Preview: Deborah Owens

“Many women think if they go to school, get a good job, everything will be okay. That’s not true,” says PBS wealth coach Deborah Owens. “Societal norms encourage women into a lifestyle that will probably end in poverty,” she elaborates, tallying the many reasons women are less likely to climb as high, earn as much, or amass the same retirement savings as their male counterparts. “Nine out of 10 women will be responsible for their own finances as some point, because of widowhood, divorce, never marrying. Forty percent end up living in poverty at retirement age. That’s unacceptable.”

So unacceptable to Owens, in fact, that the long-time investment advisor wrote a book and sparked a movement to help women understand how to take charge of their long-term financial security. A Purse of Your Own: An Easy Guide to Financial Security explains how women can adopt what Owens calls the “seven habits of wealthy women,” mastering financial acumen. Her conference breakout session will address this theme.

Women are very often skilled in creativity, empathy and intuition, Owens says. These may seem like “right brain” abilities, with no place in the left brain world of bids or balance sheets. But these forms of emotional acuity are actually very useful, she argues. She cites the success of Magellan Fund manager Peter Lynch, whose best holding came from an observation his wife made. She had noticed women buying their pantyhose in plastic eggs at the grocery store—the marketing maneuver that grew Hanes into a hosiery giant. Noticing the trend, understanding the psychology, recognizing a winning business idea: Lynch’s wife had used everyday skills to identify a hot stock pick.

In the short run, creativity and empathy make women good household financial managers, a position they express comfort in accepting. What Owens teaches in her workshop is how to translate these smaller shopping and budgeting skills into recognizing good investments, building a portfolio, and cultivating wealth. “I do bring out the graphs and numbers in my workshops,” she says. “But women often leave realizing they really do have what they need, it just hasn’t been conveyed in the right manner up ‘til now.”

“Wealth is about the freedom and the ability to make choices,” Owens concludes. “Confidence about money, with money, breeds overall confidence. Making ourselves more valuable often means being able to equate how what we do affects the bottom line. When we can explain how this impacts the success of the organization, we make ourselves more valuable.” Speaking of the women’s investment groups her work inspires, she concludes, “It’s amazing what happens when women leverage each others’ strengths and decide to get smart about their money.”

Deborah Owens will conduct a breakout session at the 16th Annual Bay Path College Women’s Leadership conference on April 29th.