Women's financial health is at a five-year low. Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of Ellevest, joins Cheddar News' Hena Doba on a Walk and Talk to discuss this stat and other findings from a new index released by Ellevest, and find out what needs to be done to turn this all around.

The Walk and Talk: Ellevest CEO

women's financial health Chloe is now at its five year low and that's according to a new index released by Elvis, that's an investment platform and financial literacy program primarily for women and men adobe caught up with Elvis ceo Sallie Krawcheck on a walk and talk here in Manhattan to find out more about the biggest financial stressors that are impacting women today. Take a look sally for someone to say thank you so much for joining us. This is such a huge pleasure and privilege to see you again on cheddar you. I'm so happy to be here. What a beautiful day. Perfect day! A perfect fall day in new york city. Let's talk about Albus recently released a financial wellness survey that found women's financial health is at a five year low. Why? How did that even happen? Oh, it's tough out there and it's not even in the markets, it's tough. It is the impact of the pandemic which drove women out of the workforce to a greater degree. It's the impact of inflation which hurts women more than men because women have less wealth to start with. Women of color hurts even more. And it's also the rollback of reproductive rights, which we think of as being a social issue. But for some good segment of women is a financial and economic issue as well. So where do we go from here? What's the solution? I don't know, you know, we have this view that by definition it must get better and indeed we have recovered from every recession besides this one and every bear market besides this one. And so that you can see the trend of increasing wealth, but women don't invest as much as men do. And the two great wealth creators in our country historically have been real estate and investing. So in L. A. Vast we are the only wealth tech company that was built by women centered on women and their needs. And for us, helping women build wealth is a key to helping them live full and happy and successful and productive and fun lives sally. You talked about this a moment ago, but what are some of the biggest financial stressors for women money? You know, money overall is women's number one source of stress. Um It's because we have less of it, but it's also because we received these terrible negative messages since childhood, you know that 90 plus percent of articles written to women about money on women's websites are negative and they're both negative in terms of, gosh, financial planning doesn't have to be very, very hard, but they're also shaming you're spending too much too many facials. Too many lattes. You know, too many manicures, they never say oh structural issues you make less money than men do. You have to spend more money on the kids than men do. But they make her feel ashamed of money and you see there can be backlash if she's negotiating for race. So one of the financial stressors were the ones you think inflation, you know, on basics and childcare, but it's also the shame that she can feel silly. I have to ask you, how do financial concerns vary by generation? It's a great question. What you see is gen x women and baby boomer woman's according to our recent LMS financial wellness survey are worried about things that are right in front of them inflation. The risk of recession for women, younger gen z millennial women, they're worried about those two, but they're worried about the effect of reproductive rights and the rollback of those. And they're worried about child care costs as well. Now, what's really interesting if you look across the generations, there is one financial concern that two thirds of them share And that is the impact of climate change, which is so interesting to me that they identified it as a financial concern. And no matter what age you are, you're worried about this. So how can women use their financial power for good? Oh my gosh. Uh, well, and it's a great question because women direct 80-85% of consumer spending and we all control $78 trillion investable assets and we're more than half the workforce. And so it's always interesting that we're talking about being empowered when we've got that power. And so I think it's very clear buy from companies work at companies if you're able that reflect your values invest in companies that reflect your values. And I know there's a whole backlash against impact Investing and so on. But the truth is, every single one of us is investing with an impact. Every single one of us, you just might not know what it is. Every single one of us, we love to say to all of us is investing with the gender lens. We're just investing in 98% men. We love men, we love men. But if you're going to be diversified by everything, why wouldn't you diversify to invest in women as well? What is the best financial advice you've ever been given? Oh, start early. You know, you the the idea of calm, start investing early. The idea of compounding is not an immediately intuitive one, but you know Einstein has called it one of the great wonders of the world and the ability to put some money to work and have that you earn money on and then you earn money on that money and you earn money on that money on that money and the whole thing snowfall, snowballs, I don't think it's ever really fully understood. All right, That was our Hannah Doma. We sally Krawcheck ceo of L vest on their walk and talk