to that. And so it was because of a conversation, like you never know who you're gonna sit next to when you're working, uh, but because of that conversation and the honesty and the open availability for someone to just talk to me about what they were doing, it shifts a lot for me, especially towards just the one way that I was looking at it, the one plan that I had. And so I was thankful for that. And that really changed the game for me.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Yeah, it's fun. Yeah, and talking just sitting at sitting next to the right person in a conference can make a huge difference.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

And so um You want to sit next to Catherine if you go to a conference. That's what I figured out. Oh, next to.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

So okay. Um any other questions, Caitlin, that you can think of that you want to close it out?

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Or yeah, I I think we'd love to close. We ask the same question of of everyone on all of our podcasts, but we'd love to hear from each of you. What is one money myth that you want to bust that you think would make people's lives easier or make easier for women to save? Um yeah, any anybody can jump in.

SPEAKER_04 18:13

It's not too late to start investing. It's never too late. Starting now is better than never starting.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Yep, that's very long.

SPEAKER_05 18:24

Yeah. Yeah. Um, this is not my original idea, but this is a recurring theme that I've been hearing with some of the financial wellness podcasters, uh, all women, um, it and it resonates with me so well. Um, it's about when you get paid, pay yourself first. Our traditional approach is once you get paid, you pay all the bills and cover all your wants, and then try to save whatever is left. Um, the challenging approach for it is once you get paid, pay yourself first. And pay yourself first doesn't mean go um go and do whatever is shopping's free. It means uh take care of your future self. Pay your future self, put the money into your own retirement, especially if you're able to automate that. Uh, the default outcome is building uh the financial wealth. Um so I love this idea of paying yourself first.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 19:24

Yeah, the myth really is around behavioral. So there is this common, I I hear it all the time is when I get, and you fill in the blank, like when I get higher income, when I get the a few additional clients, or when I get the next job, then I'll start. And I love to debunk that myth because that keeps you uncurious, right? Or you're not curious enough of what else you can do to start, whether it's retirement or start towards your financial goals. And so that would be the one for me. Because you can always find another way to do something.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Yours and businesses really go hand in hand. And I I like the whole um when you start earlier and you're curious, you you need to be learning earlier too. It's not just saving earlier, it's learning earlier because you don't really most people with 401k plans, they don't understand them till they're in them. They don't understand them until they've been in them a while. So you're you're part of, yeah, you need to take the leap to start learning it and as soon as possible. So okay, well, thank you so much, everyone, for stepping up and being on this podcast with us. We very much appreciate it. Um if you have questions for Kaelin and I, easiest to get a hold of us is by email at sales at hunterbenefits.com, as well as we're both on LinkedIn. And I believe all three of these ladies are can be found on LinkedIn. Um, they're very connected. So if you have specific questions, um, follow-up, or um want to say, you know, thank you, that's a great way to get a hold of everyone. So um I look forward to um thank you for helping us build this Women's Retirement Security Day. It's our first one ever, and I think we're getting a lot of traction um by getting a lot of people involved because it's the stories that you bring to this that really helps people stop and go, hey, I need to think about this. You know, do it now. So thank you very much, ladies.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

It's a big day.