79: {Interview} Building Wealth: A Priority for Women with Stephanie Vokral, CFP®, AIF®, CDFA®

Are you proactively planning for your financial future? This is a question every women should be asking themselves because the reality is that life throws us curveballs that sometimes we aren't expecting and having a sound and secure financial plan can help soften the blow. 

Today I have Stephanie Vokral  CFP®, AIF®, CDFA® with me.  Stephanie, a wealth manager at Investra, discusses the importance of keeping personal and business financial records separate, as well as the need to plan for life-changing events like death, disability, and divorce. She emphasizes the importance of women building wealth and preparing for their financial future.  

Takeaways

• Keep personal and business financial records separate for better organization and liability purposes.
• Plan for life-changing events like death, disability, and divorce by addressing risk management and having the right financial documents in place.
• Women should prioritize building wealth to secure their financial future, as divorce and widowhood can significantly impact household income.
• Start investing as early as possible and work with a financial planner to understand your risk tolerance and create a diversified investment strategy.

Stephanie is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) and has extensive training in the areas of investments, risk management, estate planning, tax planning, education planning, and retirement planning. As a financial planner, she answers her clients’ financial questions. How do I not run out of money when I’m older? When should I take Social Security? Can I afford to be my parents’ caregiver or is there a better way? Is my spouse’s divorce proposal a fair settlement to me?

She has also completed a specialized educational program in professional divorce analysis to earn the Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA®) credential.

More on Stephanie HERE and connect with her on LinkedIn HERE

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Transcript

Caroline (00:00.538)
Welcome Stephanie.

Stephanie Vokral (00:02.867)
Welcome, I mean, thank you. Happy to be here. It's great to be able to spend some time with you today, Caroline.

Caroline (00:11.45)
So tell me about where you are now and how did you get there?

Stephanie Vokral (00:16.051)
Yes, so right now I am a wealth manager and work for a firm called Investra. And Investra was founded by a gal by the name of Erin Aris. And we actually started working together in December, but...

I have been looking for a partner for about five years actually. And so I've known Erin for a long time. We've worked under the same umbrella for many years. And so we decided to work together and that started in December. So previously I had owned my own wealth management firm since 2014.

Prior to that, I've worked in the industry and been a financial advisor for, I'm on my 26th year now, actually. So, yeah, this is my career, this is all I've ever known. And I also run another business as a certified financial planner and a certified divorce financial analyst called The Financial Knot with a K.

And that actually is working primarily with higher net worth women and couples through the process of divorce and after. So I'm a busy lady.

Caroline (01:56.698)
Yeah, it sounds like it. You've got two different arms and a recent merger with a new partner. You got a lot going on.

Stephanie Vokral (02:02.099)
A lot going on, but it's exciting. The merger was very much on purpose because we have had so much growth and we want to continue to deliver on the client service. And so, you know, Erin and I have a gal by the name of Natalie Chapman, who is a certified financial planner, who does all of our data entry in the financial knot. I also have an employee, Mandy Harling.

who works with me doing all of the data entry on that side. So it takes a team. You know, we have a director of operations. We've got other employees we're trying to hire. So yes, we're all female staff right now. That could change, but we very much are all about...

working with high net worth families and women professionals in the C suite. We really enjoy that kind of work because we are women. So it's kind of a buy women for women. And we love that. But we love our guys too. We have lots of male clients and we do assist families. And I think our male clients love the fact that we're all women because they tell us that.

We have a way that we listen more holistically and we pay attention to details. Not that, you know, other male advisors don't do that, but certainly we have a knack for that, I think. So, yeah, we're busy.

Caroline (03:38.522)
So I want to jump right into it with talking about financial records and bookkeeping and just financial planning in general. So for female business owners out there, we need to talk about and explain why you need to keep your financial records, the personal side and the business side separate.

Stephanie Vokral (03:48.595)
Thank you.

Stephanie Vokral (03:57.299)
Well, there are multiple reasons. I would say the number one reason is just for your sanity and for you to be well organized and for you to be able to understand are you making a profit or not. If your house is not in order, that becomes very hard to understand. And so that is a number one order of business is making sure that you are organized.

And the second reason I would say is liability purposes. I mean, if you're really wanting to distinguish your business from your personal, you don't need your finances not in order. Those need to be in order. So, and we'll get into documents that need to be in place as well to help you to reduce your risk on your personal asset side as well. But, but.

If your books are not in order and you can't distinguish the personal from the business, then chances are if you had to go to court, you're not gonna be able to make that distinction either. So you wanna make sure, those are the biggest two reasons I would say.

Caroline (05:13.37)
That's a good segue into my next question. So you know, I've met before and talked about this and there's three things that can, or three D's that can happen in your life, you know, that can be life -changing, especially financially for you and their death, disability and divorce. So tell me how or what you would advise someone listening to this podcast as to how to prepare.

Stephanie Vokral (05:15.475)
Thank you.

Caroline (05:37.914)
for those scenarios because you don't know when they're gonna happen. I mean, I've had two of the three happen to me, you know, in my lifetime and neither were expected, but they did happen. And so how do you plan for that?

Stephanie Vokral (05:50.451)
Yeah, I get asked this a lot. And when we have a new client, we're working with clients on a financial planning wealth management engagement, and we bring them in because we lead with financial planning. A lot of advisors, I think, make the mistake of leading with investments. That's not what it's about. Investments are just a tool. And so when we lead with financial planning,

We address these issues with business owners. And so, you know, primarily you're looking at risk management. You know, you're addressing those individually, death with life insurance and estate planning work. We like to quarterback that and get in with your estate planner.

especially with a business owner, because that's usually a more complex conversation. So it's planning with life insurance. It's planning with your estate documents. And then with disability, you know, it's looking at disability policies. It's making sure that you have the right type of disability policy. There's a lot of policies out there, but making sure you have one that's going to do what you need it to do.

and having some of the correct business documents in place for both of those scenarios and divorce as well. You can't always really plan for divorce. There's another party involved in that and you can't control your spouse as much as we all wish we could. We cannot do that. And so...

I would say for women, the biggest way to plan for divorce, because you certainly are working to have a healthy marriage, I'm assuming, and you're doing all those kinds of things, but the biggest way that we can plan is to be in conversations, you know, to ask good questions, to get curious, to be in communication with our spouse about your household finances and what those look like. What are your...

Stephanie Vokral (08:11.315)
spouse's benefits look like, sharing what your business benefits look like, having a prenup before you get married to protect your business. If you haven't done that, having a postnup, looking at your estate planning documents with your spouse. You really want to look at that, and those are some of the ways that you can be prepared, not that you will go down that road.

but you've worked hard in your business and you do wanna be prepared. You wanna make sure that you've thought about that. Again, not saying that it would happen, but you do wanna be thoughtful about that. And if you just can't get yourself to go there, because I've had people say that to me before, I just can't get myself to go there. I love my husband. Great, you know, let's facilitate a conversation where I know what questions to ask and I can tell you.

and help you know what you don't know. I look at the gaps, that's my responsibility. So that's a lot. Did I answer your question?

Caroline (09:18.554)
Yeah, you did. I'm glad you went there on the prenup and post -nup too, because I think a lot of times people get in their mind like, you got to have a lot of money to need a prenup, but help me poke some holes in that argument there.

Stephanie Vokral (09:31.827)
Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, I can tell you numerous situations where, you know, a client started now a multi -million dollar business, but they were in their home on their dining room table. And so it doesn't feel like it's going to be a big deal when you start out. And so I understand maybe you not feeling like that in the beginning, but at some point you got to

you gotta be wise and you gotta come in and that's where a post -nup will come in to help you there. So yeah, I just think it's a great idea if you've got a business and you really don't think it's gonna be anything big, but even if it's just you're a 1099, you know, but you're a high income earner, cause I do see that a lot, you know, where people will work for a company, but they're a 1099 employee, gives them a lot of freedom. They work from home.

but they earn a high income or they're a sole prop. They are a one man show, they really don't have any employees, but they are a consultant or maybe even a drug rep and they make a high income. And so they really want to make sure that they're looking at how to protect that. I'm not always talking about a W -2 employee, but if you're a 1099 or you're a sole proprietor,

I think before you get married, no matter how much revenue you have, you wanna have that prenup in place. So you just don't ever know, you know?

Caroline (11:08.442)
Yeah, and I think people get there's a huge stigma associated with it, obviously, and.

Stephanie Vokral (11:13.427)
It's a tough conversation, I'm not saying, but you, if you're gonna get married, you better get ready to have some tough conversations.

Caroline (11:22.362)
Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think it's more, it's less stigmatized these days as it was 10 or even 20 years ago, but still it's like one of those things like you don't want to bring it up and talk about it. Like you are going to get divorced. Cause I think that's like the rainy cloud that surrounds it. But in reality, it just is financial protection for each of you.

Stephanie Vokral (11:35.059)
Right.

Cheers.

Stephanie Vokral (11:42.451)
Correct, 100%. And your spouse, your partner should completely understand that. And that's where that tough conversation comes in is you really being able to help them understand, just like you go to the office for a 40 hour day, I'm in my business and you can only imagine, put that shoe on your foot and see how that feels. And so just really helping them to understand and they really shouldn't have a problem.

Caroline (12:14.202)
So you and I met and talked about this originally and I am going to assume and I think we're on the same page about this, but why is it important for women to start building wealth? And wealth is a relative number. Wealth to you might be different than me and to the next person. Why is it important for women to do that to help them prepare for their financial future?

Stephanie Vokral (12:29.683)
Thank you.

Stephanie Vokral (12:36.915)
Yeah, wow, that's so much. And it's probably the most passionate topic that I talk about because I do have the separate business and divorce I see. And I'm a Gen Xer, you know, so I'm in my 50s and all of us who are Gen Xers had parents who were baby boomers and baby boomers had parents who...

were the Depression -era parents. And so it's really been passed down to us as women that we stay at home and that we are the silent partner, that you don't ask questions about money. That's changing. You and I have talked about the fact that millennial generation is the most educated female generation we've ever had. Yay! And I'm so...

So proud of my millennial and younger clients who get it. They're much more inclined to engage and ask questions and to be present and to say, my friend Susan lost her husband and that's just got my brain going. Can we sit down one Saturday a month and just spend an hour?

and set a timer, you know, and just talk about one topic about our finances that I'm curious about. You know, we need to really be curious and be engaged in those conversations. I recently had a friend who has been at many of my talks every year. Our church will do a...

women's conference and I think it's great. And they invite me to speak every year and it's amazing. And one of the biggest topics that I talk to them about is being curious and asking questions and making sure that you're available, even though maybe your eyes want to glaze over and your eyes want to roll back in your head and you hate the topic of finances. Be present in those meetings. Go to meet with the financial advisor.

Stephanie Vokral (14:55.059)
you know, at least act like you have a little bit of interest. And then I have clients who are very savvy at that and they're very comfortable with asking those questions. So not trying to put everybody in a box, but just saying, I find that it's much harder for women, especially who are 40 and older, to really want to engage in those conversations. The reason it's so important is because we know that for

women going through divorce that on average their household income gets cut by about 41 % after divorce. And so, you know, you never take one household and a lifestyle that you're used to and split it into two households. That math does not make sense. And so it's really helping women to understand that because I see it all the time.

And they think, you know, if they could just make somebody understand their side of the story or tell everything to their attorney or the judge that things will go in their favor. And I'm telling you that is just not what I see. I don't see that. You know, South Carolina is a permanent alimony state. And I think a lot of our friends and family will tell us, you know, you can just take them for all their worth. And that's just not what I see.

I see that judges, even the female ones, wanna see that you're out working and that you're doing what you can to contribute income to your household. So it's a very, you can tell, a topic I'm very passionate about. And then for widows, my heart really, I've got so many clients who have been through that and lost their husbands in their 20s and 30s.

young men that they thought they were going to spend their life with. And so it's really making sure you have that conversation about life insurance. I can't stress that.

Caroline (16:57.722)
So, and that brings my next question about, I mean, if I'm in my 20s or 30s listening or 40s listening to this podcast and wondering when I should start investing, whether it be something I do with my husband or by myself, when should I start?

Stephanie Vokral (17:17.235)
Yeah, it's a great question. The sooner the better. You want to start in your 20s. I've got some clients who actually started raw fire rays when they were younger and working cutting grass as high school students. And so you really want to start as soon as possible, in my opinion.

And if you don't find yourself in that situation, it's never too late to start. But you have to have some surplus in your income most of the time to be able to start. And so it starts with budgeting and people hate budgets, you know. It's one of the biggest struggles that I see is people really not knowing what they're spending. They don't know their income, especially their after tax income. And so it's understanding that and really starting that as soon as possible.

Caroline (18:19.194)
password on that. So let's say I started investing in my 20s and now I'm here in my 60s or 70s and then I need to start pulling some of that cash out because I'm winding down my professional life. I mean, how do I figure out or know how to maintain the way I'm living when I'm working when I'm retired and how long to prepare? Like am I preparing for 20 years, 10 years? Big question mark.

Stephanie Vokral (18:45.587)
Yeah, great question. So one of the things that we handle with clients under risk management is their number one question is, tell me how I'm not gonna run out of money when I'm older. Help me understand what my gap is. And so we call that your wealth gap. And we walk through that in your financial planning. So I don't know how they're, I mean, they're great tools online. Certainly if you're younger and you're starting out and you really don't have money to engage a financial planner.

Make sure you're looking at those tools and you understand what they're telling you. And then you really do need to engage a financial planner as soon as possible. I think financial planning is one of the best careers. And I really did not understand because I will say I cut my teeth on my career and I was a young advisor.

at a Wall Street firm. And I didn't realize that until I became a certified financial planner a little later in my career. I've been a certified financial planner now for almost 15 years. But early on in my career, I didn't realize what a fabulous career that is. There are certified financial planners who, and you can go on the CFP board website and go and search to find a financial planner.

that specializes in your stage of life, your age, your industry. I mean, there are financial planners that I know that used to be ballerinas and now they only focus on working with ballerinas in the, you know, the upper echelon of ballerinas. I don't know that world, so I'm probably sounding like I don't know what I'm talking about, but.

you know, the folks in New York City or even in Canada who are very much into that as a profession, and she does financial planning just for them. So you can do that for anything that you're interested in. You know, if you're, if you like science, you know, you might want to focus on doing financial planning with scientists, but it's a wonderful profession. And so engaging them early in your process will really help you understand.

Stephanie Vokral (21:05.363)
what is my wealth gap? What is that number that I really need to be aiming for? How can I build streams of income that will work for me when I can't work for myself? And so we help clients understand that and engage in that. And sometimes that means that we are looking at things like, especially because Gen Xers and older, a lot of times we have, we were not,

We didn't understand the benefits of a Roth IRA early on. And so understanding how we can use Roth IRAs, excuse me, is a huge benefit to us because especially right now, we have very low tax brackets. And I really think that those are going to change over time because we cannot continue to fund the debt that we have in this country if we don't make some real changes.

And I think that's gonna come with higher taxes and with the change in the tax code. But right now we're enjoying some really low tax benefits. And so I think what a financial planner does is look not just at your current tax year like a CPA may do, but we are looking at your taxes over your lifetime. And so to answer your question, many times it's looking at the retirement assets that you may have.

and engaging things like Roth conversions. How can we give you some tax money right now? Because we know as financial planners that by the time you get to age 60 and you're gonna take that money out, if you keep putting everything in before tax, you're gonna pay more in income tax in your retirement than you are right now working. And I have clients,

who did not engage me in their younger career, where we are actually looking at required minimum distributions for them that the government is requiring them to take that are almost over $200 ,000 a year right now. And it's a lot.

Caroline (23:15.93)
That's wild. And that's pure gold. What you're saying right now is go ahead and take your money out while you're younger and not put it in. So you don't have to pay double in the backend is basically what I'm hearing. And so speaking of the wealth gap, I mean, if you're, and I know everyone's different based off of everybody's net worth or financial portfolio. And, but I mean, do you suggest people use their IRAs or 401ks that employers provide real estate, you know, penny stocks?

Stephanie Vokral (23:23.219)
That's right. That's right. Mm -hmm.

Stephanie Vokral (23:34.835)
Yes.

Caroline (23:44.986)
Like what do you think is not the best strategy? Everyone's strategy needs to be different, but in general, what has worked well for your clients?

Stephanie Vokral (23:53.876)
Yeah, so really, you really need to work with a professional to understand how comfortable you are with risk. So we lead with that conversation. We understand what a client could tolerate with risk. And that normally helps translate into the investments that they have. Should they be in stocks? Should they be in bonds or fixed income? Should they be in real estate? Many times, real estate has risks that people have not thought about.

especially when we've been in the booming real estate market that we've had for so many years right now in the US, it's very hard to understand that if you haven't been through that. And so starting with a professional and looking at your comfort level with risk is huge. So you're right, it depends, but you need to be very well diversified. You don't need to have everything in a penny stock. I would definitely...

tell you that penny stops are for people who have a very high risk tolerance. And so those normally do not work out in your favor. So don't invest in something your brother -in -law told you at the dinner table. You're much better off to have professionals help you do that.

Caroline (25:15.034)
That's funny you brought that up because that happens at my family dinner table every single time.

Stephanie Vokral (25:18.035)
All the time, all the time. I've been doing this again for almost 26, I'm in on my 26th year. And so if I had a dollar for every time I had a client call me and say, my brother -in -law told me blah, blah, blah. I'm telling you, I would be very rich right now. Cause it does, it happens to me probably at least once a quarter. And if not your brother -in -law, it's your coworker or I saw this on the internet. What do you think about it? I get asked that one all the time.

Caroline (25:48.122)
So what is lighting you up with some of the clients you're working with right now?

Stephanie Vokral (25:51.763)
I'm sorry, what did you say?

Caroline (25:53.146)
What is lighting you up with some of the clients that you're working with right now?

Stephanie Vokral (25:57.299)
What is lighting me up? Probably, probably, and when you say lighting up, are you saying like, what gets me passionate? What gets me revved up?

Caroline (26:08.666)
Both. What are you seeing? Is there specific trends that you're coming in and helping your clients solve? Or is there something that's really hot right now with your clients? A new strategy that you've been doing? Or just a scenario like that that you're really enjoying right now?

Stephanie Vokral (26:24.755)
just say the biggest one is probably helping them to understand their tax over their lifetime. We've got great new software that we use for tax planning and we work with a client's CPA and we help them do that and I find that most advisors don't do that work and that's very rewarding work and we can get really close with a client's CPA and using this software.

where we are not just trying to avoid tax, but take tax strategically. If for some reason you have a net operating loss in your business this year, let's go ahead and use that to do something strategic. You know, like maybe give you some income from a Roth conversion or looking at how we could offset that loss with a really good capital gain. I mean, we...

we can look at those different strategies for you. And so again, what I was talking about before with the Roth conversions and looking at that tax over your lifetime in our financial planning software, I usually do two scenarios showing clients taking, you know, or excuse me, making Roth contributions to their Roth 401k over their lifetime.

versus this works great with younger clients versus them doing before tax. And then I can run an income tax report and it's really phenomenal. It blows them out of the water because your CPA is always going, you're paying a lot of tax, let's avoid tax, put money in an IRA, do this, do that. While that's great advice, we're also,

may be very strategic about you taking that income tax right now again. And so it's really getting your CPA on board. And many times they go, no, I get it. I understand what you're talking about. And so them being on board really helps us to drive a lot of that. And with business owners right now, it's a conversation with even their third party administrator when they're doing a new plan.

Stephanie Vokral (28:48.467)
and they're looking at doing those, your plan documents, we need to have, make sure we've got you set up for a Roth 401k, so we manage all of that for clients and help them understand. So we're communicating with your CPA, the third party administrator, you know, we're the quarterback for that, making sure that we maximize.

those tax brackets for you every year. And with business owners, it's a lot of work. I mean, we charge for that work, but you're going to still, when you pay our fee, your CPA, your third -party administrator, we can really help you save some tax over your lifetime and be very strategic. It's good work. It really is. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun.

Caroline (29:32.826)
It sounds like you're really passionate about and I love hearing about that because tax is not, tax is not always the most sexy thing to talk about, but it is a necessity. Like we all pay taxes. So I'm glad that you mentioned that part.

Stephanie Vokral (29:48.051)
Yeah.

Caroline (29:49.978)
So as we wrap up, how can our listeners find you?

Stephanie Vokral (29:54.835)
Yeah, so I would tell you to look us up online at investra .com. That's I -N -V -E -S -T -R -A .com is the best way. There's a book of consultation there, a book and appointment, and that takes you right to our calendar. We have several options there, but as a prospective client wanting to understand our services, our

pricing. You can see some of that on our website, but to really get a feel for your situation and what package we have that we would recommend, we would recommend that you really book a consultation with us to do that. It's no cost to you. And we will really get into the weeds to try and understand your situation so that we can actually give you pricing that makes sense for you.

Caroline (30:51.77)
Thanks Stephanie.

Stephanie Vokral (30:53.203)
Yeah, thank you.