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1:03

Hi, everyone. I'm Karen Feinerman.

1:08

Thank

1:11

you so much for joining me today on How

1:13

She Does It, where we discuss all things

1:15

women, money, and power.

1:17

Today we're going to

1:19

be talking about all three and the ways

1:21

they are inextricably linked. Lately,

1:24

our show has shined a bright light on

1:26

women's careers. And that's because

1:28

learning how some of America's brightest CEOs,

1:31

founders, and corporate leaders have climbed the ladder

1:33

is one of your favorite things to discuss.

1:36

But the truth is we can't

1:38

talk about women in power without also

1:40

looking at women's financial power.

1:43

Because as much as I hate to say it, even

1:45

now in 2023, women are woefully behind when it

1:48

comes to investing and realizing the

1:51

kind of financial freedom that can only come

1:53

from building wealth.

1:55

Despite holding 42% of our nation's wealth, only 26% of American

1:57

women are in the middle women

2:00

invest in the stock market according

2:02

to a study from S&P Global. Yet

2:04

we know that if women invested at

2:06

the same rate as men, there would be an

2:08

additional $3.22 trillion, yes

2:12

trillion, in global assets under

2:14

management according to data from BNY

2:16

Mellon. In other words, when we talk

2:18

about the economic power of women, we're

2:21

really talking about the economic power of our

2:23

entire nation. At the same

2:25

time, with the great wealth transfer

2:27

that's coming, wherein members of the greatest

2:29

generation and baby boomers will

2:32

pass on an estimated $84 trillion,

2:35

we know that more than two-thirds of

2:37

that wealth will be held by women

2:40

by the year 2030. In

2:42

other words, we need more women investing

2:45

more money as quickly as humanly

2:47

possible. I am so thrilled

2:49

to be joined today by an incredible woman

2:52

who is working to make that very thing happen,

2:54

Gargi Pal Chowdhury, head

2:56

of iShares Investment Strategies Americas

2:59

at BlackRock. Gargi has over

3:01

two decades of experience in the financial

3:03

services industry, and she leads a

3:05

team focused on global thought leadership.

3:08

In other words, she's delivering precisely

3:11

the kind of insights that women need

3:13

to make smarter, more informed

3:15

investment decisions. Gargi is

3:17

also, and I love this so much, a triathlete

3:20

who has completed multiple marathons, ultra

3:23

marathons, half Iron Man's, and

3:25

the New York Iron Man. Gargi, welcome.

3:28

Thank you so much for being here. Gargi

3:31

Pal Chowdhury Thank you. It's great to be here. So let

3:33

me just ask you first, tell me about

3:35

being a triathlete. How

3:37

did that happen? Gargi Pal Chowdhury So

3:40

I moved to the city right after

3:42

9-11, and one of the first marathons

3:44

that I ever spectated was New York City in 2001,

3:48

after 9-11. And if that doesn't

3:51

inspire you to become a runner, I don't know what does.

3:53

I had never been a runner before that, so I told

3:55

myself, marathons for me, for

3:57

sure. You know, seven or eight marathons

4:00

later, a few stress fractures later.

4:02

So a bunch of my friends doing triathlon

4:05

and it just felt like a healthier lifestyle,

4:07

a little bit more diversified. I actually

4:09

learned how to

4:11

swim. You learned how

4:14

to swim. Wow. Before I was like

4:16

a personal goal, I wanted to learn how to swim before

4:18

I turned 30. So I did. And

4:20

I did my first triathlon, which

4:22

is an Olympic distance or shorter distance one,

4:25

right before I turned 30, like a few weeks or

4:27

week before my 30th birthday. And

4:29

then I'm goal oriented. So the next thing

4:32

was, okay, got to do the next thing. So I

4:34

did an Ironman four years later. Wow.

4:37

So I got to ask you, my sister is an Ironman also.

4:40

She wanted me to ask you, what happens

4:43

when you hit the wall at 20 miles

4:46

on the run? What

4:47

do you tell yourself?

4:49

Yeah, so as food and

4:51

family at the finish line, I'm bad. But

4:54

honestly, a lot of the times when

4:57

I hit the wall, I say

4:59

a few things. First, I'm prepared

5:01

for this. I have trained

5:03

for months for this. So

5:05

I can do it. So this is temporary, but I

5:08

have got the training in me that'll get

5:10

me to the finish line. So relying

5:12

on the training, that's one. Also, a

5:16

big part of the driving force for

5:19

me to run, to do bike races

5:21

is, and the privilege of

5:23

it, right? We live in a country where

5:25

I can go and run and I feel safe.

5:29

The privilege of being able to from

5:31

just being physically able to do it.

5:33

I think that's such a privilege. Not everyone has

5:35

that. So recognizing that

5:38

a little bit, and I know that sometimes that's tough, might

5:40

do any of that stuff, but re

5:42

reminding myself that I choose

5:44

to be here. I choose to do this. This is a hobby. This

5:47

is a hobby. So that, and then I suppose

5:50

lastly, just knowing that

5:53

I've done this before and this do help

5:55

us. Like this is dark and bad right

5:57

now, but the training is

6:00

there and this will pass and I'll be so happy

6:02

at the finish line. So this

6:04

is a good segue. You have the trading and

6:06

you know this too shall pass. Let's talk about

6:08

your career in the financial services industry.

6:11

You came to financial services industry after you

6:13

graduated in 2001. Is

6:16

that right? But you weren't always an investor yourself.

6:19

Why was that?

6:20

Yeah. So I graduated college

6:23

in May, 01. I started on

6:26

the Maryland trading desk and

6:28

I traded bonds

6:31

and I love doing that.

6:33

I definitely felt like the markets were

6:35

for me because I was in it and I loved

6:38

it. But investing my own

6:40

money I didn't think

6:42

was for me. Right. Yeah.

6:44

And I've spent a lot of time now

6:47

looking back about that and wondering

6:49

why I felt that way. And I think what I've

6:52

realized is a couple of things. Number one, I'm

6:54

an immigrant, a student from the accent. I

6:57

grew up in India. I moved here when I was 18 to

6:59

go to college. And I think

7:01

when you're an immigrant and obviously

7:04

I'm generalizing massively here, but at least in

7:06

my family, there was a lot of focus on saving.

7:09

And I think that's true as I've spoken to many

7:11

other friends with similar backgrounds. I

7:14

think that tends to be the case. There's a

7:16

huge amount of focus on saving, not

7:19

so much on investing. So I think that

7:21

was one, just the background, the cultural background.

7:24

So just being cognizant of what were

7:26

you taught growing up? And we were taught to

7:28

save, but we weren't having conversations

7:31

around the dining table, around investment.

7:33

So that's one. The second,

7:35

I would say, is also around

7:38

a representation. So I actually

7:40

remember this. I remember my CFA

7:42

book. I don't have a CFA, by the way, but I did try to

7:44

study for a minute. And then I'm like, nope,

7:46

nope, don't need this. I remember my

7:49

CFA book and it had

7:51

pictures of three white

7:53

men on it. And I

7:55

don't know if it still looks like that. I'm hoping that it

7:57

doesn't. I

8:00

think there were so many subliminal messages

8:02

everywhere that said, like, investments

8:05

is not for someone that looks

8:07

like me. And even if you look

8:09

at TV back then, and obviously

8:11

it looked very different now, thanks to some of the work

8:13

that you've done and many of our other colleagues

8:16

are doing and have done, but even if

8:18

you looked at TV for the last 20 years, how

8:20

many female investors

8:23

did you see? I think it's a lack of representation

8:25

that I severely had

8:28

back in those days. And some

8:30

of it was cultural, some of it was background, like

8:32

this focus on saving versus

8:34

investment in terms of growing your wealth.

8:37

It also seems to be sort of a woman's

8:39

thing, I think. And interestingly, according

8:42

to research from BlackRock, more

8:44

women than men put a higher priority on

8:47

saving money. More retirement,

8:49

whatever. So 71% of

8:51

women keep their assets in cash compared

8:53

to 60% of men. So why

8:55

do you think we continually see that divide?

8:58

For just the reasons you said or is there something else? Yeah,

9:01

a few things. So some of the reasons I said, I

9:03

think it's definitely the

9:06

lack of representation. This

9:08

idea that this might not

9:10

be for me in a way that men perhaps don't

9:13

feel the same because they have had that

9:15

representation, whether it be on TV,

9:17

whether it be on the covers of their CFA or their

9:20

other books. But

9:22

it could also be a few other

9:24

things, such as women

9:26

spending more time away from

9:29

the workplace. And we know that

9:31

to be the case just from women being caregivers,

9:33

whether it's for a child, whether it's for parents taking time

9:36

away from the markets or from their

9:38

jobs, and perhaps feeling like

9:40

they need to be a little bit more cautious and

9:43

save it in cash or CDs or

9:45

what have you instead of actually going into

9:47

the markets. So that could be one. And

9:49

I'd obviously say now with

9:52

all of the research that we have is that's

9:54

a little bit of a short-term view. If you're, yes,

9:56

if you're leaving the market, you want to

9:58

be a little bit more cautious. But if you take a look. longer term

10:00

view, being invested is actually

10:02

the better outcome. If you're going

10:04

to be out of the market for a little bit

10:06

longer than you expect it to be, you want

10:09

to be invested because that's a

10:11

better outcome for growing your personal wealth. I

10:14

also think that perhaps women,

10:16

and we've read a lot of studies

10:19

on this, and I'm sure you've seen that these as well,

10:21

tend to apply

10:24

for jobs when they have eight out

10:26

of ten of the qualifying factors.

10:29

Whereas men we have seen in studies

10:31

don't. If they're qualified by five of the

10:34

ten things, 50%, they'll apply. I

10:36

wonder if the same applies to the markets

10:38

where you invest if you're 100%

10:41

sure of exactly what

10:43

you want to buy or where

10:45

within the markets you want to allocate, which frankly

10:48

no one ever knows because you

10:51

could be in the markets like you and I are every

10:53

single day and still certain markets can surprise

10:55

you. If you're not, if you're just someone that's looking

10:58

for investments for themselves,

11:00

for their savings, you might not know

11:02

what X sector, you might not even know there

11:04

are sectors or industries or what it'll do. I wonder

11:08

if that plays a role as well, this ability

11:10

to be 100% or 85% confident before stepping in. Right.

11:14

You know if you're in the markets every day, you know you cannot.

11:17

That never happens. You might think you see

11:19

something like that, but you haven't fully looked then

11:21

if you don't see any damage. Exactly. Women

11:24

have this perception of it's risky

11:26

to be in the market and I don't want the risk

11:29

where really the reality is it's risky

11:31

to not be in the market. Exactly.

11:34

You know you're just falling behind in a compounded

11:36

way. Exactly. And I think

11:38

studies from various different sources

11:40

including BlackRock show that when women do

11:43

invest, they tend to have

11:45

a better outcome. But it's just

11:48

getting women to the markets in more

11:50

and more numbers and obviously again there's research

11:52

that shows that if women were investing at the

11:54

same rates as men, that's

11:57

extra 2.3 trillion of investment

11:59

assets in the US. And we need

12:01

to get that cash invested not

12:03

just for the economy but for women themselves because

12:06

to your point It's riskier

12:08

if you didn't invest because now

12:10

I was just looking at the numbers So from

12:12

when I graduated college to

12:15

the first few years when I didn't invest

12:17

had I invested for those Seven

12:19

or eight years just into IVV

12:21

the S&P 500 I shares ticker It

12:24

would have been up some and basically

12:26

about nine percent annualized and that's

12:28

money that I left on the table because

12:31

of nothing But fear I know when you

12:33

look back that that's hard. Although I

12:35

was just out of school Trading

12:37

in options all kind of things probably some

12:40

of which I should not have done, but I

12:42

learned you know So Gargi, I know in

12:44

your role you have a focus on ETFs So

12:47

for our listeners who aren't as experienced

12:49

in the market Can you give us your favorite

12:51

definition of ETFs not just the words

12:54

but the instrument and how does that differ

12:56

from let's say index funds? Yes, of

12:58

course. So first of all, what

13:00

are ETFs? They stand for exchange traded funds

13:03

and the one line that I think captures

13:06

it best is that they give you

13:08

Diversification like a mutual fund but

13:10

you can trade them like a stock right

13:13

so that is the benefit of having

13:15

an ETF and Then when I you know

13:17

the question that you asked around how

13:20

is this different from an index fund that comes

13:22

up a lot so Essentially

13:24

if you're any investor You're

13:27

making a few choices. The first choice

13:29

you're making is Do you

13:31

want exposure to the whole market

13:33

via an index? We talked about the S&P 500 Is

13:36

that what you want or do you want

13:38

to pay someone to actively

13:41

pick? Stocks for you if you're not

13:43

the person that can do it for yourself Then do you want

13:45

to pay an active manager? So do you want that

13:47

index or do you want active management?

13:50

That's the first decision anyone has

13:52

to make and then the second Question

13:54

that comes after you've answered the first question

13:57

is then do you want to do that in an

13:59

ETF?

14:01

or in a mutual fund structure. So

14:03

the first question first, regardless of what

14:05

your answer is, if you decide index fund, you

14:08

can do it in an ETF. If you decide

14:10

that you want active management, you can also

14:12

do it in an ETF. So that itself

14:14

doesn't preclude you from one or the

14:16

other. Then it comes to the second question is

14:19

the wrapper, the style of

14:21

the product that you want. And in this case,

14:23

if you decide that you want to go

14:25

with an ETF as your wrapper, once

14:28

you've decided between index and active style

14:30

of management, why do you

14:32

choose an ETF? And more and more,

14:34

we're seeing investors moving into

14:36

the ETF wrapper away

14:39

from the mutual fund wrapper because

14:41

they like the tax advantage

14:43

and frankly the efficiency and the low

14:45

cost benefits of it. And

14:47

I think we're going to continue to see that

14:50

move happen where people are choosing

14:52

the ETF wrapper for tax

14:54

efficiency. So tell us what the tax efficiency

14:57

is versus mutual fund. Yes. It's

14:59

a little complex. So there are a couple of advantages.

15:01

I'll go into the tax efficiency in one

15:04

second, but before that too,

15:06

there is the cost efficiency. So

15:08

when you look and if you're just looking

15:10

to invest, let's say $100,000 and we did the map of it,

15:15

if you're looking at the cost benefits

15:17

that you may have, ETFs

15:19

tend to be lower cost than comparable

15:22

mutual funds that are giving you access to

15:24

that same index. And

15:26

if you're paying, let's say a 50 basis

15:28

point fee versus a 1% or a 100 basis point fee, that

15:32

can annualize compounded to

15:34

about $20,000 of savings

15:37

that you can have going to the lower cost option

15:40

over 20 years. And I think keeping

15:42

more of what you earn, I think is

15:44

a huge one. The second one of course

15:47

is around the tax structure. ETFs

15:49

are bought in soul rather than created

15:51

or redeemed. And that is

15:54

what gives it that tax advantage. You

15:56

still end up paying a tax, but you can

15:58

decide what you earn. when you want to

16:01

create a taxable event

16:04

based on yourself, not based on

16:06

when a mutual fund is paying or not paying

16:09

a tax event. So I think it's

16:11

the structure of the ETF and

16:13

how the trading takes place inside

16:16

of the ETF versus how it takes

16:19

place inside of a mutual fund

16:21

that makes one tax efficient

16:24

versus the other, which isn't as tax

16:26

efficient, because much of the activity

16:29

in an ETF happens with

16:31

create and redeem as opposed to cash changing hands.

16:34

You're not creating as many taxable

16:37

opportunities. So

16:39

each person has their own basis and they can

16:42

trade around as they will. Okay, all

16:44

right, so let me switch away from the markets for a second.

16:47

I wanna talk about the murky waters of the

16:49

economy right now. So I've

16:51

heard from several of our listeners that they're

16:54

worried about a recession that might be on the horizon.

16:56

So I have to ask, what do you think is going

16:58

to happen? So coming into this year,

17:01

many investors had thought that 2023

17:04

would bring about a recession. And part

17:06

of the reason was because rates had risen

17:08

so quickly in 2022 and 2023. Then

17:12

as of right now, when we look at what we've

17:14

gotten so far from the US economy, growth

17:16

has actually been really strong, much

17:19

stronger than we had expected. In fact, much

17:21

higher than what the potential level of

17:23

growth is, which basically means that how much

17:26

should this economy, all else considered, grow,

17:28

which is around 2% for the US, it's been higher

17:30

than that. Significantly higher. Significantly higher

17:32

than that. And I can't explain it, more

17:35

than full employment. Yeah, more than full

17:37

employment. Some of it's of course related to

17:39

the fiscal spending that came about and

17:41

some of that continuing. A big

17:43

part of that is the consumer remaining very

17:45

strong. So when we see the third quarter GDP

17:48

coming in at 4.9%, the biggest

17:50

driver there is the consumer. It's

17:52

you and I and us feeling comfortable to

17:54

spend. Why are we feeling comfortable

17:57

to spend so far? It's

17:58

your second point.

17:59

it's around the labor market remaining

18:01

strong.

18:02

Its wages still growing

18:04

at 4.1%. So it's

18:07

us feeling that even if we lose

18:09

a job, we might be able to find another

18:12

job. And us looking around

18:14

and seeing that getting jobs

18:16

is possible. And then recognizing

18:19

that there is a little bit of negotiation

18:21

in terms of wages that is

18:23

going on. So the comfort that

18:26

consumers, which is of course the biggest driver

18:28

of the economy, the comfort that consumers feel.

18:31

Now looking ahead, which is really the question

18:33

you asked me, what happens from here?

18:36

I'm not going to say that we're going to go into a recession

18:38

because things have to turn significantly.

18:41

And outside of an exogenous shock, I can't

18:43

imagine those two quarters of

18:45

negative growth hitting us or just a

18:48

widespread data worsening.

18:50

And I think as we look for the remainder

18:53

of this year and perhaps even the first couple of quarters

18:55

of next year, I think we are going to see that

18:58

slowdown of growth. We're not

19:00

going to see another 5% or 4.9% growth that

19:03

we saw in the third quarter of 2023. And

19:07

some of that is going to be a result

19:09

of consumers slowing down just a little

19:12

bit. It's been amazing how much

19:14

consumers have been able to spend,

19:16

but some of that has come at the cost

19:19

of actually drawing down your savings rate.

19:21

So the US economy, the savings rate pre-pandemic

19:24

was about 7% and that

19:26

has come down. So people have felt okay.

19:29

They felt good about taking a little

19:31

from their savings accounts and spending.

19:33

And I don't think that's going

19:35

to continue in the same way that

19:37

it has for the first three quarters. So the growth trajectory

19:40

does slow down, but it's really

19:42

going to be difficult for us to

19:44

have that broad-based recessionary

19:48

level, at least right now. The only

19:50

caveat there is of course, if we see some

19:52

sort of exogenous shock, for example,

19:55

if inflation doesn't come down, which

19:57

has of course been a big problem in the economy, but

19:59

we're seeing some... of inflation slowing down. But

20:01

if we re-accelerate, prices continue

20:03

to move higher. And the Fed has to

20:06

continue to raise rates. They've already raised rates

20:08

by 525 basis points. If they had

20:10

to go to six, six and a half, that's

20:13

a risk. And I think that's when we could

20:15

see a recessionary future

20:18

for the US economy. But right now, I think it's

20:20

more of a slowdown rather than

20:22

a recession. And the consumer, while

20:24

it is going to slow down, will

20:26

still feel comfortable spending

20:30

for the first half of next year. And

20:32

job growth in the US economy will

20:35

still remain robust. Now, it's not going to be as

20:37

amazing as it is today. I think we can't

20:39

continue to grow at these levels. But I

20:42

think it's not going to go down to zero job

20:45

growth. I think we're going to continue to see jobs

20:47

growing in the US economy. Okay.

20:50

Gargi, we need to take a quick break. Her

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22:00

And we're back with Gargi Palchaudhry

22:02

from iShares. So I

22:04

want to talk a little bit more about ETFs

22:07

because it's a really interesting

22:10

tool. And Jean Chatsky,

22:12

who you know, and I teach an investing class,

22:15

and we look at individual stocks, but we also

22:17

look at iShares, various

22:19

ETFs that give us a little more specificity

22:22

when we want to have more exposure, let's say, to a sector.

22:26

And I was curious if you were seeing young

22:29

investors start

22:31

to be interested more in ITFs and

22:34

sort of differentiated ITS. Yes,

22:37

we certainly are seeing young investors,

22:40

especially post-pandemic or during

22:43

the pandemic, enter the market and

22:45

have a lot of curiosity around investing. So

22:47

we applaud that. And then what

22:50

we're finding more and more is investors

22:52

looking for these broad

22:55

exposures, such as something like an IVV

22:57

that we talked about that gives you the

22:59

access to S&P 500, but

23:02

also very specific areas

23:04

of the market. For example, if you're

23:07

really interested in AI,

23:09

obviously that's been a topic

23:11

right now, investors focusing on

23:13

ETFs, which gives you

23:16

robotics and artificial intelligence,

23:19

or a lot of focus recently on

23:21

quality companies. That has been a big

23:23

theme, and it's something that my team in Investment Strategy,

23:25

we've been talking about, QUAL,

23:28

which is the iShares Quality Equity Ticker,

23:30

which again, gives you access to companies

23:32

that are larger cap, have

23:34

strong cash flow, very low debt,

23:36

and very strong balance sheets. So

23:39

we are seeing investors having

23:42

those broad-based exposures, but also

23:45

picking different styles,

23:48

different countries. So now the theme

23:50

that has been emerging, people sort of getting excited

23:53

about countries like India, has gone

23:55

a lot of interest recently. EWJ,

23:57

which is our iShares Japan ETF, has been a big part of the global market.

24:00

has gone a tremendous amount of info this

24:02

year given the performance in Japan. So

24:04

broad exposures as well as really

24:07

specific ways of playing a

24:09

sector, an industry, a

24:12

country, or a theme. You

24:14

know, it's really interesting to me and it's a new

24:16

phenomenon is I'm

24:18

seeing a lot of hedge funds that are actually

24:21

using ETFs

24:23

to build their portfolios. Yes. I

24:26

mean, it's a really efficient tool. It is a really

24:28

efficient tool that gives you liquidity. So

24:30

when you're an institutional investor, when you're

24:32

a hedge fund, you are using

24:34

ETFs such as PLT, which gives you within

24:37

the fixed income market that gives you access

24:39

to the 20 plus sector of the fixed income

24:41

treasury market. What we're seeing

24:43

there is many institutional investors

24:46

using tools like PLT

24:48

and LQD, which gives you investment grade corporate

24:51

credit as a liquidity tool. If

24:53

the market's moving very quickly and you know

24:56

you want to own duration or credit risk

24:58

in your portfolio, you are buying

25:00

the ETF as a financial

25:02

instrument, as a liquidity tool.

25:06

And the other thing that I would say, and I think a lot of people

25:08

recognize this during the pandemic is

25:10

that ETFs were giving

25:13

them that liquidity when the cash market

25:15

wasn't. So even now, right

25:18

now, when the markets are pretty volatile,

25:20

there are days when we see ETFs

25:22

as a percentage of the total

25:24

equity market trading volume being about 38, 40%.

25:29

So the recognition that ETFs

25:31

can be your building block of your portfolio,

25:34

but it can also be a liquidity tool. And

25:36

it's for institutional and individual

25:39

investors alike. So that must

25:41

be sort of fun for you to see the growth

25:44

but the development and the acceptance

25:47

of these tools. I mean, they didn't

25:49

exist, I don't know, 20 years ago maybe

25:51

where, where CIDR was around? It

25:53

was around and I think the acceptance has

25:56

just over the last decade and especially

25:59

after. 2020, the

26:01

way in which ETFs are used

26:04

as a tool for liquidity, as a tool

26:06

for a building block in model

26:08

portfolios for investors

26:10

that are looking to own a model

26:13

and then getting ETFs within those

26:15

models to get a 6040 allocation or a 602020 allocation

26:17

or whatever type of model

26:21

that they're looking for, having an

26:23

ETF that can do that. And then frankly,

26:25

what I'm most excited about is earlier

26:28

last month, we launched our target date

26:30

ETFs. And that allows

26:33

you, especially if you don't have a retirement

26:35

account from your work, it

26:37

allows you to have that 401k-like

26:40

experience in a single-ticket

26:42

solution. So let's say, and you know

26:44

what? When people think about 401k,

26:47

sometimes they're like, well, I'm not retiring for a while, but

26:49

you can actually use these iShares target

26:52

date ETFs for any life goals.

26:54

So yes, retirement should of course be a life

26:56

goal and we find that there's 57 million Americans

26:59

who don't have access through an employer-sponsored

27:01

retirement plans. And I think

27:04

individuals such as that, having that

27:06

access now with iShares target date

27:08

funds can be an incredible

27:10

opportunity. And even

27:13

if it's not retirement that you're thinking

27:15

about right now, if you're just thinking about perhaps buying

27:17

a home in the next five years, finding

27:20

a target date ETF

27:22

that has the maturity that aligns

27:25

with when you're a plan

27:27

for either buying a home or a car or whatever you're

27:29

saving up for can be a great

27:31

way to start putting away money and then

27:33

getting that allocated without

27:36

you having to switch your

27:38

glide path every year or so, having

27:41

that done for you in a single-ticket solution.

27:43

So that's something that we're really excited

27:45

about. And I hope that it allows

27:48

many individuals to start accepting

27:51

this really easy way

27:53

to access retirement. Mm-hmm. Is

27:55

that new? When did you start that? Yeah, we just launched

27:58

it last month. Oh, well, okay. Okay, so

28:01

we don't have a ton of time, but there's one thing I wanted

28:03

to get to. If you had to pick

28:05

three things about investing

28:08

or best pieces of advice to

28:10

leave with our listeners today,

28:11

what would they be?

28:14

So the first would be time

28:16

in the markets, not timing the markets.

28:18

We hear this a lot, but just starting

28:20

to get invested and just staying invested

28:23

in the markets instead of taking it out and then

28:25

not getting back in or going back in. It's

28:27

over a long period of time that compounding

28:30

really adds up. So start

28:32

now, keep the money in there,

28:34

be diversified. So that's the first one. The

28:37

second one I would say is this idea

28:40

of analysis paralysis. And we

28:42

talked about this a little bit earlier, but

28:45

you don't need to know everything

28:47

about every single company

28:49

and their balance sheet and their leverage.

28:52

Just get started in a diversified

28:54

manner with low cost

28:57

building blocks that give you access to

28:59

diversified sectors and

29:01

international and US or wherever

29:03

you are located, exposures

29:06

to your country and a little bit of international exposure,

29:08

the combination of stocks and bonds. Just get

29:10

started in a diversified fashion. You don't need to

29:13

know everything. You'll figure that

29:15

out. And then the last point I'd

29:17

make is keeping your timeline in mind.

29:20

So if you're saving for the home in

29:22

five years versus saving

29:24

for retirement in 45, that

29:26

might look different. So adjusting

29:29

for that timeline.

29:32

Good answer. All right, we're gonna take a quick

29:34

break and we'll be right back with the lightning round.

29:37

Welcome if you're listening with Bose

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Spotify to show the sound is more than impressive.

29:53

Rehearsals for the school play were really

29:55

coming along. Bigger smile, Mr. Squirrel.

29:58

Until a custodian accidentally. Okay,

30:00

so here we go.

30:25

You

30:28

might know this as would you rather? And

30:30

all you got to do is just say the first thing that comes

30:32

into your mind. Don't think about it. Okay,

30:35

ready? Would you rather do the Iron

30:37

Man bike or the swim? Bike.

30:40

Be able to play any sport well or speak

30:42

any language fluently.

30:43

Sport.

30:45

Jeans or a suit? Suit. Really?

30:48

Yeah, 100%. Okay, interesting. Drive

30:51

or be driven? Be driven. Lose

30:53

a little money but learn a valuable investing

30:55

lesson or win a little money with a scratch

30:58

off lotto card. The first one. Lose

31:00

a little money. Laugh uncontrollably

31:02

or be moved? Be moved. Last

31:05

to bed or first one up? First one up. And

31:07

last to bed maybe I'm wondering? No,

31:10

no, 10 p.m. every night. Okay. Would

31:12

you rather get stuck in an elevator with Harry Markowitz,

31:15

the creator of Modern Portfolio Theory

31:18

or Joan Benoit Samuelson, the

31:20

first Olympic marathon champion in 1984? Joan

31:23

Samuelson. Okay. All

31:25

right. What's the best investment

31:28

you've ever made and what's the worst investment

31:30

you've ever made and it's sort of a broad definition of investment.

31:33

Could be anything could be a class, could be a

31:35

movie, anything.

31:37

I love this question. I'd say the

31:40

best investment is in my

31:42

health, my family

31:45

and friends. And

31:47

the worst investment I've

31:51

ever made is anytime I've tried

31:53

to fight the Fed. Don't

31:55

ever fight the Fed. Okay. All

31:58

right. Words to live by for everyone. Don't

32:00

fight the Fed. Thank you so

32:02

much for being here with me. I really appreciate

32:04

it. And I love learning about different

32:07

products and what's new and what's happening.

32:10

Thank you for having me. This was awesome.

32:13

Thank you so much for joining

32:15

me today on How She Does It. Thank

32:17

you so much to Gargi Pal Chowdhury

32:19

for explaining the tools that are available to

32:21

all investors. When you have a moment, please

32:24

follow us on Apple Podcasts and subscribe

32:26

to updates from the Her Money community at

32:29

hermoney.com slash subscribe.

32:32

Our producers are Catherine Tuggle and Haley

32:34

Pascolini with help from everyone

32:37

at Her Money. This podcast

32:39

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32:41

Studios. Our music is from Video

32:43

Helper and our show comes to you through Megaphone.

32:47

Have a

32:47

great week and I look forward to seeing you

32:49

here with us again.

32:50

Onward.