Rhonda Coleman Wandel Podcast
Rhonda Coleman Wandel Podcast
Renee Cohen-Building Your Financial Legacy
Need to check your money mindset or create your financial roadmap? Meet Renee Cohen, financial planner to women in sports, media, and tech. Renee talks about how she pivoted from her dream job in sports media to her new dream job as a financial planner. Learn about finding your purpose, building your legacy, and developing a healthy money mindset. Listen all at once, or pick a chapter of the episode that resonates with you. We hope you walk away feeling empowered to take steps to improve your money mojo no matter where you are on your financial journey.
renee-cohen-building-your-financial-legacy
Thu, May 30, 2024 10:45AM • 24:44
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
money, women, life, relationship, people, financial planner, talk, financial advisor, renee, pivot, education, evolve, purpose, today, generational wealth, legacy, partner, financial, curveballs, abundance
SPEAKERS
Renee Cohen, Rhonda Coleman Wandel
Rhonda Coleman Wandel 00:05
Hello, I'm Rhonda Coleman Wandel and welcome to my podcast where we share our stories to inform, uplift and empower professional women everywhere. On today's episode, I'll be talking to Renee Cohen, financial advisor to women in sports media and technology. And we're going to talk about money, what it is and how to manage it. Hi, Renee, how are you?
Renee Cohen 00:29
I am great Rhonda, how are you? Doing? Great.
Rhonda Coleman Wandel 00:32
Thank you. Thanks so much for joining me on the show today.
Renee Cohen 00:36
Thank you for having me. I'm excited.
Rhonda Coleman Wandel 00:40
Great. So we're gonna start off just Renee, tell us what you do. Sure.
Renee Cohen 00:46
So I am a financial planner, certified financial planner for women in sports, media and tech. But really, my passion is to help women really be smart and feel confident around their money decisions to own their financial freedom, and create a game plan to build wealth. I think a lot of times women don't, maybe just in the financial industry. So it's the word financial, the title, financial advisor, financial planner can create a lot of misconceptions and confusion. But ultimately, what I do is really partner with people, women, obviously, their partners, to help them create a roadmap, getting from point A to point B, A lot of times in our financial world, we we just let things kind of we do things without really understanding how one decision impacts another decision. I'm sitting here in Los Angeles, I wouldn't drive to you in Chicago without some sort of game plan and roadmap. And I think that's what's really important in our financial life. Because we all know that, you know, life can throw some curveballs, it's good curveballs, bad curveballs, we obviously all have experienced in different ways, the pandemic over the last year. So having a financial game plan is important. So what I do is just partner with people to make sure that their goals are aligned with their plan. Okay,
Rhonda Coleman Wandel 02:11
cool. Until later, I certainly want to know, what you recommend a plan, you know, should look like, and we'll talk about that later. But I'd like to start off talking about purpose. That's something that I wanted to focus on. I'm going to write a blog about finding your purpose, I think now on the time of COVID people are, you know, starting to pivot a lot of times, not by choice, you know, if they're laid off and have to figure out what's next. So, and I think the best place to start is to go within and figure out what your purpose is. So I know that you started off in a job, that was your dream job, I'd like for you to talk about that. And then, but it started to no longer become your dream job. So if you could talk about that evolution, that pivot that you made to what you're doing now.
Renee Cohen 03:01
Yeah, I mean, I started my career in a sports media realm. I mean, as as young as eight years old, I, I've always been a sports fan. So as young as eight, it was my real my first awareness of saying, hey, I want to work in sports. And the time was, like, I want to run the NBA not really understanding what that meant. You know, I think our generation to was kind of taught that you started a company, you're going to be at that company for the rest of your career, and you have a career and you're going to be in that career for the rest of your life when I'm pro life. But you know, I think my I think purpose evolves, it changes, I think we all navigate through this thing called life and we have we, we evolve. And I think we have to, especially as women, when we're wearing so many hats in our household, and we always have to kind of do that self check in I think purpose, especially over the last year where so many women one were forced out of the workforce, or two had to take a step back because of to deal with, to deal with the pandemic and their families. It gives a, it's a, to really be able to understand your purpose and is to is to really understand that you evolve as a person and as to kind of take a check as to where am I am I where am I supposed to be? Or am I being feeling like I'm being pulled in a different direction? Maybe I've always had a passion that I thought wasn't really anything. And maybe at this point in my life, it is more of a passion and maybe I should pursue that path.
Rhonda Coleman Wandel 04:27
Okay, great. So I think that's certainly something that listeners should take away from this podcast is that that it's okay to pivot that we evolve and we change I think you've used the expression before that life is not linear. You know. You can go off on tangents and still be headed to where you're supposed to be. I know personally, I was a teacher first. I was a teacher for 10 years and then I said this is no longer fulfilling For me, I'm pouring everything into people every day other than myself, you know, I was an entrepreneur, but I was teaching English, you know, and didn't have an MBA or anything like that. So I'm like, I need to do something different. And so I started to explore what that different thing was. And for me, it ended up being law school in Chicago, where I just grew and expanded, and it was just the best experience ever for me. So I think that when you if you ignore that nagging or tugging inside of you that saying, I need to do something different, then I feel like you're just kind of dying inside. So I feel like pay attention to it, and go and explore and figure out what it is that you want to do next, and the universe will support. Support that you know else. Yeah, yeah.
Renee Cohen 05:53
100%. And I think where we sometimes get caught in doing that, because what I do today, if if you asked me 1015 years ago, I would have never said, oh, yeah, in 1015 years, I will be a financial planner, a financial advisor, I wouldn't have known that for myself, it was more about just the evolution and tapping into what were my where was I today? In that moment? What are my values? What is, uh, what's meaningful to me? And what, what drives me? A lot of those questions are things that, you know, you have to do the soul searching around, and you don't have to have all the answers, I think sometimes we feel feel that we have to have all those answers. But certainly, to your point, it is about you know, just not being afraid of making a change, doesn't mean that it's not a fearful process. It just means not being fearful of, you know, getting to a place or crossroad in your life, whether it's professionally, personally, whatever it may be, and saying, Hey, I made something else may be out there, that's better surfing, because as you do and do that self exploration, it expands your mind. You don't know what you don't know.
Rhonda Coleman Wandel 07:07
Exactly. Gosh, I learned so much in law school. And this the people that I've met and connected to because of that experience, I've learned so much from other people that had I just kind of stayed in Memphis and my teacher job, which was great, you know, it was good. But I certainly wouldn't be the version of myself that I am now had I know that that pivot, yes. And
Renee Cohen 07:32
to have a platform now to help other professional women, right. You know, life is high. You know, 2020 is always, you know, is tyneside's Always 2020. And, but yeah, I think that that's the biggest thing is, it's okay to try to say, hey, this was my chapter, and this was my purpose, then. Now, you know, maybe I'm turning the book or turning the page. And there's a there's a new purpose out there for me.
Rhonda Coleman Wandel 07:56
Okay, cool. So now I'd like to move into talking about what money is and our relationship with money, and how that shaped and then how your relationship with money kind of impacts or influences how you manage your money. So that was a lot three, a three prong question. But let's just start out with the question, what is money so I'm, I've done like, I kind of meditate on abundance all the time. And I've done like a 21 group meditation on abundance, you know, read books, like this book I'm looking at right now by Vicki Robin called your money or your life. She's got a really cool definition of money. She says, she kind of says it's money equals the number of hours that it takes you to work to make it therefore it equals your life energy. And when you think about it like that, your life energy is pretty precious. The amount of time you have left on this earth is limited. And what you do with it, you're working probably making money. So and then what are you going to do with that money or that life energy that you just expended to get it? You know, I would hope that we would preserve it and guard it and really take good care of it. Right. So what is your definition of money, Rene?
Renee Cohen 09:26
Yeah, I mean, my definition of money is it is just a tool. I think too many people allow money to be in the driver's seat of their lives. And let them allow money to dictate either how they feel, or what they want and where they want to be. Ultimately, money is just a tool that allows us to get from point A to point B to allow us to fulfill the dreams that that we see for ourselves, that our potential so I love you I love that analogy that is life energy. And I think to nurture have to have a nurturing relationship and empowering relationship with money is all something that is our birthright. And abundance is our is our birthright does not mean that we all come to this relationship with that mindset. It's usually for all of us. In some capacities, we all come to this conversation with different backgrounds, different philosophies, different upbringings. And so it is just like, in our personal lives with the with love, you don't just one day know how to love someone else. Right? It takes a lot of experience and understanding of yourself that I think sometimes because money is just a it's currency that a lot of people think why should just know how to have this relationship with money and not explore where what their upbringing or what their current relationship is with money.
Rhonda Coleman Wandel 11:01
Yep, right. So something you kind of touched on just now is your upbringing influences your relationship with money significantly, like how your parents viewed money, how you felt when you know, when money was being discussed, so for instance, I know like there's a quote in the Bible that people hold on to money is the root of all evil. And so if you hear that, like from a child up through adulthood, then you think that having lots of money is a bad thing, or money can lead you to do bad things. And, but then, you know, as you're growing up, you need money to survive in this world. So that's a conflict. That's a conflict. And then if we go with my analogy, or Vicki Robbins analogy, that money is life energy. So now we're saying life energy equals something bad. So that's, that doesn't jive. So, you know, I really feel that people need to kind of assess what their true root relationship is with money, like, Were your parents strapped for cash? Were they always worrying about it? So therefore, you as a child, were worrying about it? Was there tons of it? You know, so you weren't taught to save and value it? You know, what, what is it? Because that without really acknowledging and facing and tackling that, I don't think you can really come up with a real plan for the future for how you manage your money. Yeah,
Renee Cohen 12:38
no, I think that the fund, the fundamental part, and that's what I when I when I talk with clients is that the first thing we talk about is their money mindset. And it is, it's releasing any sort of shame or judgment as to where they are today and what their current relationship with money is. Because that's okay, it doesn't mean that you can't, you can't turn whatever may be, you know, a stressful or what may be disabling in your, in your life today into an empowering relationship. But we have to have that understanding, I can't help someone get from point A to point B, without understanding what is what drives them in? Where are they with their money mindset today? And what are those money beliefs? What were those messages that you heard? What did you see growing up? Because that all shapes our adult hood relationship with money, and how we value it and what we do with it. So we really can't create a new path for ourselves. And I believe that every single every single woman should start to build generational wealth, and, and to really have legacy and that can mean something different to all of us. It doesn't mean to have, you know, billions or millions of dollars, it means what does that mean to you? But creating some sort of legacy and money is the is a tool that allows that right? Is that what we had in our lives or what the lack of what we had in our lives, we always want to kind of pass on to the next generation or to help enable the next generation of to be even more enriched. And the way to do that is through education and making sure that we have a positive relationship with our own money.
Rhonda Coleman Wandel 14:21
Yeah, great. I like that you said you know, legacy, so that kind of moves us into our next topic, wealth. My legacy to my children is me expanding because as I expand and grow and move forward, so do they. So I, you know, as a teacher, now, I'm a lawyer in big tech, that's a big salary increase or difference, you know, I can afford to pay, you know, a portion of the tuition at the elite boarding school, they do get scholarship money and I can offer scholarships, we love that, you know, yes word to pay a portion of the tuition at Brown where my daughter goes. But even more importantly, I my, my mind set has evolved and developed to where I, I want to put them in those spaces because I know in those spaces, they will be able to continue to grow and evolve and develop so that my grandchildren, you know, will reap the benefits of what I started. So that's kind of what my legacy looks like, I probably won't be a billionaire before I die. But that's okay, rain grandchildren will be up. No, I don't come from generational wealth where my parents,
Renee Cohen 15:45
they certainly worked hard and maybe provided and what I see with my parents was that, you know, they wanted to provide a little bit more for their kids and they have for themselves and for my parents what that meant was paying for college for myself and my sister. So we got out into the real world without student loan debt. Not that student loan debt is bad, but that certainly is what helps a lot of people, right, that was the one thing that my parents were, you know, striving for in their lives. And so then it's for myself, my sister, and I take the take the baton and take it a little bit step further.
Rhonda Coleman Wandel 16:19
is So money management. So what do you see with with women when you are counseling them on managing money? Where where's the education level? Like with respect to money, you know, people are they used super savvy, and managing their money not not so great. So what do you see? And then where do you start? Like, so if I came into you? And I said, Okay, you know, this is how much I make. This is my dad, like, what? What's the process? Like? Yeah, I
Renee Cohen 16:54
think one is, when it comes to women's relationship with money. I think it's all over the gamut in But primarily, I think, women we have been taught or have been told for so long is that we are risk adverse. And that's really not the case. I think that as women, we really are willing to take a lot of risks. We take calculated risks, right? So we'd like to have, whether it's financially, whether it's professionally, whether it's personally, we'd like to take a lot of calculated more calculated risk. So I always say that we're more risk aware. And we just want to have the education because because we tend to be the nurturers in our in our households is that we just want to know, okay, if we're not just fending for ourselves that am I, I just want to know that I'm not going to end up you know, underneath like the, you know, the underpass in a tent, right? Like, I just want to make sure that if I make this one move, that I'm not going to completely lose everything. And I think we kind of kind of think about it in that way. But we are, we do take a lot more risk. And we're willing to take even more risk, I think it is about the education. So I think we're women, because of that we there's a lot of jargon that's thrown out there. I think it's also in combination with the information age, we can literally, you know, Google anything we can see so much on social media. And we just don't we were drinking information from a firehose, we don't know where to turn. So I see a lot of women tend to, you know, hoard their cash, because they don't know what to do with it, are afraid of losing the money in the market, or they're afraid of putting money, you know, making the wrong decision. So we're not. So we ended up just sitting in cash. So I think that a lot of women are actually more financially savvy than give themselves credit for it's just that we're not moving the needle forward by making our money work for us while we're working. And because we don't know, we don't know the right vehicles to put our money into that best serve us. We can sit at a dinner party. And you know, a friend may say, Hey, this is what I'm doing. Or you should be putting investing money into this or, you know, you hear advice over there. You're like, I don't know, is this what I should be doing for myself? Is this make a good decision? So that's, I think women are a lot more financially savvy than we give ourselves credit for. But it's just a matter of actually making making the money work for us is where I find that a lot of women need more education. Okay,
Rhonda Coleman Wandel 19:14
I'm kind of curious, do click so I'm married and it's a second marriage. So how are married women handling managing their finances or financial planning? Are they doing it with their husbands or partners? Are they Is there a way like doing a loan because I'm pretty independent, I think and so my mindset is like, this is my money I can definitely put some of it into the our pot but you know, I want them my pot I want to make sure I'm taking care of and my children you know, that I brought to the marriage are taken care of so with with blended families or even non blended families, what how what are you saying
Renee Cohen 19:59
Yeah, I think the modern woman wants him independence and I am a big proponent of that is to make sure that you always have fu money, right? Like, you know, not that you want to be in that situation. But whether it's personally or professionally, is that you're not financially relying on any, any anyone else. And that you can be okay. Right? I think previous generations when we got married younger, or, you know, it was just like, oh, yeah, you have one checking account, one savings account, and everything's yours. More, the modern woman wants their independence, right. And you can have, whether it's a blended family, or, you know, maybe it's even if it's a non blended family, is the fact that one women are getting married later on in life, if it's a first marriage, or it could be, again, you know, a second marriage, and there's a blended family, you want to maintain some sort of independence. And that, I think, is what more and more women are doing, I think, in being able to have more conversations being being active in the conversations with their partner about about money, and what they want their joint goals to be. So you know, I think it's, it looks different for every for for for everyone, because every relationship is different. But I think fundamentally, it empowers both both partners, right as to make sure that these are the things that are important to the both of us and to maintain independence.
Rhonda Coleman Wandel 21:27
Okay, great. So we've talked about a lot of good stuff today. And it's time to wrap up. What would you like to leave our listeners with today?
Renee Cohen 21:43
Is that you can start financial, I think it was one of the things that you brought up was that you can start to really there is no, I think there's a big misconception in the financial world is that one that you can't afford a financial advisor or planner, I can't afford to have a financial planner, I don't need one. Whatever is you know, maybe what's holding someone back and thinking that is that everyone deserves to have a plan. And everyone deserves to have abundance and that you can start no matter where you are today. Even if you feel like you're saddled in debt. Even if you feel like you're not making a ton of money or you're not even at the potential what you could make is that getting the guidance and being able to navigate from you know, one decision to the next decision, it's worthwhile. And that nothing that you do today. You know, what you do today, I should say it helps to plant the seed for tomorrow. So don't let holding your don't hold yourself back from thinking that my enlightened bum my circumstances won't change. They won't change by you not not taking some sort of action. And that find in the find in your financial life is a marathon. It is not a sprint. And especially in this day and age where we can drink information from a firehose, there is no easy way to build wealth. It takes time. It takes patience, discipline and consistency. And it takes the right education and the right partnership and your circumstances certainly can change.
Rhonda Coleman Wandel 23:11
Awesome. Thank you, Renee.
Renee Cohen 23:14
Thank you Rhonda so much. I know that there's so many so many things that we can talk about but I appreciate you know, just you enlightening your audience on this topic and hopefully you know, inspiring a few women to to take action and to think about their money differently.