“That’s a myth,” D’Alleva Valas said. “True financial freedom comes not only from confidence in earning the money, but more importantly, it comes from having a clear and adaptable financial plan.”
D’Alleva Valas calls this the “confidence gap” in financial planning between men and women.
“We all have a money story, and it’s not what we were taught as young women,” Chatzky said. “It’s what we heard, it’s what we absorbed.”
Plus, women face unique challenges such as caregiving responsibilities, longer lifespans, greater health care costs, and pay inequity, each of which impact their confidence in financial planning, according to the panelists.
“Men have been raised to believe that they should be taking care of their families,” Chatzky said. And when that balance isn’t functioning the way expectations set that up—i.e., if the woman is the breadwinner of the home—women who earn more money still do more work around the house, she added.
Early financial planning can also help avoid major roadblocks during crises later on in life, D’Alleva Valas said.
“Everyone’s at least just one life event away from needing a financial advisor or needing a financial planner,” she said. “You don’t want to be in the middle of a massive event—whether it’s a death, maybe a divorce, a sick child—that you have to plan for. You don’t want to be in the throes of it.”
One way women can close the confidence gap is to start talking to their daughters at a younger age about financial planning, panelists emphasized.
Just like women who take on positions of power demonstrate how to break the glass ceiling, said Connie Collingsworth, former COO and chief legal officer of the Gates Foundation, women need to do the same when it comes to financial planning.
“[If] we show [our daughters], and we talk to them about these issues, I think they will have a sea change,” Collingsworth said. “They want to listen. They want to be like the women that have independence and the power that comes from knowing what your plans are. The key to all of this really is intentional.”
At the same time, Collingsworth said, it’s important to limit accessible funds to children so those funds don’t get abused. It’s critical for the children of wealthy parents to work, and for trust funds to not be available until they’re about 35 to 40 years old.
“[Your children] see how you spend. They see what your jobs are,” Collingsworth said. “They are watching us all the time.”
