March 12, 2024 • 24 mins
Experience the fusion of personal values and financial acumen as we traverse the landscape of impactful investing with Diana Yanez, an esteemed financial empowerment coach. Our discourse sails through the implications of aligning our investments with ethics, emphasizing how such strategic decisions foster community growth and personal prosperity. We celebrate the triumph of Mountain BizWorks, as their significant grant acquisition marks a milestone in uplifting underserved entrepreneurs. Yet, the dialogue also navigates the murky waters of ethical dilemmas, questioning the integrity of lawmakers' investments in defense stocks during military conflicts. Meanwhile, we dissect the administration's attempts to alleviate the burden of student loan debt and highlight Michael Schumann's transformative workshops that champion local investing over the allure of Wall Street.
Embarking on a personal narrative, I share the transformative journey from a financial career to a calling in social services, revealing how encounters with diverse clients reshaped my understanding of the intricate dance between money and human empathy. This episode peels back the layers of the undervalued, yet essential roles traditionally occupied by women and minorities, particularly in caregiving and domestic work. We probe into the historical context of value and agency, contrasting market-driven labor with the heartbeat of the core economy. Join us as we blend a fascination with numbers and a deep-seated empathy in a unique approach to financial planning—a convergence where money not only grows but also heals and unifies.
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Episode Transcript
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Joel (00:00):
What if investing in each other could change the world?
I'm Joel Skeen with bizradious,and this is the Mindful
Marketplace.
Welcome to another edition ofthe Mindful Marketplace.
Here on Bizradio US, I am yourhost, joel Skeen, if this is
your first time with us.
(00:20):
On this program.
We talk to the entrepreneurs,the advisors, industry leaders,
investors and economic expertswho are not only solving a
market problem to make a profit,but they're also solving a
social problem to make an impact.
It's where we learn how toconnect our money and our
businesses to our values, ourcommunity and ourselves.
Today I am super excited togetting to talk with a friend of
(00:42):
mine.
Her name is Deanna Yanyez whois the wealth management advisor
, financial empowerment coachand founder of all the colors.
But first we got to hit thebalance sheet the assets,
liabilities, debts andinvestments.
Okay, first, in the assetscolumn, I want to talk a little
bit about a local group that tome, mountain BizWorks.
(01:03):
We recently had on JeremiahRobertson from Mountain BizWorks
as well as one of our firstskates, matt Raker from there.
Mountain BizWorks has beenawarded over a 2.3 million
dollar grant from the USMinority Business Development
Agency.
They've been selected as one of43 organizations nationwide to
receive this grant from theMBDA's Capital Readiness Program
(01:24):
.
Out of over a thousandapplicants, only 43 were chosen.
The program aims to provide afunding and support To
underserved entrepreneurs,particularly those from
historically under resourcedareas.
This funding will help enableMountain BizWorks and its
partners to help entrepreneursscale up, access growth capital
and create inclusive economicdevelopment opportunities across
(01:47):
Western North Carolina.
The MBDA award will focus oncapacity building and access to
capital and access to networksfor WNC entrepreneurs.
It will expand existingprograms and integrate efforts
from various entrepreneurialdevelopment partners, and the
details of the four-year planfor the funds will be announced
at a special event.
They actually already wereannounced at a special event on
(02:10):
November 30th here in Asheville.
So Really awesome organizationand want to support them here.
Jeremiah and Matt from MountainBizWorks, great job guys.
In the Liabilities column Iunfortunately do have to talk
about war profiteers.
So the recent increase inmilitary action by the IOF
against Gaza has caused a surgein weapons manufacturer stocks,
(02:32):
adding about 23 billion inmarket capitalization.
So analysts have mixed views onthe financial impact of the
military action.
While some expect limitedeffects, others anticipate an
increase on military spending.
So Lockheed Martin, boeing,northrop Grumman will all see
their stocks rise as more andmore are killed.
But what makes this even moreobscene is I want to point to
(02:53):
this business insider articlethat says that lawmakers on key
house and Senate committeesoverseeing US military policy
have financial ties to thesemajor weapons contractors.
Both Democrats and Republicanson these committees continue to
invest in leading militarycontracts.
Their financial disclosuresinclude Lockheed Martin, boeing,
raytheon, honeywell, generalElectric, all of which lobby the
(03:16):
federal government and Seeklucrative contracts.
So these investments are notlimited to senior members.
Even junior members arereported to be owning weapons
related stocks.
The investments raises concernsabout potential conflicts of
interest, especially given thelawmakers rules.
In writing.
The annual defenseauthorization bill that funds
the military Subcontractors intheir home districts.
(03:39):
The practice of lawmakerstrading in these stocks has been
heavily criticized bygovernment watchdogs, especially
the influence of militarycontractors on congressional
panels, including the house andSenate appropriations committee,
which, as these committeesallocate, are the ones that
allocate significant federalfunding to government programs
and contractors.
(04:00):
Alright in the debts column.
So the White House has approvedan additional 4.8 billion in
federal student loan debtcancellation to provide relief
for student loan borrowersfollowing the Supreme Court's
decision to block the WhiteHouse's broader debt
cancellation plan earlier thisyear.
The borrowers now the totalfederal student loan debt
(04:22):
cancellation approved by thedepartment is now at 3.6 million
borrowers and stands at $132billion in canceled debt.
The Secretary of Education,miguel Cardona, emphasized the
administration's commitment tofixing the student loan system
and providing relief to eligibleborrowers.
(04:44):
The latest round of relief is aresult of improvements to the
income-driven repayment plan andthe public service loan
forgiveness program.
The administration also admitsto the administration also aims
to provide debt cancellation tomore borrowers as time goes on.
And in the investments column Iwant to touch on local
(05:05):
investment educational workshopsby Michael Schumann.
So Michael Schumann is aneconomist professor, friend of
the show he's on an upcomingepisode here and the author of
the book Put your Money whenyour Life Is.
Michael Schumann is providingeducational workshops on how
ordinary people can startinvesting in their neighborhood
while getting an ROI at the sametime.
Americans have approximately$56 trillion in stocks, bonds,
(05:29):
mutual funds, pension funds andinsurance funds.
Nearly all of it is invested inglobal corporations.
And remember, when I saytrillion, just to give some
context if you went back amillion seconds, you'd be going
back about 11 days.
If you went back in time abillion seconds, you're going
back about 31 and a half years,and if you go back a trillion
seconds, you're going back31,500 years.
(05:52):
So we're looking at $56trillion in global corporate
investments, and if you and yourneighbors could shift even a
small amount of that capitalfrom Wall Street to Main Street,
your local economy could reallyflourish.
These workshops are designed tohelp you personally and your
community develop practicallocal investment strategies.
I was impressed with just howaffordable these educational
(06:12):
workshops are and see it as agreat way to take control of
your own finances and help yourcommunity in the process, so
check them out atmichaelschumancom.
All right, I am excited to getinto the conversation here with
Deanna Yanies.
Welcome, deanna.
So good to have you here on theshow today.
It's been a long time coming.
Diana (06:30):
Yeah, thank you, joel.
I'm excited to be here.
Joel (06:33):
So, as I mentioned before, you are a CFP, you are a
financial coach, you are allabout financial wellness, and we
have a lot of things in commonthat I'm excited to get to talk
about here, but I kind of wantedto start with something you had
put up in a writing of yoursonline.
You said that money is morethan numbers.
It's about empowerment.
(06:55):
Tell me what you mean by that,yeah.
Diana (06:57):
And that's actually inspired by a quote by Morgan
Housel, who wrote the Psychologyof Money, and he says that
money looks like math because ithas numbers, but it's much more
like psychology.
And when I see the wordempowerment, I often talk about
owning your power with thedecisions that you can make with
a lot of things in life, andwith money especially.
We often think that there's aright way to do things, there's
(07:20):
a way that, if I knew betterthan I, would be able to figure
out this problem of money, andin fact it's more about
understanding that, day to day,as money questions come up, it's
knowing that you are able toanswer those.
And if you look at my, part ofmy mission is working with women
and people of color and often,even if we're not directly told
(07:42):
money's not part of your world,in some ways we are right and
that's what empowerment wouldmean as money questions come up,
feeling that you are able to goand either get the help that
you need to make the decision,seeing that you're capable.
It's a financial capability.
Joel (07:58):
Yeah, you know I um, I've been in the financial services
industry almost 10 years now andI definitely do think there's a
bit of a narrative out therethat ordinary people can't
understand finances and that itshould just be left to the
professionals and to the WallStreet advisors and to these
things to make all theirdecisions for them.
But it seems to me like thatthat might not be the case, and
(08:19):
it seems like what you're sayingis that you're actually trying
to give people the tools to maketheir own informed decisions.
Is that right?
Diana (08:25):
Right, right, cause there's a lot of.
I mean, the financial servicesindustry in general has a lot to
gain from people being confused, right, that's when you look at
our like, what is a fiduciaryas somebody that's supposed to
do the right thing by theirclient, and yet we have people
who are not fiduciaries, whostill work in financial services
.
And why?
Why are we allowing that?
It's just like that confusioncan make this business very
(08:48):
profitable for the financialservices industry.
So, as consumers, unfortunately, we're the ones that have to be
really well versed.
We have to understand what itis that we're buying, what it is
that we're asking.
Even and the empowerment partis knowing that you are able to
I always tell people, like, ifyou're working with a financial
service person and they could beselling like there's all kinds
(09:08):
of products that can be abused,but if whatever product they're
selling you, if you don'tunderstand a hundred percent
what it is that you're buying,go somewhere else.
It's on them to explain to youwhat you're purchasing.
Joel (09:22):
So yeah, because if you don't have that clarity, there
may be a reason for that.
Yeah, you mentioned workingspecifically with women and with
people of color, people fromdisenfranchised community.
With your practice, whatparticular challenges do those
communities face?
Diana (09:39):
I mean you can start with women.
Women still earn 80 cents tothe dollar of a man and if you
look at like Latinas which I'mLatina it's 53 cents to the
dollar.
Women also have more longevity,right.
So they tend to outlive men byabout 10 years and they take
more time off or caretaking.
So look at all of these timeswhen they're not creating income
(10:01):
.
And then, as people of color,there's the racial.
I look Phong Long.
She's another financial planner, I don't know if you've had her
on the show, but she talksabout the racial wealth divide,
not the racial wealth gap, andshe says when you say the word
gap, it implies that there'ssomething you can do to cross
the gap.
But divide the racial wealthdivide really points out the
(10:24):
fact that it's structural Right.
So studies have shown that whena woman walks into get a car
loan, she automatically is goingto pay about one, two, three
percent more in interest forthat car loan, similar to your
person of color.
And as a person of color who'salso white skinned, like I, get
to see that.
I get to see how my familymembers that are darker skinned
(10:46):
than me are treated versus howI'm treated, and the financial
services space is a very whitespace.
It's a very male space.
If you look at, I think womenhave been 20% of the financial
services for like 10, 15 years.
It hasn't gone up, it hasn'tincreased.
Like how is that possible thatyou could use a brochure from 15
(11:07):
years ago and still have thesame numbers, even if it's not
set to us directly?
It's not a very welcoming spacefor women, which is very
confusing because it's a perfectcareer for women.
There's so much flexibility inbeing a financial services
provider as a certifiedfinancial planner.
There's like the income can bereally good.
You're helping people.
(11:29):
It really is a helpingprofession.
But I guess it depends on whatavenue, what part of the
industry you're in.
Joel (11:35):
Yeah, and it depends on sometimes the company that
you're into Like the companythat I partnered with when I
first started doing well infinancial services was very male
dominated.
When we started it was it waskind of a boys club a bit, but
the there was actually anintention put by the owners of
that company to do their best tochange that and we now actually
have over 50% of our licensedagents are women and, as you
(11:58):
said, it's such a great careerfor women.
And also, I think I like whatyou said too, because a lot of
times the people who are comingto a financial planner, they
will you want to have someonewho kind of understands where
you're coming from and whounderstands the challenges that
you may face and if they'reunique to someone else and you
know I'm a guy like a lot oftimes I might not think about
the fact that you know some youmight.
(12:19):
You might need to beconsidering things like
maternity leave.
You might need to beconsidering things like, you
know, childcare or some of theseother things that just don't
occur to someone If them andeveryone else they are
surrounded and have a, you know,a homogenous experience where
you know they're not, they'renot taking into account the
experiences of all the otherpeople.
It reminds me a bit of a RhianneEisler who wrote the chalice
(12:42):
and the blade.
I remember she was talking aboutthis once where she said the
way that we think about moneyand you know, kind of
meritocracy, and some of thisstuff is a little skewed, like
if you had a, if you had acouple over for for dinner,
let's say, you had just had ababy, you and you and your
spouse had just had a baby, andyou had a couple over in your
apartment building for dinnerand the husband was a plumber
(13:05):
and you had a water issue inyour sink and you know, the
plumber decided, hey, he's yourneighbor, but he's going to help
you out with this.
We wouldn't really think twiceabout paying him for that
service.
Right, we wouldn't think twiceabout giving him some money for
the professional expertise thathe provided to us.
But if in that same dinnerlet's say the, let's say, the
woman in the in the couple washaving difficulty breastfeeding
(13:27):
and the mother on the other sideof the table who's the neighbor
?
She, she, helps you fix thatproblem and teaches you how to
feed your child we wouldn'tthink of paying them for that,
even though that service is somuch more valuable than fixing
the pipe right, that is, beingable to feed your child is such
a much more valuable experienceand learning opportunity than be
(13:49):
able to fix that pipe.
Diana (13:50):
And so, yeah, I'm wondering if you have any
thoughts coming up as I'm sayingthat I mean, I'm thinking of
the joke that if Adam Smith hadhad to do his own, adam Smith is
the author who wrote the Wealthof Nations and he's seen as one
of the like fathers ofcapitalism.
So if he had had to do his owncleaning and grocery shopping,
maybe he would have included thecore economy, which is all the
(14:11):
household work, inside theWealth of Nations.
But because it was women's workand women were not considered
full human beings in the 1700s,people who are darker skin were
not considered full human beingsuntil the 1950s.
In the US we're growing who wegive agency or value to, right.
(14:31):
500 years ago, obviously it wasonly white men and we're now
transitioning that.
But the old structures arestill so in place, right?
So yes, breastfeeding is partof the core economy.
It's unseen work.
There's also the rememberhearing somewhere that in
retirement men often have accessto to like side income, hustle
(14:55):
income, because they docarpentry or because their
hobbies are more, they're easierto monetize, right, right.
Whereas child care, a lot ofthe times it's just expected to
be unpaid, like, oh, you're aneighbor, you're not doing
anything.
Here's my child, take care,like it's just it's.
It's that division between thecore economy, which I don't even
.
I think it's called householdeconomy.
There's, there's some term forit that just devalues it even
(15:17):
more.
It's how we think about laborand what labor is paid and what
labor is unpaid.
Joel (15:21):
Yeah, and even if you go back before capitalism, it's
just a value of markets and oftrade that you're paid based on
the amount of value that you addto someone else and to their
life and to the market, right?
But there does seem to be adisconnect where some things are
that are very valuable, are notrepresented in that market and
(15:42):
are not compensated for in thatmarket, but other things that
maybe don't actually add allthat much to society, but they
do add, you know, some they do.
They do cushion the pockets ofsomeone who's already wealthy.
They get paid really well, eventhough that may not actually
add a whole lot to society andtwo people's lives.
So we can get off a soapbox, Iguess for a bit.
(16:03):
But but I.
So how did you?
How did you get?
How did you get into this lineof work?
I know that you said youstarted in social services.
Is that right?
That was something we had incommon, right?
Diana (16:14):
So I actually worked in financial like a broker dealer.
I worked at Merrill Lynch in2007, 2008.
So, right when Lehman Brotherswas falling apart and Merrill
Lynch was purchased by Bank ofAmerica, I worked in the
philanthropy department.
We looked at request forproposals from nonprofits that
wanted to have their assetsmanaged.
(16:36):
I also worked in them.
It was kind of like acharitable giving or it was.
It was a training place thatthey had at Merrill Lynch and
forgetting the name of it, butit was established because
Orange County in California,where I lived at the time, had
gone through a lot ofembezzlement and as punishment
they had to create this group,this cohort that was, honestly
(16:57):
like.
80% of the people of colorworked in that little department
.
The rest of the majority of theMerrill Lynch employees were
white and I loved Merrill Lynch,thinking never, never will I
work in finances.
It is not the world for me.
I don't know anymultimillionaires that I want to
invest their assets for.
I kind of felt like I was aused car salesman, in some ways
(17:20):
of like selling snake oil.
It didn't make sense to me andI started to work.
I was volunteering at a placefor people experiencing
houselessness and mental illness, and that's how I started
working in social services.
I was volunteering there andthen I was offered a job.
I stayed there for about a yearand a half and realized that I
(17:40):
either had to go back to schooland get a master's in social
work.
But more than that, I was tooempathetic.
I was like having such a hardtime leaving my clients at work,
I wanted to make sure that myagoraphobic clients were going
out and that's like I could feelmyself wanting to visit them
outside of tonight.
I never did because it would beon profession, that wouldn't be
safe for me.
But I remember how burdened Ifelt by that.
(18:01):
And from there it was a coupleof other career shifts.
Before I met a, I wasvolunteering at a toast master's
which is Republic speaking, andI met a certified financial
planner who gave me a brochurefrom the CFP board that said
financial planning a greatcareer for women, and I started
to like tentatively test thewaters.
I started to go to financialplanning association meetings.
(18:23):
I was pretty gun shy to comeback into this industry.
I'm glad I did, though.
I'm a numbers person who lovespeople.
I'm a people person who lovesnumbers, and I get to really use
both sides of my skills andthis work.
Joel (18:37):
How did that time in social services shift your
paradigm when it comes tofinancial planning, and how do
you bring that into what you donow?
Diana (18:47):
Wow, I'm thinking of one particular experience the first
person I worked with who wasgoing through domestic violence.
Her children had been takenaway.
And here I was, this naive what?
20 year old, maybe 22 year oldand I didn't understand why she
was upset that her children weretaken away and why she did not
(19:08):
want to leave her abusivehusband.
It just it didn't make sense tome why she was not seeing that
she wanted the wrong thing.
And I don't think I said itthat tactlessly, that bluntly,
that judgmentally, but she couldtell that I was not on her team
and she never showed up for anappointment again and I just
realized like, wow, I have noidea what other people are going
(19:29):
through.
And now I bring that sensitivityto my work with money because,
again, money looks like one plusone equals two, but it's hardly
ever like that.
I think I talk a lot aboutmoney and food, because food can
look like nutrition and yetthere's so much more to it.
Right, there's community,there's memories, there's
(19:49):
numbing that we could do withfood similar to like financial
therapy.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And that, that experience.
I remember that experience withthe woman going through houses,
and I also remember I had aclient who was coming out of
addiction and she had been she.
They had given her an apartment, she was, I think, in her late
(20:10):
sixties but she missed hercommunity back when she was
actively using and she washouseless because there were
people around her.
And now, here she wasencapsulated in this little
apartment where she didn'tconnect with the people at her
senior center because they allhad grandchildren and she was
like what am I going to tellthem my stories of like, passing
out and random digits?
So how does that connect me now?
(20:32):
It just it reminds me thathaving the right things she had,
the house, she had the, the,the safety with like, knowing
that her food was going to bethere all the time it wasn't
enough.
Joel (20:44):
Yeah, yeah, money is I'd love to turn the question on.
Diana (20:47):
you Like how did working in social service affect the
way that you do money.
Joel (20:51):
Yeah, that's a good question too.
Well, thank you, I think so.
When I, when I went into socialservice, I remember that the
biggest thing I brought with mewas I had to do this thing where
we the the organization I waswith, where I was running a food
bank and doing some, somehomeless prevention programs was
empathy training.
So we had to go through thiswhole process where we had to
(21:13):
learn how to speak in a way thatdemonstrated that we were able
to empathize.
So I had to learn how to saythings like like reflect, to
actually notice the emotion thatsomeone was feeling and then be
able to reflect that back tothem.
And as someone who was, youknow, raised as a guy and told
him, you know, kind of taught tonot even really connect with my
own emotions, recognizing thoseemotions in someone else was
(21:36):
pretty difficult at times when Iwas pretty, I was in my 20s and
very focused on what I wantedand you know kind of had a very,
you know, I it relationship tothe world rather than an I thou
relationship, the Martin Buberidea and that really opened me
up because I had to sit and lookat someone and go, oh, they're
feeling angry, and I could lookat them and be like, man, that
(21:56):
sounds, that, sounds like thatwould make you really angry, and
they go yeah, it would.
And then they would expound onmore and then tell me more or
like, oh man, that sounds reallyfrustrating.
Or man, that sounds reallyexciting.
Just being able to actuallynotice what the other person's
experience was allowed me tothen, you know, reflect that
back into myself, which I thinkyou know definitely helped me in
(22:18):
my ability to connect withclients and my ability to really
understand what is it that theyreally want here.
Because a lot of times peoplehave two, two reasons for doing
something.
They have the one that soundsgood and then they have the real
reason, and one of my first,you know, sales trainings was to
ask this question.
All right, in addition to that,what else?
Because so many times just thatsimple question will will get
(22:39):
down to that deeper level andget past that that surface.
So thank you for asking.
We do have to cut it here, butthis is going to be a two part
conversation, so we're going tocome back with Deanna.
Cannot wait for part two.
We're going to dig in.
I got a whole list of questionswe're not going to really get
to all of them, but in themeantime, make sure to tune into
biz radio dot us and listen tothe mindful marketplace, but
(23:01):
also all of the other fantasticshows that we have on here.
We are all entrepreneurs allthe time.
We're one of the onlyindependent business talks talk
stations that I'm aware of.
Listen to us on Spotify, itunes, iheart media.
We are now up on YouTube, sosubscribe to the video podcast
on YouTube and until next time,make sure to take care of
yourself and take care ofsomeone else.
What if investing in each other could change the world?
I'm Joel Skeen with bizradious,and this is the Mindful
Marketplace.
Welcome to another edition ofthe Mindful Marketplace.
Here on Bizradio US, I am yourhost, joel Skeen, if this is
your first time with us.
(00:20):
On this program.
We talk to the entrepreneurs,the advisors, industry leaders,
investors and economic expertswho are not only solving a
market problem to make a profit,but they're also solving a
social problem to make an impact.
It's where we learn how toconnect our money and our
businesses to our values, ourcommunity and ourselves.
Today I am super excited togetting to talk with a friend of
(00:42):
mine.
Her name is Deanna Yanyez whois the wealth management advisor
, financial empowerment coachand founder of all the colors.
But first we got to hit thebalance sheet the assets,
liabilities, debts andinvestments.
Okay, first, in the assetscolumn, I want to talk a little
bit about a local group that tome, mountain BizWorks.
(01:03):
We recently had on JeremiahRobertson from Mountain BizWorks
as well as one of our firstskates, matt Raker from there.
Mountain BizWorks has beenawarded over a 2.3 million
dollar grant from the USMinority Business Development
Agency.
They've been selected as one of43 organizations nationwide to
receive this grant from theMBDA's Capital Readiness Program
(01:24):
.
Out of over a thousandapplicants, only 43 were chosen.
The program aims to provide afunding and support To
underserved entrepreneurs,particularly those from
historically under resourcedareas.
This funding will help enableMountain BizWorks and its
partners to help entrepreneursscale up, access growth capital
and create inclusive economicdevelopment opportunities across
(01:47):
Western North Carolina.
The MBDA award will focus oncapacity building and access to
capital and access to networksfor WNC entrepreneurs.
It will expand existingprograms and integrate efforts
from various entrepreneurialdevelopment partners, and the
details of the four-year planfor the funds will be announced
at a special event.
They actually already wereannounced at a special event on
(02:10):
November 30th here in Asheville.
So Really awesome organizationand want to support them here.
Jeremiah and Matt from MountainBizWorks, great job guys.
In the Liabilities column Iunfortunately do have to talk
about war profiteers.
So the recent increase inmilitary action by the IOF
against Gaza has caused a surgein weapons manufacturer stocks,
(02:32):
adding about 23 billion inmarket capitalization.
So analysts have mixed views onthe financial impact of the
military action.
While some expect limitedeffects, others anticipate an
increase on military spending.
So Lockheed Martin, boeing,northrop Grumman will all see
their stocks rise as more andmore are killed.
But what makes this even moreobscene is I want to point to
(02:53):
this business insider articlethat says that lawmakers on key
house and Senate committeesoverseeing US military policy
have financial ties to thesemajor weapons contractors.
Both Democrats and Republicanson these committees continue to
invest in leading militarycontracts.
Their financial disclosuresinclude Lockheed Martin, boeing,
raytheon, honeywell, generalElectric, all of which lobby the
(03:16):
federal government and Seeklucrative contracts.
So these investments are notlimited to senior members.
Even junior members arereported to be owning weapons
related stocks.
The investments raises concernsabout potential conflicts of
interest, especially given thelawmakers rules.
In writing.
The annual defenseauthorization bill that funds
the military Subcontractors intheir home districts.
(03:39):
The practice of lawmakerstrading in these stocks has been
heavily criticized bygovernment watchdogs, especially
the influence of militarycontractors on congressional
panels, including the house andSenate appropriations committee,
which, as these committeesallocate, are the ones that
allocate significant federalfunding to government programs
and contractors.
(04:00):
Alright in the debts column.
So the White House has approvedan additional 4.8 billion in
federal student loan debtcancellation to provide relief
for student loan borrowersfollowing the Supreme Court's
decision to block the WhiteHouse's broader debt
cancellation plan earlier thisyear.
The borrowers now the totalfederal student loan debt
(04:22):
cancellation approved by thedepartment is now at 3.6 million
borrowers and stands at $132billion in canceled debt.
The Secretary of Education,miguel Cardona, emphasized the
administration's commitment tofixing the student loan system
and providing relief to eligibleborrowers.
(04:44):
The latest round of relief is aresult of improvements to the
income-driven repayment plan andthe public service loan
forgiveness program.
The administration also admitsto the administration also aims
to provide debt cancellation tomore borrowers as time goes on.
And in the investments column Iwant to touch on local
(05:05):
investment educational workshopsby Michael Schumann.
So Michael Schumann is aneconomist professor, friend of
the show he's on an upcomingepisode here and the author of
the book Put your Money whenyour Life Is.
Michael Schumann is providingeducational workshops on how
ordinary people can startinvesting in their neighborhood
while getting an ROI at the sametime.
Americans have approximately$56 trillion in stocks, bonds,
(05:29):
mutual funds, pension funds andinsurance funds.
Nearly all of it is invested inglobal corporations.
And remember, when I saytrillion, just to give some
context if you went back amillion seconds, you'd be going
back about 11 days.
If you went back in time abillion seconds, you're going
back about 31 and a half years,and if you go back a trillion
seconds, you're going back31,500 years.
(05:52):
So we're looking at $56trillion in global corporate
investments, and if you and yourneighbors could shift even a
small amount of that capitalfrom Wall Street to Main Street,
your local economy could reallyflourish.
These workshops are designed tohelp you personally and your
community develop practicallocal investment strategies.
I was impressed with just howaffordable these educational
(06:12):
workshops are and see it as agreat way to take control of
your own finances and help yourcommunity in the process, so
check them out atmichaelschumancom.
All right, I am excited to getinto the conversation here with
Deanna Yanies.
Welcome, deanna.
So good to have you here on theshow today.
It's been a long time coming.
Diana (06:30):
Yeah, thank you, joel.
I'm excited to be here.
Joel (06:33):
So, as I mentioned before, you are a CFP, you are a
financial coach, you are allabout financial wellness, and we
have a lot of things in commonthat I'm excited to get to talk
about here, but I kind of wantedto start with something you had
put up in a writing of yoursonline.
You said that money is morethan numbers.
It's about empowerment.
(06:55):
Tell me what you mean by that,yeah.
Diana (06:57):
And that's actually inspired by a quote by Morgan
Housel, who wrote the Psychologyof Money, and he says that
money looks like math because ithas numbers, but it's much more
like psychology.
And when I see the wordempowerment, I often talk about
owning your power with thedecisions that you can make with
a lot of things in life, andwith money especially.
We often think that there's aright way to do things, there's
(07:20):
a way that, if I knew betterthan I, would be able to figure
out this problem of money, andin fact it's more about
understanding that, day to day,as money questions come up, it's
knowing that you are able toanswer those.
And if you look at my, part ofmy mission is working with women
and people of color and often,even if we're not directly told
(07:42):
money's not part of your world,in some ways we are right and
that's what empowerment wouldmean as money questions come up,
feeling that you are able to goand either get the help that
you need to make the decision,seeing that you're capable.
It's a financial capability.
Joel (07:58):
Yeah, you know I um, I've been in the financial services
industry almost 10 years now andI definitely do think there's a
bit of a narrative out therethat ordinary people can't
understand finances and that itshould just be left to the
professionals and to the WallStreet advisors and to these
things to make all theirdecisions for them.
But it seems to me like thatthat might not be the case, and
(08:19):
it seems like what you're sayingis that you're actually trying
to give people the tools to maketheir own informed decisions.
Is that right?
Diana (08:25):
Right, right, cause there's a lot of.
I mean, the financial servicesindustry in general has a lot to
gain from people being confused, right, that's when you look at
our like, what is a fiduciaryas somebody that's supposed to
do the right thing by theirclient, and yet we have people
who are not fiduciaries, whostill work in financial services
.
And why?
Why are we allowing that?
It's just like that confusioncan make this business very
(08:48):
profitable for the financialservices industry.
So, as consumers, unfortunately, we're the ones that have to be
really well versed.
We have to understand what itis that we're buying, what it is
that we're asking.
Even and the empowerment partis knowing that you are able to
I always tell people, like, ifyou're working with a financial
service person and they could beselling like there's all kinds
(09:08):
of products that can be abused,but if whatever product they're
selling you, if you don'tunderstand a hundred percent
what it is that you're buying,go somewhere else.
It's on them to explain to youwhat you're purchasing.
Joel (09:22):
So yeah, because if you don't have that clarity, there
may be a reason for that.
Yeah, you mentioned workingspecifically with women and with
people of color, people fromdisenfranchised community.
With your practice, whatparticular challenges do those
communities face?
Diana (09:39):
I mean you can start with women.
Women still earn 80 cents tothe dollar of a man and if you
look at like Latinas which I'mLatina it's 53 cents to the
dollar.
Women also have more longevity,right.
So they tend to outlive men byabout 10 years and they take
more time off or caretaking.
So look at all of these timeswhen they're not creating income
(10:01):
.
And then, as people of color,there's the racial.
I look Phong Long.
She's another financial planner, I don't know if you've had her
on the show, but she talksabout the racial wealth divide,
not the racial wealth gap, andshe says when you say the word
gap, it implies that there'ssomething you can do to cross
the gap.
But divide the racial wealthdivide really points out the
(10:24):
fact that it's structural Right.
So studies have shown that whena woman walks into get a car
loan, she automatically is goingto pay about one, two, three
percent more in interest forthat car loan, similar to your
person of color.
And as a person of color who'salso white skinned, like I, get
to see that.
I get to see how my familymembers that are darker skinned
(10:46):
than me are treated versus howI'm treated, and the financial
services space is a very whitespace.
It's a very male space.
If you look at, I think womenhave been 20% of the financial
services for like 10, 15 years.
It hasn't gone up, it hasn'tincreased.
Like how is that possible thatyou could use a brochure from 15
(11:07):
years ago and still have thesame numbers, even if it's not
set to us directly?
It's not a very welcoming spacefor women, which is very
confusing because it's a perfectcareer for women.
There's so much flexibility inbeing a financial services
provider as a certifiedfinancial planner.
There's like the income can bereally good.
You're helping people.
(11:29):
It really is a helpingprofession.
But I guess it depends on whatavenue, what part of the
industry you're in.
Joel (11:35):
Yeah, and it depends on sometimes the company that
you're into Like the companythat I partnered with when I
first started doing well infinancial services was very male
dominated.
When we started it was it waskind of a boys club a bit, but
the there was actually anintention put by the owners of
that company to do their best tochange that and we now actually
have over 50% of our licensedagents are women and, as you
(11:58):
said, it's such a great careerfor women.
And also, I think I like whatyou said too, because a lot of
times the people who are comingto a financial planner, they
will you want to have someonewho kind of understands where
you're coming from and whounderstands the challenges that
you may face and if they'reunique to someone else and you
know I'm a guy like a lot oftimes I might not think about
the fact that you know some youmight.
(12:19):
You might need to beconsidering things like
maternity leave.
You might need to beconsidering things like, you
know, childcare or some of theseother things that just don't
occur to someone If them andeveryone else they are
surrounded and have a, you know,a homogenous experience where
you know they're not, they'renot taking into account the
experiences of all the otherpeople.
It reminds me a bit of a RhianneEisler who wrote the chalice
(12:42):
and the blade.
I remember she was talking aboutthis once where she said the
way that we think about moneyand you know, kind of
meritocracy, and some of thisstuff is a little skewed, like
if you had a, if you had acouple over for for dinner,
let's say, you had just had ababy, you and you and your
spouse had just had a baby, andyou had a couple over in your
apartment building for dinnerand the husband was a plumber
(13:05):
and you had a water issue inyour sink and you know, the
plumber decided, hey, he's yourneighbor, but he's going to help
you out with this.
We wouldn't really think twiceabout paying him for that
service.
Right, we wouldn't think twiceabout giving him some money for
the professional expertise thathe provided to us.
But if in that same dinnerlet's say the, let's say, the
woman in the in the couple washaving difficulty breastfeeding
(13:27):
and the mother on the other sideof the table who's the neighbor
?
She, she, helps you fix thatproblem and teaches you how to
feed your child we wouldn'tthink of paying them for that,
even though that service is somuch more valuable than fixing
the pipe right, that is, beingable to feed your child is such
a much more valuable experienceand learning opportunity than be
(13:49):
able to fix that pipe.
Diana (13:50):
And so, yeah, I'm wondering if you have any
thoughts coming up as I'm sayingthat I mean, I'm thinking of
the joke that if Adam Smith hadhad to do his own, adam Smith is
the author who wrote the Wealthof Nations and he's seen as one
of the like fathers ofcapitalism.
So if he had had to do his owncleaning and grocery shopping,
maybe he would have included thecore economy, which is all the
(14:11):
household work, inside theWealth of Nations.
But because it was women's workand women were not considered
full human beings in the 1700s,people who are darker skin were
not considered full human beingsuntil the 1950s.
In the US we're growing who wegive agency or value to, right.
(14:31):
500 years ago, obviously it wasonly white men and we're now
transitioning that.
But the old structures arestill so in place, right?
So yes, breastfeeding is partof the core economy.
It's unseen work.
There's also the rememberhearing somewhere that in
retirement men often have accessto to like side income, hustle
(14:55):
income, because they docarpentry or because their
hobbies are more, they're easierto monetize, right, right.
Whereas child care, a lot ofthe times it's just expected to
be unpaid, like, oh, you're aneighbor, you're not doing
anything.
Here's my child, take care,like it's just it's.
It's that division between thecore economy, which I don't even
.
I think it's called householdeconomy.
There's, there's some term forit that just devalues it even
(15:17):
more.
It's how we think about laborand what labor is paid and what
labor is unpaid.
Joel (15:21):
Yeah, and even if you go back before capitalism, it's
just a value of markets and oftrade that you're paid based on
the amount of value that you addto someone else and to their
life and to the market, right?
But there does seem to be adisconnect where some things are
that are very valuable, are notrepresented in that market and
(15:42):
are not compensated for in thatmarket, but other things that
maybe don't actually add allthat much to society, but they
do add, you know, some they do.
They do cushion the pockets ofsomeone who's already wealthy.
They get paid really well, eventhough that may not actually
add a whole lot to society andtwo people's lives.
So we can get off a soapbox, Iguess for a bit.
(16:03):
But but I.
So how did you?
How did you get?
How did you get into this lineof work?
I know that you said youstarted in social services.
Is that right?
That was something we had incommon, right?
Diana (16:14):
So I actually worked in financial like a broker dealer.
I worked at Merrill Lynch in2007, 2008.
So, right when Lehman Brotherswas falling apart and Merrill
Lynch was purchased by Bank ofAmerica, I worked in the
philanthropy department.
We looked at request forproposals from nonprofits that
wanted to have their assetsmanaged.
(16:36):
I also worked in them.
It was kind of like acharitable giving or it was.
It was a training place thatthey had at Merrill Lynch and
forgetting the name of it, butit was established because
Orange County in California,where I lived at the time, had
gone through a lot ofembezzlement and as punishment
they had to create this group,this cohort that was, honestly
(16:57):
like.
80% of the people of colorworked in that little department
.
The rest of the majority of theMerrill Lynch employees were
white and I loved Merrill Lynch,thinking never, never will I
work in finances.
It is not the world for me.
I don't know anymultimillionaires that I want to
invest their assets for.
I kind of felt like I was aused car salesman, in some ways
(17:20):
of like selling snake oil.
It didn't make sense to me andI started to work.
I was volunteering at a placefor people experiencing
houselessness and mental illness, and that's how I started
working in social services.
I was volunteering there andthen I was offered a job.
I stayed there for about a yearand a half and realized that I
(17:40):
either had to go back to schooland get a master's in social
work.
But more than that, I was tooempathetic.
I was like having such a hardtime leaving my clients at work,
I wanted to make sure that myagoraphobic clients were going
out and that's like I could feelmyself wanting to visit them
outside of tonight.
I never did because it would beon profession, that wouldn't be
safe for me.
But I remember how burdened Ifelt by that.
(18:01):
And from there it was a coupleof other career shifts.
Before I met a, I wasvolunteering at a toast master's
which is Republic speaking, andI met a certified financial
planner who gave me a brochurefrom the CFP board that said
financial planning a greatcareer for women, and I started
to like tentatively test thewaters.
I started to go to financialplanning association meetings.
(18:23):
I was pretty gun shy to comeback into this industry.
I'm glad I did, though.
I'm a numbers person who lovespeople.
I'm a people person who lovesnumbers, and I get to really use
both sides of my skills andthis work.
Joel (18:37):
How did that time in social services shift your
paradigm when it comes tofinancial planning, and how do
you bring that into what you donow?
Diana (18:47):
Wow, I'm thinking of one particular experience the first
person I worked with who wasgoing through domestic violence.
Her children had been takenaway.
And here I was, this naive what?
20 year old, maybe 22 year oldand I didn't understand why she
was upset that her children weretaken away and why she did not
(19:08):
want to leave her abusivehusband.
It just it didn't make sense tome why she was not seeing that
she wanted the wrong thing.
And I don't think I said itthat tactlessly, that bluntly,
that judgmentally, but she couldtell that I was not on her team
and she never showed up for anappointment again and I just
realized like, wow, I have noidea what other people are going
(19:29):
through.
And now I bring that sensitivityto my work with money because,
again, money looks like one plusone equals two, but it's hardly
ever like that.
I think I talk a lot aboutmoney and food, because food can
look like nutrition and yetthere's so much more to it.
Right, there's community,there's memories, there's
(19:49):
numbing that we could do withfood similar to like financial
therapy.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And that, that experience.
I remember that experience withthe woman going through houses,
and I also remember I had aclient who was coming out of
addiction and she had been she.
They had given her an apartment, she was, I think, in her late
(20:10):
sixties but she missed hercommunity back when she was
actively using and she washouseless because there were
people around her.
And now, here she wasencapsulated in this little
apartment where she didn'tconnect with the people at her
senior center because they allhad grandchildren and she was
like what am I going to tellthem my stories of like, passing
out and random digits?
So how does that connect me now?
(20:32):
It just it reminds me thathaving the right things she had,
the house, she had the, the,the safety with like, knowing
that her food was going to bethere all the time it wasn't
enough.
Joel (20:44):
Yeah, yeah, money is I'd love to turn the question on.
Diana (20:47):
you Like how did working in social service affect the
way that you do money.
Joel (20:51):
Yeah, that's a good question too.
Well, thank you, I think so.
When I, when I went into socialservice, I remember that the
biggest thing I brought with mewas I had to do this thing where
we the the organization I waswith, where I was running a food
bank and doing some, somehomeless prevention programs was
empathy training.
So we had to go through thiswhole process where we had to
(21:13):
learn how to speak in a way thatdemonstrated that we were able
to empathize.
So I had to learn how to saythings like like reflect, to
actually notice the emotion thatsomeone was feeling and then be
able to reflect that back tothem.
And as someone who was, youknow, raised as a guy and told
him, you know, kind of taught tonot even really connect with my
own emotions, recognizing thoseemotions in someone else was
(21:36):
pretty difficult at times when Iwas pretty, I was in my 20s and
very focused on what I wantedand you know kind of had a very,
you know, I it relationship tothe world rather than an I thou
relationship, the Martin Buberidea and that really opened me
up because I had to sit and lookat someone and go, oh, they're
feeling angry, and I could lookat them and be like, man, that
(21:56):
sounds, that, sounds like thatwould make you really angry, and
they go yeah, it would.
And then they would expound onmore and then tell me more or
like, oh man, that sounds reallyfrustrating.
Or man, that sounds reallyexciting.
Just being able to actuallynotice what the other person's
experience was allowed me tothen, you know, reflect that
back into myself, which I thinkyou know definitely helped me in
(22:18):
my ability to connect withclients and my ability to really
understand what is it that theyreally want here.
Because a lot of times peoplehave two, two reasons for doing
something.
They have the one that soundsgood and then they have the real
reason, and one of my first,you know, sales trainings was to
ask this question.
All right, in addition to that,what else?
Because so many times just thatsimple question will will get
(22:39):
down to that deeper level andget past that that surface.
So thank you for asking.
We do have to cut it here, butthis is going to be a two part
conversation, so we're going tocome back with Deanna.
Cannot wait for part two.
We're going to dig in.
I got a whole list of questionswe're not going to really get
to all of them, but in themeantime, make sure to tune into
biz radio dot us and listen tothe mindful marketplace, but
(23:01):
also all of the other fantasticshows that we have on here.
We are all entrepreneurs allthe time.
We're one of the onlyindependent business talks talk
stations that I'm aware of.
Listen to us on Spotify, itunes, iheart media.
We are now up on YouTube, sosubscribe to the video podcast
on YouTube and until next time,make sure to take care of
yourself and take care ofsomeone else.
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