February 28, 2025 • 38 mins
Chris Boyd and Jeff Perry welcome Dr.Laura Mattia to the podcast. The conversation focuses on the premise that while money is not the key to happiness, using it wisely can help us pursue our dreams, elevate our status, gain independence, and contribute to meaningful change in the world. The trio digs into why many married women are not involved in the personal finance and
investment decisions of their household and the risks associated with such
disengagement. For more information about Dr. Mattia, see the link below:
https://www.moneymatriarchs.com/
For more information or to reach Chris Boyd or Jeff Perry, click the following link:
https://www.wealthenhancement.com/s/advisor-teams/amr
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Something More with Chris Boyd.
Chris Boyd is a certified financial planner, practitioner,
and senior vice president, financial advisor at Wealth
Enhancement Group, one of the nation's largest registered
investment advisors.
We call it Something More because we'd like
to talk not only about those important dollar
and cents issues, but also the quality of
life issues that make the money matters matter.
(00:22):
Here he is, your fulfillment facilitator, your partner
in prosperity, advising clients on Cape Cod and
across the country.
Here's your host, Jay Christopher Boyd.
Thanks for being with us for another episode
of Something More with Chris Boyd.
I'm here with Jeff Perry.
We are both of the AMR team with
Wealth Enhancement Group, and we have a special
guest today.
(00:43):
Our guest is Dr. Laura Mattia.
Do you say it Mattier or Mattia?
I want to make sure I do it
right.
Mattia, but that's okay.
Everybody.
Okay.
I wasn't sure.
So it's great to have you with us.
You have, well, we're going to get to
hear your story.
You have a prolonged history of all kinds
of academic and professional accomplishments.
(01:06):
Let's just start by getting to know you
a little bit about thanks for being with
us in relatively new to Wealth Enhancement Group.
Yes.
So I'm actually a partner of yours effectively
in the Wealth Enhancement Group, and we joined
mid last year.
So we're fairly new.
And we're not ahead of you, as you
know, we just started a few months before
(01:28):
that.
Right.
Right.
So my story, I mean, I could go
into all kinds of tangential things.
However, just to be on the more professional
level, I started out in corporate finance, and
actually I had an MBA in finance, and
I wanted to be coming an executive there,
one of the few women in the executive
ranks.
And women would often come to me and
(01:52):
ask me questions on going through divorce, you
know, I'm trying to figure out what my
property settlement should look like, I need some
help, you know, getting out of this debt
or whatever.
And I would, I would help them.
And that was kind of my first foray
into kind of doing more of a personal
financial planning.
I wound up taking a CFO position for
(02:14):
a family office in Manhattan for a very
famous, actually New Yorker.
And that was kind of, oh, you know,
I'm not making decisions, you know, helping a
CEO make decisions on what property and plans
equipment they need to purchase.
I'm helping somebody really execute their life.
(02:35):
And I love that.
And so that's how I actually, I got
into the personal finance, but it's always been
with that, that recognition that there are a
lot of women out there that need financial
help.
So everything that I've done, even my PhD
dissertation was around women and money.
I've published a lot of research, which has
(02:55):
all been about women and money, widows and
money.
I've done a lot of every quarter I
do a divorce workshop at a local women's
501c3 program.
I've just been really very dedicated on supporting
that specific niche.
I'm not going to say that I don't
serve men because I do as well.
(03:17):
I'm just particularly sensitive to that demographic.
Well, we're going to talk about some of
the challenges that women face, particularly married women.
And we'll dig into that in more depth.
Tell us about your current practice, where you're
located and some of the details, who you
(03:37):
work with.
So I'm in beautiful Sarasota, Florida.
I still pinch myself.
We moved down here in 2014.
I would say I escaped the New York
area.
And we're very, very, despite the occasional hurricane,
which can be a little bit, can fluster
you a bit, everything else is just, I
(04:00):
love it.
So I really feel fortunate that I was
able to come down here.
And we, when we moved, my husband, I
was actually, I was teaching at Rutgers.
I had a practice up there and my
husband came home and said, I want to
move.
And he arranged it in such a way
that it was enticing enough that I just
threw everything up in the air and said,
(04:21):
okay, fine, I'll move and move down here.
And immediately we found our own little things
that we were doing and picked up our
life and went on.
So that was pretty nice.
Yeah.
How did you manage to juggle the sort
of dual, a foot in both academia and
(04:42):
a foot in the practical application of financial
planning concepts in people's lives?
Yeah.
So, so firstly, Chris, if you, as we
get to know each other better, you're going
to find out that I'm a little bit,
I've been told that I'm wound tight a
bit.
I have tended to always take on a
(05:04):
lot.
I'm not used to working less than 60,
70 hours a week.
That's just the way I'm wired.
I don't, I don't know why.
I think I'm still trying to, I guess,
prove the reason why I should exist.
I don't know.
Psychological.
I'm sure the psychologist would have something to
say about me.
You're trying to make an impact.
(05:24):
I guess.
Yeah.
But, um, I, I just, in fact, I
just did a seminar two days ago with
a group of women and we talked a
lot about values and I do this value
exercise every year.
I've been doing it since back in the
nineties when I got a Franklin planner and
they kind of pushed that whole concept and
(05:46):
every year I write down my values and
I try to filter the things I'm going
to choose to do, whether it's using my
very valuable resource of money or my very
valuable resource of time through those values, because
the problem is, is that I think everything's
interesting if I do everything like, I mean,
(06:08):
just because I, I can, doesn't mean I
should, I mean, it's just not enough time
in the day, so I try to whittle
it down, but so, um, I can see
like with the academia and the working with
people in the practical area, there's a lot
of synergy there.
There's a lot of, I could inform the
(06:29):
other and help to balance them both with,
you know, the practical benefits of the experience
as well as the, you know, conceptual how
to apply that in people's lives.
Yeah.
And for a lot of people, they, they,
so my clients tend to be definitely smarter
than the average beer.
They want to understand, they want to learn,
(06:49):
they don't want to just hear, oh, this
is my idea, you know, just go with
it.
They want to hear, well, what was, what
were you comparing it to?
What are the other choices and why, what
are the pros and cons of those choices?
And why are you kind of directing me
in this way?
And so, you know, to understand it at
a deeper level where I can explain it
in, in, you know, terms that people can
(07:10):
digest, you know, without jargon, without, you know,
the vernacular, the financial industry, um, it's really
important to me to be able to do
that for them.
You've been published as well.
Was this a purely a, an outcome of
your, um, your doctorate, uh, efforts or was
(07:30):
it a passion of some other type?
Uh, yes.
So, so my, um, the chair of my
dissertation and all that was, they were very
adamant that you don't get a PhD just
to teach, you could have taught anyway, you
really should get engaged in research.
And so I did.
And, um, I really love, I've always loved
statistics and I love what you can, you
(07:52):
can do with them and it's, it's fun.
It's a lot of fun.
So I've enjoyed it.
I've enjoyed the process of research.
I have not enjoyed the process of getting
it published.
Getting it published is the same thing.
Yeah, that sounds like it would be.
Um, you have a podcast.
I see, you know, for those watching our
(08:13):
video, um, which, you know, if you're, if
you're not aware, you only listen to us
through the, the audio podcast.
You can also catch us on YouTube or
our, our website, a webpage, um, which you
can find through typing in something more with
Chris Boyd, but any.com.
And then, um, the, you have a money
(08:33):
matriarchs podcast.
I want to hear about that.
And also I understand you've done a Ted
talk as well.
So I want to hear about that too.
Yeah.
Okay.
Um, so, so, um, the, the podcast actually
I I've done actually, this is an outgrowth
that occurred many, many years ago.
And I launched a podcast back in 2010
(08:54):
and then with my move and everything else,
it kind of fizzles and this is a
relaunched podcast really.
And the whole podcast, the, the tagline is
inspiring women to harness the power of money
for good.
And, um, what I'm trying to communicate is
it's not just, well, it's good for ourselves
(09:17):
and our families.
It's good for the community.
It's good for the world.
It's, there's a lot of ways that we
can incorporate the concept of doing good and,
and making a difference.
Um, the show, the specific show, uh, is
intended to showcase other women who have done
(09:40):
interesting things in the community or, um, you
know, in their own world that I think
are interesting that I'd like to kind of
elevate and let other women see what they've
done.
And possibly, hopefully be inspired by that.
Inspirational.
Right.
Love it.
Love it.
Women aren't as good as men at touting
(10:03):
their horn and saying, look at me, this
is what I've done.
That's a real nice way to say that.
Men are very, some men are very good
at it.
Yeah.
Right.
Too good.
Maybe.
Yeah.
That's the point.
Right.
Yeah.
Any substance, right?
Sometimes.
(10:23):
Sometimes.
Right, right.
Exactly.
So, um, this is a forum, an opportunity
to, to showcase and celebrate, um, women who've
had accomplishments, uh, essentially what you're trying to
do.
I love that.
Um, it's an interesting, um, theme too.
I like that.
You know, that's a great, uh, hook, you
(10:45):
know, cause there's, there's probably so many great
stories to tell to, uh, showcase and, you
know, on a, on a level on a
whole different perspective.
Um, if there are any advisors listening to
this, um, it, it, what it does for
me also is it enables me to call
up somebody that maybe I don't really know
(11:06):
that well, and, um, you know, I'd like
to invite them to lunch, but maybe they
wouldn't go to lunch with me, but they
might be on my podcast.
So it's a way for me actually to
introduce myself to some people that I think
are kind of interesting or cool.
And I'd like to talk to, and, um,
they come in and I get to ask
them really fun questions.
(11:27):
Yeah, that's great.
And so you get the opportunity to be
interacting with people you might not otherwise have
occasion to talk with, which.
You know, may or may not have an
opportunity to open the door for business, but
even if it doesn't, it's like, hi, I
get to talk with these people who have
such interesting stories that can be inspiring and,
(11:48):
uh, you can glean great information from, right?
Yeah, love it.
Love it.
So that's the, you know, I think one
of the things when you, when you do
a podcast, you tend to be a curious
person, don't you think?
Cause you, it's like the fun of it
is engaging and learning about what's, what makes
them tick, what's the story of their success
(12:09):
or whatever.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, um, Ted talks.
Oh, all right.
So, so, um, I guess the most important
Ted talk, there's a second one that I
did.
Um, but the first one I did was
really part of my whole passion.
I call almost call it like a passion
project, this whole theme around supporting women and
(12:33):
getting women engaged in finances.
Um, you know, I, I mentioned that I
did both a lot of research and I
do various seminars and things around helping widows
and women in the process of making better
decisions in divorce.
And, um, at that point in time, the
women are all ears, they're listening, they understand
(12:54):
they need to, they need guidance.
Uh, and so that's wonderful.
However, at that point in time, like I'm
always sitting there thinking, you know, I wish
that you had become more financially engaged earlier
on in your life where you were not
a deer in the headlight, uh, trying to
(13:16):
learn this all at once during an already
stressful time.
And so I really wanted to try to
encourage those women that maybe don't need to
do it out of necessity right now, but
it's just a good skillset and awareness and
knowledge to have.
Yeah.
So, you know, it's been, you know, historically
(13:36):
financial decision-making has always been dominated by
single men, single women and married men, but
not as much married women and trying to
get them to become engaged has been a
little, I, I, I told you, I just
did that seminar a couple of days ago
and one of my friends came and she
(13:57):
said, you know, I invited somebody that I
really thought think would really benefit from this.
And she said, oh no, money's boring.
I don't know.
I'm not interested.
I said, it's not boring.
We're going to have, we're going to have
wine.
We're going to have fun.
We're like, I'll make it fun.
Yeah, exactly.
And I mean, who doesn't love money, right?
(14:18):
I mean, come on.
Do you think it's changing with the generational
shift?
Well, okay.
So I think it's, first of all, just,
um, I do want to mention that I've
done this research where I've looked at financial
knowledge, knowledge and engagement and confidence across all
the cohorts.
And there still is a gap after we
(14:38):
use the regression analysis and we control for
all the variables, there still is a gap.
However, it absolutely is changing.
I think what's really driving that is the
fact that women are starting to become, um,
earners they're, they're, uh, you know, if they're
high earners, uh, or they've been, they've inherited
(14:59):
some type of wealth, it's now become a
lot more personal and they want to understand.
And the higher earner women, if you think
about it, they're higher earners because they're also
educated women.
And so they're educated and they're successful.
And they're not just willing to hand over
the finances to somebody and say, Oh, you
(15:20):
manage it.
I'll just like do whatever you say.
They want to understand.
They want to understand the pros and the
cons and they really, so.
So I would say, um, I bet that
like me, you've seen lots of instances where
there's some sad stories about families where, uh,
(15:45):
some pretty questionable judgment has been used by
the person who's handling the finances.
If it's not a collaborative endeavor.
Do you want to talk a little bit
about that just for, as a, like a
starting point?
Oh, yeah.
No, it's not.
Why do you need to pay attention to
this?
It's because it's not only because of ill
(16:06):
will or bad judgment of like, you know,
you know, unscrupulous things, but it can be
just questionable risk-taking or there's some, a
lot of data about, uh, risk appetite, uh,
when it comes to gender.
Right.
Well, you know, I mean, there's, as you
know, there's a whole body of, uh, educational
(16:30):
or research, uh, knowledge out there around behavioral
finance and the bad decisions that people make
that are inspired by their emotions or their
instincts, but they're not necessarily rational.
You know, the whole premise of, uh, uh,
economics and, and good financial decision is that
we're all robots making rational decisions and we're
(16:55):
not, we're always impacted by our emotions.
And one of the things that I try
to do when I work with, uh, both
men and women is try to understand, you
know, I tell them there's a technical financial
answer and then there's an emotional answer.
And then the decision we might make is
somewhere in between.
I need to understand what's driving you and
(17:17):
what, what other aspects might be coming into
play and maybe we're going to find some
kind of middle ground, but yeah, I mean,
everything, so I do, um, I do some
volunteer work for this, this local women's, um,
I created a program there.
It's the, so there's a women's resource center
(17:37):
down here.
It's a 501 C three.
Um, and I created a program called, um,
women's money impairment.
And, um, every week I make myself available
to talk to a woman about her financial
situation.
Just recently I spoke to a lady who
was really struggling financially and she just took
(18:00):
out additional debt to add a line to
our house.
And so we're talking about how to get
out of this debt.
And then she pops up with a whole,
well, I need furniture for the line and
I said, well, what if we just make
that your dance floor for a little while?
I just stopped.
Uh, and it, there was like, nothing was
(18:21):
penetrating her.
She was really driven by her emotional need
to have these things and just was not
having, having it.
And it was, it can be very frustrating
when people don't see the ramifications.
Well, okay.
So you're telling me that you don't like
working three jobs yet.
You're doing this to yourself.
(18:42):
Why are you doing this to yourself?
Yeah.
All right.
So, um, the behavioral element is an important
part for any, uh, you know, whether gender
irrelevant, it's part of what drives our decision
making at times.
Um, there's also things that, uh, differences in
(19:03):
the genders between in variety of ways, as
it relates to financial issues, personal finance.
Let's talk about some of the challenges that
women just structurally seem to be facing as
a starting point that makes it all the
more important for them to take some ownership
(19:23):
and involvement in their own financial life.
Okay.
But Chris, would you mind if I just
back up for a minute and just, I,
I want to get the opposite.
Um, so, so yes, um, there are things
that women will sometimes even allow their emotions
(19:44):
to get in the way more than, um,
other people, but men do as well, more
from the standpoint and what, what's been shown
and confidence, right?
A greater confidence.
Absolutely.
And it's been shown over and over again.
There's a couple of really great studies.
My favorite is, um, uh, Barbara and Odin
(20:06):
did a study back, um, years ago, uh,
where they, they took brokerage data and they
looked at men and women investing and they
found that men traded way too often.
They took much riskier, uh, positions and the
women with their more disciplined approach, patience and
(20:28):
so forth were actually performed better than the
men.
Yeah, I think that's an important, that's, that's,
again, that's a great example of why there's
a benefit to that, um, collaborative approach between
men and women in a family or whatever,
that it's not just one or the other.
You get a little bit of these, uh,
(20:48):
the blended, uh, benefits of everyone's perspective, right?
That's right.
And the other thing too, um, I, I
hope you guys, I'm sure you probably do.
Um, when, when a man comes into your
office and he leaves his wife at home
all the time, I hope you encourage her
to come into the office too, because I
mean, the other, the other thing is that
(21:09):
whole, the fact I'm working with a widow
right now, and she said, you know, my
husband treated me like a queen and I
didn't need to worry about anything, but now
I'm a deer in the headlight.
I'm, I'm terrified.
And, um, you know, a lot of men
will do this.
Um, they actually are doing it to their
wife.
They don't realize.
I think they're doing a wonderful thing by
(21:32):
not letting her worry about it.
Don't you think a lot of times it's
not, um, it's not anything deliberate.
It's just this, um, division of, uh, resources.
And, you know, you, you handle these things
at the house and I handle those things
of the house.
You know, you get these habits that evolve
and develop.
And as you, you illustrated earlier with someone
(21:53):
saying, oh, I don't like money issues, you
know, that they're become these ingrained like perceptions
and biases.
Right.
And that's not always productive.
Right.
It's bad.
So, uh, I don't do much cooking in
my house.
I should, I should be doing more of
the cooking too.
(22:13):
Right.
You know, like, so that I know what
I'm doing.
If something were to happen to my wife,
you know, you know, as an example, you
get these blended, you know, we all do
our different things and each has their different
behaviors.
That's right.
Although I would argue that, um, you would
figure out how to eat if a lot
(22:35):
easier than somebody, I wouldn't worry about Chris.
Well, but the thing is, is that, you
know, because, um, finance is not just it
inherently intuitive.
Oh, I get it just like that.
It's a muscle that we develop over time,
the, the knowledge and the comfort and the
(22:57):
ability to understand the decision-making happens over
time.
And I often liken it to a language,
um, that it's like, it, it, it, it's
it's a little bit uncomfortable feel, you know,
you, you're learning vocabulary, but eventually you can
become fluent, you know, and it's, you have
to be immersed in it a bit to
(23:18):
become fluent.
And it's not that it's rocket science necessarily,
but it is detailed and complicated.
And yeah, I have to say, I mean,
if I think about, you know, the MBA
and the master's and the PhD and the
CFP and all the other little certifications that
I got and, you know, working as a,
um, you know, in the corporate world and
we're going to, and all the years that
(23:39):
I've invested, including watching what happened in 2001
and 2008 and so forth.
I can actually sit back and finally say,
I think I kind of know something about
finance.
Um, I may still be wrong.
Um, and I just think, wow, you know,
like I, I thought I looked, I thought
20 years ago, I knew a lot.
(24:01):
And every year I feel like, I mean,
isn't this one of those professions where you're
just always learning more?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And it, there's always more to learn.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, um, I, I have, uh, with the
constraint of time, we're not going to get
(24:21):
through everything.
So, and so I think let's not go
into some things.
We'll have you back another time to talk
about when it comes to all the, I
think there's just a lengthy list of things
that are structurally challenging for women in a
way that's different from men.
And so that it creates this, um, need
(24:43):
for women to be more, uh, engaged.
But today let's focus on this, this mentioned
that you did with the seminar recently, this,
why is it that married women need to
be more engaged and how do you help
them move from a complacent kind of, uh,
(25:04):
disengagement to a more fully engaged approach?
Right.
So, um, couple, couple of things.
So I, that, that was what my TEDx
was about trying to encourage women to get
engaged.
And I, I got mixed reactions from people
for sure.
And, you know, I, I continue to get
mixed reactions from people.
I think, you know, it's really important, you
(25:25):
know, I'll provide, uh, I started out a
lot of times just rattling off the statistics,
you know, eight out of 10 of us
are going to be eventually on our own,
solely responsible for ourselves.
The average woman that become age that a
woman becomes a widow is 59.
You know, that, um, when, um, a woman
(25:48):
gets with it becomes a widow, 69%
of those widows say that the most difficult
thing over everything else is trying to figure
out, you know, how to navigate the financial
decision-making, um, they're overwhelmed.
There's statistics around bad sleep.
(26:09):
You know, they're not able to sleep all
these different things.
Why put yourself in that position?
Why not?
You know, we're, as comprehensive financial planners, we
are taught early on about protecting the downside,
about making sure that you try to control
the controllable, make sure that you have good
life insurance.
If you're in your earning years, making sure
that you maybe have, you know, a decent
(26:31):
homeowner's problems, all the things that we try
to protect all the downsides.
Well, that's a downside is not being able
to understand finance well enough that you can
at least, um, feel comfortable about navigating.
And maybe you're not going to make all
those decisions yourself.
Maybe you're going to hire somebody, but how
(26:52):
do you even know how to hire somebody
that you can trust if you don't know
the right questions to ask?
Yeah, that's a good point.
So how do you, how do you help
people to, uh, know the answer to that?
So, so I, I often will try to,
you know, throw out some of those statistics
and, and get them to see the potential
(27:15):
obstacle.
Um, I will try to reposition the idea
of this is not about dying with a
pile of money.
This is about how do you want to
live your life?
And there's this very important resource called money.
And if you figure out how to use
it properly, you can actually live a better
(27:35):
life.
You can make better decisions.
You can make better choices and have some
even potential opportunity that if you can adequately
protect yourself and your family, and then you
figure out what's important to you.
And you, you, um, identify your goals and
your behavior aligned with what's important to you
(27:58):
in terms of your values.
So now you're living your life on your
terms.
I mean, people talk about this concept of
being authentic all the time.
And I was going to say, well, what
is that?
You know, do you even know what your
values are?
You know, a lot of people have never
even explicitly thought about it.
They think they're clear on their values, but
they've never actually done the contemplative or reflective
(28:19):
work to understand what their values are.
So, um, how do you help people identify
that?
We have a bunch of exercises that we
do.
Um, we will help them a lot of
times.
It's like, you know, it's conceptually, it's like,
oh, um, yeah, I, I value family.
I value, you know, whatever.
There's things that you, you know, reflexively might
(28:39):
articulate, but I'm curious how you help someone
really dig down, right?
Dig into that to get a handle on,
well, what do I value?
So there's a variety.
I, I used to have, um, a document,
it was like a quiz or like just
a list of all these different values.
And I would have, we would talk about
and go through it.
(29:00):
Um, recently I was introduced to these cards
and by the way, I was introduced them
through WEG.
WEG has used them in other, other groups,
and I'm happy to share them with you
guys because, um, they're, they've been really interesting.
What I like about the cards is that
you can do almost a cluster analysis.
So what we do is we divide the
(29:21):
cards into two, two sections, those values that
resonate with me and those values that don't.
Then we take the values that resonate with
me.
And now I narrowed down to 10, 15
at max.
And then I narrowed them down even further
and start clustering them.
And what I'm, what I try to get
the, um, the client or the person I'm
working with, working with to understand is that
(29:43):
even though these different values seem somewhat similar,
there's one higher, like there's a hierarchy, there's
a motivator.
What is that motivating value that the other
values are still there, but they're being tested
against that motivating value.
And so, I mean, part of it isn't
just the doing and coming up with your
(30:05):
values.
It is the process of talking it through
and discussing it and just, you know, kind
of getting comfortable with, you know, what really
is motivating me in life.
The purpose of this then is to what,
to say, let's define your financial plan in
keeping with what your true priorities are, not
(30:26):
just some arbitrary, you know, financial objectives, but
something that is truly at your core.
Is that the gist of it?
Absolutely.
Money is a limited resource.
It doesn't grow on trees.
I always love this exercise that I do
for my younger folks when I teach them
how to use the financial calculator.
And I talk to them about time value
(30:49):
money and about the limited resources and so
forth.
I have them key in, okay, you're spending
$7, $6, whatever at Starbucks every day.
Okay, key that in.
And you're doing that for, you know, five
days a week for 20, 30 years.
Okay, key that in.
Okay, what is that number?
(31:09):
And they're all always really surprised.
And I say, okay, I'm not going to
tell you not to buy Starbucks.
You go out and you buy Starbucks every
day.
There's your yacht.
You buy a yacht, or you can buy
Starbucks.
You choose.
And getting people to understand that they can
achieve certain things, but they have to then
(31:29):
not do other things.
These are choices.
Yeah, very good.
So does that values exercise a core part
of your engagement with clientele?
Is that a like building block you develop?
So it depends.
Now, I told you I came from New
(31:50):
York.
It's a favorite phrase, actually.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, there are New Yorkers that would
have zero patience with that.
So, you know, I mean, I guess if
I lived out in California, more people would
be.
So I kind of feel the client out
and feel for what they're willing to do
with me.
(32:10):
Sometimes just asking to complete a risk tolerance
questionnaire.
Right.
All right.
So when possible, you pursue that.
And then just, you know, do you always
like to start with a financial plan, the
comprehensive financial plan as part of the process
(32:30):
before?
I am a professor of CFP programs.
I taught two.
In fact, I started a registered CFP program
down here at University of South Florida.
I will not.
I will never.
If somebody comes to me and says, here's
a million dollars or here's 10 million, I
don't care.
Just manage it.
I won't do it.
(32:51):
I tell them I always have to do
a comprehensive plan.
I want to know what's going on in
your life because I might be missing something.
So I will do a financial plan, a
matter of fact, and not manage somebody's money.
But I think comprehensive planning is really valuable.
I think that everybody should do it.
Yeah, we're on the same page as far
(33:11):
as that.
I noticed you're also you're involved in the
Financial Planning Association.
Have you had a long time involvement with
the Financial Planning Association?
Yes, I was involved in it back up
north and then I was on the board
here at Suncoast in Sarasota.
Our board is kind of, I don't know,
it's not operating that well.
(33:31):
There's not enough people that want to be
involved.
I don't understand why.
So I am kind of a little bit
unusual, right, where there's a collaborative thing across
the state of some kind with.
Right, right.
We do have a Florida FBA.
And a matter of fact, they're planning a
trip to go out to Tallahassee in a
couple of weeks.
(33:51):
And I'm trying to reorganize my schedule because
they've been very active and involved with talking
to our representatives about financial literacy, firstly in
the high schools and then even in the
universities, which has been a real hill to
climb, which is surprising.
(34:13):
Yeah, it's such an important thing.
Yeah, that's great.
And thanks for your effort, for sure.
Yeah.
Thanks for your involvement in that.
I think we all need to, you know,
make it a priority to participate in our
industry association at some time or another.
So, well, we could keep talking, but I
feel like we've covered around the time we
(34:34):
normally would talk.
What did you want to get in this
first?
We're going to have you back for sure.
Absolutely.
We're going to talk more about some of
the specific kinds of challenges women face along
the way that are unique from men in
their financial planning endeavors.
But, you know, particularly on this topic about
married women and needing to pay attention or
(34:57):
anything else.
Was there anything else you wanted to address
today?
Well, I guess I suppose without getting into
all those other things, you know, if women
could just be a little bit reflective and
think about all those big decisions that are
made in your family, at your workplace, in
the community, in the world, they have financial
(35:18):
implications.
Almost every decision that is made has some
implications there.
And the more you understand money, the more
you can contribute and be at the table.
So we, as women, need to be at
the table.
We need to assist.
Everybody has something to contribute.
But if you don't have that knowledge, you're
(35:40):
going to be limited in what you can
contribute.
So from that standpoint, I'm hoping those higher
earners who do want to do something with
their lives will hear that.
Excellent conversation.
Dr. Laura Mateo, let's have you back and
let's do this again and talk more about
the kinds of challenges women face so that
(36:02):
we can help inform our listeners and help
them in their financial journey.
Hopefully they're paying attention in ways that they
need to.
So you've been a pleasure to have with
us.
Thanks for being with us today.
Thank you so much.
It was great to talk to you both,
Chris and Jeff.
Wonderful to see you.
Thank you.
Okay.
(36:22):
Thanks, everybody, for being with us.
If you need any help, you can reach
out to actually, Laura, do you want to
share your contact information for our audience before
we sign off with ours?
Sure.
Well, it's similar to both of yours.
It's lmatea at wealthenhancement.com.
If anybody wanted to work with, do something
(36:43):
with the three of us, even, we could
work as a team.
We are partners at this firm and we
can certainly work together to even help somebody.
Absolutely.
And it's the kind of thing that there's
different partners that have areas of expertise and
we all can work together.
(37:03):
So glad to have you with us.
We're going to have you back for sure.
Until next time, everybody, keep striving for something
more.
Thank you for listening to Something More with
Chris Boyd.
Call us for help, whether it's for financial
planning or portfolio management, insurance concerns, or those
quality of life issues that make the money
matters matter.
(37:23):
Whatever's on your mind, visit us at somethingmorewithchrisboyd
.com or call us toll free at 866
-771-8901 or send us your questions to
amr-info at wealthenhancement.com.
You're listening to Something More with Chris Boyd
Financial Talk Show, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services and
(37:44):
Jay Christopher Boyd provide investment advice on an
individual basis to clients only.
Proper advice depends on a complete analysis of
all facts and circumstances.
The information given on this program is general
financial comments and cannot be relied upon as
pertaining to your specific situation.
Wealth Enhancement Group cannot guarantee that using the
information from this show will generate profits or
ensure freedom from loss.
Listeners should consult their own financial advisors or
(38:04):
conduct their own due diligence before making any
financial decisions.
Welcome to Something More with Chris Boyd.
Chris Boyd is a certified financial planner, practitioner,
and senior vice president, financial advisor at Wealth
Enhancement Group, one of the nation's largest registered
investment advisors.
We call it Something More because we'd like
to talk not only about those important dollar
and cents issues, but also the quality of
life issues that make the money matters matter.
(00:22):
Here he is, your fulfillment facilitator, your partner
in prosperity, advising clients on Cape Cod and
across the country.
Here's your host, Jay Christopher Boyd.
Thanks for being with us for another episode
of Something More with Chris Boyd.
I'm here with Jeff Perry.
We are both of the AMR team with
Wealth Enhancement Group, and we have a special
guest today.
(00:43):
Our guest is Dr. Laura Mattia.
Do you say it Mattier or Mattia?
I want to make sure I do it
right.
Mattia, but that's okay.
Everybody.
Okay.
I wasn't sure.
So it's great to have you with us.
You have, well, we're going to get to
hear your story.
You have a prolonged history of all kinds
of academic and professional accomplishments.
(01:06):
Let's just start by getting to know you
a little bit about thanks for being with
us in relatively new to Wealth Enhancement Group.
Yes.
So I'm actually a partner of yours effectively
in the Wealth Enhancement Group, and we joined
mid last year.
So we're fairly new.
And we're not ahead of you, as you
know, we just started a few months before
(01:28):
that.
Right.
Right.
So my story, I mean, I could go
into all kinds of tangential things.
However, just to be on the more professional
level, I started out in corporate finance, and
actually I had an MBA in finance, and
I wanted to be coming an executive there,
one of the few women in the executive
ranks.
And women would often come to me and
(01:52):
ask me questions on going through divorce, you
know, I'm trying to figure out what my
property settlement should look like, I need some
help, you know, getting out of this debt
or whatever.
And I would, I would help them.
And that was kind of my first foray
into kind of doing more of a personal
financial planning.
I wound up taking a CFO position for
(02:14):
a family office in Manhattan for a very
famous, actually New Yorker.
And that was kind of, oh, you know,
I'm not making decisions, you know, helping a
CEO make decisions on what property and plans
equipment they need to purchase.
I'm helping somebody really execute their life.
(02:35):
And I love that.
And so that's how I actually, I got
into the personal finance, but it's always been
with that, that recognition that there are a
lot of women out there that need financial
help.
So everything that I've done, even my PhD
dissertation was around women and money.
I've published a lot of research, which has
(02:55):
all been about women and money, widows and
money.
I've done a lot of every quarter I
do a divorce workshop at a local women's
501c3 program.
I've just been really very dedicated on supporting
that specific niche.
I'm not going to say that I don't
serve men because I do as well.
(03:17):
I'm just particularly sensitive to that demographic.
Well, we're going to talk about some of
the challenges that women face, particularly married women.
And we'll dig into that in more depth.
Tell us about your current practice, where you're
located and some of the details, who you
(03:37):
work with.
So I'm in beautiful Sarasota, Florida.
I still pinch myself.
We moved down here in 2014.
I would say I escaped the New York
area.
And we're very, very, despite the occasional hurricane,
which can be a little bit, can fluster
you a bit, everything else is just, I
(04:00):
love it.
So I really feel fortunate that I was
able to come down here.
And we, when we moved, my husband, I
was actually, I was teaching at Rutgers.
I had a practice up there and my
husband came home and said, I want to
move.
And he arranged it in such a way
that it was enticing enough that I just
threw everything up in the air and said,
(04:21):
okay, fine, I'll move and move down here.
And immediately we found our own little things
that we were doing and picked up our
life and went on.
So that was pretty nice.
Yeah.
How did you manage to juggle the sort
of dual, a foot in both academia and
(04:42):
a foot in the practical application of financial
planning concepts in people's lives?
Yeah.
So, so firstly, Chris, if you, as we
get to know each other better, you're going
to find out that I'm a little bit,
I've been told that I'm wound tight a
bit.
I have tended to always take on a
(05:04):
lot.
I'm not used to working less than 60,
70 hours a week.
That's just the way I'm wired.
I don't, I don't know why.
I think I'm still trying to, I guess,
prove the reason why I should exist.
I don't know.
Psychological.
I'm sure the psychologist would have something to
say about me.
You're trying to make an impact.
(05:24):
I guess.
Yeah.
But, um, I, I just, in fact, I
just did a seminar two days ago with
a group of women and we talked a
lot about values and I do this value
exercise every year.
I've been doing it since back in the
nineties when I got a Franklin planner and
they kind of pushed that whole concept and
(05:46):
every year I write down my values and
I try to filter the things I'm going
to choose to do, whether it's using my
very valuable resource of money or my very
valuable resource of time through those values, because
the problem is, is that I think everything's
interesting if I do everything like, I mean,
(06:08):
just because I, I can, doesn't mean I
should, I mean, it's just not enough time
in the day, so I try to whittle
it down, but so, um, I can see
like with the academia and the working with
people in the practical area, there's a lot
of synergy there.
There's a lot of, I could inform the
(06:29):
other and help to balance them both with,
you know, the practical benefits of the experience
as well as the, you know, conceptual how
to apply that in people's lives.
Yeah.
And for a lot of people, they, they,
so my clients tend to be definitely smarter
than the average beer.
They want to understand, they want to learn,
(06:49):
they don't want to just hear, oh, this
is my idea, you know, just go with
it.
They want to hear, well, what was, what
were you comparing it to?
What are the other choices and why, what
are the pros and cons of those choices?
And why are you kind of directing me
in this way?
And so, you know, to understand it at
a deeper level where I can explain it
in, in, you know, terms that people can
(07:10):
digest, you know, without jargon, without, you know,
the vernacular, the financial industry, um, it's really
important to me to be able to do
that for them.
You've been published as well.
Was this a purely a, an outcome of
your, um, your doctorate, uh, efforts or was
(07:30):
it a passion of some other type?
Uh, yes.
So, so my, um, the chair of my
dissertation and all that was, they were very
adamant that you don't get a PhD just
to teach, you could have taught anyway, you
really should get engaged in research.
And so I did.
And, um, I really love, I've always loved
statistics and I love what you can, you
(07:52):
can do with them and it's, it's fun.
It's a lot of fun.
So I've enjoyed it.
I've enjoyed the process of research.
I have not enjoyed the process of getting
it published.
Getting it published is the same thing.
Yeah, that sounds like it would be.
Um, you have a podcast.
I see, you know, for those watching our
(08:13):
video, um, which, you know, if you're, if
you're not aware, you only listen to us
through the, the audio podcast.
You can also catch us on YouTube or
our, our website, a webpage, um, which you
can find through typing in something more with
Chris Boyd, but any.com.
And then, um, the, you have a money
(08:33):
matriarchs podcast.
I want to hear about that.
And also I understand you've done a Ted
talk as well.
So I want to hear about that too.
Yeah.
Okay.
Um, so, so, um, the, the podcast actually
I I've done actually, this is an outgrowth
that occurred many, many years ago.
And I launched a podcast back in 2010
(08:54):
and then with my move and everything else,
it kind of fizzles and this is a
relaunched podcast really.
And the whole podcast, the, the tagline is
inspiring women to harness the power of money
for good.
And, um, what I'm trying to communicate is
it's not just, well, it's good for ourselves
(09:17):
and our families.
It's good for the community.
It's good for the world.
It's, there's a lot of ways that we
can incorporate the concept of doing good and,
and making a difference.
Um, the show, the specific show, uh, is
intended to showcase other women who have done
(09:40):
interesting things in the community or, um, you
know, in their own world that I think
are interesting that I'd like to kind of
elevate and let other women see what they've
done.
And possibly, hopefully be inspired by that.
Inspirational.
Right.
Love it.
Love it.
Women aren't as good as men at touting
(10:03):
their horn and saying, look at me, this
is what I've done.
That's a real nice way to say that.
Men are very, some men are very good
at it.
Yeah.
Right.
Too good.
Maybe.
Yeah.
That's the point.
Right.
Yeah.
Any substance, right?
Sometimes.
(10:23):
Sometimes.
Right, right.
Exactly.
So, um, this is a forum, an opportunity
to, to showcase and celebrate, um, women who've
had accomplishments, uh, essentially what you're trying to
do.
I love that.
Um, it's an interesting, um, theme too.
I like that.
You know, that's a great, uh, hook, you
(10:45):
know, cause there's, there's probably so many great
stories to tell to, uh, showcase and, you
know, on a, on a level on a
whole different perspective.
Um, if there are any advisors listening to
this, um, it, it, what it does for
me also is it enables me to call
up somebody that maybe I don't really know
(11:06):
that well, and, um, you know, I'd like
to invite them to lunch, but maybe they
wouldn't go to lunch with me, but they
might be on my podcast.
So it's a way for me actually to
introduce myself to some people that I think
are kind of interesting or cool.
And I'd like to talk to, and, um,
they come in and I get to ask
them really fun questions.
(11:27):
Yeah, that's great.
And so you get the opportunity to be
interacting with people you might not otherwise have
occasion to talk with, which.
You know, may or may not have an
opportunity to open the door for business, but
even if it doesn't, it's like, hi, I
get to talk with these people who have
such interesting stories that can be inspiring and,
(11:48):
uh, you can glean great information from, right?
Yeah, love it.
Love it.
So that's the, you know, I think one
of the things when you, when you do
a podcast, you tend to be a curious
person, don't you think?
Cause you, it's like the fun of it
is engaging and learning about what's, what makes
them tick, what's the story of their success
(12:09):
or whatever.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, um, Ted talks.
Oh, all right.
So, so, um, I guess the most important
Ted talk, there's a second one that I
did.
Um, but the first one I did was
really part of my whole passion.
I call almost call it like a passion
project, this whole theme around supporting women and
(12:33):
getting women engaged in finances.
Um, you know, I, I mentioned that I
did both a lot of research and I
do various seminars and things around helping widows
and women in the process of making better
decisions in divorce.
And, um, at that point in time, the
women are all ears, they're listening, they understand
(12:54):
they need to, they need guidance.
Uh, and so that's wonderful.
However, at that point in time, like I'm
always sitting there thinking, you know, I wish
that you had become more financially engaged earlier
on in your life where you were not
a deer in the headlight, uh, trying to
(13:16):
learn this all at once during an already
stressful time.
And so I really wanted to try to
encourage those women that maybe don't need to
do it out of necessity right now, but
it's just a good skillset and awareness and
knowledge to have.
Yeah.
So, you know, it's been, you know, historically
(13:36):
financial decision-making has always been dominated by
single men, single women and married men, but
not as much married women and trying to
get them to become engaged has been a
little, I, I, I told you, I just
did that seminar a couple of days ago
and one of my friends came and she
(13:57):
said, you know, I invited somebody that I
really thought think would really benefit from this.
And she said, oh no, money's boring.
I don't know.
I'm not interested.
I said, it's not boring.
We're going to have, we're going to have
wine.
We're going to have fun.
We're like, I'll make it fun.
Yeah, exactly.
And I mean, who doesn't love money, right?
(14:18):
I mean, come on.
Do you think it's changing with the generational
shift?
Well, okay.
So I think it's, first of all, just,
um, I do want to mention that I've
done this research where I've looked at financial
knowledge, knowledge and engagement and confidence across all
the cohorts.
And there still is a gap after we
(14:38):
use the regression analysis and we control for
all the variables, there still is a gap.
However, it absolutely is changing.
I think what's really driving that is the
fact that women are starting to become, um,
earners they're, they're, uh, you know, if they're
high earners, uh, or they've been, they've inherited
(14:59):
some type of wealth, it's now become a
lot more personal and they want to understand.
And the higher earner women, if you think
about it, they're higher earners because they're also
educated women.
And so they're educated and they're successful.
And they're not just willing to hand over
the finances to somebody and say, Oh, you
(15:20):
manage it.
I'll just like do whatever you say.
They want to understand.
They want to understand the pros and the
cons and they really, so.
So I would say, um, I bet that
like me, you've seen lots of instances where
there's some sad stories about families where, uh,
(15:45):
some pretty questionable judgment has been used by
the person who's handling the finances.
If it's not a collaborative endeavor.
Do you want to talk a little bit
about that just for, as a, like a
starting point?
Oh, yeah.
No, it's not.
Why do you need to pay attention to
this?
It's because it's not only because of ill
(16:06):
will or bad judgment of like, you know,
you know, unscrupulous things, but it can be
just questionable risk-taking or there's some, a
lot of data about, uh, risk appetite, uh,
when it comes to gender.
Right.
Well, you know, I mean, there's, as you
know, there's a whole body of, uh, educational
(16:30):
or research, uh, knowledge out there around behavioral
finance and the bad decisions that people make
that are inspired by their emotions or their
instincts, but they're not necessarily rational.
You know, the whole premise of, uh, uh,
economics and, and good financial decision is that
we're all robots making rational decisions and we're
(16:55):
not, we're always impacted by our emotions.
And one of the things that I try
to do when I work with, uh, both
men and women is try to understand, you
know, I tell them there's a technical financial
answer and then there's an emotional answer.
And then the decision we might make is
somewhere in between.
I need to understand what's driving you and
(17:17):
what, what other aspects might be coming into
play and maybe we're going to find some
kind of middle ground, but yeah, I mean,
everything, so I do, um, I do some
volunteer work for this, this local women's, um,
I created a program there.
It's the, so there's a women's resource center
(17:37):
down here.
It's a 501 C three.
Um, and I created a program called, um,
women's money impairment.
And, um, every week I make myself available
to talk to a woman about her financial
situation.
Just recently I spoke to a lady who
was really struggling financially and she just took
(18:00):
out additional debt to add a line to
our house.
And so we're talking about how to get
out of this debt.
And then she pops up with a whole,
well, I need furniture for the line and
I said, well, what if we just make
that your dance floor for a little while?
I just stopped.
Uh, and it, there was like, nothing was
(18:21):
penetrating her.
She was really driven by her emotional need
to have these things and just was not
having, having it.
And it was, it can be very frustrating
when people don't see the ramifications.
Well, okay.
So you're telling me that you don't like
working three jobs yet.
You're doing this to yourself.
(18:42):
Why are you doing this to yourself?
Yeah.
All right.
So, um, the behavioral element is an important
part for any, uh, you know, whether gender
irrelevant, it's part of what drives our decision
making at times.
Um, there's also things that, uh, differences in
(19:03):
the genders between in variety of ways, as
it relates to financial issues, personal finance.
Let's talk about some of the challenges that
women just structurally seem to be facing as
a starting point that makes it all the
more important for them to take some ownership
(19:23):
and involvement in their own financial life.
Okay.
But Chris, would you mind if I just
back up for a minute and just, I,
I want to get the opposite.
Um, so, so yes, um, there are things
that women will sometimes even allow their emotions
(19:44):
to get in the way more than, um,
other people, but men do as well, more
from the standpoint and what, what's been shown
and confidence, right?
A greater confidence.
Absolutely.
And it's been shown over and over again.
There's a couple of really great studies.
My favorite is, um, uh, Barbara and Odin
(20:06):
did a study back, um, years ago, uh,
where they, they took brokerage data and they
looked at men and women investing and they
found that men traded way too often.
They took much riskier, uh, positions and the
women with their more disciplined approach, patience and
(20:28):
so forth were actually performed better than the
men.
Yeah, I think that's an important, that's, that's,
again, that's a great example of why there's
a benefit to that, um, collaborative approach between
men and women in a family or whatever,
that it's not just one or the other.
You get a little bit of these, uh,
(20:48):
the blended, uh, benefits of everyone's perspective, right?
That's right.
And the other thing too, um, I, I
hope you guys, I'm sure you probably do.
Um, when, when a man comes into your
office and he leaves his wife at home
all the time, I hope you encourage her
to come into the office too, because I
mean, the other, the other thing is that
(21:09):
whole, the fact I'm working with a widow
right now, and she said, you know, my
husband treated me like a queen and I
didn't need to worry about anything, but now
I'm a deer in the headlight.
I'm, I'm terrified.
And, um, you know, a lot of men
will do this.
Um, they actually are doing it to their
wife.
They don't realize.
I think they're doing a wonderful thing by
(21:32):
not letting her worry about it.
Don't you think a lot of times it's
not, um, it's not anything deliberate.
It's just this, um, division of, uh, resources.
And, you know, you, you handle these things
at the house and I handle those things
of the house.
You know, you get these habits that evolve
and develop.
And as you, you illustrated earlier with someone
(21:53):
saying, oh, I don't like money issues, you
know, that they're become these ingrained like perceptions
and biases.
Right.
And that's not always productive.
Right.
It's bad.
So, uh, I don't do much cooking in
my house.
I should, I should be doing more of
the cooking too.
(22:13):
Right.
You know, like, so that I know what
I'm doing.
If something were to happen to my wife,
you know, you know, as an example, you
get these blended, you know, we all do
our different things and each has their different
behaviors.
That's right.
Although I would argue that, um, you would
figure out how to eat if a lot
(22:35):
easier than somebody, I wouldn't worry about Chris.
Well, but the thing is, is that, you
know, because, um, finance is not just it
inherently intuitive.
Oh, I get it just like that.
It's a muscle that we develop over time,
the, the knowledge and the comfort and the
(22:57):
ability to understand the decision-making happens over
time.
And I often liken it to a language,
um, that it's like, it, it, it, it's
it's a little bit uncomfortable feel, you know,
you, you're learning vocabulary, but eventually you can
become fluent, you know, and it's, you have
to be immersed in it a bit to
(23:18):
become fluent.
And it's not that it's rocket science necessarily,
but it is detailed and complicated.
And yeah, I have to say, I mean,
if I think about, you know, the MBA
and the master's and the PhD and the
CFP and all the other little certifications that
I got and, you know, working as a,
um, you know, in the corporate world and
we're going to, and all the years that
(23:39):
I've invested, including watching what happened in 2001
and 2008 and so forth.
I can actually sit back and finally say,
I think I kind of know something about
finance.
Um, I may still be wrong.
Um, and I just think, wow, you know,
like I, I thought I looked, I thought
20 years ago, I knew a lot.
(24:01):
And every year I feel like, I mean,
isn't this one of those professions where you're
just always learning more?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And it, there's always more to learn.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, um, I, I have, uh, with the
constraint of time, we're not going to get
(24:21):
through everything.
So, and so I think let's not go
into some things.
We'll have you back another time to talk
about when it comes to all the, I
think there's just a lengthy list of things
that are structurally challenging for women in a
way that's different from men.
And so that it creates this, um, need
(24:43):
for women to be more, uh, engaged.
But today let's focus on this, this mentioned
that you did with the seminar recently, this,
why is it that married women need to
be more engaged and how do you help
them move from a complacent kind of, uh,
(25:04):
disengagement to a more fully engaged approach?
Right.
So, um, couple, couple of things.
So I, that, that was what my TEDx
was about trying to encourage women to get
engaged.
And I, I got mixed reactions from people
for sure.
And, you know, I, I continue to get
mixed reactions from people.
I think, you know, it's really important, you
(25:25):
know, I'll provide, uh, I started out a
lot of times just rattling off the statistics,
you know, eight out of 10 of us
are going to be eventually on our own,
solely responsible for ourselves.
The average woman that become age that a
woman becomes a widow is 59.
You know, that, um, when, um, a woman
(25:48):
gets with it becomes a widow, 69%
of those widows say that the most difficult
thing over everything else is trying to figure
out, you know, how to navigate the financial
decision-making, um, they're overwhelmed.
There's statistics around bad sleep.
(26:09):
You know, they're not able to sleep all
these different things.
Why put yourself in that position?
Why not?
You know, we're, as comprehensive financial planners, we
are taught early on about protecting the downside,
about making sure that you try to control
the controllable, make sure that you have good
life insurance.
If you're in your earning years, making sure
that you maybe have, you know, a decent
(26:31):
homeowner's problems, all the things that we try
to protect all the downsides.
Well, that's a downside is not being able
to understand finance well enough that you can
at least, um, feel comfortable about navigating.
And maybe you're not going to make all
those decisions yourself.
Maybe you're going to hire somebody, but how
(26:52):
do you even know how to hire somebody
that you can trust if you don't know
the right questions to ask?
Yeah, that's a good point.
So how do you, how do you help
people to, uh, know the answer to that?
So, so I, I often will try to,
you know, throw out some of those statistics
and, and get them to see the potential
(27:15):
obstacle.
Um, I will try to reposition the idea
of this is not about dying with a
pile of money.
This is about how do you want to
live your life?
And there's this very important resource called money.
And if you figure out how to use
it properly, you can actually live a better
(27:35):
life.
You can make better decisions.
You can make better choices and have some
even potential opportunity that if you can adequately
protect yourself and your family, and then you
figure out what's important to you.
And you, you, um, identify your goals and
your behavior aligned with what's important to you
(27:58):
in terms of your values.
So now you're living your life on your
terms.
I mean, people talk about this concept of
being authentic all the time.
And I was going to say, well, what
is that?
You know, do you even know what your
values are?
You know, a lot of people have never
even explicitly thought about it.
They think they're clear on their values, but
they've never actually done the contemplative or reflective
(28:19):
work to understand what their values are.
So, um, how do you help people identify
that?
We have a bunch of exercises that we
do.
Um, we will help them a lot of
times.
It's like, you know, it's conceptually, it's like,
oh, um, yeah, I, I value family.
I value, you know, whatever.
There's things that you, you know, reflexively might
(28:39):
articulate, but I'm curious how you help someone
really dig down, right?
Dig into that to get a handle on,
well, what do I value?
So there's a variety.
I, I used to have, um, a document,
it was like a quiz or like just
a list of all these different values.
And I would have, we would talk about
and go through it.
(29:00):
Um, recently I was introduced to these cards
and by the way, I was introduced them
through WEG.
WEG has used them in other, other groups,
and I'm happy to share them with you
guys because, um, they're, they've been really interesting.
What I like about the cards is that
you can do almost a cluster analysis.
So what we do is we divide the
(29:21):
cards into two, two sections, those values that
resonate with me and those values that don't.
Then we take the values that resonate with
me.
And now I narrowed down to 10, 15
at max.
And then I narrowed them down even further
and start clustering them.
And what I'm, what I try to get
the, um, the client or the person I'm
working with, working with to understand is that
(29:43):
even though these different values seem somewhat similar,
there's one higher, like there's a hierarchy, there's
a motivator.
What is that motivating value that the other
values are still there, but they're being tested
against that motivating value.
And so, I mean, part of it isn't
just the doing and coming up with your
(30:05):
values.
It is the process of talking it through
and discussing it and just, you know, kind
of getting comfortable with, you know, what really
is motivating me in life.
The purpose of this then is to what,
to say, let's define your financial plan in
keeping with what your true priorities are, not
(30:26):
just some arbitrary, you know, financial objectives, but
something that is truly at your core.
Is that the gist of it?
Absolutely.
Money is a limited resource.
It doesn't grow on trees.
I always love this exercise that I do
for my younger folks when I teach them
how to use the financial calculator.
And I talk to them about time value
(30:49):
money and about the limited resources and so
forth.
I have them key in, okay, you're spending
$7, $6, whatever at Starbucks every day.
Okay, key that in.
And you're doing that for, you know, five
days a week for 20, 30 years.
Okay, key that in.
Okay, what is that number?
(31:09):
And they're all always really surprised.
And I say, okay, I'm not going to
tell you not to buy Starbucks.
You go out and you buy Starbucks every
day.
There's your yacht.
You buy a yacht, or you can buy
Starbucks.
You choose.
And getting people to understand that they can
achieve certain things, but they have to then
(31:29):
not do other things.
These are choices.
Yeah, very good.
So does that values exercise a core part
of your engagement with clientele?
Is that a like building block you develop?
So it depends.
Now, I told you I came from New
(31:50):
York.
It's a favorite phrase, actually.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, there are New Yorkers that would
have zero patience with that.
So, you know, I mean, I guess if
I lived out in California, more people would
be.
So I kind of feel the client out
and feel for what they're willing to do
with me.
(32:10):
Sometimes just asking to complete a risk tolerance
questionnaire.
Right.
All right.
So when possible, you pursue that.
And then just, you know, do you always
like to start with a financial plan, the
comprehensive financial plan as part of the process
(32:30):
before?
I am a professor of CFP programs.
I taught two.
In fact, I started a registered CFP program
down here at University of South Florida.
I will not.
I will never.
If somebody comes to me and says, here's
a million dollars or here's 10 million, I
don't care.
Just manage it.
I won't do it.
(32:51):
I tell them I always have to do
a comprehensive plan.
I want to know what's going on in
your life because I might be missing something.
So I will do a financial plan, a
matter of fact, and not manage somebody's money.
But I think comprehensive planning is really valuable.
I think that everybody should do it.
Yeah, we're on the same page as far
(33:11):
as that.
I noticed you're also you're involved in the
Financial Planning Association.
Have you had a long time involvement with
the Financial Planning Association?
Yes, I was involved in it back up
north and then I was on the board
here at Suncoast in Sarasota.
Our board is kind of, I don't know,
it's not operating that well.
(33:31):
There's not enough people that want to be
involved.
I don't understand why.
So I am kind of a little bit
unusual, right, where there's a collaborative thing across
the state of some kind with.
Right, right.
We do have a Florida FBA.
And a matter of fact, they're planning a
trip to go out to Tallahassee in a
couple of weeks.
(33:51):
And I'm trying to reorganize my schedule because
they've been very active and involved with talking
to our representatives about financial literacy, firstly in
the high schools and then even in the
universities, which has been a real hill to
climb, which is surprising.
(34:13):
Yeah, it's such an important thing.
Yeah, that's great.
And thanks for your effort, for sure.
Yeah.
Thanks for your involvement in that.
I think we all need to, you know,
make it a priority to participate in our
industry association at some time or another.
So, well, we could keep talking, but I
feel like we've covered around the time we
(34:34):
normally would talk.
What did you want to get in this
first?
We're going to have you back for sure.
Absolutely.
We're going to talk more about some of
the specific kinds of challenges women face along
the way that are unique from men in
their financial planning endeavors.
But, you know, particularly on this topic about
married women and needing to pay attention or
(34:57):
anything else.
Was there anything else you wanted to address
today?
Well, I guess I suppose without getting into
all those other things, you know, if women
could just be a little bit reflective and
think about all those big decisions that are
made in your family, at your workplace, in
the community, in the world, they have financial
(35:18):
implications.
Almost every decision that is made has some
implications there.
And the more you understand money, the more
you can contribute and be at the table.
So we, as women, need to be at
the table.
We need to assist.
Everybody has something to contribute.
But if you don't have that knowledge, you're
(35:40):
going to be limited in what you can
contribute.
So from that standpoint, I'm hoping those higher
earners who do want to do something with
their lives will hear that.
Excellent conversation.
Dr. Laura Mateo, let's have you back and
let's do this again and talk more about
the kinds of challenges women face so that
(36:02):
we can help inform our listeners and help
them in their financial journey.
Hopefully they're paying attention in ways that they
need to.
So you've been a pleasure to have with
us.
Thanks for being with us today.
Thank you so much.
It was great to talk to you both,
Chris and Jeff.
Wonderful to see you.
Thank you.
Okay.
(36:22):
Thanks, everybody, for being with us.
If you need any help, you can reach
out to actually, Laura, do you want to
share your contact information for our audience before
we sign off with ours?
Sure.
Well, it's similar to both of yours.
It's lmatea at wealthenhancement.com.
If anybody wanted to work with, do something
(36:43):
with the three of us, even, we could
work as a team.
We are partners at this firm and we
can certainly work together to even help somebody.
Absolutely.
And it's the kind of thing that there's
different partners that have areas of expertise and
we all can work together.
(37:03):
So glad to have you with us.
We're going to have you back for sure.
Until next time, everybody, keep striving for something
more.
Thank you for listening to Something More with
Chris Boyd.
Call us for help, whether it's for financial
planning or portfolio management, insurance concerns, or those
quality of life issues that make the money
matters matter.
(37:23):
Whatever's on your mind, visit us at somethingmorewithchrisboyd
.com or call us toll free at 866
-771-8901 or send us your questions to
amr-info at wealthenhancement.com.
You're listening to Something More with Chris Boyd
Financial Talk Show, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services and
(37:44):
Jay Christopher Boyd provide investment advice on an
individual basis to clients only.
Proper advice depends on a complete analysis of
all facts and circumstances.
The information given on this program is general
financial comments and cannot be relied upon as
pertaining to your specific situation.
Wealth Enhancement Group cannot guarantee that using the
information from this show will generate profits or
ensure freedom from loss.
Listeners should consult their own financial advisors or
(38:04):
conduct their own due diligence before making any
financial decisions.
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