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#55 - Empowering Financial Confidence for Women with Savvy Ladies

Eric Blake: What happens when women are empowered with financial knowledge, community and resources tailored just for them? Today we're speaking with two of the women behind one of the most impactful nonprofits doing just that. Savvy ladies, whether you're navigating retirement, a divorce, if you're just getting started with investing, this conversation will inspire you to take the next steps towards confidence and financial clarity.

ProudMouth: Welcome to the Simply Retirement Podcast with your host, Eric Blake. This show offers valuable insights and advice on retirement planning, specifically tailored for women. Join us as we explore various challenges that arise during retirement planning, and discuss practical ways to overcome them with years of experience in retirement planning.

As a financial professional, Eric brings a wealth of knowledge to the table. He is joined by guests. Who will also offer unique perspectives and insights. Together. They provide practical tips and strategies to help you delegate some of the heavy lifting and make the most of your retirement. Whether you are a widow, divorced, or simply ready to take control of your financial future.

This podcast is designed to help you navigate the complexities of a retirement planning and make the most of this exciting phase of life. We take a step-by-step approach to help you understand what's next and guide you through the retirement planning journey. So sit back, relax, and let us help you build your retirement on your terms.

With another episode of the Simply Retirement Podcast with Eric Blake.

Eric Blake: Welcome to the next episode of the Simply Retirement Podcast, where we want to educate and empower women to live your retirement on your terms. I'm your host, Eric Blake. Today's episode is very special. We're gonna be shining a light on the incredible organization making a difference in thousands of women's lives across the country.

Savvy ladies. I've had the privilege of serving as a volunteer financial coach for Savvy Ladies for almost three years now, and actually just had the chance to join them for their first ever volunteer summit as a panelist in New York City on April 28th and 29th. Joining me today are Judy Herbst, executive director and Lisa Zeidman, board Chair of Savvy Ladies.

We're gonna be diving into the mission behind Savvy Ladies, the resources that they offer, and how women can take advantage of their support and even give back to help other women. Judy and Lisa, welcome to the Simply Retirement Podcast.

Lisa Zeiderman: Thank you. Thanks so much, Eric. We're delighted to be here. I.

Eric Blake: I Absolutely.

So I'm so grateful to have you on here. I'm grateful for my time serving as a volunteer coach with Savvy Ladies. And I just wanna start and just get an overview from Lisa. We'll start with you, if you don't mind. From a, just looking at what Savvy Ladies is all about, how it started what where does all this come from?

Lisa Zeiderman: Savvy lady started with its founder, Stacy Francis, and actually her husband, who we nominated as a male ally a few years ago, and celebrated everything that he had done to help Stacy. Basically, Stacey started it as a love letter to her grandmother, and her grandmother had been in a very tumultuous, abusive relationship with her grandfather, unfortunately, and part of the reason that she stayed in or may maybe, perhaps most of the reason that she stayed in what was an abusive relationship is that although there was money available, it wasn't available to her.

She didn't have control of the finances and she didn't really have a window into how to get control of the finances, and so unfortunately for her and for Stacy and the other family members it unfortunately led to her death. And it is a very sad story, but it is also a story that is so inspiring to so many women because had she actually had control and the knowledge and had an organization perhaps like savvy Ladies to help empower her and educate her about her finances, she could have reached out to different sources for help and taken control and maybe left that relationship.

And so that. Was the reason that Savvy Ladies was actually first born. And here we are over two decades later and we are helping about 3000 women a year to take control of their finances and empower themselves through education and finance, financial education.

Eric Blake: Awesome. And just outta curiosity, how long have you been involved?

What was your, what's been your relationship?

Lisa Zeiderman: It's such a great question. So I think I started my involvement around 2017. I never quite remember 'cause we had that COVID era going on. But I started around 2017. I had met Stacy and I fell in love with the organization. I'm a matrimonial attorney and so women so often come to me and they really don't have.

The knowledge or the control of their finances. And I felt that women really need to be empowered and this became a very strong passion of mine. I'm the woman who wants the spreadsheet like every morning and who goes on to my, accounts every day, right? But most women. Or a lot of women certainly don't do that, and some are dependent upon partners or spouses to give them the information.

And when that information stops flowing to them, that becomes a real issue for them. And if they don't have that access and that knowledge, they really are in a a less than positive situation, for sure.

Eric Blake: And Judy, as far as executive director, how long have you been part of the organization?

Judy Herbst: I joined the organization in 2021, so it was my COVID pivot and I really thank Lisa and Stacy and the board for believing in me.

I came, my background is not financial. My background is marketing and PR. As a brand strategist, I had been with a digital. Startup. So I knew the value and the importance of outreach and building awareness of a brand, and I too fell in love with Savvy Ladies. I was with a for-profit marketplace and reached out to Savvy Ladies to sponsor them because I too loved the mission and loved empowering women and for me.

I have always worked since I got out. I worked through college, I worked post-college to pay off those loans and I continued working throughout having my children. So the value of working, I think is so important for to translate that to women because yes, the women that are coming to the Savvy Ladies helpline to use the Savvy Ladies resources are educated women, but they.

Gave up that they gave up going their job to take care of a family, right? And in that they then abdicated some of the responsibilities and women are very good at savings and so they would manage maybe the household budget. I. And then the budget for the activities and plan the trip. But they were not aware of the investments and the future strategies, and they would leave that to a spouse or a partner.

So I was thrilled to join Savvy Ladies and really help elevate the awareness of the brand. And in so doing it was using the digital technology, which Savvy ladies was not using at the time. So they always had a helpline, which is the heart and soul of Savvy Ladies. And Lisa, I remember telling you. When speaking to you, interviewing with you for the role because you reached out to me, which was really just such a blessing, was that it's the best kept secret and savvy lady shouldn't be a secret.

It has this special, unique quality of a helpline. Every woman should know about this. We need to tell more and more people. So basically we created a marketplace and took it. To a marketplace platform. We're using Salesforce Experience Cloud, and we pitched our first grant to the NASDAQ Foundation to leverage technology because women were using their phones.

We wanted to reach all women. We wanted to make, getting financial knowledge, education, that guidance. Connecting to you, Eric, as a coach. Easy and accessible. And that was our mission. And so we launched the Savvy Ladies app and we launched that after we received the grant. It went live March, 2023 and since then it's been.

Two, two plus years with the app and we've now surpassed 5,000. Actually we're at 5,300 and like 98 women that we have now connected with that have submitted their questions to the helpline. And Eric, we're just so thrilled that you've been with us since that journey of the app because that shows the expansion of Savvy Ladies and I like to use the word this year, propel.

We continue to propel Savvy Ladies forward. Both in our growing our volunteer community and also growing the women that we can build trust with. So the women can feel comfortable coming to savvy ladies for a free session and not be sold anything. And this is the conversation we spoke about at the, at our summit, is building that trust, having that empathy.

So the women coming to us feel that they are listened to, which is really important.

Eric Blake: I think one of the things, I don't know if Lisa, if you've experienced this, the, the legal world, but that's, it's, I find it interesting that you brought up that you were outside of the financial services space before you joined Savvy Ladies.

And I think it's sometimes can be really critical to have a set of eyes that aren't used to the same old stuff, to take another look at things. It just, is there a different way we can be doing it? Diff take d experience and knowledge from other industries and bring it to the financial services world and just open up a whole new world to.

To reaching people and touching people's lives.

Lisa Zeiderman: So I think that's correct, Eric. And I think that technology this whole field of technology has become so important to us. We have a technology committee at s Leti ladies, and that is. Really made us, I think, unique because it has taken our special sauce, which is our helpline, and it has expanded it across the country.

We were always nationwide, but in this way, I think people can utilize their phones, as Judy was saying placed their question on the app, and a volunteer can then actually slide the question off and be connected. To the person one-on-one, free of charge. And that's the, that is what we are all about.

We are about connecting. And now with the use of technology and technology experts and nasdaq, of course, and Salesforce, we are able to do that. In very short time so that we can connect with our clients, which, our women who are calling in and asking interesting questions and questions that are so relevant to retirement, to purchasing a home, to starting a small business, to.

Getting their mortgage or opening their investment accounts or dealing with the interest rate issues or getting a divorce, and how that financially impacts them. And then through our 300 plus volunteers who we appreciate so much as, Eric and who we got to meet, many of which in person thanks to Judy's volunteer Summit a few weeks ago it has been a fabulous journey for savvy ladies.

It really has expanded the amount and the ability to help women across the country.

Eric Blake: What I think, I wanna make sure that, we've touched around and hit it around it as far as the helpline, but I think it's something that, it's such, it is out for such a unique value to women.

Can we step back and just understand or explain exactly what that free help line, what those sessions are, when they get the chance to actually talk to financial professionals. And these are not, just random people. These are CFPs, these are attorneys, these are CPAs. Judy, if you wouldn't mind, just talk a little bit more specifically about how that process works.

If somebody needs help, because that's always one of those roadblocks that I hear a lot is I don't know who to talk to or if I did, if I knew did know somebody, it's gonna be too expensive, so I'm just not gonna worry about it.

Judy Herbst: Yeah, no, what's really exciting is, and. What I see is women are asking those questions, so when they do a Google search, how, free financial advice for women, or they might have a question around budgeting, financial debt, credit card debt investing, and they punch it into Google.

They, there's all this that comes up that are ads or sponsors, but then Savvy Ladies comes up and Savvy Ladies is. A nonprofit and it puts us in a unique position that we are an unbiased organization and we're not selling them our tools. We're giving them resources, free resources, and we're here to answer questions.

So what's really positive and continues is that. We outreach. So our organic growth, and I don't spend money on ads, but it's the organic growth because we're building trust with the community. So when they're looking for a question, punching it into Google or Bing, they're landing on Savvy ladies because we've built a website that offers good free content.

So once they're on the website, we offer free online courses that they can take at their own pace. But we also offer panel discussions, digging in and offering our expertise of our volunteers on certain sessions around family, finances, divorce and money, health and money. So we're building our. Success.

We're building content that is valuable to the audience and to the women who are looking for it. And then I like to say, all roads lead to the helpline. So whenever a woman has a question, they can submit it at any time on the form, and they're picking a category. So we have about 12 categories as a woman, as their, the client is self-selecting what they think is their.

Large topic. Is it divorce? Is it career and money? Is it investing? Family finances is one of them. And then they will give us a long form. We give them 250 characters to write a big question, and that then flows into the app. And that's where our helpline volunteers can look at it 24 7 at their convenience.

And the volunteers pull. The question into their queue that triggers a number of emails for the client and volunteer to get connected. We do ask the clients, how do you wanna connect? So once we do ask them to verify their emails. Which is common. And then we say, how do you want to speak with your volunteer?

Do you wanna speak via email, via phone, or via Zoom? So by putting the control in the hands of the client, that has really helped us increase our connection because again, it's the client telling us what is, what she's most comfortable with. And that's what we're about, is building it to make it comfortable building trust for each of the clients that come to us.

Eric Blake: I think one of the things that I found is so valuable that I think is so important is the level of detail that you guys go into even, and, as on the professional side or the the coaching client side, the verifying that, hey, yeah, this is a legitimate question. This is not, you're not just submitting it, it's going into a random inbox.

And then for the professional side, knowing that, yeah, this has been verified, this person is really looking for guidance and looking for help to get their questions answered,

Judy Herbst: and we continue to. Improve upon that. So what's really exciting is we listen to the clients, we listen to the volunteers, so we can continue building continuous improvement.

So one of the new things on the plate that we're looking at is SMS clients have said to us, can't you text me and. Yes, we would love to text, but it takes, technology and you have to add that technology to the platform to capture everything. So we're in the process of looking at that and it, it's very doable.

It's just work behind the scenes that needs to get done.

Eric Blake: One of the, and I had actually had a, my, I think it was my most recent coaching connection was, a lot of times I talk about, and I've done a number of episodes and what we do, we focus on women within our practice as well. And one of the valuable things that we offer is that other, that second party, so when you've lost a husband through divorce or you've been widowed and you no longer have that other person to talk about ideas with and talk about strategies with, okay, should we do this?

Should I do that? That was actually one of her questions is, she'd done such an amazing job, she'd accumulated a good amount of retirement assets, but she lives in California and she's thinking, okay, I gotta think about cost of living wise. If I wanna retire at some point I need to know, should I stay where I'm at?

Should I move to another lower cost of living area? And those are the type of questions. These are really solid questions that these ladies are asking. And just understanding that, sometimes you just need that, that sounding board, even if she had a pretty good idea of what she thought she wanted to do, but it was just that second opinion, second set of years to help give her some thoughts and ideas about, hey just run some what if scenarios and see what might make the most sense.

I.

Lisa Zeiderman: I, I love that, Eric that people are using Savvy ladies as a sounding board. I think that's really incredible because the idea that we have these really great professionals who are skilled in the financial area. That someone who maybe went through a transition, either a divorce or widow or widowhood or other transitions.

Maybe even a move from a different state. There's so many reasons. Or loss a job loss. Good job. Yeah. Job loss. Starting a new job. Any of those. Transitional type of events that happen every day, or maybe your kids actually have just gotten older, right? And now they are, they've launched and you wanna start a different type of life for yourself.

There's so many reasons that people come to us at Savvy Ladies and to be able to have a great sounding board and to be able to, and I'm gonna emphasize this, it's free. Where else can you go to get the 300 plus volunteers? That we have who are educated in financial issues to get that type of sounding board.

There is no other, there's no other service that we, that is offered as Savvy ladies does.

Judy Herbst: And what's unique is that it's not a long-term engagement. So clients can come in, ask a question, and then they're welcome to come back for additional questions. And the beauty. Of having 300 plus volunteers is that they can get matched and connected with another volunteer who might have that expertise in that other category that they're asking.

So if they have an investing question, they would, they could get matched with an investment coach versus possibly someone in a different area who's focusing more on debt management. So I love that we're seeing a trend in younger women. Asking questions around saving for their future. So it's not just saving, it's investing.

So putting that term and making that a very familiar, comfortable term for women to use is re is what? We see as a game changer for women is not just saving it, but how to make that money work harder for themselves and invest it for their futures. And I think that, especially when we say, we, you hear compound.

But I love it when we see the younger. Women coming to us that are 18 to 25, early thirties, thinking about that and actually thinking of if when they're working, how to leverage their 4 0 1 even more so than just letting it sit there. I. Sort of the designated, buckets that their office might put them in.

Lisa Zeiderman: And I'm just gonna add, at the volunteer summit, I think someone had shared that they actually had helped a client who, whose I think spouse had become deceased. And when they actually learned about the retirement account that their spouse had, what they learned was that the money. Was being deposited into the retirement account year after year, but it wasn't being de deposited into an account and then invested.

And so there was no compounding. There was no investment strategy, unfortunately, and this person now had that money available to be able to go out and build growth. And unfortunately, that growth wasn't built all those other years. But now at least with the help of our volunteer. They had some ideas and some advice and some strategies of how to actually deal with that.

Eric Blake: There's a question I wanted to ask. I didn't actually plan to ask this originally, but I think it really does fit here because I did I just did episode 50. That was my Milestone 50th episode not long ago. Congratulations on the Great Wealth Transfer. And the significant amount of assets and inherited wealth that are gonna be coming Women's way in the next, next few years, it's already started.

It's gonna be more and where savvy ladies can actually fit into that. Because you talked about it before about, you hear all the the conversation about, when women are younger, they're told to you gotta save, you gotta protect your money. But men are told to invest, you gotta grow your money.

And there's such a mindset shift between those two. And sometimes just finding the resources and again, getting. Coaching, getting guidance. I, I think savvy ladies could play such a huge role in that in that area over the next several years.

Judy Herbst: I agree, and I love it when Lisa says take control of your money.

As she said, she wa she watches what her money is doing every single day. But so many women do not. So I think there, I wouldn't

Eric Blake: necessarily encourage that, by the way. Just say,

Judy Herbst: but some women don't, especially in the last six

Eric Blake: weeks or so. Yeah,

Judy Herbst: exactly. But to understand where the money is, so instead of just sitting as we heard in this unfortunate story that the husband was putting in money every.

Every month into his, into the Roth and thinking that it was compounding, but it wasn't investing. And sometimes what we're saying, it is the power of the ask. You have to continually ask. So if you're working with financial advisors, ask them, what is my money doing for me? What are my choices? Don't rely on them to put it in.

A place that's gonna grow it for you. And that sort of goes to finding the right advisor for yourself, taking the initiative and interviewing. So some of the things savvy ladies will do is we get questions about, I can't afford a financial advisor. So we will, there is definitely resources we share how to find one.

How to interview. For one, it is interviewing almost for a partner, like going on a date. You wanna make sure you're comfortable with that financial advisor. Eric, you know you wanna have a relationship and you wanna be able to pick up the phone and ask them and ask the big questions about your money.

I think it's really the big thing is you need to ask as the owner of your money, ask the questions. Don't assume it's happening for you.

Eric Blake: And I think that comes with the level of comfortability and I actually talked on that same episode about, there's a, in my opinion, a pretty big failure across the financial services world.

Within the financial advisor space, specifically about not making women feel comfortable enough to ask those questions. And I think that's such a, yeah I think it's crazy that we have to talk about, there's a study in the McKinsey report that I referred to in that the episode as well about.

To inherit to keep the women's dollars, to earn more than women's dollars, you gotta do this, and this. I'm like, what have you been doing for the last 50 plus years that now you gotta feel like you gotta change certain things That tells you there's some, there's a problem right there.

Lisa Zeiderman: I think that there's no question that there is a problem, and I think that women need to push to be included.

By their financial advisors and financial advisors if they wanna keep the women. And we just talked about that transfer of wealth. If you, if financial advisors want those clients, they need to include the women. And I think that women are often overlooked in terms of the meetings and decision making and giving the information, and that shouldn't happen.

And women are gonna have to push to do that. And I, and frankly, I think that speaking to some of the savvy ladies, volunteers will help them learn how to do that. Also, how to be able to make that push, how to be heard, how, as Judy would say, how to use the power of the ask. And one of those asks. Should be, I wanna be included at the meetings, I wanna be included at the table.

I wanna be included in the financial decisions. That is the power of the ask, because at the end of the day, that is how they are going to get to that simply retirement stage that you talk about on your podcast.

Eric Blake: Why that? Because there's those two big statistics that I bring up quite a bit, whether it's a conversation with a client, or doing on the pod on the podcast, that's a amazing statistic.

About 70% of women changing financial advisors within 12 months of losing their husband. And then the other one is that 80 to 90% of women will at some point be responsible, fi solely responsible for their financial circumstances. And it really comes down to education and resources, and I'm so glad to have you guys on here to share what Savvy Ladies can do as well.

Lisa Zeiderman: And I think it's, I think it's important that the financial institutions also understand that, right? Because when they send us volunteers, that helps them as well because they are actually making that. Outreach to women and women are going to hold a massive amount of money to your point in the next years.

And so if they want those women as clients, they need to show that they are interested in being inclusive with women. And I think it's really important. Absolutely. And then

Judy Herbst: also they're the rising new wealth. So there are the young career professionals that are coming. They're first generation, so we're seeing a lot.

Mo many of the clients savvy ladies work with on the helpline are low, moderate income women, but they are first generation and they're earning, they're working and they are beginning to earn the six figure salary. So they're saving now, and they need, they want to know how to grow that wealth.

For their future generations. So they may not be inheriting, but they're building their wealth and they want to pass it on, and how can they have enough for themselves and pass it on to the next generation? So I think there's. Both cases of we're seeing both and we're educating both very similarly of how they can take control and build that wealth, be it first time wealth or their inheriting and coming into that wealth.

Eric Blake: Awesome. And we've touched on this, but I definitely wanna make sure this is crystal clear as to how people can actually utilize Savvy's ladies resources. So anybody that might be listening, any women that might be listening, how can they access to help? And also, you may be touching on anybody that might.

Wanna volunteer how they can get involved as well.

Judy Herbst: The Savvy Ladies website is savvy ladies.org. It's the first place to come. So come there first and there is the free Financial Helpline. Get Help. So it's right there on the homepage, but it's the free Financial Helpline for Women by Savvy Ladies.

So please visit the page. You can submit your question. There is a form on the page. That will put you through and you submit your information. It's probably a three to four minute for you to submit your question. So what is that question you have? It could just write it in from your head and input your question and you will, we ask you to verify your email, so you'll get an email confirmation and that puts you through.

To being connected with a volunteer. Typically, we're seeing that is around a five day connection process because we are getting so many questions at the moment. So volunteers? Yes. If you are interested in volunteering and as assisting, the key to what is so wonderful is, Eric, it's easy. We've made it accessible for you.

You can download it, especially for the volunteers on the app on your phone. And you can answer everything on your phone as a volunteer. So it makes it very easy for volunteers to pick up at any time that is convenient for them and get matched. They pull in the volunteers, pull in the question, and then schedule the appointment that works on a mutually convenient time for the client and volunteer.

Perfect.

Eric Blake: This has been so amazing. Before we wrap up, I'm almost there, but I did wanna make sure I asked one last question. I'll ask, I'll start with Lisa, but if there was just one piece of advice you would give women at this point, what would that be?

Lisa Zeiderman: Pay attention. I, you would need to pay attention to your finances.

Don't leave it to someone else. Make sure that you know what is going on around you in terms of your finances. That's the most important thing. 'cause knowledge is power.

Eric Blake: Absolutely. Judy,

Judy Herbst: you know what? I've seen so many women and friends and peers step out of the workforce when they're raising their children and they don't think they can balance both, and then they are concerned.

What happens when I turn 50 and my kids are. Off to college. I never stopped working and there was a reason behind that. I didn't, my mom did and I thought that was a terrible thing and she got stuck and I never wanted to get stuck. So myself and all my siblings, we've worked through it and we've risen.

And I think there is, you can find your groove and I would say always work working is so important. So however, a woman. Makes that happen. If they go entrepreneur, they juggle it and they, you can figure it out. But stopping working is a setback and I think there are absolutely ways women can make it work.

And so I would say keep working. I.

Eric Blake: Perfect. Judy and Lisa, thank you both so much for sharing your time, the amazing work that Savvy Ladies is doing. To our listeners, if you're facing a financial question you wanna learn, you even want to give back, please visit their website@www.savvyladies.org. The resources are free judgment free.

Created to help women like you gain clarity and confidence. As always, if you're ready to take the next step in your own retirement journey, you can visit our website@blakewealthmanagement.com and learn more about our simply retirement roadmap process. Until next time, please remember, retirement is not the end of the road.

It's the start of a new journey.

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