Tips for Women to get their Coins through Investing: An Interview with Chelsea Ransom-Cooper, CFP®
When Chelsea Ransom-Cooper popped up on the zoom chat, the first thing I thought is: This woman has her stuff together! Dressed in a ruffled white blouse with a black tailored blazer and wire-rimmed glasses, she looked like a confident businesswoman in charge, emanating the standard conservative and controlled demeanor of her field. But one thing let me know that this professional woman of color was not afraid to represent for the culture - the curls were poppin’! I couldn’t help but notice her leather-bounded books in the background and her chic selection of abstract art on her office walls. There’s no doubt Ransom-Cooper is a Black woman on a mission to build wealth for herself and others.
Chelsea Ransom-Cooper is a Managing Partner and Financial Planner at Zenith Wealth Partners. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Syracuse University, and she obtained her Financial Planning Certificate through New York University (NYU). Ransom-Cooper also sits on the events committee for the Association of African American Financial Advisors. Throughout tax season, she volunteers with the New York Cares Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program.
Prior to becoming a Managing Partner at Zenith Wealth Partners, Ransom-Cooper spent several years as a financial planner serving high net worth families with investment portfolios upwards of $2 million dollars. While collaborating with her clients’ accountant and attorney, she developed customized financial plans that aligned each client’s generational wealth goals with their current needs and values. While working in an industry traditionally gate kept for wealthy retirees, Ransom-Cooper realized that she could help more diverse clientele make life-changing financial decisions before they reached retirement. At Zenith Wealth Partners, she guides clients through their financial life by discussing the “why” behind each of their financial goals.
Today, this Jersey girl lives in Brooklyn, New York and works in Manhattan. She is officially living her career dreams, and those of many others in the millennial generation. She shared that her lifestyle “took a lot of sacrifice” after deciding to live two years with her mother in New Jersey to pay off her student loans. Ransom-Cooper is no she-wolf of Wall Street. She is a woman who practices what she preaches!
Businesswoman-poised as she talked to me sitting in a white, leather swivel chair, Ransom-Cooper engaged with me in an informative conversation, which I found life-changing to even experience as the interviewer. We dove in more detail about her career path and the essential insight that women – especially women of color – need to learn to start investing.
What did you want to be when you were five?
The funniest thing is when I was five the first thing I ever told my parents is I wanted to own a gas station. Which is crazy, because it’s so random. But the reason why is that in New Jersey we don’t pump our own gas, but also back in the day the gas station used to give out toys. Somebody pumps your gas, you get the full experience, they had the hotdogs… But the main thing about it at a young age, I knew I wanted to own something, and I wanted to run it. I never said I wanted to work at a gas station, I said I wanted to own a gas station and manage all of that.
How and when did you know you wanted to pursue a career in finance?
In high school they made us take one of those exams where it tells you the career aptitude and what the best career for you should be based on your strengths, your interests, and I remember I got accountant, sales, and financial advisor. I didn’t know what any of those were except for the sales and marketing one, so I became a marketing major in college. I didn’t even pay attention to the other two, I was like “Those don’t sound fun. I’m not going to even entertain those.” And then, as I was going through the classes and doing the intros, I realized that marketing wasn’t necessarily what I thought it was going to be. It didn’t fit my skills, so it didn’t really matter.
I remember the sophomore year in college they make us take pretty much all the intro courses at the same time, so marketing, accounting, finance, logistics. So, taking all of those and then when the grades came out, the best class that I did was finance. It had never crossed my mine to do finance, but my professor was like, “You’re really good at this”, and she told me to switch my major to either finance or accounting. I held back, because finance felt like the cold White boy club. I had another woman instructor tell me I was good at it, and sat me down and told me this is what the path looks like and these are the options that it provides you. With women making that comment it resonated with me more. I wasn’t necessarily passionate in it yet, because I hadn’t figured out how it was going to lead to where I am now, but I knew it came with money, so I was ok with that.
Why is it important for women, especially women of color, to learn investing?
The one thing I learned from being in this profession is, as women when we don’t invest, we are losing money every single day. We are actually losing money. It may not feel like it, because you still have the money in your account, but the value of your money – you are losing value in your money every single day that you’re not investing. Looking at the numbers specifically, I believe it was women are 80% percent more likely to be impoverished in retirement in comparison to men, because they did not save or go through the motions to prepare for retirement, and especially if you look at the difference between single versus married women, it’s significantly higher for single women and for women of color.
Even looking at my mother as an example, we just started investing in retirement for her five years ago for the first time, and if she would have known back in 1993 when I was born, started investing then and saving money for her retirement, for her goals, for her wishes, and her needs that money would have compounded significantly at 7% rate. It would be significantly higher, probably closer to 200K if not closer to a half million dollars, if you just continue to slowly put money in. If you put money in for 10 years, your money will double. It’s the “Rule of 72” they call it, where if you put money in stocks with roughly at 7% rate of return, over 10 years your money will double.
And that’s how your money will continue to grow, and that’s what we need to continue to do, because that is where we are letting our money work for us. And I think the additional challenge, specifically what I see with women of color is that keeping so much money in cash, because it feels safe, but it’s not necessarily safe, because what we’ve seen with inflation. So, when I say you’re losing money, that’s exactly what I’m talking about is the value of your money is being lost, because you are not investing.
I’m going to push the question a little further, especially for women of color why is it so important for us to retain the value of our money? What are we missing or losing as a result of not investing?
We have to work harder for our money then. Because we’re not investing, now we have to work harder to earn more money. With money it comes - You can either cut your expenses, or make more money and increase your income. But by investing and allowing your money to grow, that is a form of income as well, even if you’re not selling any of your stocks and you are just letting it go, you are increasing. And now instead of having to go out and get more jobs and bring in more money and do more things, you can go and buy a house.
“It’s the ‘Rule of 72’ they call it, where if you put money in stocks with roughly at 7% rate of return, over 10 years your money will double.”
I mean, for example, I helped someone where they wanted to buy a house in five years. We put it in the market, and just let it sit there. In five years, because they kept putting into it, let’s say $200 a month into that account, within five years, the money had grown, and she had the money for the house! If she had saved in cash, she wouldn’t have had that money. She would have had to work more jobs to get more money, just to get the same dollar amount. That’s the difference. I saw on social media that on average women keep 70% of their assets in cash. Where I know men that number is probably 20%-30% men keep their assets in cash. It’s like a day and night difference, and that is what’s making all the difference. Because we have so much buying power, we just haven’t figured out a way to use it, especially in the investing space. But once we do, oh it’s over! [laughs]
With you being a professional in finance, and a woman, and a woman of color, why are we keeping our money in cash rather than investing it? What’s the barrier there?
Fear. There’s two things. Number one: as women we become perfectionists. We don’t want to do something [if I’m not good at it]. I don’t want to make a mistake, and I don’t know what I’m doing, so I don’t want to do something wrong.
The second one is… Actually, there’s three things. The second one is I don’t know who to trust when it comes to a financial advisor. I don’t know who I should be going to, I don’t know what’s good and what’s bad, and then just from a risk standpoint, the third thing is: I’ve noticed specifically women of color tend to be a little bit more risk averse. Meaning, they don’t really like to see when their money goes down. So, I think it comes down to an education standpoint of stocks don’t just go up, they do go down sometimes, but you don’t need that money right now. Ride the wave! It’s completely fine.
“…women keep 70% of their assets in cash. Where I know men that number is probably 20%-30% men keep their assets in cash. It’s like a day and night difference, and that is what’s making all the difference.”
For example, the market went down this year, and people were worried about their 401K. You’re 30, you’re not touching that money for another 30 years! That is something I can confidently say by the time you’re 60, or even 50 when you need that, it will be up. You just have to ride the wave. That’s really where working with someone can help – to really kind of ease your mind, to ease your anxiety.
What are some tools that you recommend to help women increase financial literacy and get started with investing?
When it comes to investing, you can have two options. You can be hands-on or you can be a little more hands-off. So, hands-on meaning you want to go in there, you want to pick the stocks, the ETF [exchange trade fund], the positions. You want to do the buys, you want to do the sells, you want to do your research. Some people enjoy doing that, and that’s why if you want to do that you can do that on Fidelity, Charles Swab. One of my close friends, her name is Mabel Nuñez. She has a website called Girls on the Money, it’s an Instagram page and a blog. It’s fantastic, and she’s also written two books. They’re on Amazon, and one of them is actually a bestseller. The first book is called Stock Investing for Beginners and she has another one called Stock Analysis 101. And they’re small books, less than 100 pages, which I really like – keep it concise and keep it to the point – where she’s going to walk you through the types of accounts you should open, where you can open the accounts, how you can fund them, and then on top of that she’ll go into what does she look for in stocks.
“… the market went down this year, and people were worried about their 401K. You’re 30, you’re not touching that money for another 30 years!”
Then, I would say subscribing to RobinHood Snacks. It’s a newsletter that the investing platform Robin Hood offers. It’s also a podcast. It’s like 15 minutes, so it’s nice. But every single morning [RobinHood Snacks] comes out around 8am, where they give you the highlights of what’s going on in the financial markets, but they make it super, super relatable. It feels like I’m reading a Twitter feed, very easy and concise. I think they offer really, really great insight.
But if you want to be a little more hands-off, I really like Ellevest. I love the platform. I think it’s super easy. I was able to open an account and get it done in like two minutes. They do all the investing for you. They pick all the ETFs and all of that. It’s a fantastic platform, especially for women. It’s super easy. They have an app and the website. They let you sign up for financial planners as well, but you can feel it out. They let you add it on in subscription packages. I haven’t tried that part yet, so I can’t say to use that.
So, I like to test them all out. I’m not going to recommend anything if I test it out and I don’t like it.
How should one go about picking a financial adviser or financial planner?
I would say first off, think about what you need in the services, and then see what they will do for you. Some, especially if you’re looking at some of those bigger broker dealers and wirehouses, will only open an account for you. They’re actually not going to provide financial advice. They’ll invest your assets and open an account, but that’s all they’re going to offer for you. Some will only sell life insurance and open an account. It’s incredibly important, because there are different types of financial advisors. It’s really a term that has kind of been used as like a catch-all for everyone, but if you go on Twitter, everyone is a financial advisor now. Everyone has a course, everyone is doing something. So, you really need to know what will they do for you. I would also ask for a sample, like sample information – what do you usually provide to your clients. What would it look like if I’m your client? And what level of services can I expect?
“…as women we become perfectionists. We don’t want to do something [if I’m not good at it]. I don’t want to make a mistake, and I don’t know what I’m doing, so I don’t want to do something wrong.”
The [second] thing I would say is ask them how they are compensated. If you actually want financial guidance, financial advice, you should look for a fee-only financial advisor. Some people are paid off of commissions. They sell you a product, whether it’s insurance, open an account, sell you mutual funds. Then, there’s fee based which means they do some of that, but then they also have a fee for planning, and then fee-only means I’m only compensated based on the fee you pay me, whether it’s monthly, annual retainer, quarterly, or even like a percentage of the assets that I’m investing for you.
That is how I am compensated. And typically, if you are an investment adviser representative or add a registered investment advisor or if you’re a CFP [Certified Financial Planner], you have a fiduciary standard, which means you have to do what is in the best interest of your clients. Not all financial professionals are held to that standard, and that is where you’ll start to see some really tricky scenarios. There’s a suitability standard, which means some people are held where all they have to do is – I’ll tell you the best that I have. It’s not the best for you, but I’ll tell you the best that I have, where if you’re a CFP, like myself, when you’re in more of an independent firm like myself, you have the flexibility or I can chop to make sure I’m getting you the best option.
“…women are 80% percent more likely to be impoverished in retirement in comparison to men, because they did not save or go through the motions to prepare for retirement.”
I also recommend asking: On a scale based on their current clients, where [does the client] fit? Because if you’re kind of at the bottom, so for example, if you were to ask me, “Oh you know, Chelsea, I really enjoyed this conversation, I’d like to work with you. Based on your current client base, where do I stand? Would I be one of your bigger accounts, would I be one of your smaller accounts?” And the reason you ask that is you can tell where someone is going to spend most of your time. If they say, “Oh, you’re really kind of a smaller one. We wouldn’t necessarily take you on, but we’re doing you a favor.” They’re not going to give you any time. They’ll probably call you once. But if you know you’re one of theirs in the middle or one of their bigger [clients] then you know that you are a priority and you’re important to them. So that’s important as well.
How often do they like to communicate with their clients is incredibly important, because you want to make sure the level of communication that you’re looking for is the same that they can offer. Some advisers only offer communication two to four times a year. Some offer monthly. It really depends on what you would like. If you like monthly conversation and you’re interviewing someone and they say, “Oh, I only offer once a year.” That’s clearly not going to work. You’re not going to be satisfied with the service.
If you think about it. You’re hiring someone as your partner. This is going to be your business partner, your financial partner. You’re going to work together to really increase and improve your financial situation. Ideally, this isn’t a scenario where you’re just hiring them for one time. This is someone you could be working with for the next 10 to 30 years.
What are some closing statements that you would want people to know, particularly women and women of color about investing?
I would say really the key things are to be open. I also always say investment – it really always pays the best interest when you’re investing in your own knowledge. So, I think it’s incredibly important to not just make monetary investments, but invest in your mind as well. It’s something I do personally with my family. I use the old cliché, I’m not going to get the fish for you, but I’m going to teach you how to fish.
[For example] for my mother, I actually put her in an IRS tax school, so now she’s learning how to file taxes. So that’s going to be an opportunity for her to create an additional stream of income, so when she retires in five years, she’s going to be an expert in filing taxes, and now she’s going to be able to create her own business. Similar with my step dad, helping him with real estate in Trinidad where he’s from, so things like that I think are incredibly important, so not just thinking about investments as a monetary decision, but also how are you investing in your knowledge and education and how are you furthering that as well.
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Tips for Deciding on a Financial Professional
Do your research to understand the types of services and what you need/want.
Meet with them to get to know them.
Review the five questions during the meeting to see what they offer.
Decide based on how well they fit your needs.
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Chelsea Ransom-Cooper is the founder of Pay Her In Equity. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter or contact her by email at chelsea@networthzenith.com.