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Candy Valentino, business and wealth growth expert and author of "The 9% Edge: The Life-Changing Secrets to Create More Revenue for Your Business and More Freedom for Yourself," joins Brad Smith on Wealth! to take a look at strategies to help women build wealth. "It's such an incredible time for women and wealth. So, we know right now that about 35% to 45% of the US wealth is controlled by women, and we're going to grow that to over two-thirds by 2030. So it's a really great opportunity for women to start understanding money. And it's not something that we're taught in school. And it's something that's typically scary for women to fully understand, but it's only because it's new. So it's really a great opportunity for women to really understand that, hey, this is a concept I can learn about. I need to understand it. I need to educate myself so that I can start making my money work for me," Valentino says. Valentino provides context to the modern story of women and wealth, saying, "When I first got my first small business loan in 1999, women [were] allowed to [get a small business loan] for just 10 [or] 15 years, get a small business loan without a man signature on the form. So we've come a long way." Until 1988, a woman needed a man to cosign her small business loan application, according to the US Small Business Administration. "Now we see more women in business. We see more women wanting to get investing, and so it's really about starting. Oftentimes we think we need to understand it. But I always use the analogy that if Tom Brady waited to be a Super Bowl champion, he would have never got on the field. You have to throw the passes in order to be the champion. So investing is all about behavior. We always say it's only 25% knowledge. It's 75% behavior. So what you do with a little tiny bit of money [and] start investing now will determine what you do when you start to earn more money." She adds, "I like to keep it super simple because if it's super simple, we can understand it, and we can duplicate it. So how do we increase our earnings by just 10%? If we just ask better questions, we can get better results. How can we increase our earnings? Can we look at promotions? Can we start something on the side? A small business that we can start to make more money? How do we go through and start to reduce our expenses by 10% so that we can bridge a gap and start investing 10% of our money? Because again, even if you can't do 10% now, start with five so that eventually you can ramp up to start saving and investing 20% of your total taxable income." "We found that when women control more wealth, that they're also more philanthropic. So not only do they like to learn in community, but they're also involved in their community. We look at some of the richest women in the world, you know, like Scott and Gates and how they're just giving a lot of their funds away. So we know that when women make more money and they understand money, they actually do good things with it. So not only educating yourself, but getting around other people that are also starting to [do the same]." Valentino shares actionable tips for women looking to build wealth. "Number one, if someone watching right now has a job that they have a 401(k) or something, that their that their business is giving them money for, don't ever trip over $100 bills that are laying on the ground. Pick those up, take that. Make sure that you go all in on whatever retirement vehicle. Second, if you already have done that and you make less than $146,000 a year, you're eligible for a Roth IRA. It's a great place to start. You can actually invest up to $7,000 a year so that you can set it and forget it and start to invest that money all the time. The third thing would be, if you're like, 'OK, Candy, check, check, I got that,' Well, now we need to look at building a diverse portfolio where and all that means is to have a bunch of investments that aren't necessarily tied together. So you might want some tech investments, you might want to do some ETFs, you might want to do a REIT, or start to dabble in real estate investing." Also catch Yahoo Finance's recent coverage of the 50th anniversary of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act — a landmark law that granted women the right to obtain credit independently of their male relatives — featuring a panel of women leadership in finance. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth! This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.
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