(upbeat music) - I am your host, AShira Nelson.

And this is Forum 360 where we have a global outlook from a local view.

Study show that women are more successful investors than men, yet more women are afraid to invest.

Even those who do invest tend to wait until they're older to get started.

My guest today is Carina Diamond.

Carina is a certified financial planner, also known as a CFP, and recently named one of Forbes top women wealth advisors.

She's going to help us better understand investing and what we need to do to get started.

Hello, thanks for joining us today.

- [Carina] Hello, nice to be here.

- Yes, so happy to be here and actually in person.

- I know.

- I have done the last couple interviews through Zoom so I'm so happy to see a shiny face.

(Carina laughing) So tell me about yourself and your background.

- Sure, yeah, thank you.

So I have been in the wealth management business for several decades and currently I have two professional roles.

So I am the chief experience officer for Dakota Wealth Management, and I'm also the chief investment officer for Dakore Wealth which is an Apple Growth Partners Company.

- Awesome.

So how did you get in this industry?

- So I started out out of college as an investment analyst.

So I was analyzing stocks and making recommendations to portfolio managers.

And a little bit later I decided to get my CFP, my certified financial planning license, and I've never stopped.

- Awesome, I always get confused at the difference from a CFP and a CFA.

So a certified financial planner and a certified financial advisor.

Can you help me to better understand the different titles?

- Sure, it's a little confusing.

- It is, yeah.

- So CFP, certified financial planner, is really someone who is very holistic in helping clients or people with investing.

A CFA is a chartered financial analyst.

And that's more someone who's a little bit more behind the scenes, maybe like working for a mutual fund company or a bank, grinding through numbers.

And they're very smart people.

Both of them are, but that's a little more technical.

- Oh, okay, I always wondered that, so thank you for clearing that up.

Just in the as a certified financial CPA, even working with the different titles I still get confused at the difference from the two.

So thanks for clearing that up.

So how has it like being a woman in this industry?

- It's been a really interesting journey.

- [AShira] Okay.

- I've loved all of it, but it is still the case that there's about 20 odd percent of advisors are female.

- [AShira] Wow.

- And sadly the numbers have not really changed in the last 20 years despite lots of efforts.

But it's great.

I have a great book of clients, probably half women, half men.

- [AShira] Okay.

- And I just think women bring a little bit of something different to the table.

- Absolutely.

Do you feel like your women clients kind of relate to you more because you are a woman?

- I think in some cases.

I mean, I have male clients that have said that one of the reasons they picked me was 'cause I'm a woman.

- [AShira] Yeah.

- I've had a few that said, hey, I want my wife to be comfortable because someday this might be her money.

- [AShira] Yeah.

- So yeah, there's pluses and minuses to both.

- Okay, do you see with your clients that they tend to bring their wife along or is it like a joint process?

- It's such a great topic.

Historically I dealt more with the husbands and then I would say maybe in the last 10 years or so I started to notice that they would bring their wives along.

And now when I meet, if it's a couple I pretty much insist.

- [AShira] Yeah.

- 'Cause I said, I promise I will engage both of you.

- Right, do you see any challenges being a woman in this financial industry?

- I look at it more as an opportunity at this point.

- [AShira] Okay.

- Because I think women are really good listeners and good at including everybody.

So they're not just looking at the husband or just at the wife.

They're looking at both people.

But there's lots of great male advisors as well.

- Awesome, I like that.

I like that a lot.

We tend to focus on the challenges of things but just being a minority in a financial industry I look at it as my super cape.

Like it just makes me different, but it's my cape, right?

- [Carina] Right.

- I don't mind it.

So I definitely can relate being a woman in this industry.

What motivated to kind of get on this career path?

Did you have a parent or a mentor that kind of persuaded you?

- When I think back I had annoying little brother.

(both laughing) And we all had a sibling, right?

But when I was growing up I liked to kind of analyze him and I wanted to be a child psychologist.

And when I grew up and I got interested in finance I was like, hey, the two go together.

And now sometimes I think I have become a child psychologist.

- [AShira] Okay.

(laughs) - People on their money.

- That's funny.

So switching gears just slightly.

Question, why should women invest?

- So if you look at statistics around 80% of women will end up on their own whether they're widowed, or outlived everyone, or just choosing to be single.

And so because of that longevity and wanting to live a good life it's just so important that women get in the game.

- Yes, yeah, okay.

Do you think women can help achieve their financial like achieve financial equality or financial independence through investing?

- I think in investing as part of it and overall financial planning.

- Okay.

- So like I always say to people I'd love to invest your money, but let's make sure that we've done these other things first, like established an emergency fund and let's have you looked at your insurance or maybe your estate planning.

And so sometimes I turn people away because they're not quite ready yet and I don't wanna take that risk.

But longer term when people have done the different financial planning aspects investing it's almost always a good time to do it.

- Okay, so let's talk about some of those things.

So just to kind of dive into them a little more.

So before women tend to invest you like them to do what items?

- So it's really important first of all, to get a handle on your spending and sort of like your personal balance sheet.

So I would say what do you owe and what do you own?

And let's write it down.

(laughs) Let's just put it in writing.

- I always say write it down makes it real.

Something about it.

I mean, in our mind we feel like we have a grasp on it.

- [Carina] Right.

- We understand, we think we know.

But once you write it down it just makes something real about it.

- Definitely, it's more real, it's more easy to set goals.

And so let's, where's our money now 'cause a lot of people, maybe they worked somewhere, or I have a 401k somewhere, or someone else was handling it that I trusted but I don't really know where it is.

So kind of getting a handle on that.

And then also looking at like if someone's working, what employee benefits do they have.

'Cause sometimes people are not taking advantage of them.

I see that a lot.

- Okay.

- And then finally that sort of protection aspect.

So like, especially if you have a family, do you have a will?

Do you have powers of attorney?

Things like that for set up for children, guardianships and are in your documents.

- Yes.

- And then looking at insurance as well, life insurance, disability insurance.

It's all kind of part of the package, not just investing.

- Awesome, and I'm kind of glad you spoke on that 'cause as a new mom, so baby number two, I'm just like ticking of in my head to make sure I have some of those things.

So really great that you kind of talk about what we need to do as women before.

'Cause sometimes people like to go from step one and just jump to step eight.

But it's like what are those steps that I should properly be taken, so.

- Right, what would the stock markets so hot people like everyone wants to get in and know should I buy this stock or that stock?

And it's like, well, let's look at the whole picture.

- Absolutely, okay, do you feel like saving alone is enough?

- So I mean, saving say in a bank account is important.

I mean, you would definitely wanna have your slush fund or your liquidity.

But I think it goes kind of hand in hand with also saving more for the future and investing.

- Okay, I was reading on women in investing and the term inflation came up.

Can you talk to me a little bit more about inflation 'cause I know a lot of people say, oh, I'll just save money in a shoe box.

(both laughing) - Or a mattress, right?

- Yeah, so.

- I hear that.

- Yeah, so inflation is one of the, there's a couple like enemies of saving and investing.

And inflation is something where prices of things go up.

So if you think about a loaf of bread or what it costs to go to college or buy a house, everything is going up.

And so if you do use that shoe box or the mattress you are actually instead of reducing risk you're actually taking on a very real risk.

And that is that your money is gonna decrease in value because of inflation.

- Okay, we don't want that.

- We don't want that.

- So how do we combat inflation?

- So I think it's sort of managing expectations because I think it is important to have some money that's really like probably low risk and maybe low return like a bank account which I would prefer to the box of money.

(laughs) But then getting into something like maybe a 401k plan at work or setting up an IRA or another investment account that's where you're gonna get more of your growth.

- Okay, so a common misconception is that you have to be rich in order to start investing or you gotta be an expert.

Can you touch on that?

- Yeah, most people don't start out rich.

So most people start out kind of making good choices and not, like I would say avoiding big mistakes is just as important as it is to make the right decisions.

So for any of your viewers I think really anybody can get on the right path.

It's not just for people who are already rich.

You can start making decisions, you can start investing, you can start saving and again avoiding big mistakes like getting into debt over your head.

- Okay, so what do we really need to get started?

- So I think again, I would write down what you owe and what you own.

- [AShira] Okay.

- I would also look at your personal balance sheet.

So which is what that is.

So do you need to maybe think about getting out of debt or putting the credit cards and giving the credit cards a rest for awhile.

(both laughing) Look at your employer.

So if you have a retirement plan at work that might be the first place that you go.

There might be a match, there might not be.

But it still might be a good way to save money.

And then you have to look at your personal circumstances.

So, I mean, again, if you need to do insurance planning or estate planning.

Kind of to me those really are side-by-side with the investment decision.

- And within your current roles, do you handle these types of things will help when people kind of navigate through the 401k or life insurance, things like that?

- Yeah, so in my practice we're what's called a fiduciary, which means that always we have a legal obligation to put our client's interests first.

And in my case we advise on all those things, but we don't sell any products.

So a fiduciary might say, hey, AShira, you and your husband should have X insurance but we're not selling it.

So you know that there's no conflict of interest.

- Yes, that makes your role very neat, unique.

I feel like I can trust it more because you're not selling me anything at the end of the day.

Very cool.

Very cool.

The term fiduciary is that for most financial planners?

- So it's a mix.

I mean, there's all sorts of business models and there's some wonderful people that sell insurance or sell other products.

The way we run our practice we chose to really just focus on fee-based advice and planning.

Just for us just keeps it a little bit cleaner.

So not all advisors are fiduciaries.

And the ones that aren't it doesn't mean that they're not great, it's just a different business model.

- Okay, thanks for clearing that up.

Hello guys.

This is AShira Nelson and we're on Forum 360 where we have a global outlook from a local view.

My guest today is Carina Diamond.

Carina, just to kind of take a half point there and jump back into talking about investing and why women should get started.

So I know with the internet there are so many tools and different resources out there.

What kind of tools and resources would you recommend?

- So I think the one I like the best is from the CFP Board and it's a free website called letsmakeaplan.org.

So letsmakeaplan.org has all sorts of calculators, resources, articles, blogs, and it also has resources if you do wanna look for a certified financial planner.

- Oh, really cool.

And what's that again?

- Letsmakeaplan.org.

- Letsmakeaplan.org.

Okay, make sure you guys write that down.

(laughs) And when we go there, can we put more, I mean, like put our background in or information about ourselves?

How do we kinda navigate through the website?

- So there's, like if you have a subject, like you say how much should I put away for my kid's college?

Like there's calculators and there's articles.

And then if you're in a certain zip code and you say, hey, I wanna find an advisor.

You can put in your zip code and it'll come up with like say 10 names or so.

And you can kind of look at those people's backgrounds and decide if you wanna engage them or not.

- Okay, so we hear a lot about gaps.

We hear about the wage gap and the resume gap.

One I feel like that's not discussed is the investment gap.

Do you feel like there is an investment gap happening?

- Yeah, there definitely is.

- I mean, and it starts with women still earning only 80 cents to a dollar that men earn.

And then around 40% of women end up taking time off to care for children or parents.

That's a really big thing that people don't realize and that kind of sets women back.

And then the other thing is that women, I think it must just be the way we're wired, but we tend to invest a little bit less aggressively.

Not always a bad thing, but if you look at a typical investment portfolio for a woman she often may have too much in cash and not enough actually invested.

- I can definitely relate to that.

(both laughing) I had to get out this mindset of kind of being too cash-heavy.

I don't know I felt like I needed to save it.

It was like my baby, yeah.

But thank God for this interview and the notion of being a financial industry I can move away from that and kind of feel more safe and secure.

- [Carina] Yeah.

- So in my opening interview I talked about how women tend to wait until they're older to start investing.

How can the older generation of women kind of change that and become a more confident investor?

- I think part of it is your advisor, and being confident, and finding an advisor that's going to listen to you and speak in your language.

- [AShira] Yes.

- 'Cause I think if you're working with someone and you don't understand them it's really on them and not you.

And so I think that that's part of it.

I mean, I do talk to a lot of women who just they just say that they're just not interested.

And I understand that.

I've had a lot of women say that to me.

- [AShira] Yes.

- They're just not interested.

And studies have been showing that the younger women are even less interested which is, so I'm glad we're having this here.

- Absolutely, yes.

- Definitely, because it's just you can't.

It's a mistake to completely delegate financial decision-making to someone else.

That you have to stay involved just as for a lot of different reasons.

- Do you feel like investing is like one size fit all?

- Yeah, definitely not one size fits all.

(AShira laughing) Everyone's different.

Some people might have more risk tolerance.

I mean, I have some women that have a high risk tolerance.

Some people might prefer individual stocks.

Some people might prefer mutual funds.

Some people wanna check in every day and some people wanna look at it once a year.

So it's definitely needs to be customized.

- So how do an individual know exactly what investment strategy is right for them?

- It's hard to know as a lay person, but there's typically lots of resources out there.

So like if you work for a company and you have a 401k there should be an advisor, there's also online resources.

So and then there's of course, reading on your own and whatnot, but it's, you're not alone.

There's lots of good places to go and lots of good things to read about it.

- So I personally invest in my company's 401k.

Is that enough?

Should I be doing more?

- So investing in your company's 401k is probably your hands down, like the first thing that everyone should do.

It's a smart thing to do.

There's often a match, tax benefits.

It's a great thing, but it's not enough.

- [AShira] Okay.

- A typical person who invest in a 401k will do it pretax, saving taxes which is good.

But the challenge is that when you retire a 1/3 of that goes to the government.

So I usually recommend also having a separate after-tax investment account where it's also there for you if you need it, but hopefully you can save it for the long-term and then that way you have sort of after-tax and pretax and you can grow more money and you can also manage your taxes.

- Okay, I'm glad you brought that up.

What are some examples of after-tax investment funds?

- So there's two main things.

One would be anything that has the word Roth in front of it.

So there is Roth in 401ks and there's Roth IRAs.

And that just means after-tax investing where you don't get a tax benefit today but it grows tax-deferred and eventually tax-free if you hold it long enough.

And then the other is it's kinda old fashioned and people don't always realize they can do it, but just set up an investment account in your name, or a joint name, or a trust and just start saving also every paycheck, or every month, or when you get a little bit extra.

And you'll be amazed at how fast it grows.

And then you have that second bucket that's actually more liquid than the 401k.

- Nice, I like that.

What is a good strategy for millennial women?

- So for millennial women, I think, there's so many pressures and there's so many things going on and maybe starting a family.

I tend to focus on first of all, the basics of getting into that 401k, getting into the savings habit.

But I also focus on avoiding big mistakes.

Because when I see older people the roots to a lot of their mistakes happened when they were younger.

(laughs) - [AShira] Yes.

- And it almost always involves debt.

So anytime I've seen anybody get into trouble whether it was medical bills, or just the mortgage is too big, I lost my job or something, I've got a car I can't afford.

So when you're young making sure you're avoiding big messes, not getting in over your head, you can live below your means even when you're younger you'll be setting yourself up for success.

- I like that.

I was actually on my debt-free journey.

I finished it up in 2020.

So I definitely can understand.

It wasn't an easy task.

But once you make it like a priority you kind of get in a groove on it.

I almost missed the challenge of kind of paying off my debt.

So I liked that.

So what about someone who's just a little older, let's just say 40, what advice would you give them?

- So I would say if you're in your 40s or even a little older you may have kids and you may have kids looking at colleges and things like that.

And I'm very opinionated about this (laughs) but I'm one that I really encourage people to be a consumer when it comes to looking at college.

And so somebody will say, well, my kids can go anywhere.

They wanna go fulfill their dreams.

And I said, well, let's do it at a state school.

(both laughing) Or let's go to a private school but let's get some scholarships.

- [AShira] Absolutely.

- Because they're gonna still get a great education but you don't want them to graduate with six figures of student loans.

And you don't wanna have student loans 'cause a lot of times the parents are co-signing.

So I would say when someone gets into their 40s that's the tough love stuff about setting limits and we can help you with this but not with this, and trying to avoid getting into that student loan debt.

- And how do you feel?

I'm a very active financial, personal finance reader and I always hear that term or the saying is make sure you have your situation together kind of before you are dealing with your kids.

How do you feel about that?

- (laughs) I feel very strongly.

- Okay.

- I strongly agree.

I always say it's like when you get on an airplane.

If we can remember air travel and they say put on your mask first and that's before you help someone because if you're gasping for air you can't help someone else breathe.

- Yes, definitely can agree with that.

So after you adequately plan for retirement how do you move forward through investing?

You have your 401k or your WAF together?

What steps should you take next?

- Well, I think I would consider that after-tax account- - Okay, getting a brokerage account.

- Could be a brokerage account that may look like your 401k, but again it's liquid, it's after-tax.

So when a dollar comes out it's closer to a dollar versus like a 401k or a dollar maybe a 70 cents when it comes out.

- Oh, okay.

How important is diversification when we're talking investing?

- Well, I think diversification is one of the really the very foundations of investing 'cause if you're a stock picker and you get it right you can make a lot of money but you can also lose everything.

So diversifying between stocks and bonds, different kinds of stocks, different kinds of bonds.

And then taking a look at things periodically and readjusting it is absolutely critical.

Don't bet on just one or two things.

- What are ways that women can be more educated investors?

- So there's a lot of different things.

Some women I know have investing clubs which can be a lot of fun.

- [AShira] Wow.

- And there are some women investing clubs that have done really, really well.

- [AShira] Wow.

- There's those books written about it.

But I think also just, like maybe find a blog or a podcast.

"The Wall Street Journal" has one that they're not adding to it, but if there's a great library called secrets of wealthy women and it's like interviewing CEOs and politicians but that are all women and I found it fascinating.

- Oh, okay.

- It's great.

- Yeah.

- You'll like it.

- I'll have to definitely check that out.

- You'll like it.

- I'm excited 'cause I didn't know that existed.

I definitely love podcasts and my financial planning books.

So I love things like that but I've never heard of from "Wall Street Journal."

What is your favorite investing book?

- I think my favorite one is an oldie but a goodie it's called "The Millionaire Next Door."

And it was actually written by one of my college professors.

So yeah.

- What college did you attend?

- I went to Albany State.

- Okay.

- State University of New York and I was actually a sociology major.

And but then I got an MBA and one of my professors wrote that book.

Yeah- That is- - And it's a great book.

And it just talks about how people, like you asked me earlier about do you have to be rich to make money?

And it's how everyday people make little decisions every day and how they become very wealthy.

- Wow, I actually read that book and I love it.

- It's a great book.

- Like yes, it's great for no matter your age you can be just starting out on your financial planning journey or you can be later into it and kind of wanna get re-motivated.

I really liked that.

- It's a great book.

- That's a good one.

So where can our reader or our viewers learn more about you and your services?

- Sure, so you can check out our website, so Dakore Wealth.

So D-A-K-O-R-E wealth.com.

And that's probably the best way.

- Okay, awesome.

This is my final question that I like to ask all of my guests.

What would you like to be remembered for?

- Well, there is a great saying that says, "a candle loses nothing "by lighting another candle."

And I've always thought that I would like to be known for someone who has lit the way for other women.

- I like that.

- Thank you.

- Well, thank you for being a guest.

- My pleasure.

- I am your host, AShira Nelson, and this is Forum 360 where we have a global outlook from a local view.

I'll see you guys again next week.

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