About this episode
In this episode of Rocking Finance, RTSWS CEO Ashley Leftwich speaks with Sarah Charles, Co-Founder of Sanctuary Financial Planning, about building financial confidence, understanding our relationship with money and making informed financial decisions.
With more than 20 years of experience as a financial advisor, mentor and leader, Sarah shares how the stories we tell ourselves about money can influence our financial behaviors and decisions. She reflects on her own career journey, the mentors who helped guide her and why understanding the personal side of finance is just as important as understanding the numbers.
Together, Ashley and Sarah explore the power of compounding, the importance of establishing a financial purpose and practical habits students can begin developing today. From saving and investing early to exploring career opportunities in finance, Sarah emphasizes that financial confidence is learned, built and strengthened over time.
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Disclaimer: The financial and investment information presented in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute professional financial advice. Any decisions made based on this information are at the listener’s own risk.
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Transcript
Transcript supplied by Riverside; it may contain transcription errors.
speaker-0: Welcome to Rocking Finance, the Rock the Street Wall Street Podcast, real stories, Real access, real paths into finance. Join us for candid high-impact conversations with industry leaders sharing the insights, experiences, career pivots, and journeys that can help young women advance through the financial industry with great confidence. Rock the Street Wall Street equips high school and university students, especially young women, by bringing the and STEM to life through financial and investment fundamentals. We provide direct industry access and guidance, supporting students and young professionals on their journeys from classrooms. To careers while expanding participation in the capital markets. Through cohort-based learning, mentorship, and individual career connection, we help students build confidence, capabilities, and networks that open doors. Our goal is clear: expand participation in the capital markets and strengthen the future of finance one cohort at a time. Today I'm your host, Ashley Leftwich, CEO of Rockmistry Wall Street, that loves rock finance. And today we welcome Sarah Charles, co-founder of Sanctuary Financial Planning. Sarah, you bring more than two decades of experience as a financial advisor, mentor, and leader, and I especially appreciate how you approach financial planning through both strategy and humanity. You've often said the real challenge is not only understanding money, but understanding our relationship to it. You encourage people to talk about finances. And at Rock the Street Wall Street, we work to provide financial and investment knowledge, access, and opportunity for students. I'm excited for our conversation. Your work powerfully connects the practical side of finance with the personal side of decision making. Let's jump in. Sarah, one thing we often talk about at Rock the Street, Wall Street is how financial confidence can change the trajectory of a person's life. And your experience, especially working with women, what is something that you would like more students to know to help them be more confident with their money?
speaker-1: First of all, Ashley, I don't think confidence is something you're born with, right? Like it's it's not a trait. It's something that is learned and really nurtured over time. So when it comes to the students who are participating in Rock the Street Wall Street, they are about 10 steps ahead of everybody else. Because I can't tell you how many people, largely women, I meet with today. It's the same general comment, which is we didn't learn. About this in school. No one taught me how to speak money. No one taught me the principles of budgeting or compound interest or investing. And so it is like this foreign language. And I have been known to say on occasion, it that applies to me too. I didn't learn personal finance when I was growing up. I learned how to dissect a frog, which has not really done much for me at this stage of my life. Knowledge is power and knowledge is confidence. So just Starting out at this stage of life, being intentional about learning the mechanics of personal finance and investing is gonna do so much to help the young girls and women participating in Rock the Street, Wall Street start out confident and allow that confidence to really grow and compound over time.
speaker-0: Compounding is one of my favorite words. Compounding both in capital and in relationships, right? In networks. Yeah.
speaker-1: Absolutely. And it's a it's a concept I I wish I had been taught when I was younger because time is the greatest asset when it comes to compounding.
speaker-0: As someone with a background in mathematics, it also plays to that and I oftentimes think about how understanding the fundamentals actually can build confidence in most any areas of life. You mentioned the mechanics of it behind the scenes. And you've said that money is deeply connected to the stories that we tell ourselves. How can people begin healthy money relationship habits and especially the beliefs that are shaped early in our life and even through difficult experiences.
speaker-1: was an economics major in college and I will be the first to tell you I don't feel like economics has a whole lot to do with what I do today as a financial advisor. At least on this side of the industry, doing this work with individuals and families, human behavior is everything. And that is because we all have a money story. Sometimes we have multiple many stories, but it is the idea that the lessons we learn early on in childhood, whether it's from our parents, our teachers, our friends, our communities, those stay embedded in us and they shift and grow over time and they ultimately influence the decisions we make, the behaviors we engage in. So I think one of the healthiest habits is really to acknowledge the money story element and get to know your money story early so that you can either make changes if it's not serving you or allow it to further bolster your confidence. I grew up not really stressed about money. My parents made it look easy, even if it wasn't always effortless, but I sort of went through my childhood just thinking, money is not this thing to be worried about. And then when I eventually took over managing it for myself, I made some mistakes. But what that taught me up here is that, money is easy when somebody else manages it. I'm no good at managing money. And that sort of led to this whole cycle of looking to other people to take care of me financially instead of taking ownership and responsibility for my own financial health and wellbeing. Spent so long and so many years believing a false narrative. And what an amazing thing to be able to wake up one day and say, that's not true. That's just the story I'm telling myself. And then to be here today, however many years later, and to be able to share that experience to teach other people, hold on. Is this just a story you're telling yourself? And even if it is true, it's not permanent. Right. We all have the ability to learn from our mistakes and to grow and to get better. So if you do feel like you're not good with money, okay, we can work with that.
speaker-0: Yeah, I love what you said as far as that it's really embedded in us, that story. The reflection on what we're telling ourselves, I think, is really powerful as well. Whether it's related to money or otherwise, that story that we're telling ourselves ends up defining us more than we think it does.
speaker-1: totally. I spent over a decade believing that I was bad with money, not because I was, but because I took that narrative and I let it define me.
speaker-0: For so many of our students, it's not that we're not capable. It's not a capability issue. It really is the narrative that culture is deciding to share with us that we're believing. One of the things that I feel like made a really large difference in my life was mentors. Some of my mentors didn't even know that they were my mentors until much later in life. And I've learned so much from them, from their decisions, from how they challenged my thinking.
speaker-1: I always say I stumbled into finance. When I graduated college with an economics degree, I promptly enrolled in an acting class because I thought I was gonna go to Hollywood and become famous. So this wasn't my predetermined path, but I eventually got hired by a man named Woody. And it was the first time I really moved over to the personal financial planning, wealth management side. I had spent much of my twenties just stumbling and fumbling. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I didn't really think I was good at anything. And I didn't really have a lot of positive voices telling me, yeah, girl, you got this. So when Witty hired me, it was the first time someone really said, you can do this, you're good at this. And I'm going to give you the tools and the resources you need to be successful. And having that positive voice and that positive reinforcement, That was the first time I'd heard that story and it really shifted my belief in myself, my belief in my capabilities. And then the second mentor to layer on top of that is my now husband Jim. When we first started dating, I had grand visions for, you know, what I was gonna do in my career, but I wasn't actually doing the work. I was going to bar classes in the afternoon, cycling classes in the morning. I'd roll in at 9 30. I'd leave at four. I wasn't really taking my career seriously. And Jim really modeled for me what it was like to work hard and put in the commitment to achieve the level of success that you actually wanted. And so that was really a flip the switch moment for me to say, I can't just talk about wanting these things. Like I've got a put in the effort and and really take it seriously. And so I am grateful to both Woody and Jim for the impact and influence they have had on me professionally.
speaker-0: what I feel like your core values there at Sanctuary Financial Planning. It was really built on transparency, education, and accessibility. For many of us, those first meetings can be a little unexpected. So what is a first meeting with a client and how did you prepare and what kind of homework do you do to give your clients?
speaker-1: So I will talk about the first meeting, Ashley, but it's the second meeting that I actually think is more interesting. So our first meeting when someone comes on board is a discovery meeting. And I don't know that it's any different than any other discovery meeting that financial advisors do. We know some information, but we really want to Get our arms around the financial snapshot goals. We're going to keep it pretty high level. Our second meeting we call before the numbers. And that's where we dig into money stories and values and perspectives. And so clients have no homework on any of this. We will send them maybe a week before some prompts. So we're going to talk about what was money like growing up, right? In order to understand your current relationship with money, we really have to look to the past. And so What was money like growing up? Who handled finances in your house? How was it talked about or communicated? What lessons did you learn? How did you feel relative to your peers or your neighbors? And I think that's unique because I don't think a lot of advisors are very comfortable talking about the numbers. That's why they got into this business. I I don't know a lot who are very comfortable sitting down with someone and saying, tell me what money was like growing up, using that to start a conversation. Sometimes with couples, it becomes a way for us. To help nurture more financial intimacy. And then we also go into this idea of statement of financial purpose, which is not something I can take credit for. That that goes to Carl Richards, if anyone knows Carl Richards, who's a brilliant writer and financial communication guru.
speaker-0: Carl Richards, while we may not agree on the exact ratio of math versus behavior, there is a small percentage on math and a large percentage on behavior, and we're even reminded that economics is a social science.
speaker-1: Leave that meeting with instructions for clients to start thinking about what's the why behind their money. All of this practical putting money in a 401k and saving and paying down debt and doing all these things is really great. But when was the last time you stopped and asked yourself, what's it all for? Why am I doing this? And so we have clients develop a statement of financial purpose, which becomes their financial worth star. That is actually going to guide a lot of the decision making as much as the actual numbers. Because if you're facing a choice, there's going to be a trade-off. And that trade-off can be calculated mathematically or that trade-off can be tied back to the things that you value most. And that's how we prefer to help clients think about these decisions.
speaker-0: Yeah, I think it's so important. Two things that I just wanna highlight. One being that you said the second meeting might be more important than the first. And so that first meeting feels very intimidating, but you're really in that discovery mode like you talked about, learning more about them. And then the second piece that I just wanna make sure to reiterate and highlight is the financial purpose. What are those long term goals? But really what are we looking at and what does that mean? what does putting money away in a four one K mean to you? What does that life look like? whenever you come to retirement, what do you want that to look like for yourself in that particular example? But I think having your financial purpose and whether that is I'm doing these pieces and I'm not spending money here and spending money here so that I can go on that trip to Norway. or something of that nature. It's just it brings it to be so relevant to us and creates that purpose in today why we're making those financial decisions.
speaker-1: Yeah, because again, it's all a trade-off, right? And you do have short-term needs, right? Maybe when you're in high school, you don't have to worry about paying rent or paying the mortgage, but eventually, right, there's going to be the financial responsibility of paying bills. And retirement can seem very far off in the future, even for people who are pretty close to it. So starting to think about the purpose of why you're doing those things is valuable at any stage. And I also say about that first meeting, even though it is more Technical in nature, it still is an opportunity to start building trust with clients so that by the time we ask them to start opening up and sharing more intimately, we've spent some time together. They've they've shared financial details. Our financial lives are so deeply, deeply personal. So it is a, it is an opportunity to start building trust.
speaker-0: Absolutely. And whenever you're sharing those details, especially whenever you're not used to having those conversations around the dinner table or with your friends or even your significant other, it is something that is deeply personal. And it's important to be building that trust. In any relationships, but especially this one. You bring such a personal perspective to this work, really, especially as an advisor who's navigated your own evolving relationships with money. So how have key life events shaped the way you advise?
speaker-1: I guess three-ish years ago, the firm I was at that I had been at for 15 years, where I had my whole future mapped out and I knew what my path was. And our parent company went through a merger and that shifted the path I was on. And suddenly everything I had pre-mapped out was no longer an option. And that led me to ultimately start Sanctuary with Gym. So the idea that my husband and I would become entrepreneurs and we would start a flat fee wealth management firm, you know, that was really trying to disrupt some of the industry norms and create alternative paths for people to access financial advice beyond the traditional AUM models. But one thing I've learned, Ashley, is that Trying to script out my life just never works, right? and this is the whole nature of planning. We can plan for some point in the future, but the idea that we're gonna get there with the exact steps we've laid out is is almost laughable. And so a lot of times we talk about we're not helping clients get to some magic endpoint. We're really helping them prepare for a wide range of outcomes. And that's what I've learned as I've navigated my career. There have been a lot of unexpected. Turns. You ask 18-year-old Sarah what she was going to be doing. I was going to be like editor-in-chief of Vogue or a buyer at Bloomingdales. This, this was not not my my life's path. But I also wound up exactly where I'm meant to be. And I get so passionate about this work. That's why I love the work y'all are doing with Rock the Street, Wall Street. I think what an amazing gift for these young women and girls to be learning early on. What an amazing gift. To help build that confidence, give them the tools, help them meet people, mentors, advice, like we need more of that in the world.
speaker-0: Speaking of those students, many of them of course are beginning summer jobs. And while also learning about longer term financial decisions in our programs. One of my favorite concepts that we've already talked about is that power of compounding and compounding through knowledge and capital and networks. And it's consistent small steps over time that make that compounding so powerful. So what are a few financial habits that young people could think about or begin to
speaker-1: Invest in a Roth IRA if you have earned income. Yes.
speaker-0: Yes.
speaker-1: Learning to save, learning to invest, and not being so draconian that you know every single dollar gets saved, but learning how to take what you've you've earned and say, you know, what portion do I need to spend or get to spend today? What portion do I get to invest for my future? And I also think maybe reframe your perspective. So again. The the math and the numbers and all the quantitative pieces of this are so important. But at the end of the day, money is deeply personal and deeply emotional. Try to understand this industry from multiple perspectives. Because the work I do is so very different from what a trader does or an equity analyst. And we need all of it. So just understand that the world of finance is very, very broad and there's a lot of different ways to think about how you might participate in this professionally.
speaker-0: Absolutely. There's so many different opportunities that are within the industry and so many different opportunities if you start investing now and what what those financial habits look like. Good financial habits and money habits will lead to more thoughtful futures.
speaker-1: Yes, indeed.
speaker-0: Wonderful. Thank you so much, Sarah, for joining us today. We so appreciate it. And I know that our students have such great opportunities, especially with these nuggets that you've shared with us.
speaker-1: Thanks for having me, Ashley. It was a real pleasure and delighted to be with you today.
speaker-0: Thank you for joining the conversation. Visit Rock the Streetwall Street.com to learn more. Make sure to follow and join us for the next episode. Until next time, let's keep rocking finance.
