August 13, 2025 • 43 mins
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What if your investment dollars could create positive change while still generating competitive returns? In this eye-opening conversation, financial expert Mimi Locke joins hosts Steve Davenport and Glenn Miller to explore the world of values-aligned investing and women's financial empowerment.
Mimi shares her journey from being the lone woman in a room of 60 stockbrokers to co-leading courses for Invest for Better, a nonprofit helping women align their portfolios with their personal values. She dispels the persistent myth that investing according to your principles means sacrificing performance, explaining how even traditional energy companies are pivoting toward sustainable practices.
The conversation delves into the unique financial challenges women face—earning less, experiencing career interruptions for caregiving, and needing retirement funds to last through longer lifespans. When women step away from careers to care for family members, they don't just lose immediate income; they miss crucial years of retirement contributions and Social Security credits, creating compounding disadvantages that affect long-term security.
Each participant shares their personal "money story," revealing how childhood experiences shape our financial behaviors. Mimi describes growing up with a Depression-era father who emphasized saving "just in case," while the hosts reflect on their own financial journeys and how those experiences influenced their approaches to money management.
Whether you're interested in gender-lens investing, environmental impact, or simply aligning your portfolio with your values, this episode provides practical insights for making your money work harder—both for your future and for the causes you care about. As Mimi notes, the key is starting small: even modest investments in alignment with your values can create meaningful change.
Ready to take control of your financial future while supporting what matters most to you? Visit investforbetter.org to explore resources and courses designed to empower investors at every level of experience.
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Disclaimer - These podcasts are not intended as investment advice. Individuals please consult your own investment, tax and legal advisors. They provide these insights for educational purposes only.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steve Davenport (00:02):
Hello everyone and welcome to Skeptic's Guide
to Investing.
I'm Steve Davenport and I'mhere with my co-host, Clem
Miller, and today we have aspecial guest, Mimi Locke.
Mimi and I were workingtogether at State Street Global
Advisors in the private wealthand investment management and
Mimi has extensive experience ininvesting management.
(00:27):
And Mimi has extensiveexperience in investing and
she's doing some interestingthings with trying to help women
in financial literacy.
So, mimi, what are youpresently up to in terms of
things going on in the financescene in Boston?
Mimi Locke (00:39):
Well, currently I'm gearing up for a course that
I'll be co-leading in September.
It's with a nonprofit calledInvest for Better, and Invest
for Better furthers women'sunderstanding of finances and
investing their values.
So it's helping women figureout how to invest what's
(00:59):
important to them whether it'sinvesting in women and girls or
climate matters any areas thatcome under that and the course
starts in September, and so I'mco-leading that with another
fantastic woman, and that's whatwe're getting ready for now.
Steve Davenport (01:25):
And that's what we're getting ready for now.
So is this related to whatState Street did with their ETF
SHE S-H-E?
Is it similar type of value?
Mimi Locke (01:37):
SHE is a values aligned.
It's a gender lens investing.
It's a gender lens investingand it's an ETF that invests in
stocks where the companies havewomen on their boards and women
in their upper management ranks,and that is one of the many
(01:58):
tenets of the values-alignedinvesting.
And if people are inclined toinvest their money that way, you
know there's many ways you caninvest your money in
values-aligned investing, but alot of women do prefer to invest
in companies that are run orheavily influenced by women.
Steve Davenport (02:19):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's a great area to
consider because there's beensome research, hasn't there,
Clem, about boards that havemore women on them tend to have
better returns.
Have you seen that ?
Clem Miller (02:31):
Yeah, I don't recall exactly who, but I
remember reading some of that.
Steve Davenport (02:36):
I think that they talked about the fact that
women tend to be a little morebalanced and not as emotionally
high or low as the market moves,and they tend to be a little
more consistent and disciplined.
And that consistency anddiscipline on boards where you
have nine men and one woman,whereas when you have six men
and four women, you tend to havea more balanced or disciplined
(02:59):
kind of decision making.
Often when you look at bigcompanies you know you sort of
have women in little niches likehuman resources, or you just
have like two or three rolesthat seem to be occupied by
women and the rest are sort ofmen, white men.
(03:22):
I think it's an area that I'm glad State Street
did that ETF but I think it'san area that we're talking about
faith-based investing andprinciples, and I find that
there's so many different ideasout there in invest.
of how to invest.
Our goal when we have theseinvestments is to try to get
(03:46):
people to be more disciplined,and if you can get clients to
feel comfortable with the namesand comfortable with the ideas,
then they're less likely to sellat the bottom or, you know, buy
more at the top.
It creates a a little morefoundation for your ideas.
Do you want to tell us aboutyour money story, Mimi?
Mimi Locke (04:14):
Yes, I do.
My money story growing up wasthat my dad was a Great
Depression guy.
He went through the GreatDepression in the 30s as a very
young adult and it was prettytough.
You know, unemployment was hugewhere he lived and he was newly
(04:34):
married at the time.
So that influenced him for therest of his life really, and
when he and my mom had kids andwhen I was growing up, all that
trickled down to save, save,save, save your money, put it
away.
You don't, just in case, have ahuge savings and security and
(05:00):
something to fall back onbecause of what he went through
and something to fall back onbecause of what he went through.
So in order to save money, youhave to make money.
In order to make money, youhave to get a college education.
So that also was a big, bigdeal.
You have to go to college.
That was non-negotiable.
The whole end game was to savemoney, and so those
(05:23):
conversations happened early andoften at the dinner table,
about money and about saving,with stories, and you know
that's how I grew up and he wasvery encouraging about about
going to college and savingmoney.
But it definitely was somethingthat I grew up with and in his
(05:47):
whole life.
He was very conservative withthat, so from that I became very
interested in the markets.
He was investing in mutualfunds at the time and then in
college I majored in finance andthen right out of college I
became a stockbroker and thenstarted working in investment
(06:08):
management in Boston.
Steve Davenport (06:10):
That's great.
Clint, do you have any kind ofmemories of growing up and how
your family valued money?
Clem Miller (06:20):
I grew up in I guess what you would call a
lower middle income family inDetroit, Michigan, actually
inside Detroit, not in a suburb,but actually inside Detroit,
albeit one block inside Detroit,right one block inside of 8
(06:41):
Mile Road from the famous movieyou might recall that movie with
Eminem, and we really didn'ttalk much about money.
We had five kids I was theoldest of five kids, which kind
of dilutes the available incomewhen you have five kids.
Steve Davenport (07:04):
Why did they waste money on all those other
ones when they had you first?
Clem Miller (07:08):
right, um, and, and you know there was money to go
to, I mean education wasimportant, right, uh, we had
money to go to, uh, the local,uh, catholic elementary school.
You know.
Fortunately they had a planwhere the more kids you had, the
(07:31):
less you would pay for theincremental kids.
So that worked out.
And then went to the localJesuit high school and sort of
leveraged that local Jesuit highschool to be able to get into
Georgetown, my alma mater, whichis a Jesuit university.
(07:53):
And I still have a copy of abill of my first bill from
freshman year, of a bill of myfirst bill from freshman year,
and, um, I remember the gross uhwas 4,000 something and after
various um, you know,scholarships and whatnot, uh, I
(08:16):
remember it was $1,400.
That's how much I had to payfor the first semester, which
was, I mean, I guess it was alot back then, but maybe it
wasn't that much back then.
I mean it was.
I mean I guess it was a lotback then, but maybe it wasn't
that much back then.
I mean it was.
Uh, universities were a lotcheaper back then.
So I managed to do that, um,but I never really thought about
(08:36):
money per se.
I thought about jobs Okay,getting a job after school,
switching jobs, switching jobs.
It was only about, I would say,let's see, I got my CFA in 01.
I think it was only around thelate 1990s.
(09:00):
I graduated in 83.
It was only around the late1990s that I started thinking
about getting into investments.
Before that, you know, I wasall you know international trade
, international finance,international, this and that and
so I started thinking aboutgetting into finance.
(09:20):
Investment sounded kind ofinteresting and so I started
going down that that road, gotthe CFA and um eventually
switched over into the uh,investments world.
I had been in the.
I started off in the economicforecasting and then moved into
um, international trade, finance, got into investing, and so,
(09:43):
you know, that's when I startedreally thinking about money.
And you know, did you know, hada number had?
You know, I would say, money wasnot at the center of my life.
(10:11):
Money was always something thatwas kind of peripheral and then
became central as I got older.
Not in the sense of, you know,I'm not an accumulative person,
not in the sense of you know,I'm not an accumulative person.
I am a person who likes to, youknow, to generate experiences
(10:36):
and I'll pay for experiences.
I'll go on trips, you know,that kind of thing.
That's what I like to do, and Ilike to have enough money to be
able to do that, and I want tohave enough money to be able to
do that for the rest of my life,rest of my wife's life, yeah I
mean, uh, I just remember myfather used to like say that
anywhere you know, you seeamerica get in your car, and he
used to love to take carvacations everywhere and we were
(10:58):
like why?
what about?
Steve Davenport (11:00):
what about planes, or what about, or what
about trains, or what aboutcruises?
I'll do that too Like oh no, thecar I do that too, anywhere
dear.
And he was just.
My father was a verystrong-willed Irishman and I
don't know if anybody's everexperienced that before, but
(11:20):
they believe that they shouldsay something once and you
should say yes, and If you don'tagree, you were a fool, and if
you keep arguing and the voicesget louder, you raise your
status to a damn fool.
And so I think that as we growup, there were certain topics we
(11:41):
didn't delve into.
There were certain topics wedidn't touch and I think that
money, or how much we make orhow much we have or how you know
, those were never discussed andtherefore there was never the
discussion of how do you get tohaving this money.
The idea was get a job first,and once you get a job, then the
(12:02):
the yelling was about saving,saving, saving for a house and
then saving for children andthen saving for your retirement
and everything.
It was very much a one-wayconversation and I think that I
don't know if your family, butthere was always this question
about well, you're going to havea family and you're going to do
(12:25):
this and that, and I think itwas a different time and I guess
I'd ask me when you guys talkedabout money, was there any
difference between you and yourbrothers, or did everybody get
the same one version of Finance101?
Mimi Locke (12:45):
No, we all got it, we got it a lot, and he just
really I think that was one ofthe main things that he really
wanted to impart to his children, and it was across the board um
, you know, boys and girls to tosave money for in case
something bad happened, such aswhat had happened to him.
Steve Davenport (13:06):
So, yeah, yeah, my father tells a story about
his family in 28 or so duringthe depression, going back to
the bank with the keys to thehouse and saying, no, house is
not worth what it was.
And so they just gave the keysback to the bank and they
started renting another houseand eventually they bought that
(13:28):
house.
But my father was like, yeah, Ihad to move from this street to
this street and the house wewere at was closer to the you
know, the field in Rosendale andit was just like it's like yeah
, when we walked away from thathouse we were like, why are we
doing, you know, and it was atraumatic thing, and my father
(13:48):
was fortunate, his dad was apoliceman and so policemen at
the time had pretty steady payand they didn't get as affected
by things.
So I find that when you talkabout money, it helps to start
with where's your beginningpoint?
And then how did you grow orchange as you grow up to try to
(14:09):
get more improvement?
And then the big thing I find iswhy not tell other people how
your story evolved so that theydon't make all the mistakes that
we made?
Because I think it's nice hey,my kids can make mistakes and
learn a lesson, but I would muchrather not learn the lesson and
(14:29):
just take the ideas.
And you know there's going tobe enough lessons taught in life
.
You know there's going to beenough lessons taught in life.
I don't know if we need toencourage our kids to have more
problems and therefore, oh, lookat all those lessons we allowed
our children to have.
You know, I don't think that'sthe.
To me, the purpose of educationand knowledge is to prevent the
(14:50):
negative and support thepositive.
Right, right, right.
Mimi Locke (14:53):
And support the positive right.
Steve Davenport (14:55):
Right, right.
So what do you?
What's the group that you'reworking on?
Mimi Locke (15:11):
Invest4Better is the name of the charity.
Yes, it's calledinvest4betterorg.
It was started.
It's a nonprofit.
It was started a few years agoby by two women one on the East
Coast, one on the West Coast whowanted, who were presently in,
wanting to have their moneyinvested in ways that would
benefit people or things thatthey cared about.
(15:34):
People are things that theycared about and and they both I
believe both of them had troublefinding help are called circles
(15:58):
, so it's a small group of women.
I'm co-leading a circle startingsoon and it's where women come
together in a very safe spaceand talk about money, talk about
, just like you said, theirmoney stories.
And then we go and they comefrom different backgrounds.
Some of them have no investmentexperience.
(16:19):
Some of them have much moreinvestment experience and talk
about the different ways thatthey can invest in public
equities, in debt, privateinvesting and even how to invest
their, put their cash in banksthat benefit, say, women-owned
businesses and communities thatthey care about.
(16:41):
So that's, and also there's,lastly, there's discussion on
how to find a financial advisor.
If you think you need one, somepeople do it it yourself, but
how to find a financial advisorthat gets it that's nice, I mean
.
Steve Davenport (17:01):
I think, um, in the experience I've had, women
have a lot of challenges withtheir investing life.
When it comes right down to it,you know not, uh, making 80
cents or 82 cents on the dollarversus men is one drawback they
need to overcome.
Second, their careers areusually interrupted because of
(17:22):
their parents taking care oftheir parents or taking care of
their children.
And third, they have a longerlifespan.
So if they're going to livelonger, their retirement is
going to be longer and thereforetheir need for retirement
assets is longer.
But also the last one, thisidea of investing for values.
I mean women tend to be moreconservative and have more of a
(17:45):
cash reserve because they'rejust, you know, they want to be
sure, and that lower allocationto equities and higher to cash
and bonds tends to make theirreturns a little bit.
You know.
Are these strategies, you think, giving you the same amount of
return while giving you thatvalues-based kind of benefit?
Mimi Locke (18:08):
Yes, yes, there have equities that have the values,
alignment, have the same return.
I think that's a myth out therethat you're giving up 1% or 2%
in order to do good things.
A lot of the companies you caneven look at oil and gas
(18:35):
companies they are shifting overa lot of their revenue base to
solar and wind.
They're some of the biggestsolar and wind producers in the
United States.
They're still oil and gascompanies, but you know they're
definitely changing over.
And the thing what you justsaid about women interrupting
(18:57):
their careers, either for kids,it's also for taking care of
elderly parents.
It's often the woman in thehousehold that will interrupt
her career to take care of sickparents and then when she
eventually returns to work, youdon't always step back into
where you left off.
(19:18):
It's not that easy.
You may have a big gap and thennot go back where you left off.
So you've missed out on theearnings, you've missed out on
saving for retirement through401k plan and you also weren't
contributing to your socialsecurity either.
And that's all going to comeback to haunt you.
(19:41):
You know, in your retirementyears, when you have less money
and, like you said, women areliving longer than their spouses
and they're making less andtherefore saving less and
investing less.
And on the risk averse front, Icompletely agree with you.
I think women have a tendencyto invest more in CDs because
(20:02):
it's safe, it's FDIC insured,it's easy to understand and it's
, you know, six months, 12months, 18 months investment,
and so there's certainly adegree of liquidity there as
well.
And they're going to miss outon the greater long-term returns
(20:23):
, the historical returns of thestock market.
Steve Davenport (20:27):
No, I think that's definitely true.
I guess, how did you becomeinvolved in this values-based
investing?
How?
Mimi Locke (20:38):
did you become involved in this values-based
investing?
Well, I mean, I started hearing.
I mean, sri is the old negativescreening where you don't buy
stocks that do bad things.
Like you know, the classic oneback in the 70s would be like
tobacco and weapons, that typeof thing.
You wouldn't buy those stocksif you didn't agree with those
(21:03):
things.
And then, as time went by, itstarted evolving into more
sophisticated analysis withinthe investment management space.
Within the investmentmanagement space, and at the
same time, I had been doing alot of traveling and seeing
(21:23):
parts of the world that wereaffected by development and
private interests, and you knowhuge swaths of land being cut
down for either agriculture orlogging or mining and affecting
the land and the habitat, andyou know.
(21:46):
So that really bothered me.
So the thing that, in terms ofvalues aligned investing that I
care about most is conservationor investing for climate.
So there's, you know, hugeparts of the world that have
been wrecked because of theseprivate interests.
Clem Miller (22:09):
The other thing.
Mimi Locke (22:10):
what go ahead Clem?
Clem Miller (22:12):
No, go on.
Mimi Locke (22:13):
Sorry to interrupt the other the other thing and
this is like just a quick sidenote, the other thing that one
can do if you're concerned aboutany of these matters, whether
it's climate or women orwhatever is to you know vote or
support legislative matters thataffect these things.
(22:37):
That's just another way you canhelp effect change, not just
with investing, but withlegislative efforts.
Clem Miller (22:50):
So, mimi, you mentioned travel as being one of
the reasons you got into this.
You mentioned travel as beingone of the reasons you got into
this.
Are there other things thatyou've experienced besides the
travel that have led you intothis area?
That would be my first question, and my second question would
be you know, it sounds likeyou're more into the kind of
(23:14):
impact investing area ratherthan sort of ESG.
You know, I know there's a finedifference between the two, but
you know, impact trying to makethe world a better place as
opposed to not trying to do harmwhich is sort of the ESG mantra
.
Mimi Locke (23:31):
Right?
Am I right about that?
Well, the first question abouthow did I get in?
Interested in this?
Besides the the global Travelthat it has, I have noticed and
(23:54):
always been aware of and of thefact that women are not nearly
as involved with money as menwere, and I've worked in the
financial services business mywhole life, so I've seen that.
You know, I was like my firstjob, I was like the only woman
in a room of 60 stock brokers,and so I've always seen that and
(24:16):
I've seen it within clients,I've seen it in employment
settings, I've seen it infamilies, friends, everywhere.
So I have felt that there's alack of, it's just a societal
norm that women aren't thatwell-educated or attuned to
(24:40):
money matters.
For some reason they've beenleft out of the conversation.
So that part is another areathat I'm interested in.
And then on the impact ininvesting yes, if you're
referring to like privateinvesting, that's getting more
and more mainstream now, as youknow it's it's you know, being
(25:03):
you know.
I guess we're going to be ableto do that in 401ks now too.
Clem Miller (25:07):
I was really talking about social impact
investing.
Mimi Locke (25:11):
Oh, social impact.
Clem Miller (25:13):
You mean, like women, Well, women and investing
in clean water, investing inrenewable energy I mean, you
mentioned the things that you'veseen on your travels.
I mean, are you focused in yourinvesting also not just on
(25:34):
women, but also on these, youknow, clean water and renewable
energy and those kinds of things?
Mimi Locke (25:40):
Yes, I look at companies that are that are
doing that.
In fact there's some utilitycompanies that are, you know,
all about clean energy and thosethings are fairly easy to find
on, you know, like just in thepress and with resources like
(26:01):
Morningstar and some other waysthat you can find out about
those companies that are doingthat.
Clem Miller (26:09):
Yeah, so let me ask you another question.
Back to women.
So let me ask you anotherquestion back to back to women.
I guess my observation, notbeing a woman, of course.
So, looking from the outside,my observation is that there's
kind of a generational gap, thatwomen in their, you know,
(26:31):
forties, thirties uh are muchmore attuned to investments and
finance than uh and arecertainly more career oriented
uh than those in oldergenerations.
Uh, I don't know enough aboutmillennials to be able to say
the same thing.
(26:52):
Uh, I don't know if there'sbeen a regression or it's about
the same thing as the 30s and40s year olds.
What's your observation?
How have the generations moved?
Mimi Locke (27:06):
on this issue.
I think that the differentgenerations I think there are
women that are in an oldergeneration that are interested
in money and that do get it andknow what's going on and they do
have good solid questions fortheir financial advisors and
(27:28):
they read and they investors,investors.
So I don't really think it'sjust the younger, you know 40 on
down, that are more, that arenecessarily more into it.
I think it's.
I just think it's an individualthing where maybe how they grew
(27:53):
up or whatever, I do see a lotof younger women that aren't
worried about it at all, they'renot worried about saving or,
you know, we'll just get figuredout is seemingly there's a real
comfort level there you mean intheir 20s probably yeah yeah,
men too yeah, I suppose they'respending money and you know
(28:14):
enjoying, you know their income,I guess, enjoying you know
their income, I guess.
Clem Miller (28:17):
Yeah, I guess they figure that their income will
rise to meet their spending.
You know one of the things?
I'll just tell a very quick,very quick story.
One of the things that I foundthat was a major help to society
and to myself was thedevelopment of the debit card, I
(28:40):
think before that, credit cards.
People used credit cards fortheir convenience, but they
often made your debt go out ofcontrol.
It was easy for it to get outof control, and so the invention
of the debit card allowedpeople to manage their money
better.
So that's just an aside.
Mimi Locke (29:00):
Oh, I completely agree with you.
Yeah, the money comes out ofyour account instantly, so you
better make sure that it's there.
Clem Miller (29:08):
Yeah, powerful discipline.
Mimi Locke (29:10):
Yes, yes.
Steve Davenport (29:12):
Do you think, mimi, after you do these classes
with these people, that theywere able to take the step
forward and really start?
Yes, yes, have a certain impact, and I guess I wonder whether
(29:34):
it's women or whether it's menor whether it's anyone.
I find that society has such asmall attention span now that
you know it's like squirrel, andI just think that you know, I
hope that people can focus onthe important things, which I
think this is one of theimportant things of your life
(29:55):
that you get responsibility andyou understand.
You know when you need to.
You know not consume and howyou need to discipline your life
so that you can have somefuture.
You know possibilities.
Do you find that people arereceptive and open to the
discussion, or how do you makethe discussion one better so
(30:17):
that it is more open and likelyto succeed?
Mimi Locke (30:21):
Well, in the course that I'll be co-leading, it's
called Invest with Purpose.
One of the goals is that by theend of the course or shortly
thereafter, the women that arein the course will have made a
change or made an investmentthat aligns with their values.
(30:44):
Now you don't have to like selleverything and buy all you know
environmentally friendly stocksor something like that.
It's just, you know.
We tell people just start outsmall, just you know, with a
very small amount of money, anddo something toward your goal.
You know, even if it's just afew thousand dollars or a few
(31:08):
hundred dollars, and dosomething.
Invest it in a stock or in abank.
That's more community alignedto help people that need help
starting their businesses incertain disadvantaged areas.
So just starting out small.
So that's one of the goals.
(31:29):
Of course, people don't have todo that, but it's one of the
goals that people I believe it's90 something percent of the
participants in the class do saythat by the end of the course
they will have made a newinvestment in something that
matters to them.
Steve Davenport (31:49):
That's pretty good.
I mean, I think you get 90percent of people to agree on
anything.
I think you get 90% of peopleto agree on anything.
Mimi Locke (31:56):
Yeah, I mean they've signed up for the class.
It's seven modules, and so youknow they've definitely become
comfortable with learning aboutthese things and some of them
have some prior knowledge aswell.
Steve Davenport (32:11):
I mean, when you look back at your career and
your life with finance andtrying to help these women,
there's satisfactions andthere's successes and there's
challenges.
I mean, what would you say to ayoung Mimi who was starting out
, you know, in order to helpmake her life improved in terms
of financial wellness?
(32:32):
Is there anything you'd writeon the?
You know.
Mimi Locke (32:43):
Well, I think financial education is that.
That's the you know, that's thebasic thing that one needs is
the education about finance andhow to, and just starting off
with your own life, withbudgeting and saving and
spending, and what percentagesyou want to allocate to those
(33:03):
areas.
Steve Davenport (33:07):
Do you feel like the people that you're
working with are looking at youand saying I want to be like is,
is it?
Is it an american aspirationalthing for more money, or do you
think it's more of we need to dothis just to be?
You know, just like you spendyour time on things you think
(33:30):
are productive, we should spendour you know, our casual time or
our personal time doing thingsthat are also going to help our
person, uh, personhood.
So how, how do you, how do youlook at people and say I, I've
made a difference here.
Um, because you can see thatthey like I find that there's an
energy in people's eyes when itclicks and they go.
(33:52):
This is how you know what Imean, whether it's silent.
You know taking money out ofyour paycheck and automatically
automatic investment in 401ks.
I think you're the best thingyou can do.
Automated payments of yourutility bills and things.
Only thing the utility bills dois hurt your credit rating
(34:13):
because you miss a paymentbecause of some reason you
didn't have a stamp.
Or I remember, you know,getting pneumonia one time,
right when I was due to pay offa couch that I got two years
interest free and then I didn'tget the interest free, and it's
just.
I guess, how do you um, do youguys measure success, or how do
we measure success in this space?
Mimi Locke (34:38):
Well, I would say, when the light you know, sort of
like when the light bulb goesoff in someone's head, about
like now, I see why this isbeneficial.
It's going to be somethingpersonal that's happened to them
and it might be at work.
It might be something at workwhere they've made a difference,
(34:59):
or maybe it's in theircommunity or their family where
they've seen something positivehappen that they care about.
With regard to the personalfinance situation, I completely
agree with you about theautomization of you know we have
(35:20):
that now you can do pretty mucheverything automatically, with
saving and sending moneyautomatically without even
having to make the decision todo it over to an investment
account from your checkingaccount, and the importance of
saving, of taking advantage ofyour corporate retirement plans
(35:40):
and all that.
So if you're asking me like howdo I measure?
Steve Davenport (35:47):
Do you think if you listed 10 items that you
just talked about, the womanbefore the class would be doing
two or three of them and thewoman after the class will be
doing five or six of them.
I mean, do you think that if wehad more ability to transmit
information and I was trustedbecause that's the thing, like
(36:07):
you're, you're doing this in avery trusted space where women
trust each other and they wantto support each other, and it's
a very safe, but the averageperson trying to figure out how
to go forward, I guess, is thereother things that the investor
better webpage that might helppeople even if they can't take
this class, or yes, there, thethe website is full of resources
(36:31):
about about values, alignedinvesting of all all types.
Mimi Locke (36:37):
They have replays of video, you know, video replays
of speakers that specialize indifferent areas, you know so.
So the website is pretty richactually where you can get a lot
of help, but you know you canalso.
You can get a lot of help, butyou know you can also if you're
(36:59):
really into, like, trying tofigure stuff out.
There's a lot of other websitestoo.
I mean, if you do, you ever goon Investopedia and you just
type something on in the searchbar and it's not just about,
like, financial statements, youknow, it's anything that has to
do with investments.
It's extremely broad andInvestopedia is your friend, I
(37:20):
think, and then you know there'sdefinitely source those things.
(37:45):
And if, if someone has abrokerage account, an investment
account with one of the majorhouses, one of the major
companies, their websites arereally rich with information.
Like you could look atretirement planning, look at
college planning, you can lookat.
You know they even have thingsabout social security.
They have every topic coveredand you can just read about it
(38:05):
on those websites.
I don't even think you reallyeven have to have an account.
I think it's just out there asa resource.
Steve Davenport (38:13):
Nice.
So I'm going to wrap up.
I think it's great what you'redoing and how you're helping in
your community and you'rehelping the people you want with
this woman's group, and I wantto remind people that to sign up
for Mimi's class, the deadlineis August 24th, so that's coming
up and the class starts inSeptember and we're going to put
(38:35):
the class link into our notesso it'll be in the background.
Information on the podcast andClem, if you want to have
anything to wrap up, and thenI'll let Mimi have the last.
Clem Miller (38:49):
I was just going to ask Mimi, what?
What's the website where theycan look at?
Mimi Locke (39:01):
what's the website where they can look at?
It's investforbetterorg andthat talks about the course and
it talks about all their otherresources as well.
I think I gave Stephen the linkfor the sign up.
If not, I can send that to him,but the company, the nonprofit,
is investforbetterorg.
Clem Miller (39:17):
Okay, I just wanted to make sure people had that if
they're listening and aren'table to click yeah, thank you.
Thank you.
So this was a good discussion.
I think that you're doing agreat thing, great service for
women.
You're doing a great thing,great service for women.
(39:41):
I think that it's reallyimportant for you know, for
people to get a not just women,but for people in general to
understand the ins and outs ofinvesting for purpose, to borrow
your lingo, and I know a lot ofus want to do that but really
don't know how to do that, ordon't know how to do that
(40:03):
without you know, without a fearof giving up gains.
It may not, you know, the trackrecord may be that you know
there's no impact right onreturns, but I think there's a
fear out there that it does havean impact on returns, and so I
(40:25):
think that's a fear that I'msure you address in the class.
So I wish you a lot of luck, uh, with this, uh next, uh, you
know, next session, and hope youget a lot of uh, a lot of
participation and uh, I thinkSteve and I would really love to
(40:45):
have you back uh, maybe afteryou have this next session, and
then you can tell us how you uh,how you made out.
Mimi Locke (40:53):
Okay, well, I would love to Thank you Okay.
Steve Davenport (40:55):
All would love to Thank you.
Okay, All right, everybody.
I think this has been a greatdiscussion and I really want to
emphasize the fact that you knowMimi and others are out there
trying to make a differenceevery day in people's lives, and
I think that's great to pay itforward.
And I encourage anyone who hassimilar stories that you know
(41:15):
we'd like to share, because atSkeptic's Guide, we're trying to
help improve the financial IQof investors and in doing so, I
think it makes all the boatsrise.
I don't think it's a winner orloser situation.
I think it's a win-win.
So, everybody, thanks forlistening and we appreciate your
(41:38):
support, and please like andshare this podcast wherever you
get it, and we appreciate youall.
Thanks, everyone.
Mimi Locke (41:48):
Thank you.
Steve Davenport (41:49):
Bye.
Hello everyone and welcome to Skeptic's Guide
to Investing.
I'm Steve Davenport and I'mhere with my co-host, Clem
Miller, and today we have aspecial guest, Mimi Locke.
Mimi and I were workingtogether at State Street Global
Advisors in the private wealthand investment management and
Mimi has extensive experience ininvesting management.
(00:27):
And Mimi has extensiveexperience in investing and
she's doing some interestingthings with trying to help women
in financial literacy.
So, mimi, what are youpresently up to in terms of
things going on in the financescene in Boston?
Mimi Locke (00:39):
Well, currently I'm gearing up for a course that
I'll be co-leading in September.
It's with a nonprofit calledInvest for Better, and Invest
for Better furthers women'sunderstanding of finances and
investing their values.
So it's helping women figureout how to invest what's
(00:59):
important to them whether it'sinvesting in women and girls or
climate matters any areas thatcome under that and the course
starts in September, and so I'mco-leading that with another
fantastic woman, and that's whatwe're getting ready for now.
Steve Davenport (01:25):
And that's what we're getting ready for now.
So is this related to whatState Street did with their ETF
SHE S-H-E?
Is it similar type of value?
Mimi Locke (01:37):
SHE is a values aligned.
It's a gender lens investing.
It's a gender lens investingand it's an ETF that invests in
stocks where the companies havewomen on their boards and women
in their upper management ranks,and that is one of the many
(01:58):
tenets of the values-alignedinvesting.
And if people are inclined toinvest their money that way, you
know there's many ways you caninvest your money in
values-aligned investing, but alot of women do prefer to invest
in companies that are run orheavily influenced by women.
Steve Davenport (02:19):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's a great area to
consider because there's beensome research, hasn't there,
Clem, about boards that havemore women on them tend to have
better returns.
Have you seen that ?
Clem Miller (02:31):
Yeah, I don't recall exactly who, but I
remember reading some of that.
Steve Davenport (02:36):
I think that they talked about the fact that
women tend to be a little morebalanced and not as emotionally
high or low as the market moves,and they tend to be a little
more consistent and disciplined.
And that consistency anddiscipline on boards where you
have nine men and one woman,whereas when you have six men
and four women, you tend to havea more balanced or disciplined
(02:59):
kind of decision making.
Often when you look at bigcompanies you know you sort of
have women in little niches likehuman resources, or you just
have like two or three rolesthat seem to be occupied by
women and the rest are sort ofmen, white men.
(03:22):
I think it's an area that I'm glad State Street
did that ETF but I think it'san area that we're talking about
faith-based investing andprinciples, and I find that
there's so many different ideasout there in invest.
of how to invest.
Our goal when we have theseinvestments is to try to get
(03:46):
people to be more disciplined,and if you can get clients to
feel comfortable with the namesand comfortable with the ideas,
then they're less likely to sellat the bottom or, you know, buy
more at the top.
It creates a a little morefoundation for your ideas.
Do you want to tell us aboutyour money story, Mimi?
Mimi Locke (04:14):
Yes, I do.
My money story growing up wasthat my dad was a Great
Depression guy.
He went through the GreatDepression in the 30s as a very
young adult and it was prettytough.
You know, unemployment was hugewhere he lived and he was newly
(04:34):
married at the time.
So that influenced him for therest of his life really, and
when he and my mom had kids andwhen I was growing up, all that
trickled down to save, save,save, save your money, put it
away.
You don't, just in case, have ahuge savings and security and
(05:00):
something to fall back onbecause of what he went through
and something to fall back onbecause of what he went through.
So in order to save money, youhave to make money.
In order to make money, youhave to get a college education.
So that also was a big, bigdeal.
You have to go to college.
That was non-negotiable.
The whole end game was to savemoney, and so those
(05:23):
conversations happened early andoften at the dinner table,
about money and about saving,with stories, and you know
that's how I grew up and he wasvery encouraging about about
going to college and savingmoney.
But it definitely was somethingthat I grew up with and in his
(05:47):
whole life.
He was very conservative withthat, so from that I became very
interested in the markets.
He was investing in mutualfunds at the time and then in
college I majored in finance andthen right out of college I
became a stockbroker and thenstarted working in investment
(06:08):
management in Boston.
Steve Davenport (06:10):
That's great.
Clint, do you have any kind ofmemories of growing up and how
your family valued money?
Clem Miller (06:20):
I grew up in I guess what you would call a
lower middle income family inDetroit, Michigan, actually
inside Detroit, not in a suburb,but actually inside Detroit,
albeit one block inside Detroit,right one block inside of 8
(06:41):
Mile Road from the famous movieyou might recall that movie with
Eminem, and we really didn'ttalk much about money.
We had five kids I was theoldest of five kids, which kind
of dilutes the available incomewhen you have five kids.
Steve Davenport (07:04):
Why did they waste money on all those other
ones when they had you first?
Clem Miller (07:08):
right, um, and, and you know there was money to go
to, I mean education wasimportant, right, uh, we had
money to go to, uh, the local,uh, catholic elementary school.
You know.
Fortunately they had a planwhere the more kids you had, the
(07:31):
less you would pay for theincremental kids.
So that worked out.
And then went to the localJesuit high school and sort of
leveraged that local Jesuit highschool to be able to get into
Georgetown, my alma mater, whichis a Jesuit university.
(07:53):
And I still have a copy of abill of my first bill from
freshman year, of a bill of myfirst bill from freshman year,
and, um, I remember the gross uhwas 4,000 something and after
various um, you know,scholarships and whatnot, uh, I
(08:16):
remember it was $1,400.
That's how much I had to payfor the first semester, which
was, I mean, I guess it was alot back then, but maybe it
wasn't that much back then.
I mean it was.
I mean I guess it was a lotback then, but maybe it wasn't
that much back then.
I mean it was.
Uh, universities were a lotcheaper back then.
So I managed to do that, um,but I never really thought about
(08:36):
money per se.
I thought about jobs Okay,getting a job after school,
switching jobs, switching jobs.
It was only about, I would say,let's see, I got my CFA in 01.
I think it was only around thelate 1990s.
(09:00):
I graduated in 83.
It was only around the late1990s that I started thinking
about getting into investments.
Before that, you know, I wasall you know international trade
, international finance,international, this and that and
so I started thinking aboutgetting into finance.
(09:20):
Investment sounded kind ofinteresting and so I started
going down that that road, gotthe CFA and um eventually
switched over into the uh,investments world.
I had been in the.
I started off in the economicforecasting and then moved into
um, international trade, finance, got into investing, and so,
(09:43):
you know, that's when I startedreally thinking about money.
And you know, did you know, hada number had?
You know, I would say, money wasnot at the center of my life.
(10:11):
Money was always something thatwas kind of peripheral and then
became central as I got older.
Not in the sense of, you know,I'm not an accumulative person,
not in the sense of you know,I'm not an accumulative person.
I am a person who likes to, youknow, to generate experiences
(10:36):
and I'll pay for experiences.
I'll go on trips, you know,that kind of thing.
That's what I like to do, and Ilike to have enough money to be
able to do that, and I want tohave enough money to be able to
do that for the rest of my life,rest of my wife's life, yeah I
mean, uh, I just remember myfather used to like say that
anywhere you know, you seeamerica get in your car, and he
used to love to take carvacations everywhere and we were
(10:58):
like why?
what about?
Steve Davenport (11:00):
what about planes, or what about, or what
about trains, or what aboutcruises?
I'll do that too Like oh no, thecar I do that too, anywhere
dear.
And he was just.
My father was a verystrong-willed Irishman and I
don't know if anybody's everexperienced that before, but
(11:20):
they believe that they shouldsay something once and you
should say yes, and If you don'tagree, you were a fool, and if
you keep arguing and the voicesget louder, you raise your
status to a damn fool.
And so I think that as we growup, there were certain topics we
(11:41):
didn't delve into.
There were certain topics wedidn't touch and I think that
money, or how much we make orhow much we have or how you know
, those were never discussed andtherefore there was never the
discussion of how do you get tohaving this money.
The idea was get a job first,and once you get a job, then the
(12:02):
the yelling was about saving,saving, saving for a house and
then saving for children andthen saving for your retirement
and everything.
It was very much a one-wayconversation and I think that I
don't know if your family, butthere was always this question
about well, you're going to havea family and you're going to do
(12:25):
this and that, and I think itwas a different time and I guess
I'd ask me when you guys talkedabout money, was there any
difference between you and yourbrothers, or did everybody get
the same one version of Finance101?
Mimi Locke (12:45):
No, we all got it, we got it a lot, and he just
really I think that was one ofthe main things that he really
wanted to impart to his children, and it was across the board um
, you know, boys and girls to tosave money for in case
something bad happened, such aswhat had happened to him.
Steve Davenport (13:06):
So, yeah, yeah, my father tells a story about
his family in 28 or so duringthe depression, going back to
the bank with the keys to thehouse and saying, no, house is
not worth what it was.
And so they just gave the keysback to the bank and they
started renting another houseand eventually they bought that
(13:28):
house.
But my father was like, yeah, Ihad to move from this street to
this street and the house wewere at was closer to the you
know, the field in Rosendale andit was just like it's like yeah
, when we walked away from thathouse we were like, why are we
doing, you know, and it was atraumatic thing, and my father
(13:48):
was fortunate, his dad was apoliceman and so policemen at
the time had pretty steady payand they didn't get as affected
by things.
So I find that when you talkabout money, it helps to start
with where's your beginningpoint?
And then how did you grow orchange as you grow up to try to
(14:09):
get more improvement?
And then the big thing I find iswhy not tell other people how
your story evolved so that theydon't make all the mistakes that
we made?
Because I think it's nice hey,my kids can make mistakes and
learn a lesson, but I would muchrather not learn the lesson and
(14:29):
just take the ideas.
And you know there's going tobe enough lessons taught in life
.
You know there's going to beenough lessons taught in life.
I don't know if we need toencourage our kids to have more
problems and therefore, oh, lookat all those lessons we allowed
our children to have.
You know, I don't think that'sthe.
To me, the purpose of educationand knowledge is to prevent the
(14:50):
negative and support thepositive.
Right, right, right.
Mimi Locke (14:53):
And support the positive right.
Steve Davenport (14:55):
Right, right.
So what do you?
What's the group that you'reworking on?
Mimi Locke (15:11):
Invest4Better is the name of the charity.
Yes, it's calledinvest4betterorg.
It was started.
It's a nonprofit.
It was started a few years agoby by two women one on the East
Coast, one on the West Coast whowanted, who were presently in,
wanting to have their moneyinvested in ways that would
benefit people or things thatthey cared about.
(15:34):
People are things that theycared about and and they both I
believe both of them had troublefinding help are called circles
(15:58):
, so it's a small group of women.
I'm co-leading a circle startingsoon and it's where women come
together in a very safe spaceand talk about money, talk about
, just like you said, theirmoney stories.
And then we go and they comefrom different backgrounds.
Some of them have no investmentexperience.
(16:19):
Some of them have much moreinvestment experience and talk
about the different ways thatthey can invest in public
equities, in debt, privateinvesting and even how to invest
their, put their cash in banksthat benefit, say, women-owned
businesses and communities thatthey care about.
(16:41):
So that's, and also there's,lastly, there's discussion on
how to find a financial advisor.
If you think you need one, somepeople do it it yourself, but
how to find a financial advisorthat gets it that's nice, I mean
.
Steve Davenport (17:01):
I think, um, in the experience I've had, women
have a lot of challenges withtheir investing life.
When it comes right down to it,you know not, uh, making 80
cents or 82 cents on the dollarversus men is one drawback they
need to overcome.
Second, their careers areusually interrupted because of
(17:22):
their parents taking care oftheir parents or taking care of
their children.
And third, they have a longerlifespan.
So if they're going to livelonger, their retirement is
going to be longer and thereforetheir need for retirement
assets is longer.
But also the last one, thisidea of investing for values.
I mean women tend to be moreconservative and have more of a
(17:45):
cash reserve because they'rejust, you know, they want to be
sure, and that lower allocationto equities and higher to cash
and bonds tends to make theirreturns a little bit.
You know.
Are these strategies, you think, giving you the same amount of
return while giving you thatvalues-based kind of benefit?
Mimi Locke (18:08):
Yes, yes, there have equities that have the values,
alignment, have the same return.
I think that's a myth out therethat you're giving up 1% or 2%
in order to do good things.
A lot of the companies you caneven look at oil and gas
(18:35):
companies they are shifting overa lot of their revenue base to
solar and wind.
They're some of the biggestsolar and wind producers in the
United States.
They're still oil and gascompanies, but you know they're
definitely changing over.
And the thing what you justsaid about women interrupting
(18:57):
their careers, either for kids,it's also for taking care of
elderly parents.
It's often the woman in thehousehold that will interrupt
her career to take care of sickparents and then when she
eventually returns to work, youdon't always step back into
where you left off.
(19:18):
It's not that easy.
You may have a big gap and thennot go back where you left off.
So you've missed out on theearnings, you've missed out on
saving for retirement through401k plan and you also weren't
contributing to your socialsecurity either.
And that's all going to comeback to haunt you.
(19:41):
You know, in your retirementyears, when you have less money
and, like you said, women areliving longer than their spouses
and they're making less andtherefore saving less and
investing less.
And on the risk averse front, Icompletely agree with you.
I think women have a tendencyto invest more in CDs because
(20:02):
it's safe, it's FDIC insured,it's easy to understand and it's
, you know, six months, 12months, 18 months investment,
and so there's certainly adegree of liquidity there as
well.
And they're going to miss outon the greater long-term returns
(20:23):
, the historical returns of thestock market.
Steve Davenport (20:27):
No, I think that's definitely true.
I guess, how did you becomeinvolved in this values-based
investing?
How?
Mimi Locke (20:38):
did you become involved in this values-based
investing?
Well, I mean, I started hearing.
I mean, sri is the old negativescreening where you don't buy
stocks that do bad things.
Like you know, the classic oneback in the 70s would be like
tobacco and weapons, that typeof thing.
You wouldn't buy those stocksif you didn't agree with those
(21:03):
things.
And then, as time went by, itstarted evolving into more
sophisticated analysis withinthe investment management space.
Within the investmentmanagement space, and at the
same time, I had been doing alot of traveling and seeing
(21:23):
parts of the world that wereaffected by development and
private interests, and you knowhuge swaths of land being cut
down for either agriculture orlogging or mining and affecting
the land and the habitat, andyou know.
(21:46):
So that really bothered me.
So the thing that, in terms ofvalues aligned investing that I
care about most is conservationor investing for climate.
So there's, you know, hugeparts of the world that have
been wrecked because of theseprivate interests.
Clem Miller (22:09):
The other thing.
Mimi Locke (22:10):
what go ahead Clem?
Clem Miller (22:12):
No, go on.
Mimi Locke (22:13):
Sorry to interrupt the other the other thing and
this is like just a quick sidenote, the other thing that one
can do if you're concerned aboutany of these matters, whether
it's climate or women orwhatever is to you know vote or
support legislative matters thataffect these things.
(22:37):
That's just another way you canhelp effect change, not just
with investing, but withlegislative efforts.
Clem Miller (22:50):
So, mimi, you mentioned travel as being one of
the reasons you got into this.
You mentioned travel as beingone of the reasons you got into
this.
Are there other things thatyou've experienced besides the
travel that have led you intothis area?
That would be my first question, and my second question would
be you know, it sounds likeyou're more into the kind of
(23:14):
impact investing area ratherthan sort of ESG.
You know, I know there's a finedifference between the two, but
you know, impact trying to makethe world a better place as
opposed to not trying to do harmwhich is sort of the ESG mantra
.
Mimi Locke (23:31):
Right?
Am I right about that?
Well, the first question abouthow did I get in?
Interested in this?
Besides the the global Travelthat it has, I have noticed and
(23:54):
always been aware of and of thefact that women are not nearly
as involved with money as menwere, and I've worked in the
financial services business mywhole life, so I've seen that.
You know, I was like my firstjob, I was like the only woman
in a room of 60 stock brokers,and so I've always seen that and
(24:16):
I've seen it within clients,I've seen it in employment
settings, I've seen it infamilies, friends, everywhere.
So I have felt that there's alack of, it's just a societal
norm that women aren't thatwell-educated or attuned to
(24:40):
money matters.
For some reason they've beenleft out of the conversation.
So that part is another areathat I'm interested in.
And then on the impact ininvesting yes, if you're
referring to like privateinvesting, that's getting more
and more mainstream now, as youknow it's it's you know, being
(25:03):
you know.
I guess we're going to be ableto do that in 401ks now too.
Clem Miller (25:07):
I was really talking about social impact
investing.
Mimi Locke (25:11):
Oh, social impact.
Clem Miller (25:13):
You mean, like women, Well, women and investing
in clean water, investing inrenewable energy I mean, you
mentioned the things that you'veseen on your travels.
I mean, are you focused in yourinvesting also not just on
(25:34):
women, but also on these, youknow, clean water and renewable
energy and those kinds of things?
Mimi Locke (25:40):
Yes, I look at companies that are that are
doing that.
In fact there's some utilitycompanies that are, you know,
all about clean energy and thosethings are fairly easy to find
on, you know, like just in thepress and with resources like
(26:01):
Morningstar and some other waysthat you can find out about
those companies that are doingthat.
Clem Miller (26:09):
Yeah, so let me ask you another question.
Back to women.
So let me ask you anotherquestion back to back to women.
I guess my observation, notbeing a woman, of course.
So, looking from the outside,my observation is that there's
kind of a generational gap, thatwomen in their, you know,
(26:31):
forties, thirties uh are muchmore attuned to investments and
finance than uh and arecertainly more career oriented
uh than those in oldergenerations.
Uh, I don't know enough aboutmillennials to be able to say
the same thing.
(26:52):
Uh, I don't know if there'sbeen a regression or it's about
the same thing as the 30s and40s year olds.
What's your observation?
How have the generations moved?
Mimi Locke (27:06):
on this issue.
I think that the differentgenerations I think there are
women that are in an oldergeneration that are interested
in money and that do get it andknow what's going on and they do
have good solid questions fortheir financial advisors and
(27:28):
they read and they investors,investors.
So I don't really think it'sjust the younger, you know 40 on
down, that are more, that arenecessarily more into it.
I think it's.
I just think it's an individualthing where maybe how they grew
(27:53):
up or whatever, I do see a lotof younger women that aren't
worried about it at all, they'renot worried about saving or,
you know, we'll just get figuredout is seemingly there's a real
comfort level there you mean intheir 20s probably yeah yeah,
men too yeah, I suppose they'respending money and you know
(28:14):
enjoying, you know their income,I guess, enjoying you know
their income, I guess.
Clem Miller (28:17):
Yeah, I guess they figure that their income will
rise to meet their spending.
You know one of the things?
I'll just tell a very quick,very quick story.
One of the things that I foundthat was a major help to society
and to myself was thedevelopment of the debit card, I
(28:40):
think before that, credit cards.
People used credit cards fortheir convenience, but they
often made your debt go out ofcontrol.
It was easy for it to get outof control, and so the invention
of the debit card allowedpeople to manage their money
better.
So that's just an aside.
Mimi Locke (29:00):
Oh, I completely agree with you.
Yeah, the money comes out ofyour account instantly, so you
better make sure that it's there.
Clem Miller (29:08):
Yeah, powerful discipline.
Mimi Locke (29:10):
Yes, yes.
Steve Davenport (29:12):
Do you think, mimi, after you do these classes
with these people, that theywere able to take the step
forward and really start?
Yes, yes, have a certain impact, and I guess I wonder whether
(29:34):
it's women or whether it's menor whether it's anyone.
I find that society has such asmall attention span now that
you know it's like squirrel, andI just think that you know, I
hope that people can focus onthe important things, which I
think this is one of theimportant things of your life
(29:55):
that you get responsibility andyou understand.
You know when you need to.
You know not consume and howyou need to discipline your life
so that you can have somefuture.
You know possibilities.
Do you find that people arereceptive and open to the
discussion, or how do you makethe discussion one better so
(30:17):
that it is more open and likelyto succeed?
Mimi Locke (30:21):
Well, in the course that I'll be co-leading, it's
called Invest with Purpose.
One of the goals is that by theend of the course or shortly
thereafter, the women that arein the course will have made a
change or made an investmentthat aligns with their values.
(30:44):
Now you don't have to like selleverything and buy all you know
environmentally friendly stocksor something like that.
It's just, you know.
We tell people just start outsmall, just you know, with a
very small amount of money, anddo something toward your goal.
You know, even if it's just afew thousand dollars or a few
(31:08):
hundred dollars, and dosomething.
Invest it in a stock or in abank.
That's more community alignedto help people that need help
starting their businesses incertain disadvantaged areas.
So just starting out small.
So that's one of the goals.
(31:29):
Of course, people don't have todo that, but it's one of the
goals that people I believe it's90 something percent of the
participants in the class do saythat by the end of the course
they will have made a newinvestment in something that
matters to them.
Steve Davenport (31:49):
That's pretty good.
I mean, I think you get 90percent of people to agree on
anything.
I think you get 90% of peopleto agree on anything.
Mimi Locke (31:56):
Yeah, I mean they've signed up for the class.
It's seven modules, and so youknow they've definitely become
comfortable with learning aboutthese things and some of them
have some prior knowledge aswell.
Steve Davenport (32:11):
I mean, when you look back at your career and
your life with finance andtrying to help these women,
there's satisfactions andthere's successes and there's
challenges.
I mean, what would you say to ayoung Mimi who was starting out
, you know, in order to helpmake her life improved in terms
of financial wellness?
(32:32):
Is there anything you'd writeon the?
You know.
Mimi Locke (32:43):
Well, I think financial education is that.
That's the you know, that's thebasic thing that one needs is
the education about finance andhow to, and just starting off
with your own life, withbudgeting and saving and
spending, and what percentagesyou want to allocate to those
(33:03):
areas.
Steve Davenport (33:07):
Do you feel like the people that you're
working with are looking at youand saying I want to be like is,
is it?
Is it an american aspirationalthing for more money, or do you
think it's more of we need to dothis just to be?
You know, just like you spendyour time on things you think
(33:30):
are productive, we should spendour you know, our casual time or
our personal time doing thingsthat are also going to help our
person, uh, personhood.
So how, how do you, how do youlook at people and say I, I've
made a difference here.
Um, because you can see thatthey like I find that there's an
energy in people's eyes when itclicks and they go.
(33:52):
This is how you know what Imean, whether it's silent.
You know taking money out ofyour paycheck and automatically
automatic investment in 401ks.
I think you're the best thingyou can do.
Automated payments of yourutility bills and things.
Only thing the utility bills dois hurt your credit rating
(34:13):
because you miss a paymentbecause of some reason you
didn't have a stamp.
Or I remember, you know,getting pneumonia one time,
right when I was due to pay offa couch that I got two years
interest free and then I didn'tget the interest free, and it's
just.
I guess, how do you um, do youguys measure success, or how do
we measure success in this space?
Mimi Locke (34:38):
Well, I would say, when the light you know, sort of
like when the light bulb goesoff in someone's head, about
like now, I see why this isbeneficial.
It's going to be somethingpersonal that's happened to them
and it might be at work.
It might be something at workwhere they've made a difference,
(34:59):
or maybe it's in theircommunity or their family where
they've seen something positivehappen that they care about.
With regard to the personalfinance situation, I completely
agree with you about theautomization of you know we have
(35:20):
that now you can do pretty mucheverything automatically, with
saving and sending moneyautomatically without even
having to make the decision todo it over to an investment
account from your checkingaccount, and the importance of
saving, of taking advantage ofyour corporate retirement plans
(35:40):
and all that.
So if you're asking me like howdo I measure?
Steve Davenport (35:47):
Do you think if you listed 10 items that you
just talked about, the womanbefore the class would be doing
two or three of them and thewoman after the class will be
doing five or six of them.
I mean, do you think that if wehad more ability to transmit
information and I was trustedbecause that's the thing, like
(36:07):
you're, you're doing this in avery trusted space where women
trust each other and they wantto support each other, and it's
a very safe, but the averageperson trying to figure out how
to go forward, I guess, is thereother things that the investor
better webpage that might helppeople even if they can't take
this class, or yes, there, thethe website is full of resources
(36:31):
about about values, alignedinvesting of all all types.
Mimi Locke (36:37):
They have replays of video, you know, video replays
of speakers that specialize indifferent areas, you know so.
So the website is pretty richactually where you can get a lot
of help, but you know you canalso.
You can get a lot of help, butyou know you can also if you're
(36:59):
really into, like, trying tofigure stuff out.
There's a lot of other websitestoo.
I mean, if you do, you ever goon Investopedia and you just
type something on in the searchbar and it's not just about,
like, financial statements, youknow, it's anything that has to
do with investments.
It's extremely broad andInvestopedia is your friend, I
(37:20):
think, and then you know there'sdefinitely source those things.
(37:45):
And if, if someone has abrokerage account, an investment
account with one of the majorhouses, one of the major
companies, their websites arereally rich with information.
Like you could look atretirement planning, look at
college planning, you can lookat.
You know they even have thingsabout social security.
They have every topic coveredand you can just read about it
(38:05):
on those websites.
I don't even think you reallyeven have to have an account.
I think it's just out there asa resource.
Steve Davenport (38:13):
Nice.
So I'm going to wrap up.
I think it's great what you'redoing and how you're helping in
your community and you'rehelping the people you want with
this woman's group, and I wantto remind people that to sign up
for Mimi's class, the deadlineis August 24th, so that's coming
up and the class starts inSeptember and we're going to put
(38:35):
the class link into our notesso it'll be in the background.
Information on the podcast andClem, if you want to have
anything to wrap up, and thenI'll let Mimi have the last.
Clem Miller (38:49):
I was just going to ask Mimi, what?
What's the website where theycan look at?
Mimi Locke (39:01):
what's the website where they can look at?
It's investforbetterorg andthat talks about the course and
it talks about all their otherresources as well.
I think I gave Stephen the linkfor the sign up.
If not, I can send that to him,but the company, the nonprofit,
is investforbetterorg.
Clem Miller (39:17):
Okay, I just wanted to make sure people had that if
they're listening and aren'table to click yeah, thank you.
Thank you.
So this was a good discussion.
I think that you're doing agreat thing, great service for
women.
You're doing a great thing,great service for women.
(39:41):
I think that it's reallyimportant for you know, for
people to get a not just women,but for people in general to
understand the ins and outs ofinvesting for purpose, to borrow
your lingo, and I know a lot ofus want to do that but really
don't know how to do that, ordon't know how to do that
(40:03):
without you know, without a fearof giving up gains.
It may not, you know, the trackrecord may be that you know
there's no impact right onreturns, but I think there's a
fear out there that it does havean impact on returns, and so I
(40:25):
think that's a fear that I'msure you address in the class.
So I wish you a lot of luck, uh, with this, uh next, uh, you
know, next session, and hope youget a lot of uh, a lot of
participation and uh, I thinkSteve and I would really love to
(40:45):
have you back uh, maybe afteryou have this next session, and
then you can tell us how you uh,how you made out.
Mimi Locke (40:53):
Okay, well, I would love to Thank you Okay.
Steve Davenport (40:55):
All would love to Thank you.
Okay, All right, everybody.
I think this has been a greatdiscussion and I really want to
emphasize the fact that you knowMimi and others are out there
trying to make a differenceevery day in people's lives, and
I think that's great to pay itforward.
And I encourage anyone who hassimilar stories that you know
(41:15):
we'd like to share, because atSkeptic's Guide, we're trying to
help improve the financial IQof investors and in doing so, I
think it makes all the boatsrise.
I don't think it's a winner orloser situation.
I think it's a win-win.
So, everybody, thanks forlistening and we appreciate your
(41:38):
support, and please like andshare this podcast wherever you
get it, and we appreciate youall.
Thanks, everyone.
Mimi Locke (41:48):
Thank you.
Steve Davenport (41:49):
Bye.
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