Money Confidence For Independent Women

Come and listen to our Host, Candace Gish, as she chats with today's guest, Lisa Clements, for our “Determined, Not Distracted” Podcast Series.

This mini-series serves as your blueprint for a high-impact year, distilling success into three non-negotiables: Goal Clarity, Resilience, and Commitment. By sharpening your focus, hardening your mental toughness, and anchoring your habits in discipline, you’ll shift from chasing temporary inspiration to achieving unstoppable, year-long momentum. 

Meet the Founder, Lisa Clements

At Clear Springs Wealth, I promise to be the financial partner you wish you had sooner by combining sophisticated expertise with genuine understanding. I help transform financial uncertainty into confidence, ensuring you'll never have to navigate important money decisions alone.

https://www.clearspringswealth.com/

We explore how clear goals, resilient habits, and committed action help women take control of money decisions without jargon or shame. Lisa Clements shares a holistic approach to investing, tax strategy, insurance, and retirement that builds confidence and options.

• why holistic planning beats product sales
• serving single women and honoring autonomy
• when equities make sense at a younger age
• Roth versus pre tax trade offs for flexibility
• the four leg retirement model with part time work
• paying off high interest debt before investing
• simple first steps to assess goals and risks
• how to start with small, consistent contributions
• virtual work across the U.S. and registration basics
• resources, blog, and podcast for continued learning

For more Divas That Care Network Episodes visit www.divasthatcare.com

Transcript

Welcome And Series Context

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It's Divas that Care Radio. Stories, strategies, and ideas to inspire positive change. Welcome to Divas That Care, a network of women committed to making our world a better place for everyone. This is a global movement for women, by women engaged in a collaborative effort to create a better world for future generations. To find out more about the movement, visit divas that care.com after the show. Right now, though, stay tuned for another jolt of inspiration.

Meet Lisa Clements

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Well, hello everyone. Welcome to the Divas That Care. My name is Candace Gish. If this is your very first time tuning in, a huge welcome. We are now in our 16th season and we're listening to in over 35 countries around the world. We are so excited, decided to do a podcasting series. And this one is called Determine Not Distracted. This miniseries serves as your blueprint for a high impact year, distilling success into three non-negotiables goal clarity, resilience, and commitment. By sharpening your focus, hardening your mental toughness, and anchoring your habits in discipline, you'll shift from chasing temporary inspiration to achieving unstoppable year-long momentum. I am very, very excited to be introducing you to a new diva into our family. And she is going to be such a wonderful addition. Her name is Lisa Clements. Lisa, welcome to the Divas at Care.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Oh my gosh. I am really excited to get you onto the show finally because you have a topic we're going to be talking chatting about today. And I think it's going to really resonate with our listeners.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Good. I hope so.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

So, Lisa, would you mind introducing yourself to our listeners today?

Why Serve Women Investors

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Sure. I am a uh career changer. Actually, I'm 52 years old, single, never married. I live in Kansas City. Um, I have two dogs who are just my sweet little children. Um, and I'm a financial advisor and investment manager. But prior to that, I worked in the corporate world for 24 years in uh HR and recruiting, worked for companies like Accenture and Cerner, now Oracle, Facebook, now Meta, and um yeah, had a had a very exciting career, lived internationally, lived across the US, and uh really wanted to settle in here uh near family in the Midwest. So that's what I've done and went through that kind of uh dark, what do they call that? The dark night of the soul where you feel like you're supposed to move on from what you're doing, but you're not quite sure what you're stepping into next, and uh dealt with that for a couple of years and ultimately landed in the financial services arena working uh for and with women.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

I love that. Why did you decide to work with women?

Holistic Planning Versus Money Management

SPEAKER_02 2:59

For me, it was because uh I every time I tried to get financial help, I was referred to old white men who were saying things like, you know, well, we can talk about that when you get married. And I was like, Well, I don't, you know, gosh, at the time I was 35, 40 years old and and had no idea if marriage was gonna be on the table or not. I still don't. And um, I need to be able to plan for myself as an independent woman, whether someone comes into my life or not. And um I thought, gosh, there's gotta be people out there that I can talk to who can relate or understand the weight, the burden it is to carry all the responsibility by yourself. And not to say that married people don't have that same burden. In fact, sometimes it's more challenging because they're trying to navigate two personalities and two, you know, lists of desires and goals, but it is a it's a different animal. And um, so I want to walk alongside of women who have felt that uh and want them to know they're not alone. Yes, I understand that burden and that weight of carrying all the financial responsibility alone and how hard it is to make massive financial decisions. Um, and then the second point to that finally, and and I'll uh be quiet. Um, the second point is so many financial advisors out there just manage money and they charge you 1% of your account value a year to do it, but they're not looking at your goals, your tax situation, your estate planning, your risks. Like, do you need um insurance? Should you have life insurance? Should you have a disability policy if you're not working for an employer that already provides that? And true financial planning is looking at the whole picture. And I don't think a lot of people know that.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

I like that. And you're doing it in a holistic way. I think it's really important for our listeners to understand that it's not just one thing, like you're saying that you're working on the whole picture.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

And uh Lisa, do you work with just people in Kansas or do you work with people all over the United States?

SPEAKER_02 5:26

All over the United States. Thanks to Zoom. I uh in fact do most of my meetings, even with some of my local clients. We do it on Zoom anyway because it's just very time efficient.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

I love that. So I know this is kind of a crazy question because I live up in Canada and the United States and Canada are a little bit differently, but do you have to have like insurance in every state or how does that work?

SPEAKER_02 5:53

To be a registered investment advisor?

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Yes.

Working Across States And Compliance

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Yes, you have to be registered in your the state that you live in, and then if you have five or more clients in a particular state, you need to get registered in that state. So uh right now I'm pretty spread out so that I don't have other than Kansas, um, I'm up to you know three or four clients per state. Um, so I've only registered in Kansas, but am authorized to work in any state uh in the United States.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

That's amazing. I think that's really cool. We do have quite a few international listeners and a lot in the United States. So this is great. And it's it's different. You know, you are offering something that a lot of people don't really have an understanding about. They know that they have to save their money, they need to do this. And I want to talk to you about why it is important to have somebody like yourself, a financial planner, in a person's life.

Why A Planner Matters

SPEAKER_02 6:53

It is important because there are the financial industry is filled with jargon and it's filled with terminology that I think creates artificial barriers for us to invest, for us to understand insurance or god forbid, annuities, or um, and let me tell you right off the bat, I don't sell any products. I act as a representative to my clients and work with wholesalers if they need a particular product. Um, so it makes no difference to me, but there are many situations where uh a situation a woman's situation, and this happens with families too, but um, you know, an annuity might give her the kind of reliable income she's looking for in retirement. But you know, you don't know, many women don't even know about an annuity, for example, or why you'd want one. Um, a lot of people invest too conservatively. So I have clients in their 30s who have come to me and said, Oh, Lisa, I, you know, I think I want to go 50% bonds, 50% stocks. And I'm like, oh no. Uh, you know, let me, let me, let's talk about that. Because at that age, if you're saving for retirement, you need to be mostly equities at 30 years old. You know, if you're thinking your investment time horizon is 20 to 30 years, for example. Um, another thing, another example of where working with someone like me helps is I look at my client's tax situation. So I have uh a gal right now who's making six figures, and she was putting a hundred percent of her 401k into the pre-tax portion of her 401. And that's great because it reduces, you get to deduct that amount from your taxable income in the year that you make the contribution in your 401. But when you finally go to pull that money out in retirement, 100% of it is gonna be taxed at whatever your tax rate is in 30 years. Whereas a Roth contribution, if you have that option in your 401, a Roth is after tax money. So while you don't get to deduct it from your income this year, once it's in there, you never pay tax on Roth investments ever again, you know, as long as you're pulling them out in retirement. And I'm like, I myself for 10 to 12 years didn't even know why a Roth was so such a big deal. I didn't get it. And I thought, oh, I want the benefit of the deduction now. And here I am now in my 50s, going, gosh, I wish I would have put more money into my Roth when I was in the 12 to you know 20% tax brackets versus being in the 20 plus percent tax brackets.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Well, that makes a lot of sense. And I'm finding a lot of people are talking about retirement not happening as soon as they are thinking that there it's later in life now.

Roth Versus Pre Tax Explained

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Very much so. They used to call it a three-legged retirement stool where they said, oh, it's Social Security, your pensions and retirement income, and then your savings, like brokerage accounts or savings accounts. But now they're calling it a four-legged retirement stool, and they're saying you have to plan your retirement income by Social Security, pensions or retirement plans or retirement accounts, uh, any savings, savings accounts, brokerage investments. That means like a tradable stock account, for example. Um, but the fourth leg that they are working in everybody's plan is what's your part-time job gonna be? And I'm like, oh gosh, you know, like I it's just becoming a fact of life because of extended um lifespans, because of increased costs, inflation being what it is, etc.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Well, and that's exactly why I thought today would be perfect to have you on because we're talking right now why it's important to have goal clarity, resilience, and commitment. And I think this is what you're helping people with exactly those three things.

Rethinking Retirement: The Fourth Leg

SPEAKER_02 11:32

Absolutely. Absolutely. I just had a call this morning with a client, in fact, who, you know, talking about discipline having a clear goal and then being disciplined to follow through. She really wants to put money into a brokerage account, like uh, which you can do at Charles Schwab or Fidelity or Vanguard. You can open an account, put money in, and invest it in stocks. And she really wants to do that because she wants the returns of the stock market. Um, and so many of my clients are seeing anywhere between 18 and 28% returns on their portfolios. And so she wants to do that, but she's got a Discover credit card with$12,000 of debt on it. And Discover is charging 22%. It's actually like 21. you know, 79% interest. And so the discipline and the resilience comes in because we get, I myself am victim to it also. I get distracted by shiny things and the idea of, oh, I want to invest money, I want to make money. Ugh, it doesn't, it it's putting you in a negative cash flow or actually hurting your net worth if you're not paying off the credit card debt with a 22% interest rate attached to it. Does that make sense? I don't know if I explained that very clearly.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

And you don't want to be stuck and you don't want because I always think about what if something were to happen and an emergency happens and you don't have something as your safety net, what would happen then?

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Right. Right, exactly. And I'm even okay when you're first building wealth, like, yeah, you have a credit card as your emergency backup if you need to, um, but don't carry debt on it if you can at all avoid it and certainly pay off the debt before you start uh other investing.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

I love that advice. That is wonderful advice, and I think more people need to understand that a little bit better.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Yeah.

Discipline Over Distraction: Debt First

SPEAKER_01 13:48

So Lisa, what kind of things if our listeners are wanting to contact you, how can they get a con? How can they contact you? And what are like the first steps?

SPEAKER_02 13:59

Yeah, yeah. Uh my website is clearspringswealth.com. And I have a contact button on there and a Calendly link so you can schedule a 15-minute call just to, you know, we can have a quick one-on-one and say, what's your situation? How can I help? You know, and really the first thing I do is just say, kind of lay it out for me. Where are you right now? How much saved? How much in debt? What is it you want to accomplish? And it is not uncommon for me to say, you're, you know, it doesn't make sense to pay me for help yet. First, do these three things and then come back to me, you know, and then I can invest money for you and make you money. Um, but other times it's like, oh no, you're in a situation where I can help you reduce your tax bill, or we need to get you some, you know, some better um uh let's say rental insurance for the apartment you're living in, or we need to get you um life insurance for your kids because you're post-divorce, and um if something happened to you, you know, they'd need finances to help close everything out or pay for final expenses, etc. Um, so if I see any glaring things, I'll be sure to point it out. Um sometimes I'll say, hey, here are the two things I do before working with me, and then sometimes I say, Hey, you've got the plan underway. I can just, you know, invest the money and try to get you better returns.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

That's wonderful. I love that. Get to know you, see if it fits.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

Exactly. Exactly. My big thing is, you know, I I want to work with women who um we gel, you feel, you know, you feel like you've got a buddy, uh, someone you can trust on your side. Um, that gets me excited. If someone's like, I don't know, you know, hey, that's okay too. I can even refer you out to other people if we don't click.

Getting Started With Lisa

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Well, that's fantastic. Oh, I love it. And I just I do, I love your website. So for our listeners, go and check this amazing website out. And I liked one of your pictures there, and it says, single women can be rich. And I think that's what really drew me to you because I do, I know so many single women. And a lot of them are like, well, I don't know if I should what I should be doing. But in the long run, I find that they're doing better off than sometimes people that are in relationships because you're saying you're right, you know, you have got a lot of accumulated debt and a lot of personality differences, and not everybody wants to do the things the same way. So even doing it by yourself would be so much easier.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

Yeah, yeah. If you just have like someone you can bounce idea, like a thought partner, then I think doing it yourself can be the the best of situations.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

I love it. Okay, so one of the things Lisa, I always ask our amazing guests is do they have any tips, things that they can share with our listeners today to support them?

Actionable Tips And Roth Reminder

SPEAKER_02 17:15

The first thing I would say is please don't just kick the ball down the road. I have had personal friends that I've had to have heart-to-hearts with who are in their 40s and 50s and are like, oh gosh, Lisa, I can't even, I just can't even think about it. And I'm like, no, no, no, please, please, like, I need you to think about it because time is your best friend. And jumping on something now, even if it's just$20 a month, you know, or or a hundred dollars a month, letting it sit for the next 20 years and compound is gonna help you so much, versus waiting till you're 55 or 60, going, oh, I really do want to retire one day, and then trying to catch up. It's just um, I so I yeah, please, please take action out. No matter what you're afraid, you know. I I promise you it's not as bad as the stories you might be making up in your head. No matter how much debt you have, there is always a path out and start sooner than later because you'll um yeah, you'll you'll be much further ahead in 10 to 20 years in future, you will be so grateful. So that's my biggest number one advice piece of advice. My other one is to if you have access to a Roth in your 401k or 403B or 450, so whatever your work retirement plan is, please look at the possibility of putting some of your retirement contribution into the Roth because in the future it will help you give you more options as to uh how you pull money out in retirement.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Oh the gosh, that's perfect. Absolutely perfect. Thank you so much. And for our listeners too, I just have to do a big shout out. Lisa has a resource part on her website, and she used to do a podcast. And so I want you guys to go check out her podcast. She's got free resources, she's got a blog, she's got questions there. Go check it out. It's an amazing site, and then contact her because I know that there's a lot of women that do turn into our podcast. Our tribe is full of them. And I think a lot of you would really like her. She is amazing. She's got the friendliest smile. I know you guys can't see her right now, but you are going to love her. Just her energy is um contagious. So thank you so much, Lisa, for being on the Divas that care. We are so honored that you were on this miniseries. Are determined, not distracted. I think that what you have shared with us today really resonates with all of us.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it.

Closing And Resources

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Oh, you're so welcome. We had a blast. And to all of our amazing listeners out there, I will be posting all of Lisa's information on her social media so that you can go and check her out. I really do really recommend go checking out the resources. You know, I've I've had a little bit of a background in financial planning myself and over the years. And but what she's offering you guys is so much more. And I really believe that everybody needs a financial planner to help them through life's ups and downs. You know, we never know what is going to happen, but having that reliable person that can we can talk to, we can work with, um, it really does make a world of difference. So make sure you go check out Lisa and also make sure that you do something kind. It's really important to spread kindness out there. So until next time, everyone, have an amazing day and take care.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Thanks for listening. This show was brought to you by Divas That Care. Connect with us on Facebook, on Instagram, and of course on divas that care.com, where you can subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss a thing.