May 9, 2025 • 49 mins
BA Fam, we’re in our investing bag today—and who better to guide us through this unpredictable market than Racquel Oden, Head of U.S. Wealth and Personal Banking for HSBC (yes, that HSBC)? With 30 years of experience under her belt, Racquel breaks it all the way down: why now *isn’t* the time to panic, how to pivot smartly, and what staying “active” with your money really means (spoiler: it’s not staring at your account every five minutes).
Mandi gets personal about her own portfolio (yes, she opened the statement during the episode), and Racquel walks her—and all of us—through what to look for, what questions to ask, and why we all need to stop avoiding our finances like that dentist appointment we keep pushing back. If you've been wondering whether you should move money, sit tight, or finally talk to a pro—this episode is your sign.
What We Discuss :
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Why market dips can actually be buying opportunities (especially in sectors like AI, healthcare, and utilities).
-
The real definition of “active investing” (and why it doesn’t mean day trading).
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Why diversification > putting all your eggs in one stock basket.
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How to figure out your risk tolerance and time horizon like a grown-up.
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Why now is the perfect time for a financial check-in, not a freak-out.
LET’S STAY CONNECTED
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Website: [brownambitionpodcast.com](https://www.brownambitionpodcast.com)
Subscribe & leave us a review—because we love hearing from our BA fam!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This whole tariff situation. God, there's like specific days of
the week when I really get it.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The volatility has been absolutely at a very high level
since January. Administration made a pause for the next ninety days.
So July ninth is like the day we all need
to pay attention of what ends up happening because there
was a ninety day pause. Is it going to be
permanent policy or is he going to reverse some of
those things? And the reason why that matters is corporates
(00:26):
have not really what I call with the tariffs, passed
it on to the end consumer.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yet. Hey, hey, bafam, it's your girl, Mandy Money and
welcome back to another episode of Brown Ambition. If you're
just joining us, welcome to the BA fam. This is
the podcast where we care as much about your financial
glow up as you do. It is the main character
(00:53):
of the episode here. I keep it real about money, career,
financial curveball, And at a time like this, I have
never been more grateful that I made this show because
I need this show as much as y'all need this show. Today,
I am diving deep and like headlong into the question
that y'all have been sending me on Instagram. By the way,
(01:16):
at Branda Mission Podcast, I actually read your dm so
please send them to me. Love your feedback. But y'all
are stressed. I mean I went on my Instagram stories
recently and I asked, what are y'all uncertain about? What
is keeping you up at night? And again and again.
What I heard was the stock market, the economy, inflation,
(01:39):
the job market, all of those things. Now, I can't
tackle like everything in one episode, so I thought today
I would bring on an expert and have a really
frank discussion about how do we invest how do we
make a financial plan at a time like this when
everything is just bat ish crazy. Y'all know what I'm
(02:02):
talking about, Okay. I mean, y'all probably hear it in
your group chat, And if it's not in your group chat,
y'all probably wish it was in the group chat so
you wouldn't feel so alone. That's why Brown Ambition is here.
So if you're someone like me, you've been side eyeing
your four to oh one k, you're wondering if you
should do something, do nothing, or just like go hide
(02:22):
for me in my emotional support vehicle. I just hide
in my car sometimes and spend like thirty minutes doom
scrolling or just staring off into space, and it's my
safe space. You know. Maybe that for you is like
under your covers with a great show on Netflix. Maybe
it's going to a friend's place. Whatever it is, we
are getting out from under the covers today. I am
(02:43):
getting out of my emotional support car. Y'all see I'm
not well. If you're on YouTube, you see I'm not
in the car right now. I am here with y'all,
and we are going to confront this head on, so
to help make sense of all of this market madness.
I'm joined by none other than Raquel Odin, the US
head of Wealth Premiere and Global Private Banking. In other words,
(03:05):
she runs that iss y'all. She is overseeing all the
wealth advisors at this massive global bank HSBC, and she's
here today with us, with me, which is incredible. She is,
and I don't say this lightly, one of the most
powerful women in banking, one of the most powerful Black
women in banking. She's got over thirty years of experience
(03:26):
helping people just like us navigate the ups, the downs,
and the what even is happening right now moments in
our financial life. On today's episode, we're going to talk
about how to handle market volatility without losing your mind
or hopefully your money, Which sectors might actually be smart
to invest in right now, Why my own financial strategy
(03:48):
set it and forget it is not exactly the right
strategy to be using right now. In fact, I am
literally going to log into my investment accounts and check
my investments for the first time in months. And Raquel
isn't she she's not going to read me for filth.
She's very gentle with me. But I actually discover something
(04:08):
crazy about my own investments that I thought I knew
what I was invested in. But I was shocked to
find out what I did about my investments today. And
I wouldn't have done that if Raquel wouldn't have snatched
me together and said, girl, if you don't log into
that Vanguard account and see what's going on in there,
and I'm so glad I did. We're also going to
talk about how women, especially you know us women of color,
are changing the investing game. So talking get out a
(04:33):
pen and paper, and if anything, get ready to see
what it can be like if we just stop being
afraid and stressed and nervous about seeing what's going on
in our finances and we actually confront it head on.
So this was a huge step outside of my own
comfort zone. I am asking y'all to do the same
and meet me here in this safe space we've created
(04:56):
on Brown Ambition where we are going to feel empowered
to take char of our finances, to actually get in
the driver's seat when it comes to our investing strategy.
And it all starts today. Welcome to the Brown Ambition
Podcast again for my new Ba fam, Hello and for
Ogba Fam. I love y'all so much. Enjoy today's show,
(05:18):
Brown Ambition. At a time like this, it is I'm
so grateful to have this platform. I think that it
gives us a way to speak right to the community.
Who is you know, really going through it in so
many ways? And today we're just going to talk about
the financial ways that we are going through it now.
(05:38):
In your experience, you're working at one of the biggest
banks in the world right and you probably or you
tell me, but do you feel like you get a
really good sense of what the typical like American savior
investor is going through right now, Like what they're struggling
with what are the biggest questions we're having.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
It's great, Mandy, thank you for having me excited to
be here with you, and couldn't agree more. Working for
a large global bank or just all of us, this
is one thing we all have in common. And there's
definitely three things I probably would put it under the
lens of Number one would definitely be uncertainty trying to
understand what is going on right now. The second one
(06:20):
would be how to manage through this extreme market volatility
we're all experiencing. And then thirdly would be the impact
that we are seeing based on this administration and words
and policies such as tariffs, what does that really mean
to me? And then again the fourth one, I'm going
to add one more, which is just individual everyday living
(06:43):
things seem more expensive. We also don't know what this
really means from a long term standpoint, based on all
the commitments we received as it related to this administration
coming in on our expectations. So are the expectations we
all wanted are we seeing it? And right now with
all the things that I just mentioned, you know, those
(07:03):
are three things that are still not result for individual.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, it's just and you know, and We don't really
do well with discomfort and uncertainty, as you very well know.
I mean, you've been in banking for how many years now,
thirty years, thirty years, so this is not your first
volatile economy, you know. I imagine you must feel how
I felt that, Like three thirty am, when my toddler's
(07:28):
screaming at me and can't really articulate, and really I'm
just like, you're tired, go to sleep, but he's like, no,
what I really want to do is throw some trucks
around and watch pepa peg at three thirty in the morning.
But I know it's best for him, but he's not listening.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
It's not well. I think you might say too, We're
not sure who's listening. But I do think it's important
that one I start with, you should not feel alone. Right, So,
no matter where you are in your financial journey, no
matter how much money you have, how big or how little,
we're all feeling the same. Right. Always want to give
everyone permission that it's okay tof not feel okay, because
(08:03):
that's how we're all feeling.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, And you know, the inclination is like, I'm not
feeling this way, so I need to do something if
I just could do something, I could if I was
just smart enough, or I had the right tip or strategy.
And then you get questions like we're getting from ba Fan,
which is like should I be making any adjustments to
my investments or is it safe to invest anymore? You know, ah,
(08:26):
what can I do? And sometimes what they don't want
to hear is like probably nothing. But how would you
answer that question when the answer is like what thing
can I do today to make myself feel better?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
So it starts with one I tell everyone the same thing,
which is, in these moments, you really do feel paralyzed,
right because you don't know do I just stay, do
I move? Am I missing out on the opportunity? And
the answer is all three. So if you have long
term investments, I always say stay the course. Markets always
(09:00):
always recover, right, So that's the resiliency of the markets
we can rely on. But again, when I say stay
the course, that's going to be for the things that
you have put away for long term retirement. You know
your four oh one k it could be your education
for your young son that one day's going away for school,
but he's not going to school tomorrow, so you know,
you're investing right now for the long term, and so
(09:22):
in this moment lots of volatility, but the markets do recover,
So if you are in the market, you should stay
the course. But at the same time because there is
a lot of volatility, so it's actually a buying opportunity.
And that always feels pretty counter to individuals because when
you see the market doing these swings and you see
it going down exponentially on some days, you say to yourself, well,
(09:44):
I don't want to be part of that. Well, that's
actually the opportunity where you can enter. It's kind of
what I call counter to your emotions, and that's the
hard part about investing Emotionally, you say, why do I
want to be part of something that's going down? But
really that's really the greatest opportunity for you to kind
of potentially enter in the markets. And then as part
of that buying opportunity, you want to make sure you're
(10:06):
focused on particular sectors only because in this environment right now,
things such as tariff will have impact on some very
important sectors and there'd be some sectors it does not
have impact on. To keep that in mind, I always
been a big advocate if I think about the sectors
that I think are going to be resilient, meaning they're
going to do well even in this time and really
(10:26):
have good what I consider long term trajectory on growth. One,
I always start with technology, the tech sector. You know.
The irony of this is, before all this started, there
was something called the MAG seven and extremely expensive. We
were seeing crazy increases in the MAG seven where people
(10:47):
just couldn't even like be able to enter about Amazon
and the video it's just the vidio. It's so exciting
the video. Right. So here's where you'd say with AIS.
When I say tech, I'm really pointing to the AI
side of it. So thank you, Mandy. That is really
what I mean by tech. It's really talking about in
(11:07):
the importance of AI. AI's in the early innings, very
early stages. Quite honestly, if you think about the dot
com eraror of the nineteen nineties where we were trying
to figure out where the Internet was going and what
dot coms we're going to make it, we're literally in
the beginning of that phase right now with AI, and
so it's a buying opportunity, right, and so with this
(11:29):
market volatility, there are great MAG seven tech companies that
are what i'd say, leaning into that AI component that
you could actually have the opportunity be part of. I
also think, hello, okay.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
I love and you're going to talk about healthcare. Cool.
I just want to know because I was just talking
about this yesterday. There's ways to invest in these sectors,
like you said, without picking one company here and there, right,
So can we talk about that? You keep going though,
but I want to talk about like nope, and mutual
funds ETFs. What are we talking about here?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah? So when I start with you know the idea
of sectors and so you talked about tech but being
very specific on the AI tech company, so maybe you
know that and subtlety that you talked about. I mentioned
healthcare only because again with the innovation and AI, it
is having exponential impact on the healthcare sector. Right, So
when you think about healthcare and where we're going, it
(12:24):
is really going to be a catalyst for that sector
where it's going to do really well long term. And
I could point to utilities as a third one. So
to your exact question, Uh, it isn't about buying single
stocks all the time. It depends where you are in
your investment journey. It really is about diversifying portfolios, right,
(12:47):
So it really is figuring out how do I get
into a managed portfolio of a bunch of stocks and
bonds put together. That allows me to say, which, how
heavy do I want to be in equities right now?
Versus how do I want to be and let's say
fixed income, alternatives or structure. Right So, even from that
standpoint of diversifying your portfolio, and then very specifically within
(13:10):
the equities bucket is where you heard me talking about,
let's focus on tech, let's focus on healthcare, let's focus
on you know, let's focus on mutilities. There's a reason
why we're saying it in that standpoint that where i'd say,
in markets like this, this is where you have a
CAP twenty two, I'm not saying you should not buy
individual stocks, that there are going to be particular ones
(13:30):
that you've always had interest in or that you think
matter to you, but I wouldn't use this as the
opportunity for you to now start managing full portfolios. Right
And so that does include what type of product solutions
are we going for? Is it mutual funds like you said,
is it ETF? What type of bonds? You know, where
should I put in my treasuries. That gets to the
(13:53):
point where you might say, this is where I'm also
giving the abvacy advocacy to everybody to say, in markets
like this that are pretty complex right now, there is
not one person that has the answer to where this
is going and what it's going to need. I also
give people permission to get professional help well, because this
is a really complicated market right now that I'd have
to say based on an administration that we have in
(14:16):
office right now and where we are focused on the
balance of inflation as well as what we're actually seeing
from the standpoint of performance in the markets. It's not
one we can point to history on and so this
is where if you've run and you have the ability
to do so, it is important to one get on
podcasts like this and really listen to what people are
(14:37):
telling you in the standpoint of what do I need
separate long term needs versus short term needs. So I
just told you, like, stay the course on your long
term needs, but there are things you could be doing
in the short term if you've got short term cash needs,
things where you don't have five or ten years. There's
different recommendations I'd make you know. I would say treasuries
are really a good opportunity right now. Gold is doing
(14:59):
really well now. Hedge funds is another what I call
short term vehicle that you could focus on right now
for needs of ensuring that you're not seeing in a
checking account a cash checking account and getting no yield.
But there are safer, shorter term products where you can
get yielded but still have access to that cash right
and not having to wait for that long resolve of
(15:21):
the markets in order for you to actually see the
results you're looking for. So there are many aspects you
can pull on depending on where you are and what's
important to you right now. But I always tell people
time horizon matters like how quickly do you need access
to this? What's your risk tolerance? How much can you
afford to sit through this and be patient? And then importantly, diversification.
(15:46):
There isn't one answer. It isn't one buying one stock
or buying one bond, right you want to diversify in
a market like this. And then the fourth one would
be I need you to stay active.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Hey bafam, We're going to take a quick break, pay
some bills, and we'll be right back all right, ba Fan,
we're back.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
And what I mean by active is these sectors will
be changing based on all these different things that are
happening and policy changes that are happening. So that also
means you have to actively probably pivot depending on the
sector quite honestly. And the reason why you think about
this the terrors you know definitely have impacted, for example,
the tech sector. So I told you that's a buying opportunity.
So that's why you get to stay active, Like this
(16:28):
is where you could enter financials. Banks right now are
definitely being impacted by these terrffs. Manufacturing is being impacted
by these terrors, right, So either you see that as
a buying opportunity or you see that as an opportunity
that if it's in your portfolio, you should probably divest
of that and figure out what other sectors are going
(16:48):
to do better in an environment like that. So I'm
back to my state of active.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
That's where I feel like when you do something with
it's kind of like I'm coming up with a metaphor
for this, like an analogy. But I keep trying to
grow tomatoes and I put the seeds in the pot
and I water them and a little in the little
like the three inch little shoots start coming up, and
I'm like, I'm going to have tomatoes this summer. Then
(17:14):
life starts happening. I forget to water them one day,
you know, or I get back on the watering track,
or then like I forget there's going to be a
frost tonight. I should bring them inside. I really shouldn't
have started it before the last frost anyway. And then
I'm like, well, damn, the seedlings have all died. And
I kind of feel like with investing, it's like we
(17:35):
start doing something with the best intention and we make
a we do it really well, but maintaining like you said,
to stay active, you're signing up for a job, like
you're signing up for needing to be if you want
to do it well and you want to be successful
with these investments, you know, picking and choosing, like you
need to be capable of paying attention and going in
(17:59):
and out, you know, as frequently as you may need
to make those adjustments. And I ain't got that kind
of focus. I don't like it. I've always been a
target date fund, index fund. Girly, I'm like, give me
the total stock market. Give me, maybe I'll spice it
up and get a little ETF here and there. You know,
(18:19):
ETFs I kind of think of like Ben and Jerry's flavors.
I'm like, oh, I can get this flavor. I'm sure
there's an ai ETF. I haven't even bothered to go
get yet, socially responsible ones, what have you. So I
just want to like remind folks, it's like, if you
go this route of being active, can you sustain it?
Are you going to forget to water it someday and
(18:41):
you're going to look back at it and be like oops?
Then then I feel like, are you really the best
kind of person for like a more active investing strategy?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I love everything you said, and it's all accurate. So
when I say active that term cough. I love that. Okay.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
First of all, for you to say that something I
said is accurate is great.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Everyone's with me, right, But what you do is you
said it, I'm going to buy an index fund where
I've outsourced it to the index fund. And what I
mean by active is just open the statements, pay attention
to how it's performing and what it's doing. I was
not advocating that you now need to start picking and
buying certain stocks in certain bonds. Second pieces, I said
(19:21):
outsource it, meaning get someone who can professionally and give
you advice on this because you're right knowing who you are,
and if you have lifestyles. I have individuals who say
I live for this, I want to be active, I
want to make my picks, I want to know where
to go, and I'd say majority of us are what
you just described, and active can mean different ways. Active
meaning you want to be involved in buying and selling
(19:45):
of the portfolio, not a huge advocate for it. By
the way, I do believe in outsourcing it to funds
that are already built on diversification and are going to
be what I call aggressive or moderate, so you can
kind of decide what the level of what I call
risk tolerance you have so you find that right portfolio
(20:05):
that works for you. And then third would be having
a professional who really walks through your financial plan, figures
out your goals, and then align to all your investments
against it. So my point here is you could be
any of those terms of active. And then the fourth one,
the most important one is on your four to one K. Clearly,
if you have a four to one K right, it's
(20:25):
being run by your company, and I got picked when
you probably onboarded. Actively, open your statement and see how
it's doing. Active can mean lots of different things, but
closing your eyes and saying, I pray everything's okay is
the one where I do need people to kind of
lean in a little bit more than that. And I
think many are in that bucket where like I just
(20:46):
stop opening my statements, I just stop looking how everything
was doing because it's just so crazy right now, and
it's like, well, you know, this is the time you
should open it. At the same time, you will definitely
see maybe a little velocity happening right which is which
we all understand. But then you have to remind yourself, okay,
is this going to help me still meet my goal
(21:08):
over the next ten to fifteen years. And the professional
will tell you, while we are seeing a little volatility,
this is a sector that's going to do great over time.
So while we're seeing a blimp right now, we should
stay the course on this one. Maybe not, because this
is a sector that's changing quite a bit. And so
that's what I mean by active could be how you
define it to be, but closing your eyes and not
(21:31):
paying attention at all. Probably is the one that I
am going to advocate you do a little more, for more.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I was hoping you were just going to say said
it and forget it. You know, that's my problem is
it's not a problem, but I would I sort of
saw it as a superpower that when things like this,
when there was volatility, that I wouldn't check my my
my long term investments, like I have a Vanguard account.
I wouldn't go in there and try.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
To like I just trust that, but I open the
Vanguard account. By the way, just take it.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I'm doing it with you. It's why I'm kind of
smiling because I'm like, well, I'm about to do it
because I want you to then walk me through so
a healthy way to do this. I want, ba fam.
I want us to understand the right approach and a
time like this, like let's look at it together, ba fam,
Like we've been working hard. A lot of our listeners.
I know y'all got four one case. Maybe you have
a little brokerage, a little you know, roth Iray on
(22:22):
the side. You're maxing it out, you're doing the big one.
So talk me through it, Raquel. I'm in my account
we ain't got to talk about numbers. But I started
when I was twenty four, so I'm very proud of her. Okay,
I'm here, I'm on my dashboard. The number seems near
what it was. Okay, my rate of return is eleven
(22:43):
point seven percent?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
What's the rate of return right now?
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Going on?
Speaker 2 (22:47):
What's going on with the market? That's actually if you
look at the S and P or the Dow, are
you outperforming the benchmark? And I don't know what time
period we're talking about here, so you're you're looking for that.
You just said you're invest mint or Cynthian. You said
it just.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Over a decade. I've been invested since.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Okay, twenty fourteen, and you've had about eleven point nine
percent return. Yeah, okay, what does a checking account pay
you right now?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Like negative money?
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Okay, here's your answer. Yeah, yeah, you are doing better
then if you were just sitting in cash and you're
checking account. I go from that basic level of like
pat yourself on the back. Great, I have performed where
my cash and my investment are doing better than if
I had just sat in cash. Right, I also didn't
(23:34):
spend it. That's amazing, Right, this is going towards something, right,
So I'm like, I'm building a future for myself right
and it's doing better than cash, and it's doing better
than the markets, like you know, the benchmark of the
markets right now. So that's okay. And by the way,
that eleven point nine that you're looking at at some
periods might have been at twenty one, might have been
at eighteen. Right now, it's eleven point nine because of
(23:57):
where we are in this market today. But it's still
doing better. And if you had done nothing, it's doing
better than if you were in cash. So this isn't
about the big win every moment right now. But you're
doing very responsible growth. That's great.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Yeah, one year it's up fourteen percent. This is when
I start to toggle and I'm like, oh, well in
the past year. I think I looked in here one
time and it was like twenty percent, but it had
been a big dip right before you.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Is I'd say to you, Mandy, Yeah, when you started
this commitment in ten years ago, you know, your hope
and goal was to when we're going to actually need
access or use of this money.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Well, I think in an ideal world, we wouldn't access
it until we are living off of it to supplement retirement.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Okay, so you've got time. So what you could say
to yourself is like, oh, am I being aggressive enough?
You know I do have ten or fifteen year time horizon, so.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Excuse me, emo, I have more than that.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
I'm saying as to when you may want, like at
a minimum ten to fifteen. So it's less about retirement,
but when would you actually get to the point, And
it could be like retirement, by the way, is different
for everybody. Retirement could be I only want to do
this for another five to ten years. So I'm going
to go back to those questions of the time horizon
is a critical thing we need to distinguish for retirement
(25:22):
means completely different numbers to every single person. Right, you're
going to say, you know, I'm an entrepreneur, I've done
my thing, I want to be done by X and
I want to really focus on traveling and all these
other things. So one, you're starting at an incredible place,
so I'm happy you're willing to share that. Like that
number is a great number, by the way, eleven point
(25:43):
nine percent.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
And then you'd say, I was going to say, what
am I sharing my screen? Oops? I didn't know to
tell you, Okay, what.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
You stated, which is a really great way.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
I wouldn't want to share my screen.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
No, you just thought about no I want to should
share the screen. Told me the overall number, and that's
all that really matters, right, And then you could say
in order for me to retire comfortably and whatever date
you've given yourself, So I don't know, you know you
should identify that as a ten, fifteen, twenty years. I
need to be at X because this is the lifestyle
I plan on living on. And we know we get
(26:15):
into retirement stage, it's all decumulation, right, There's nothing coming
in anymore, and it's just all spending, right, And so
as I start preparing for that, I'm going to bring
down my everyday debt, right, so I have less that
I have to put out in that time period. Right.
So these are just all logical questions you're going to
ask yourself as you're thinking about the different ways that
you are going to need the money, the time you
(26:38):
will need it, and understanding if you really use the
word retirement, that really means that's where you just do
extreme spending at that point, right, because nothing is technically
coming in anymore. But you've created the lifestyle you want,
so based on that. By the way, if you're sitting
with a planner or you're dealing with your advisor or
somebody you're working with professionally, that's the question you want
to make sure you get answered. So when I go
(27:00):
back and I look at that number of eleven point
nine percent, I would know my mind, is that a
good thing or a bad thing? Because if I had
laid out in order for me to have this comfortable retirement,
my returns need to be X at that timing, right,
So that's a logical way to ask the question, so
that you know, is a eleven point nine percent good
to great? By the way it is, But let's pretend.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, but it's not like I'm now googling what's a
good return? It's more about what have I what's my
time horizon, how long do I am I going to
need this money for? And a steady rate of return
For me, I've always said like eight to ten percent,
So you know, it's like on average, So yeah, we're
doing better than that for my long term retirement, yeah
(27:41):
for sure. But yeah, if I was someone who wanted
to retire at forty five that gives me less than
a decade. I would be like, oh, dang, I need
to be doubling that. And then you're talking about finagling
some stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Oh is that nagling? So when you say doubling up
a little bit more, then you'd have to then take
a look and say, okay, well, how my portfolio? How
much is fixed income versus equity versus alternative versus scruptured?
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Right?
Speaker 2 (28:05):
And that's when we start getting into the ideas that
you and I had started talking about in the beginning,
because if we felt comfortable and again I just said,
this is an opportunity in this market when you have
big volatility like this, there is opportunity for you to
pick up things like inequities. Right, and so is that
forty percent of your portfolio is a fifty sixty percent?
I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah, where can I see that? I want to see that,
I see balances.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
It should give you a breakdown, like a little pie
chart that tells you.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
My pie chart where is it? I swear always change.
I mean you shout out to them because they're cheap
for a reason. Sometimes their website.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
You should ask that question, how concentrated am I in
a in a fixed income standpoint? How concentrated am I
in an equity standpoint? These are kind of even if
you can't do yourself, use the questions you should ask,
and you can call them up and ask that question
right back to my active right, but right, it.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Is your portfolio analysis. I'm so heavily in equities, lots
of lots of equity?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
What percentage does?
Speaker 1 (29:10):
This can't be right?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
One can't be no, no, no, you just happen to
be in your equity section. That's talking about there should
be a holistic pie that shows you the overall.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
It should just be on my dashboard.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Right, should be well, we might give them some feedback
on their design, but putting that aside, those are the
right questions you should be asking. And if you're over
concentrated in equities, that is like a higher risk portfolio.
So like le'll just use nomenclature that matters. If you're
heavy equities, you do have an aggressive portfolio, not good,
not bad, as long as you're okay with that. That
means that you definitely have a high risk tolerance.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Because concentrating I am one hundred percent in stocks when
you are a.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Hot what again? Why did.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I think I wasn't, And well that's quite girl, was
quite nothing happened. I think I wasn't. Like, yeah, I'm
looking at my See. The thing is, I don't work
in corporate anymore, and when I was in corporate, i'd
kind of choose the target date fund, right. I think
when I rolled everything over into this brokerage account.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Into what bucket? Good we we are having this conversation.
This is great. This would be a good time for
you to diversify, and you don't need to then go
heavy on the equities right now. There is great buying
opportunity for you to kind of with this volatility. I'd say,
give some protection with fixed income and bond. You just said.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
This is right, Like that worked out great, But wait, bonds.
This whole tariff situation. God, there's like specific days of
the week when I really get it and I'm like, oh,
I understand the whole bond situation. Okay, but I do understand.
I think, ba, fan, we know that Treasury's bonds. That's
typically when you're like investing, you put your money there
and it grows the.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Safer and safer not give you as high of a
yield as equities. I mean that's the fundamental I'm the
most simplest definition to say why, Right, bonds are going
to be a little bit more protected, but you're not
going to see the big highs. Like when you said
I was up a twenty percent, Well that's because you
have a full equity portfolio. So you did see some
big highs right. Well with that, you can also see
(31:22):
big lows.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
So I say that cautionarily because in this market right now,
and I don't know the number offhand, but it was
something like ten to eleven times at this point because
I forgot to keep counting. Since January, we've seen thousand
point swings intra day in the market. Yeah, if you're
an equity portfolio, like, thank god you're not looking every
ten seconds, that would cause me.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
It was about it was a it was strategy. My
ignorance is the strategy.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
My heart would swing a little bit if I'm a
hundred percent in equities when you're seeing swings like that, right,
And so that's why we're talking about the volatility has
been absolutely at a very high level since January, specifically
due to the tariff and some policy changes.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Hey, bafam, we're going to take a quick break, pay
some bills, and we'll be right back. All right, ba fam,
We're back.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
I would say three things. Tarifs are important. But here's
the thing. We did see that the Administrative Administration made
a pause for the next ninety days. So July ninth
is like the day we all need to pay attention
of what ends up happening because there was a ninety
day pause. Is it going to be permanent policy or
is he going to reverse some of those things? So
that's going to be a thing one that we absolutely
(32:37):
need to pay attention to if so. And the reason
why that matters is corporates have not really what I
call with the tariffs, passed it on to the end
consumer yet because it's been ninety days, they're kind of
just trying to figure out what they can handle. After
ninety days, if it becomes permanent policy, that's when it
will get passed on to the individual. That's when we
(32:59):
then trigger things like inflation, and then we trigger things
like unemployment, then we trigger things like recession. Right those
So while it's tariffs and we're kind of like, ah,
what's the big deal in the July ninth, like that
really does put us back to the fear factor we
had about inflation, right, and so costs aret going up again, right,
and then does hit the individual, right, It's going to
(33:21):
cost more for goods and services to buy them. It's
going to cost more for companies to make the goods
and services their imports are going to come in with
like way more expensive you know, tariffs like China being
at one hundred and twenty five percent. All of that,
we start feeling it, right, And so that's why I
use the July ninth as an important opportunity and time
frame for us to look at and those of us
(33:43):
that are in one hundred percent equity portfolios. But I
want to make sure we have some fixed and incoming
bonds and other things to us.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
So I actually go shopping for some boring bonds, got it?
So then I would just in my portfolio, I would buy,
I would sell my I mean it's pretty fast, Like
it's pretty simple to sell some of my equity and
then exchange it for I don't want.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
And you should just go do that, right, So you
have the card, whoever are you using. I think it's
that it's worth having a conversation. But the same way we're.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Going yeah, slow me down, Slow me down.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
I want to do that.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I want you to do it right now. I'm smart.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
That's I wanting to seek advice right right, You're going
to ask the right questions because you're going in very
knowledgeable of Like, wow, you know this is a decision
I made some time back. I realize I'm completely concentrated
in equities. There's opportunity for me to like balance my
risk in this current market. You're just trying to balance risk, right,
(34:42):
So you're not.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Going to give a lot of millennials probably have this
problem that I have. No, it's not a problem. But
like we did the right thing by getting in early
and investing, like all, like we had lots of time.
But I'm thirty seven now, I got babies. That's our house.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
You got time.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
I can't be risk in the whole farm.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
You could have other things in other places, right, You
could have real estate, you could have things in the market,
you could have things in other insurance that I don't
know about, Like.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
We have investment properties. I have children. That is the
new Berken bag, Like that is the flex do you
know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (35:20):
That's your five twenty nine.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Oh yeah, I do have one of those.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
So yeah, that's your next like arc of planning.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
So I think when in moments like this, because we
are feeling anxiety and uncertainty, look already, you're already feeling better,
Like I know more now I kind of know. I
just need to build a plan around it. Okay, now
I need to kind of have a discussion about it.
I'm not going to avoid it. But by the way,
I'm actually doing pretty well right now. So it's the
greatest time to kind of take a good review of
(35:48):
like your eleven point nine percent. Okay, this is a
good time because I'm outperforming the market and I'm doing
way better than if I was just sitting in cash.
So I want to one build the resiliency and confidence
if should feel good and you're spot on, I mean.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Apparently, how I was twenty four years old and I've
made one hundred and seventy thousand something dollars at that
that money is just money that I have now that
I didn't have, but I put in less than that
and now I have that.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
You made your money work for you, right, That's the
important thing that we're always looking for. And you want
to make your money.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Work for you.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Growth, growth, growth, aspiration. And you said a really good
point about the difference in the generations, and you are
absolutely right. We did a study on women in investing,
which I speak specifically since for both women, and when
we take a look at women investing in the markets,
like what we're talking about for baby boomers, that number
(36:41):
was closer to like fifty percent of baby Boomers invested
in the market. As women, when we look at gen
Z it's like seventy one percent, right, So the exact
point that you're making, it's awesome, right, So as women
we have all much larger engagement in the markets than
than generations pride or right. But that also means we
(37:02):
now need to get involved in the active management side
of it too, because it is going to be part
of our wealth creation, which is wonderful and amazing, but
not giving it any of our attention is something we
don't want to also just drop and leave. Right. And
so you're spot on this generation Gen ZS and just
(37:23):
younger generation absolutely engaging in the market individually doing it themselves.
I also want to give permission to seek advice because
I do think there's a lot of individual self fulfillment
and you know, when we think about bold markets, everyone
looks brilliant, bear Markets gets tough. Yeah, this is kind
of right where we are right now, right, and so
(37:46):
it's important to say this might be the moment in
time where I do need to one stop and look
at what I have. So I just said, start opening
your statement. Did I not just do the simplest thing.
I didn't tell you had to be active and making decisions.
Just open the statement? Yeah, so thank you you did it.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
I love. I just feel like people are listening to
the show right now and they're going to go home
and do the same thing. And I hope that. So
all we're going to do be a fan is like
we're going to open it, We're going to take a look.
We're going to have a little like you know, hopefully
a pat in the back moment. We're not and we're
not going to panic. We're going to not do anything.
Then we can just call the investment brokerage like and
(38:22):
I will just call my Vanguard people. They're pretty good
at bands ring the phone and say like, what do
you think I should do? John? And John will probably
tell me it's usually John or Sharon. It's Sharon. I
have yet to hear a Sharon, I don't know about Vanguardist.
You know my John's and my Tom's, but well, well
somebody will be there to help. Thank you for Jock.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Remember July ninth less paytent, all right, So.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Okay, by then we should be making moves now because
before July ninth is the goal, because July ninth we
don't know what's going to happen. It could be the
Y two K of the economy.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
We'll see. But right to your point, it is a
big moment and so time now, which is great, and
what we're about, we should pay attention.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
And I don't think we should be like buying now
like consumer goods that are going to get markedly more expensive.
I mean I'm not I don't need a new car.
I like my kids daycare expenses and my mortgage are
the biggest expenses that I have.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Yeah, so I think, like very importantly, as I said,
it's long term, short term, right, stay the course, don't
get our mortgage.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Rates fixed, so that can't change.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Rights, well, interest rates is a whole separate topic which
we should get into. And rates can change because we're
also as we're looking at what the Fed's going to
do will they cut rates, but.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Like my personal mortgage rate.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Oh, you can always refly. Like so if rates go down,
you have opportunity if rates day.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
But I got one of them cute pandemic rates, so
then we should stay the course. I am hashtag stuck
going to start your home.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
But see the fact that you know that you know
you're rate that's active like you, that's all wonderful, right,
And you know, okay, great, I know on the mortgage piece,
I actually we're fortunate. I was at a period where
the rates were rate where they should be, and we
all know rates are currently been going up. Right, We're
anticipating three rate cuts this year, at least, that's what
(40:12):
HSBC is saying and a few of the firms are saying.
But again with this market, we never know, right, So
if rates do get cut and you are in a
high rate mortgage, there could be opportunity there too, right,
because in a lower rate environment you could rEFInd. So
again back to paying attention to your situation and where
you are. But you have to know the facts in
(40:33):
order to figure out how do I respond to the
things that are happening. And no matter whether it's your
mortgage or your investments or all of the above. There's
absolutely opportunity, right, but just being and navigating is important
that we engage.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
So what else can we talk about that's really important?
Like what do you? What do you? I mean, what
else do we need to know before this July ninth?
I mean send night strikes we turn into I just.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Said we should at least like be active and listen
to what actually happens there. And I think ultimately.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
That's just a journalist in me trying to create panic.
You know what we do?
Speaker 2 (41:14):
I am one about how do we ensure that with
the uncertainty and volatility we stay calm, right, Because I
think knee jerk reactions and emotional reactions in this market
will actually statistically show you doesn't work in your favor.
So that's why I want us to have logical, data
(41:36):
driven discussions and create a plan because the planning allows
you to feel like, am I okay. If I don't
need this for fifteen years, okay, am I okay? If
I need this in two years, okay, am I okay?
If I need to then actually be a little bit
more aggressive, because in order for me to do what
I want to do from a retirement standpoint. This has
(41:57):
me work in another ten years. That's not good, right,
That's not what you want. So these are just all
the natural questions you should be able to ask, speak
out loud and have some professionals share with you, and
by the way, be clear about who it is that
you feel comfortable talking about. So you have a Vanguard
card where I'm going to use yours as an example,
(42:18):
please pick up the phone on your Vanguard account. But
I do think having one professional person that can give
you advice on all of it, which I'm an advocate for.
As you know, I run wealth management, I run financial planning,
I run investments for HSBC. I do think having holistic
advice that allows you to create a plan for you
and your family. I always think is the is always
(42:38):
the right way to start, and getting a financial plan
doesn't cost you anything. I always say that to people.
You reach out to your advisor, you say I'd like
a plan. They can do a financial checkup on you
and like, look at a holistic plan. So there is
a lot of opportunities out there for that, and that's
the kind of questions we should be asking as individuals
versus like what should I buy I want to go.
I want to create a financial plan, right, and having
(42:59):
a plan for me my family allows me then to
go into like and then what should we be investing in?
Because now that I understand the plan, I understand your goals,
understand things you want to accomplish, and I understand the
things that you want to attain, then we build a
portfolio or an investment strategy around your plan. So that's
the advice i'd leave you with.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
You know, get a holistic plan. Yeah, thank you. I
got to call it my financial planner. I got a
dust off her number.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Let's do a checkup. Just do a financial check checkup.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
I know.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
I don't want to make it seem way bigger.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
If it comes like not going to the dentist and
then you're like no, no, no, But it's like, oh
but my teeth, they're going to think they're bad, so
I shouldn't go.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
But that's a little checkup, right, I didn't say do
the whole diagnostis again, So yeah, life not on fire,
but like always great to have the conversation and bring
this stuff up at the kitchen table and chit chat
with your friends and ask people what they're doing, how
are they feeling because sharing this type of advice and discussion.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
We do it on so many other things. For some
strange reason, we don't feel comfortable doing it on our finances,
and it should be something we're openly talking about. Don't
give numbers, that's your personal business, just like how are
you responding in this market? There's always something to learn
from each other.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
That's why we're doing in that brown ambition. We're not scared.
One last thing with women of color in particular, is
there any advice that you want to leave us with?
Speaker 2 (44:20):
Yeah, you know, I'm going to go with the same
you know, key advice that I gave you the first one,
which is is women. You know, we're engaging in the
markets in a much higher statistical way than we've ever seen.
Actually the segment or sector that has grown the most
if you think about women, men and people of color,
Blacks and African Americans have created strong wealth, especially since
(44:42):
post COVID, and so the question is how are we
investing that wealth. We've actually increased our home ownership as
well during this time period post COVID. Right, so while
we're doing slightly better, there's still a massive disparity gap
between you know black women or blacks and white, but
we are absolutely making strikes and I think I always
(45:05):
want to. I'm always reminding people, you know, how we're
and partly I call it the knowledge divide is kind
of going away with podcasts and the ability for you
to go on yourself and not have to sit down
and go to a bank or somewhere privately where they
share this information with you. The fact that you're doing
podcasts like this, it's a beautiful thing. We have access
(45:26):
to information that is really impacting our community in an
extremely important way. But we have a responsibility to our
community to make sure we're giving sound advice. Right. So
while I thank you for brown ambitions, it's always making
sure that you're bringing on the right people that are
giving sound advice, because we do not want to misinform
our community, especially in this time.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
So we have a response. Absolutely. As fun and as
much as we want to make this about like as
comfortable talking about money as it is having a glass
of wine with your girlfriends, there is a lot of
responsibility and I do take that quite seriously when it
comes to bringing people onto the show.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
And I'm questions right exactly, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
Which is why you're here. Thank you so much, Raquel
rachel odin HSBC. What's your title again? God is of.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
No, that's my retirement plan. No, No, head of the
US for HSBC UH specifically for Wealth Private Banking Asset Management.
So I love this what we do, and I love
what you're doing, and it's important that I want this
as chitter chatter at the kitchen table over a glass
of wine to the point that you're making. So let's
(46:43):
make sure that we make it comfortable for us to
have uncertainty, but to talk about it. And that's the
biggest you know what I call aspect we could be
doing right now. So thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Thank you, Rachyle, thanks so much for joining us. Heyba fam,
how are we doing? Are y'all all right? After that
chat with Raquel, I'm not even gonna lie. I immediately
went to find the next available appointment for my financial
planner because I'm like, oh, I need to get my
stuff together. So I just want to thank Raquel again
(47:15):
for joining. Now Brown Ambition, it's your turn. Log into
those accounts, see what's all going on. If you need
or want to make a plan for yourself, take the
first step toward finding a financial planner who can help you.
You can contact whoever manages your account right now, so
if that's Fidelity Vanguard, you can take advantage potentially of
free financial planning resources that your company may offer or
(47:39):
your investment management company may offer. If you're like me
and you want to find a financial planner, I always
recommend people go to x Y Planning Network. That's where
I found my planner. You can also check out the
National Association of Personal Financial Advisors NAPFA and APFA. That's
a good place to start. And if y'all want to
(47:59):
share sure what your financial strategies are looking like or
what you've learned from this episode, please share on social media.
Tag me at Mandy Money at Brown Ambition Podcast as well.
You can email me Brownambition Podcast at gmail dot com.
And don't forget y'all can submit questions to the show
when we do our Brown Ambition QA episodes the BAQA
(48:20):
I will take those questions, so you can DM us
those questions on ig or again, email Brown Ambition Podcast
at gmail dot com. All right, rate, follow, subscribe, review,
subscribe on YouTube. All right, ba fam, I'll see y'all
next week for the latest episode and my Mental Wealth series.
(48:42):
Thanks so much, Bye okay Va fam, Thank you so
much for listening to this week's show. I want to
shout out to our production team, Courtney, our editor, Carla,
our fearless leader for idea to launch productions. I want
to shout out my assistant to Escalante and Cameron McNair
(49:02):
for helping me put the show together. It is not
a one person project, as much as I have tried
to make it so these past ten years. I need help, y'all,
and thank goodness I've been able to put this team
around me to support me on this journey and to
y'all bea fam. I love you so so, so so much.
Please rate, review, subscribe, make sure you're signed up to
(49:24):
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Talk to you soon via buye
This whole tariff situation. God, there's like specific days of
the week when I really get it.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The volatility has been absolutely at a very high level
since January. Administration made a pause for the next ninety days.
So July ninth is like the day we all need
to pay attention of what ends up happening because there
was a ninety day pause. Is it going to be
permanent policy or is he going to reverse some of
those things? And the reason why that matters is corporates
(00:26):
have not really what I call with the tariffs, passed
it on to the end consumer.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yet. Hey, hey, bafam, it's your girl, Mandy Money and
welcome back to another episode of Brown Ambition. If you're
just joining us, welcome to the BA fam. This is
the podcast where we care as much about your financial
glow up as you do. It is the main character
(00:53):
of the episode here. I keep it real about money, career,
financial curveball, And at a time like this, I have
never been more grateful that I made this show because
I need this show as much as y'all need this show. Today,
I am diving deep and like headlong into the question
that y'all have been sending me on Instagram. By the way,
(01:16):
at Branda Mission Podcast, I actually read your dm so
please send them to me. Love your feedback. But y'all
are stressed. I mean I went on my Instagram stories
recently and I asked, what are y'all uncertain about? What
is keeping you up at night? And again and again.
What I heard was the stock market, the economy, inflation,
(01:39):
the job market, all of those things. Now, I can't
tackle like everything in one episode, so I thought today
I would bring on an expert and have a really
frank discussion about how do we invest how do we
make a financial plan at a time like this when
everything is just bat ish crazy. Y'all know what I'm
(02:02):
talking about, Okay. I mean, y'all probably hear it in
your group chat, And if it's not in your group chat,
y'all probably wish it was in the group chat so
you wouldn't feel so alone. That's why Brown Ambition is here.
So if you're someone like me, you've been side eyeing
your four to oh one k, you're wondering if you
should do something, do nothing, or just like go hide
(02:22):
for me in my emotional support vehicle. I just hide
in my car sometimes and spend like thirty minutes doom
scrolling or just staring off into space, and it's my
safe space. You know. Maybe that for you is like
under your covers with a great show on Netflix. Maybe
it's going to a friend's place. Whatever it is, we
are getting out from under the covers today. I am
(02:43):
getting out of my emotional support car. Y'all see I'm
not well. If you're on YouTube, you see I'm not
in the car right now. I am here with y'all,
and we are going to confront this head on, so
to help make sense of all of this market madness.
I'm joined by none other than Raquel Odin, the US
head of Wealth Premiere and Global Private Banking. In other words,
(03:05):
she runs that iss y'all. She is overseeing all the
wealth advisors at this massive global bank HSBC, and she's
here today with us, with me, which is incredible. She is,
and I don't say this lightly, one of the most
powerful women in banking, one of the most powerful Black
women in banking. She's got over thirty years of experience
(03:26):
helping people just like us navigate the ups, the downs,
and the what even is happening right now moments in
our financial life. On today's episode, we're going to talk
about how to handle market volatility without losing your mind
or hopefully your money, Which sectors might actually be smart
to invest in right now, Why my own financial strategy
(03:48):
set it and forget it is not exactly the right
strategy to be using right now. In fact, I am
literally going to log into my investment accounts and check
my investments for the first time in months. And Raquel
isn't she she's not going to read me for filth.
She's very gentle with me. But I actually discover something
(04:08):
crazy about my own investments that I thought I knew
what I was invested in. But I was shocked to
find out what I did about my investments today. And
I wouldn't have done that if Raquel wouldn't have snatched
me together and said, girl, if you don't log into
that Vanguard account and see what's going on in there,
and I'm so glad I did. We're also going to
talk about how women, especially you know us women of color,
are changing the investing game. So talking get out a
(04:33):
pen and paper, and if anything, get ready to see
what it can be like if we just stop being
afraid and stressed and nervous about seeing what's going on
in our finances and we actually confront it head on.
So this was a huge step outside of my own
comfort zone. I am asking y'all to do the same
and meet me here in this safe space we've created
(04:56):
on Brown Ambition where we are going to feel empowered
to take char of our finances, to actually get in
the driver's seat when it comes to our investing strategy.
And it all starts today. Welcome to the Brown Ambition
Podcast again for my new Ba fam, Hello and for
Ogba Fam. I love y'all so much. Enjoy today's show,
(05:18):
Brown Ambition. At a time like this, it is I'm
so grateful to have this platform. I think that it
gives us a way to speak right to the community.
Who is you know, really going through it in so
many ways? And today we're just going to talk about
the financial ways that we are going through it now.
(05:38):
In your experience, you're working at one of the biggest
banks in the world right and you probably or you
tell me, but do you feel like you get a
really good sense of what the typical like American savior
investor is going through right now, Like what they're struggling
with what are the biggest questions we're having.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
It's great, Mandy, thank you for having me excited to
be here with you, and couldn't agree more. Working for
a large global bank or just all of us, this
is one thing we all have in common. And there's
definitely three things I probably would put it under the
lens of Number one would definitely be uncertainty trying to
understand what is going on right now. The second one
(06:20):
would be how to manage through this extreme market volatility
we're all experiencing. And then thirdly would be the impact
that we are seeing based on this administration and words
and policies such as tariffs, what does that really mean
to me? And then again the fourth one, I'm going
to add one more, which is just individual everyday living
(06:43):
things seem more expensive. We also don't know what this
really means from a long term standpoint, based on all
the commitments we received as it related to this administration
coming in on our expectations. So are the expectations we
all wanted are we seeing it? And right now with
all the things that I just mentioned, you know, those
(07:03):
are three things that are still not result for individual.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, it's just and you know, and We don't really
do well with discomfort and uncertainty, as you very well know.
I mean, you've been in banking for how many years now,
thirty years, thirty years, so this is not your first
volatile economy, you know. I imagine you must feel how
I felt that, Like three thirty am, when my toddler's
(07:28):
screaming at me and can't really articulate, and really I'm
just like, you're tired, go to sleep, but he's like, no,
what I really want to do is throw some trucks
around and watch pepa peg at three thirty in the morning.
But I know it's best for him, but he's not listening.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
It's not well. I think you might say too, We're
not sure who's listening. But I do think it's important
that one I start with, you should not feel alone. Right, So,
no matter where you are in your financial journey, no
matter how much money you have, how big or how little,
we're all feeling the same. Right. Always want to give
everyone permission that it's okay tof not feel okay, because
(08:03):
that's how we're all feeling.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, And you know, the inclination is like, I'm not
feeling this way, so I need to do something if
I just could do something, I could if I was
just smart enough, or I had the right tip or strategy.
And then you get questions like we're getting from ba Fan,
which is like should I be making any adjustments to
my investments or is it safe to invest anymore? You know, ah,
(08:26):
what can I do? And sometimes what they don't want
to hear is like probably nothing. But how would you
answer that question when the answer is like what thing
can I do today to make myself feel better?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
So it starts with one I tell everyone the same thing,
which is, in these moments, you really do feel paralyzed,
right because you don't know do I just stay, do
I move? Am I missing out on the opportunity? And
the answer is all three. So if you have long
term investments, I always say stay the course. Markets always
(09:00):
always recover, right, So that's the resiliency of the markets
we can rely on. But again, when I say stay
the course, that's going to be for the things that
you have put away for long term retirement. You know
your four oh one k it could be your education
for your young son that one day's going away for school,
but he's not going to school tomorrow, so you know,
you're investing right now for the long term, and so
(09:22):
in this moment lots of volatility, but the markets do recover,
So if you are in the market, you should stay
the course. But at the same time because there is
a lot of volatility, so it's actually a buying opportunity.
And that always feels pretty counter to individuals because when
you see the market doing these swings and you see
it going down exponentially on some days, you say to yourself, well,
(09:44):
I don't want to be part of that. Well, that's
actually the opportunity where you can enter. It's kind of
what I call counter to your emotions, and that's the
hard part about investing Emotionally, you say, why do I
want to be part of something that's going down? But
really that's really the greatest opportunity for you to kind
of potentially enter in the markets. And then as part
of that buying opportunity, you want to make sure you're
(10:06):
focused on particular sectors only because in this environment right now,
things such as tariff will have impact on some very
important sectors and there'd be some sectors it does not
have impact on. To keep that in mind, I always
been a big advocate if I think about the sectors
that I think are going to be resilient, meaning they're
going to do well even in this time and really
(10:26):
have good what I consider long term trajectory on growth. One,
I always start with technology, the tech sector. You know.
The irony of this is, before all this started, there
was something called the MAG seven and extremely expensive. We
were seeing crazy increases in the MAG seven where people
(10:47):
just couldn't even like be able to enter about Amazon
and the video it's just the vidio. It's so exciting
the video. Right. So here's where you'd say with AIS.
When I say tech, I'm really pointing to the AI
side of it. So thank you, Mandy. That is really
what I mean by tech. It's really talking about in
(11:07):
the importance of AI. AI's in the early innings, very
early stages. Quite honestly, if you think about the dot
com eraror of the nineteen nineties where we were trying
to figure out where the Internet was going and what
dot coms we're going to make it, we're literally in
the beginning of that phase right now with AI, and
so it's a buying opportunity, right, and so with this
(11:29):
market volatility, there are great MAG seven tech companies that
are what i'd say, leaning into that AI component that
you could actually have the opportunity be part of. I
also think, hello, okay.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
I love and you're going to talk about healthcare. Cool.
I just want to know because I was just talking
about this yesterday. There's ways to invest in these sectors,
like you said, without picking one company here and there, right,
So can we talk about that? You keep going though,
but I want to talk about like nope, and mutual
funds ETFs. What are we talking about here?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah? So when I start with you know the idea
of sectors and so you talked about tech but being
very specific on the AI tech company, so maybe you
know that and subtlety that you talked about. I mentioned
healthcare only because again with the innovation and AI, it
is having exponential impact on the healthcare sector. Right, So
when you think about healthcare and where we're going, it
(12:24):
is really going to be a catalyst for that sector
where it's going to do really well long term. And
I could point to utilities as a third one. So
to your exact question, Uh, it isn't about buying single
stocks all the time. It depends where you are in
your investment journey. It really is about diversifying portfolios, right,
(12:47):
So it really is figuring out how do I get
into a managed portfolio of a bunch of stocks and
bonds put together. That allows me to say, which, how
heavy do I want to be in equities right now?
Versus how do I want to be and let's say
fixed income, alternatives or structure. Right So, even from that
standpoint of diversifying your portfolio, and then very specifically within
(13:10):
the equities bucket is where you heard me talking about,
let's focus on tech, let's focus on healthcare, let's focus
on you know, let's focus on mutilities. There's a reason
why we're saying it in that standpoint that where i'd say,
in markets like this, this is where you have a
CAP twenty two, I'm not saying you should not buy
individual stocks, that there are going to be particular ones
(13:30):
that you've always had interest in or that you think
matter to you, but I wouldn't use this as the
opportunity for you to now start managing full portfolios. Right
And so that does include what type of product solutions
are we going for? Is it mutual funds like you said,
is it ETF? What type of bonds? You know, where
should I put in my treasuries. That gets to the
(13:53):
point where you might say, this is where I'm also
giving the abvacy advocacy to everybody to say, in markets
like this that are pretty complex right now, there is
not one person that has the answer to where this
is going and what it's going to need. I also
give people permission to get professional help well, because this
is a really complicated market right now that I'd have
to say based on an administration that we have in
(14:16):
office right now and where we are focused on the
balance of inflation as well as what we're actually seeing
from the standpoint of performance in the markets. It's not
one we can point to history on and so this
is where if you've run and you have the ability
to do so, it is important to one get on
podcasts like this and really listen to what people are
(14:37):
telling you in the standpoint of what do I need
separate long term needs versus short term needs. So I
just told you, like, stay the course on your long
term needs, but there are things you could be doing
in the short term if you've got short term cash needs,
things where you don't have five or ten years. There's
different recommendations I'd make you know. I would say treasuries
are really a good opportunity right now. Gold is doing
(14:59):
really well now. Hedge funds is another what I call
short term vehicle that you could focus on right now
for needs of ensuring that you're not seeing in a
checking account a cash checking account and getting no yield.
But there are safer, shorter term products where you can
get yielded but still have access to that cash right
and not having to wait for that long resolve of
(15:21):
the markets in order for you to actually see the
results you're looking for. So there are many aspects you
can pull on depending on where you are and what's
important to you right now. But I always tell people
time horizon matters like how quickly do you need access
to this? What's your risk tolerance? How much can you
afford to sit through this and be patient? And then importantly, diversification.
(15:46):
There isn't one answer. It isn't one buying one stock
or buying one bond, right you want to diversify in
a market like this. And then the fourth one would
be I need you to stay active.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Hey bafam, We're going to take a quick break, pay
some bills, and we'll be right back all right, ba Fan,
we're back.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
And what I mean by active is these sectors will
be changing based on all these different things that are
happening and policy changes that are happening. So that also
means you have to actively probably pivot depending on the
sector quite honestly. And the reason why you think about
this the terrors you know definitely have impacted, for example,
the tech sector. So I told you that's a buying opportunity.
So that's why you get to stay active, Like this
(16:28):
is where you could enter financials. Banks right now are
definitely being impacted by these terrffs. Manufacturing is being impacted
by these terrors, right, So either you see that as
a buying opportunity or you see that as an opportunity
that if it's in your portfolio, you should probably divest
of that and figure out what other sectors are going
(16:48):
to do better in an environment like that. So I'm
back to my state of active.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
That's where I feel like when you do something with
it's kind of like I'm coming up with a metaphor
for this, like an analogy. But I keep trying to
grow tomatoes and I put the seeds in the pot
and I water them and a little in the little
like the three inch little shoots start coming up, and
I'm like, I'm going to have tomatoes this summer. Then
(17:14):
life starts happening. I forget to water them one day,
you know, or I get back on the watering track,
or then like I forget there's going to be a
frost tonight. I should bring them inside. I really shouldn't
have started it before the last frost anyway. And then
I'm like, well, damn, the seedlings have all died. And
I kind of feel like with investing, it's like we
(17:35):
start doing something with the best intention and we make
a we do it really well, but maintaining like you said,
to stay active, you're signing up for a job, like
you're signing up for needing to be if you want
to do it well and you want to be successful
with these investments, you know, picking and choosing, like you
need to be capable of paying attention and going in
(17:59):
and out, you know, as frequently as you may need
to make those adjustments. And I ain't got that kind
of focus. I don't like it. I've always been a
target date fund, index fund. Girly, I'm like, give me
the total stock market. Give me, maybe I'll spice it
up and get a little ETF here and there. You know,
(18:19):
ETFs I kind of think of like Ben and Jerry's flavors.
I'm like, oh, I can get this flavor. I'm sure
there's an ai ETF. I haven't even bothered to go
get yet, socially responsible ones, what have you. So I
just want to like remind folks, it's like, if you
go this route of being active, can you sustain it?
Are you going to forget to water it someday and
(18:41):
you're going to look back at it and be like oops?
Then then I feel like, are you really the best
kind of person for like a more active investing strategy?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I love everything you said, and it's all accurate. So
when I say active that term cough. I love that. Okay.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
First of all, for you to say that something I
said is accurate is great.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Everyone's with me, right, But what you do is you
said it, I'm going to buy an index fund where
I've outsourced it to the index fund. And what I
mean by active is just open the statements, pay attention
to how it's performing and what it's doing. I was
not advocating that you now need to start picking and
buying certain stocks in certain bonds. Second pieces, I said
(19:21):
outsource it, meaning get someone who can professionally and give
you advice on this because you're right knowing who you are,
and if you have lifestyles. I have individuals who say
I live for this, I want to be active, I
want to make my picks, I want to know where
to go, and I'd say majority of us are what
you just described, and active can mean different ways. Active
meaning you want to be involved in buying and selling
(19:45):
of the portfolio, not a huge advocate for it. By
the way, I do believe in outsourcing it to funds
that are already built on diversification and are going to
be what I call aggressive or moderate, so you can
kind of decide what the level of what I call
risk tolerance you have so you find that right portfolio
(20:05):
that works for you. And then third would be having
a professional who really walks through your financial plan, figures
out your goals, and then align to all your investments
against it. So my point here is you could be
any of those terms of active. And then the fourth one,
the most important one is on your four to one K. Clearly,
if you have a four to one K right, it's
(20:25):
being run by your company, and I got picked when
you probably onboarded. Actively, open your statement and see how
it's doing. Active can mean lots of different things, but
closing your eyes and saying, I pray everything's okay is
the one where I do need people to kind of
lean in a little bit more than that. And I
think many are in that bucket where like I just
(20:46):
stop opening my statements, I just stop looking how everything
was doing because it's just so crazy right now, and
it's like, well, you know, this is the time you
should open it. At the same time, you will definitely
see maybe a little velocity happening right which is which
we all understand. But then you have to remind yourself, okay,
is this going to help me still meet my goal
(21:08):
over the next ten to fifteen years. And the professional
will tell you, while we are seeing a little volatility,
this is a sector that's going to do great over time.
So while we're seeing a blimp right now, we should
stay the course on this one. Maybe not, because this
is a sector that's changing quite a bit. And so
that's what I mean by active could be how you
define it to be, but closing your eyes and not
(21:31):
paying attention at all. Probably is the one that I
am going to advocate you do a little more, for more.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I was hoping you were just going to say said
it and forget it. You know, that's my problem is
it's not a problem, but I would I sort of
saw it as a superpower that when things like this,
when there was volatility, that I wouldn't check my my
my long term investments, like I have a Vanguard account.
I wouldn't go in there and try.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
To like I just trust that, but I open the
Vanguard account. By the way, just take it.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I'm doing it with you. It's why I'm kind of
smiling because I'm like, well, I'm about to do it
because I want you to then walk me through so
a healthy way to do this. I want, ba fam.
I want us to understand the right approach and a
time like this, like let's look at it together, ba fam,
Like we've been working hard. A lot of our listeners.
I know y'all got four one case. Maybe you have
a little brokerage, a little you know, roth Iray on
(22:22):
the side. You're maxing it out, you're doing the big one.
So talk me through it, Raquel. I'm in my account
we ain't got to talk about numbers. But I started
when I was twenty four, so I'm very proud of her. Okay,
I'm here, I'm on my dashboard. The number seems near
what it was. Okay, my rate of return is eleven
(22:43):
point seven percent?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
What's the rate of return right now?
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Going on?
Speaker 2 (22:47):
What's going on with the market? That's actually if you
look at the S and P or the Dow, are
you outperforming the benchmark? And I don't know what time
period we're talking about here, so you're you're looking for that.
You just said you're invest mint or Cynthian. You said
it just.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Over a decade. I've been invested since.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Okay, twenty fourteen, and you've had about eleven point nine
percent return. Yeah, okay, what does a checking account pay
you right now?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Like negative money?
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Okay, here's your answer. Yeah, yeah, you are doing better
then if you were just sitting in cash and you're
checking account. I go from that basic level of like
pat yourself on the back. Great, I have performed where
my cash and my investment are doing better than if
I had just sat in cash. Right, I also didn't
(23:34):
spend it. That's amazing, Right, this is going towards something, right,
So I'm like, I'm building a future for myself right
and it's doing better than cash, and it's doing better
than the markets, like you know, the benchmark of the
markets right now. So that's okay. And by the way,
that eleven point nine that you're looking at at some
periods might have been at twenty one, might have been
at eighteen. Right now, it's eleven point nine because of
(23:57):
where we are in this market today. But it's still
doing better. And if you had done nothing, it's doing
better than if you were in cash. So this isn't
about the big win every moment right now. But you're
doing very responsible growth. That's great.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Yeah, one year it's up fourteen percent. This is when
I start to toggle and I'm like, oh, well in
the past year. I think I looked in here one
time and it was like twenty percent, but it had
been a big dip right before you.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Is I'd say to you, Mandy, Yeah, when you started
this commitment in ten years ago, you know, your hope
and goal was to when we're going to actually need
access or use of this money.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Well, I think in an ideal world, we wouldn't access
it until we are living off of it to supplement retirement.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Okay, so you've got time. So what you could say
to yourself is like, oh, am I being aggressive enough?
You know I do have ten or fifteen year time horizon, so.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Excuse me, emo, I have more than that.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
I'm saying as to when you may want, like at
a minimum ten to fifteen. So it's less about retirement,
but when would you actually get to the point, And
it could be like retirement, by the way, is different
for everybody. Retirement could be I only want to do
this for another five to ten years. So I'm going
to go back to those questions of the time horizon
is a critical thing we need to distinguish for retirement
(25:22):
means completely different numbers to every single person. Right, you're
going to say, you know, I'm an entrepreneur, I've done
my thing, I want to be done by X and
I want to really focus on traveling and all these
other things. So one, you're starting at an incredible place,
so I'm happy you're willing to share that. Like that
number is a great number, by the way, eleven point
(25:43):
nine percent.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
And then you'd say, I was going to say, what
am I sharing my screen? Oops? I didn't know to
tell you, Okay, what.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
You stated, which is a really great way.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
I wouldn't want to share my screen.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
No, you just thought about no I want to should
share the screen. Told me the overall number, and that's
all that really matters, right, And then you could say
in order for me to retire comfortably and whatever date
you've given yourself, So I don't know, you know you
should identify that as a ten, fifteen, twenty years. I
need to be at X because this is the lifestyle
I plan on living on. And we know we get
(26:15):
into retirement stage, it's all decumulation, right, There's nothing coming
in anymore, and it's just all spending, right, And so
as I start preparing for that, I'm going to bring
down my everyday debt, right, so I have less that
I have to put out in that time period. Right.
So these are just all logical questions you're going to
ask yourself as you're thinking about the different ways that
you are going to need the money, the time you
(26:38):
will need it, and understanding if you really use the
word retirement, that really means that's where you just do
extreme spending at that point, right, because nothing is technically
coming in anymore. But you've created the lifestyle you want,
so based on that. By the way, if you're sitting
with a planner or you're dealing with your advisor or
somebody you're working with professionally, that's the question you want
to make sure you get answered. So when I go
(27:00):
back and I look at that number of eleven point
nine percent, I would know my mind, is that a
good thing or a bad thing? Because if I had
laid out in order for me to have this comfortable retirement,
my returns need to be X at that timing, right,
So that's a logical way to ask the question, so
that you know, is a eleven point nine percent good
to great? By the way it is, But let's pretend.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, but it's not like I'm now googling what's a
good return? It's more about what have I what's my
time horizon, how long do I am I going to
need this money for? And a steady rate of return
For me, I've always said like eight to ten percent,
So you know, it's like on average, So yeah, we're
doing better than that for my long term retirement, yeah
(27:41):
for sure. But yeah, if I was someone who wanted
to retire at forty five that gives me less than
a decade. I would be like, oh, dang, I need
to be doubling that. And then you're talking about finagling
some stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Oh is that nagling? So when you say doubling up
a little bit more, then you'd have to then take
a look and say, okay, well, how my portfolio? How
much is fixed income versus equity versus alternative versus scruptured?
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Right?
Speaker 2 (28:05):
And that's when we start getting into the ideas that
you and I had started talking about in the beginning,
because if we felt comfortable and again I just said,
this is an opportunity in this market when you have
big volatility like this, there is opportunity for you to
pick up things like inequities. Right, and so is that
forty percent of your portfolio is a fifty sixty percent?
I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah, where can I see that? I want to see that,
I see balances.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
It should give you a breakdown, like a little pie
chart that tells you.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
My pie chart where is it? I swear always change.
I mean you shout out to them because they're cheap
for a reason. Sometimes their website.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
You should ask that question, how concentrated am I in
a in a fixed income standpoint? How concentrated am I
in an equity standpoint? These are kind of even if
you can't do yourself, use the questions you should ask,
and you can call them up and ask that question
right back to my active right, but right, it.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Is your portfolio analysis. I'm so heavily in equities, lots
of lots of equity?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
What percentage does?
Speaker 1 (29:10):
This can't be right?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
One can't be no, no, no, you just happen to
be in your equity section. That's talking about there should
be a holistic pie that shows you the overall.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
It should just be on my dashboard.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Right, should be well, we might give them some feedback
on their design, but putting that aside, those are the
right questions you should be asking. And if you're over
concentrated in equities, that is like a higher risk portfolio.
So like le'll just use nomenclature that matters. If you're
heavy equities, you do have an aggressive portfolio, not good,
not bad, as long as you're okay with that. That
means that you definitely have a high risk tolerance.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Because concentrating I am one hundred percent in stocks when
you are a.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Hot what again? Why did.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I think I wasn't, And well that's quite girl, was
quite nothing happened. I think I wasn't. Like, yeah, I'm
looking at my See. The thing is, I don't work
in corporate anymore, and when I was in corporate, i'd
kind of choose the target date fund, right. I think
when I rolled everything over into this brokerage account.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Into what bucket? Good we we are having this conversation.
This is great. This would be a good time for
you to diversify, and you don't need to then go
heavy on the equities right now. There is great buying
opportunity for you to kind of with this volatility. I'd say,
give some protection with fixed income and bond. You just said.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
This is right, Like that worked out great, But wait, bonds.
This whole tariff situation. God, there's like specific days of
the week when I really get it and I'm like, oh,
I understand the whole bond situation. Okay, but I do understand.
I think, ba, fan, we know that Treasury's bonds. That's
typically when you're like investing, you put your money there
and it grows the.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Safer and safer not give you as high of a
yield as equities. I mean that's the fundamental I'm the
most simplest definition to say why, Right, bonds are going
to be a little bit more protected, but you're not
going to see the big highs. Like when you said
I was up a twenty percent, Well that's because you
have a full equity portfolio. So you did see some
big highs right. Well with that, you can also see
(31:22):
big lows.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
So I say that cautionarily because in this market right now,
and I don't know the number offhand, but it was
something like ten to eleven times at this point because
I forgot to keep counting. Since January, we've seen thousand
point swings intra day in the market. Yeah, if you're
an equity portfolio, like, thank god you're not looking every
ten seconds, that would cause me.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
It was about it was a it was strategy. My
ignorance is the strategy.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
My heart would swing a little bit if I'm a
hundred percent in equities when you're seeing swings like that, right,
And so that's why we're talking about the volatility has
been absolutely at a very high level since January, specifically
due to the tariff and some policy changes.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Hey, bafam, we're going to take a quick break, pay
some bills, and we'll be right back. All right, ba fam,
We're back.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
I would say three things. Tarifs are important. But here's
the thing. We did see that the Administrative Administration made
a pause for the next ninety days. So July ninth
is like the day we all need to pay attention
of what ends up happening because there was a ninety
day pause. Is it going to be permanent policy or
is he going to reverse some of those things? So
that's going to be a thing one that we absolutely
(32:37):
need to pay attention to if so. And the reason
why that matters is corporates have not really what I
call with the tariffs, passed it on to the end
consumer yet because it's been ninety days, they're kind of
just trying to figure out what they can handle. After
ninety days, if it becomes permanent policy, that's when it
will get passed on to the individual. That's when we
(32:59):
then trigger things like inflation, and then we trigger things
like unemployment, then we trigger things like recession. Right those
So while it's tariffs and we're kind of like, ah,
what's the big deal in the July ninth, like that
really does put us back to the fear factor we
had about inflation, right, and so costs aret going up again, right,
and then does hit the individual, right, It's going to
(33:21):
cost more for goods and services to buy them. It's
going to cost more for companies to make the goods
and services their imports are going to come in with
like way more expensive you know, tariffs like China being
at one hundred and twenty five percent. All of that,
we start feeling it, right, And so that's why I
use the July ninth as an important opportunity and time
frame for us to look at and those of us
(33:43):
that are in one hundred percent equity portfolios. But I
want to make sure we have some fixed and incoming
bonds and other things to us.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
So I actually go shopping for some boring bonds, got it?
So then I would just in my portfolio, I would buy,
I would sell my I mean it's pretty fast, Like
it's pretty simple to sell some of my equity and
then exchange it for I don't want.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
And you should just go do that, right, So you
have the card, whoever are you using. I think it's
that it's worth having a conversation. But the same way we're.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Going yeah, slow me down, Slow me down.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
I want to do that.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I want you to do it right now. I'm smart.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
That's I wanting to seek advice right right, You're going
to ask the right questions because you're going in very
knowledgeable of Like, wow, you know this is a decision
I made some time back. I realize I'm completely concentrated
in equities. There's opportunity for me to like balance my
risk in this current market. You're just trying to balance risk, right,
(34:42):
So you're not.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Going to give a lot of millennials probably have this
problem that I have. No, it's not a problem. But
like we did the right thing by getting in early
and investing, like all, like we had lots of time.
But I'm thirty seven now, I got babies. That's our house.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
You got time.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
I can't be risk in the whole farm.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
You could have other things in other places, right, You
could have real estate, you could have things in the market,
you could have things in other insurance that I don't
know about, Like.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
We have investment properties. I have children. That is the
new Berken bag, Like that is the flex do you
know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (35:20):
That's your five twenty nine.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Oh yeah, I do have one of those.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
So yeah, that's your next like arc of planning.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
So I think when in moments like this, because we
are feeling anxiety and uncertainty, look already, you're already feeling better,
Like I know more now I kind of know. I
just need to build a plan around it. Okay, now
I need to kind of have a discussion about it.
I'm not going to avoid it. But by the way,
I'm actually doing pretty well right now. So it's the
greatest time to kind of take a good review of
(35:48):
like your eleven point nine percent. Okay, this is a
good time because I'm outperforming the market and I'm doing
way better than if I was just sitting in cash.
So I want to one build the resiliency and confidence
if should feel good and you're spot on, I mean.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Apparently, how I was twenty four years old and I've
made one hundred and seventy thousand something dollars at that
that money is just money that I have now that
I didn't have, but I put in less than that
and now I have that.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
You made your money work for you, right, That's the
important thing that we're always looking for. And you want
to make your money.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Work for you.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Growth, growth, growth, aspiration. And you said a really good
point about the difference in the generations, and you are
absolutely right. We did a study on women in investing,
which I speak specifically since for both women, and when
we take a look at women investing in the markets,
like what we're talking about for baby boomers, that number
(36:41):
was closer to like fifty percent of baby Boomers invested
in the market. As women, when we look at gen
Z it's like seventy one percent, right, So the exact
point that you're making, it's awesome, right, So as women
we have all much larger engagement in the markets than
than generations pride or right. But that also means we
(37:02):
now need to get involved in the active management side
of it too, because it is going to be part
of our wealth creation, which is wonderful and amazing, but
not giving it any of our attention is something we
don't want to also just drop and leave. Right. And
so you're spot on this generation Gen ZS and just
(37:23):
younger generation absolutely engaging in the market individually doing it themselves.
I also want to give permission to seek advice because
I do think there's a lot of individual self fulfillment
and you know, when we think about bold markets, everyone
looks brilliant, bear Markets gets tough. Yeah, this is kind
of right where we are right now, right, and so
(37:46):
it's important to say this might be the moment in
time where I do need to one stop and look
at what I have. So I just said, start opening
your statement. Did I not just do the simplest thing.
I didn't tell you had to be active and making decisions.
Just open the statement? Yeah, so thank you you did it.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
I love. I just feel like people are listening to
the show right now and they're going to go home
and do the same thing. And I hope that. So
all we're going to do be a fan is like
we're going to open it, We're going to take a look.
We're going to have a little like you know, hopefully
a pat in the back moment. We're not and we're
not going to panic. We're going to not do anything.
Then we can just call the investment brokerage like and
(38:22):
I will just call my Vanguard people. They're pretty good
at bands ring the phone and say like, what do
you think I should do? John? And John will probably
tell me it's usually John or Sharon. It's Sharon. I
have yet to hear a Sharon, I don't know about Vanguardist.
You know my John's and my Tom's, but well, well
somebody will be there to help. Thank you for Jock.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Remember July ninth less paytent, all right, So.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Okay, by then we should be making moves now because
before July ninth is the goal, because July ninth we
don't know what's going to happen. It could be the
Y two K of the economy.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
We'll see. But right to your point, it is a
big moment and so time now, which is great, and
what we're about, we should pay attention.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
And I don't think we should be like buying now
like consumer goods that are going to get markedly more expensive.
I mean I'm not I don't need a new car.
I like my kids daycare expenses and my mortgage are
the biggest expenses that I have.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Yeah, so I think, like very importantly, as I said,
it's long term, short term, right, stay the course, don't
get our mortgage.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Rates fixed, so that can't change.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Rights, well, interest rates is a whole separate topic which
we should get into. And rates can change because we're
also as we're looking at what the Fed's going to
do will they cut rates, but.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Like my personal mortgage rate.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Oh, you can always refly. Like so if rates go down,
you have opportunity if rates day.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
But I got one of them cute pandemic rates, so
then we should stay the course. I am hashtag stuck
going to start your home.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
But see the fact that you know that you know
you're rate that's active like you, that's all wonderful, right,
And you know, okay, great, I know on the mortgage piece,
I actually we're fortunate. I was at a period where
the rates were rate where they should be, and we
all know rates are currently been going up. Right, We're
anticipating three rate cuts this year, at least, that's what
(40:12):
HSBC is saying and a few of the firms are saying.
But again with this market, we never know, right, So
if rates do get cut and you are in a
high rate mortgage, there could be opportunity there too, right,
because in a lower rate environment you could rEFInd. So
again back to paying attention to your situation and where
you are. But you have to know the facts in
(40:33):
order to figure out how do I respond to the
things that are happening. And no matter whether it's your
mortgage or your investments or all of the above. There's
absolutely opportunity, right, but just being and navigating is important
that we engage.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
So what else can we talk about that's really important?
Like what do you? What do you? I mean, what
else do we need to know before this July ninth?
I mean send night strikes we turn into I just.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Said we should at least like be active and listen
to what actually happens there. And I think ultimately.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
That's just a journalist in me trying to create panic.
You know what we do?
Speaker 2 (41:14):
I am one about how do we ensure that with
the uncertainty and volatility we stay calm, right, Because I
think knee jerk reactions and emotional reactions in this market
will actually statistically show you doesn't work in your favor.
So that's why I want us to have logical, data
(41:36):
driven discussions and create a plan because the planning allows
you to feel like, am I okay. If I don't
need this for fifteen years, okay, am I okay? If
I need this in two years, okay, am I okay?
If I need to then actually be a little bit
more aggressive, because in order for me to do what
I want to do from a retirement standpoint. This has
(41:57):
me work in another ten years. That's not good, right,
That's not what you want. So these are just all
the natural questions you should be able to ask, speak
out loud and have some professionals share with you, and
by the way, be clear about who it is that
you feel comfortable talking about. So you have a Vanguard
card where I'm going to use yours as an example,
(42:18):
please pick up the phone on your Vanguard account. But
I do think having one professional person that can give
you advice on all of it, which I'm an advocate for.
As you know, I run wealth management, I run financial planning,
I run investments for HSBC. I do think having holistic
advice that allows you to create a plan for you
and your family. I always think is the is always
(42:38):
the right way to start, and getting a financial plan
doesn't cost you anything. I always say that to people.
You reach out to your advisor, you say I'd like
a plan. They can do a financial checkup on you
and like, look at a holistic plan. So there is
a lot of opportunities out there for that, and that's
the kind of questions we should be asking as individuals
versus like what should I buy I want to go.
I want to create a financial plan, right, and having
(42:59):
a plan for me my family allows me then to
go into like and then what should we be investing in?
Because now that I understand the plan, I understand your goals,
understand things you want to accomplish, and I understand the
things that you want to attain, then we build a
portfolio or an investment strategy around your plan. So that's
the advice i'd leave you with.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
You know, get a holistic plan. Yeah, thank you. I
got to call it my financial planner. I got a
dust off her number.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Let's do a checkup. Just do a financial check checkup.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
I know.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
I don't want to make it seem way bigger.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
If it comes like not going to the dentist and
then you're like no, no, no, But it's like, oh
but my teeth, they're going to think they're bad, so
I shouldn't go.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
But that's a little checkup, right, I didn't say do
the whole diagnostis again, So yeah, life not on fire,
but like always great to have the conversation and bring
this stuff up at the kitchen table and chit chat
with your friends and ask people what they're doing, how
are they feeling because sharing this type of advice and discussion.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
We do it on so many other things. For some
strange reason, we don't feel comfortable doing it on our finances,
and it should be something we're openly talking about. Don't
give numbers, that's your personal business, just like how are
you responding in this market? There's always something to learn
from each other.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
That's why we're doing in that brown ambition. We're not scared.
One last thing with women of color in particular, is
there any advice that you want to leave us with?
Speaker 2 (44:20):
Yeah, you know, I'm going to go with the same
you know, key advice that I gave you the first one,
which is is women. You know, we're engaging in the
markets in a much higher statistical way than we've ever seen.
Actually the segment or sector that has grown the most
if you think about women, men and people of color,
Blacks and African Americans have created strong wealth, especially since
(44:42):
post COVID, and so the question is how are we
investing that wealth. We've actually increased our home ownership as
well during this time period post COVID. Right, so while
we're doing slightly better, there's still a massive disparity gap
between you know black women or blacks and white, but
we are absolutely making strikes and I think I always
(45:05):
want to. I'm always reminding people, you know, how we're
and partly I call it the knowledge divide is kind
of going away with podcasts and the ability for you
to go on yourself and not have to sit down
and go to a bank or somewhere privately where they
share this information with you. The fact that you're doing
podcasts like this, it's a beautiful thing. We have access
(45:26):
to information that is really impacting our community in an
extremely important way. But we have a responsibility to our
community to make sure we're giving sound advice. Right. So
while I thank you for brown ambitions, it's always making
sure that you're bringing on the right people that are
giving sound advice, because we do not want to misinform
our community, especially in this time.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
So we have a response. Absolutely. As fun and as
much as we want to make this about like as
comfortable talking about money as it is having a glass
of wine with your girlfriends, there is a lot of
responsibility and I do take that quite seriously when it
comes to bringing people onto the show.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
And I'm questions right exactly, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
Which is why you're here. Thank you so much, Raquel
rachel odin HSBC. What's your title again? God is of.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
No, that's my retirement plan. No, No, head of the
US for HSBC UH specifically for Wealth Private Banking Asset Management.
So I love this what we do, and I love
what you're doing, and it's important that I want this
as chitter chatter at the kitchen table over a glass
of wine to the point that you're making. So let's
(46:43):
make sure that we make it comfortable for us to
have uncertainty, but to talk about it. And that's the
biggest you know what I call aspect we could be
doing right now. So thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Thank you, Rachyle, thanks so much for joining us. Heyba fam,
how are we doing? Are y'all all right? After that
chat with Raquel, I'm not even gonna lie. I immediately
went to find the next available appointment for my financial
planner because I'm like, oh, I need to get my
stuff together. So I just want to thank Raquel again
(47:15):
for joining. Now Brown Ambition, it's your turn. Log into
those accounts, see what's all going on. If you need
or want to make a plan for yourself, take the
first step toward finding a financial planner who can help you.
You can contact whoever manages your account right now, so
if that's Fidelity Vanguard, you can take advantage potentially of
free financial planning resources that your company may offer or
(47:39):
your investment management company may offer. If you're like me
and you want to find a financial planner, I always
recommend people go to x Y Planning Network. That's where
I found my planner. You can also check out the
National Association of Personal Financial Advisors NAPFA and APFA. That's
a good place to start. And if y'all want to
(47:59):
share sure what your financial strategies are looking like or
what you've learned from this episode, please share on social media.
Tag me at Mandy Money at Brown Ambition Podcast as well.
You can email me Brownambition Podcast at gmail dot com.
And don't forget y'all can submit questions to the show
when we do our Brown Ambition QA episodes the BAQA
(48:20):
I will take those questions, so you can DM us
those questions on ig or again, email Brown Ambition Podcast
at gmail dot com. All right, rate, follow, subscribe, review,
subscribe on YouTube. All right, ba fam, I'll see y'all
next week for the latest episode and my Mental Wealth series.
(48:42):
Thanks so much, Bye okay Va fam, Thank you so
much for listening to this week's show. I want to
shout out to our production team, Courtney, our editor, Carla,
our fearless leader for idea to launch productions. I want
to shout out my assistant to Escalante and Cameron McNair
(49:02):
for helping me put the show together. It is not
a one person project, as much as I have tried
to make it so these past ten years. I need help, y'all,
and thank goodness I've been able to put this team
around me to support me on this journey and to
y'all bea fam. I love you so so, so so much.
Please rate, review, subscribe, make sure you're signed up to
(49:24):
the newsletter to get all the latest updates on upcoming episodes,
our ten year anniversary celebrations to come, and until next time,
Talk to you soon via buye
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