Women on the Verge of a Financial Breakthrough

And Other ScandalsWomen getting together to talk about money is totally radical. In that, it used to not be…encouraged?…so it breaks societal norms, and it’s also cool. I think we’re all familiar with that simple math equation of money = power. So, talking about money is really talking about - and, dare I say? - stepping into that power. And yet. Growing up without female role models or movie characters who sit around and talk about stocks makes it hard to know what it would even look like. Can’t we just talk about sex and leave it at that? No! On our last episode of Season 4 (!!!) we talk about why it’s so important for women to share their money stories and insights with other women in the company of our lovely guest Sheila Schroeder, wealth advisor, former Wall Street executive, and author of It’s Time to Talk: A Woman’s Guide to Navigating Money Conversations. Sheila brings nearly 30 years of experience from the trading desks of New York and San Francisco to a deeply human conversation about shame, silence, power, and choice. Her vast experience gave us a chance to dig into why women are so often discouraged from engaging with money, how that silence impacts our lives and relationships, and how we can start changing the narrative, without needing to be “good at finance” or share personal numbers. Here’s where you can find Sheila, and here’s her book It’s Time to Talk: A Woman’s Guide to Navigating Money Conversations. And yes - this is the last episode of Season 4, but stay tuned for next season where we’re going back to the basics. Because some of us have to live in the basics for a few more years before they really sink in. What’s a stock again? We’ll figure it out! In the meantime, send us your dumb investing and finance questions, or just say hi! on our Ask Us page! We have the social medias!! Here’s our Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn. This episode was edited by our co-producer Kelly West. Music by Bad Bad Hats and Devmo. Transcripts for Season 4, Episode 14: Women Talking About Money Caitlin [00:00:03] Welcome to Women on the Verge of a Financial Breakthrough, where we're figuring out finance one dumb question at a time. I'm Caitlin Meredith, a mediator and coach based in the Bay Area. Sara [00:00:18] I'm Sara Glakas, investor, advisor, and founder of BlackBarn Financial, and the Austin Women's Investing Group, which you can find on Meetup. Caitlin [00:00:26] And this is our last episode of season 4. If you enjoyed this season, would you consider giving us a rating on Apple Podcasts, writing a little review? It would be so helpful to get more people listening, more women on the verge, and to give us inspiration to do season 5. Spoiler alert, we're going to be doing some Back to the Basics episodes. See you next season! Caitlin [00:00:54] Oh Caitlin [00:01:00] So today we have Sheila Schroeder. And Sheila, I saw you sparkling as the, I was gonna say curator, it's not curator. What were you? The interview? Moderator. There we go, an ater. You were the moderator at this coming together of women in San Francisco by now a couple months ago. What was that? It was like women in money, women talk about money. Women in wealth, women in wealth essential conversation. Essential conversations. And of course, my friend Sara invited me, who is one of your colleagues, a different money Sara that I know. I know, Sara, you have competition. Sara [00:01:37] How dare you. Caitlin [00:01:39] And the whole point of it was this panel of women professionals in various fields talking about money and women talking about money and being women in their profession, advice that they would give to women and you gave them various scenarios. But first I wanna, before we go into that, why were you the moderator? You work for, you're an investment advisor, but you've had a long storied past in finance. Sheila [00:02:10] Yes. I have a few gray hairs. Yes. So the reason they asked me to moderate is so my role is I'm a consultant, a business development consultant, regional head of business development for wealth spire advisors. So wealth spier is a large RIA registered investment advisor based out of New York. That's where our home offices are central offices. And I work with advisors on the west coast. Caitlin [00:02:42] Okay, but you had a long history in Wall Street, which I know that's not why you're coming on here to talk about, but I can't resist asking you. I feel like women who worked on Wall Street are like these unicorns I have to corner and ask, what was that like? Sheila [00:03:00] Oh my gosh, it raises my blood pressure to even talk about it. I'm not sure that's part of why not, but yes, I spent almost 30 years on Wall Street. And what that meant is, and it is relevant to what I do now. And I was working in the Japanese and the Asian equity markets. So that meant that I was looking at the Hong Kong stock exchange, the Thai stock change etc. Stocks that traded on those exchanges. And what I did with that is I was speaking to large institutional investors. So for example, all of us have money invested in a mutual fund, for example. I was talking to mutual fund portfolio managers who are buying and selling stocks in the Asian markets. So that was my focus. It was incredibly, I loved it. Absolutely loved it, it was super exciting. And I did it for a long time. I didn't leave because I didn't like it. I had done it for long time, and I just wanted to try something new. I wanted to have a little more work-life balance in my life. I mean, almost 30 years. When you work on a trading desk, you are in New York, you're in it 6.30 in the morning, and sometimes you don't leave until many, many hours later. Uh... You know, when I worked in San Francisco, I would be at my desk at 4 a.m. And it wasn't unusual to be working until 7 p.m., and I traveled almost every week. So it was just, yeah, I'd go home and go to sleep and get up, you know? And again, I loved it. It was interesting work and it paid very well. And it certainly helped me create a financial foundation for myself. That was in me and my family. But there also came a point where I was ready to do something different and I pivoted to private wealth okay and that's and so Caitlin [00:05:04] I want to talk to you about the private wealth part, but I just have to ask about being a woman in this equities Asian markets thing. I have to assume there weren't that many other women. Is that an outdated assumption? Sheila [00:05:19] There were not a lot of women. However, there were a lot more women on the Asian desk or the Japanese desk, because we studied Mandarin or Japanese in college. Sara [00:05:32] Is that how you ended up in the Asian markets versus US markets is because of your language background. Sheila [00:05:39] Yeah, I couldn't get a job on the U.S. Desk. Sara [00:05:41] That's so interesting. Caitlin [00:05:43] So women that were interested in languages might've had an in in getting these jobs that they wouldn't otherwise because they had that piece. But without that piece, they would maybe not have been considered. Yeah, I think that's true. Sheila [00:06:02] And years later, as I, you know, I did this for a long time, I was the head of the Asian desk for many, many years at various firms. And if you looked around, there were a lot of other women at other firms who were also the head at the Asia desk, because they had started out when they were young, they got their foot in the door because of their language, obviously, they could do the job. And over time, they became head of a desk. But it wasn't unusual to have a female be the head of the Asian desk or head of the Japan desk because of the language skill. Sara [00:06:34] Did you know that, Sara? I did not. That is fascinating to hear how you got there, because it sounds like what you mentioned is it is more difficult, for whatever reason, for a woman to become the head of. Caitlin [00:06:50] We know the reason. Sara [00:06:51] The U.S. Trading desks, right? There's no language barrier, and so maybe the foot in the door is a little bit more difficult when you were starting out. Sheila [00:07:03] That's my experience. That is why I got the chance. That's fascinating. Caitlin [00:07:10] Sheila, the money part also came like you were adept at languages, but also you had to have some interest in the stock market investing finance. What led to that as someone who didn't have any interest and actively closed my ears that this any talk of stocks and investing until the age of 40 or, you know, yesterday, what was it about? Sheila [00:07:35] It that intrigued you. You guys are asking such different questions than anyone else has asked. I appreciate it. So this book is a very personal book. In the introduction, I talk about some situations that I was in that were difficult. And I'm not sure I can talk about it without getting emotional, but. Caitlin [00:08:00] You're welcome to talk about it or not talk about it and you're welcome to talk about it and get emotional. All of that's okay, but whatever you're comfortable with. Sheila [00:08:08] So, and it's in the introduction, but so I certainly made some mistakes and I was in a situation in high school that I needed to get out of and it was I needed money to do it. And I also realized, so I didn't, I grew up in Indianapolis, great town etc but it was not for me and i wanted to go to college. And go live in the big city. Those were my Indiana dreams. And I realized from a very young age that if I was going to get away, I needed to have some money. And so my intention was to, my parents were very international. I wanted to join the foreign service. Caitlin [00:08:57] Mm-hmm. Sheila [00:08:58] And studied political science, etc. But I did my junior year abroad in Japan. I was in Tokyo and the junior year broad program had a lot of kids f