10 minute read
female empowerment
Dr. Valerie Senatore
When I made my early start in the career world as an air traffic controller, I found it difficult to see a path of growth for myself. Most of my managers and co-workers around me were male, and the job was incompatible with family life due to shift work and unpredictable scheduling. While I enjoyed the job immensely, I yearned for both strong female role models to support my goals and dreams, as well as a career that afforded the flexibility to “have it all.” Eventually, I decided it was time for a change and looked towards a career in higher education, where I felt my development would be better supported.
Starting this journey was challenging, but I let my passion drive me. At the University of Texas at Arlington I got my start earning a bachelor degree in history and eventually a master’s in sociology. While there, I worked at the Center for Social Research, again as the only woman on the team. Wanting to focus in on my passion for higher education, I attended Texas A&M University earning my doctorate in educational psychology. I am proud to be thriving in my current position as vice president and chief academic officer at Bryant & Stratton College.
Unlike working in air traffic control, in college teaching and administration, I have met many strong women who reinvigorated my confidence and pointed me in the right direction during my journey in the higher education industry. Although I continued at times to find myself the lone female on leadership teams, I am grateful to have found female role models and mentors along the path and to have discovered the brilliance of mentorships.
Earlier in this second career, I met one of my most influential mentors, Dr. Mary Fifield, who at the time was the president of Bunker Hill Community College in Boston. I was working as dean of mathematics there at the time, and Dr. Fifield went the extra mile to regularly gather the college’s female staff members in middle or junior management roles for collaborative lunches. This may seem like a small gesture, but Dr. Fifield was providing an important dedicated time for women at varying levels of the college to connect in a safe space. This experience opened my eyes to the importance of female mentorship and connection.
Having witnessed this exercise, I began to actively seek out mentorships, both as mentor and mentee. The connection between how I worked with students as a professor and mentorship in management and executive spaces was clarified for me, and I was better able to advocate for my needs as well as those of other women. I was impressed by the positive impact mentorships could have, and over time became well versed in its benefits and nuances. Mentorships and female role models are part of the reason I believe I have succeeded in my career. No matter where someone is in their academic or professional development, mentorships can help kickstart new avenues of growth.
So, what does an effective mentorship look like? More than anything, the relationship between mentor and mentee is meant to be symbiotic and beneficial for both parties. A mentorship is an opportunity for both to step back from any titles and roles, to inspire and learn from each other. An effective mentorship should involve, at some level, the mentor stepping into their mentee’s reality to understand where they are professionally and personally.
A good mentor will ensure that their guidance and advice is relevant to the mentee’s situations. Most mentors find that their mentee is living in an entirely different professional world than they did – and this gives the mentor a unique opportunity to continue their own learning and growth.
Young professionals should seek mentors that hold a role or skillset that they envision for themselves someday. A true mentorship will be focused on growth, development, and constructive solutions.
While many job industries are not female-dominant, it is important to recognize that women do not need to “do everything” or “be the best” to prove themselves. Internalizing this pressure can only make many aspiring young female professionals give up or doubt themselves. As mentors, it is crucial to support realistic expectations and support selfadvocacy when working with earlier career professionals. This makes representation and connection even more important.
With the right groundwork in place, mentorships allow female professionals paths of success unavailable to them before. If I had stayed in air traffic control with no female support system around me, I am not sure if I would have ever achieved the same level of success in my professional development and career. Working together, women can achieve far more.
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THE ANATOMY OF THE INVESTMENT MARKETS
Iris Buczkowski
Ihave a great group of girlfriends from all walks of life, but my nearest and dearest are my gal pals from high school. We have been thick as thieves since middle school and have talked almost everyday since the beginning of the pandemic. These girls are so smart and I am so lucky to call them my friends. The one thing they have in common that I do not is that they are all educators. As we swap stories about life and kids and work I follow along with all of the trials and tribulations they face in their schools, but then I talk about the events of the economy and investment markets and challenges I face in my work and they all almost say in unison, “Iris – we have no idea what you are talking about.”
It’s not just my friends, though, that I hear this from. I cannot tell you how many clients I work with say things such as “this is why I hire you – I have no idea what that means – just tell me how I am doing – what is the outlook going forward?” The thought occurred to me that although people who don’t understand the markets keep me gainfully employed, everyone should have a fundamental understanding of what makes up the investment markets and how do we earn money over time. We all need to save for retirement and we are giving up our disposable income for the potential to meet these goals over the long term. I never buy a new pair of shoes without knowing the size and how they feel, and the purchase of securities should be treated the same. Here are the basics about the investment markets that everyone should know: HOW DO I INVEST MY MONEY?
There are two ways you can make investments. The first way is to purchase ownership in an asset where you have the potential to participate in the future growth of that asset. This is also called an equity investment. The second way is to lend your money to someone for a stated period of time with their promise to return your principal at the end of the agreed upon term along with interest payments over the same time. These types of investments are known as fixed return investments. EQUITY VS. FIXED RETURN?
When you purchases equities there is no guarantee that you will make money on your investment. Your profitability is dependent of the earnings of the company that you have purchased a stake in. This ownership stake is also referred to as stock. All publicly traded companies can be bought and sold in a variety of investment markets, but the most commonly known ones are the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and the Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500). The DJIA is made up of the 30 largest publicly traded companies in the United States. The S&P 500 is a market-capitalization weighted index comprised of 500 leading publicly traded companies in the US. Marketcapitalization refers to the size of a company so in the US we use the performance of the S&P 500 as a gauge to determine the overall health and viability of the performance of the companies and the overall stock market in general.
Contrary to popular belief, fixed return investments have as much risk as equities because, again, there is no guarantee that you will be repaid on time for the money that you lended to someone. The most common fixed return investments include bank depository accounts, certificate of deposits, and bonds. When you make a fixed return investment you want to be sure that the company or entity that you are lending money to is strong and will have the cash flow over time to support paying you back. There is much less risk in these types of investments versus equities, but you want to be sure the credit worthiness of the borrower meets your overall standards. Because there is less risk in these markets, fixed return investments typically earn less over time than the broader returns of the stock market. WHAT IS A STOCK VERSUS A FUND?
While you can own stock in one or several companies, one practice that you want to avoid while investing is concentration risk, or having too much money invested in any particular holding. To mitigate this investors can purchase mutual funds or exchange traded funds.
Funds are essentially a basket of hundreds of stock that are professionally managed. The idea with using funds is that you can eliminate concentration risk by buying baskets of securities. This works similarly for bond funds as well. If you own a basket of companies or fixed return investments in a fund, or own several funds in your portfolio, your performance will not suffer drastically if any particular holding does not perform well. In most situations for the average investor using funds in your portfolio for investments is much more prudent that owning individual stocks and bonds.
No matter what you own, the key to having the potential for long term, positive performance is to have a highly diversified portfolio that is aligned with a level of risk you are comfortable with. You want to invest your money in different parts of the markets and own a combination of equity and fixed return investments. How you are invested today will change over time as your goals change. Make sure you are asking your financial professional about not only what you own, but what that means and how it fits into your overall strategy. I tell my clients all of the time, no question is a silly question and armed with these basic concepts you can feel more comfortable in approaching the professionals you work with to take a deeper dive.
Iris Buczkowski is the founder and CEO of Birch Wealth Management (birchwealth.com). Birch Wealth Management is an Investment Adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All views, expressions, and opinions included in this communication are subject to change. This communication is not intended as an offer or solicitation to buy, hold or sell any financial instrument or investment advisory services. Original content provided by Iris is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice.
