While there is a rapidly expanding group of women in business who are succeeding at balancing work/family life, when it comes to money, many women are still being left behind. According to Bridget Venus Grimes in her new book “Corner Office Choices: The Executive Woman’s Guide to Financial Freedom,” the average executive woman leaves more than $1 million on the table over the course of her professional life.
Grimes has a stellar history as an executive in the financial industry. However, she says there are major obstacles blocking women. To combat this, she founded WealthChoice, a financial planning firm tailored to women. This new book expands her approach to include everyone from recent graduates to those already well established on the executive route.
Grimes details a unique approach to career, financial and life planning for female executives. She pinpoints four key “derailers” that make a difference in the careers of women, and notes that these can be remediated through effective financial planning.
Grimes’s derailers include:
• Lack of goal clarity
• Failure to manage cash flow
• Failure to manage your career actively and strategically
• Not having a plan of action.
Traditionally, Grimes says, financial planning is a very male-dominated industry. Of the country’s 80,000 certified financial planning professionals, 77 percent are male. For this reason, she says, it is not uncommon for an advisor to speak solely to the male half of a couple, even if the female makes more of the income.
But her book is about more than financial planning, Grimes says. It may be that you don’t have a plan at all. The book shows that a woman can use her money to build a path that takes her anywhere she may want to go. “Your ideal life really is within your reach, she says.
“All you need is a plan to achieve it.” However many women do not know how to begin, she says.
Grimes stresses that no matter how you feel about your life and career, it’s important to recognize that “thousands of smart, hardworking women share those feelings alongside you.” Her book is more than a map to put your financial plan in place; it is also meant to help you live an ideal life that can be created only when you achieve financial security.
Grimes’ book is rich in personal examples, many of them based on her own clients. Her responses often build upon simple processes. An oft-used touchstone is the descriptor “real.” Grimes excels at singling out what is the real cost of your goals, the real cost of your job and the real cost of not having a plan.
Using her method and following the book’s detailed roadmap, you can live your best life, filled with financial success, security and community.