This Nurse is Growing Her Wealth to Build a Better World - Ep. 90
Janine Firpo is an author and speaker who spent more than 20 years in executive roles at Hewlett-Packard, the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and more. She is a values-aligned investor in companies that make the world a better place and is passionate about teaching women to learn how to invest their own money. Embodying these principles, Janine is releasing her first book, Activate Your Money - Invest to Grow Your Wealth and Build a Better World in May 2021. The company Janine founded, SEMBA, will create a community for women looking to take control of their money, build their confidence as investors, and put their assets to work creating a better world. .
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TRANSCRIPT:
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:00] All right, Nurses on Fire. You are in for a treat because we have Janine Firpo here and she is going to teach you how to become a values aligned investor. Hey Janine, how are you?
Janine Firpo: [00:00:14] Good. Hi, I'm great. So much for having me on your show.
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:19] Of course is truly my pleasure because you are doing some phenomenal things for the community.
And just out of the kindness of your heart. And are really, really appreciate what you're doing. And I know that my community can learn so much from you, but we'll get started on sharing, like just your background and why you wanted to inspire especially women to become value aligned investors.
Janine Firpo: [00:00:46] Well, I thanks for that question. I've had a really unusual background. I actually started out in life or your. Audience will appreciate this with an intention to go into medicine. So my original goal was to be a doctor and I was on that journey until I was a senior in college, but through some unusual events, I ended up very early on in the computer industry did that for about 15 years. And then. Took a solo backpacking trip through Sub-Saharan Africa in 1995 spent four or five months traveling by myself from one end of the continent to the other and came back from that trip. Having seen poverty, like I'd never seen it before and really wanting to make a change.
And so I changed my career and I ended up in career number two. Where I spent about 20 years looking at the role that technology could play in solving poverty on the continent of Africa and also in Southeast Asia. So that was an amazing career. I loved it. I got very involved in the issue of women and their money because there's something called micro finance, which is the act of giving small loans to women to help bring them out of poverty.
And so I got very involved in that. And I also got involved about 10 years ago in what was emerging in the San Francisco Bay area, where I live. Called impact investing. And that is how you put your money to work for positive change. And I realized that while I was living a life purpose and I was doing the things that my heart was calling me to my money was working against me.
It was invested in the very problems that I was trying to solve. So about a decade ago, I decided that I was going to figure out how to move all of my money. Starting with my cash, my savings and checking account, my stock, real estate, all of it into alignment with my values. And I've been on that journey for a while.
About three years ago, I retired and I decided that I was going to take my lessons and I was going to make them available to others women, because it was a hard road for me to figure out how to invest this way. And I didn't want it to be that hard for other women. And I realized that as women collectively, we control 50% of the money in this country right now, if we chose to take our power over it, and that will go up to 65% in 10 years. So imagine what is possible. If we, as women start to really step into our power around our money, take control of it. Become confident investors and put our money to work in the things we care about, like our communities and supporting other women and making sure that we are leaving this planet in good shape for our kids and grandkids.
Imagine what we could do. So I've written a book. And that will be, it's called activate your money, invest to grow your wealth and build a better world. And it will be published in may of this year.
Naseema McElroy: [00:03:56] Man, I have chills shamed because I'm just thinking, and this is why I wanted to introduce you to my community because of course nurses are largely a community of women.
But what I encourage nurses and women in general is to take our power back. And those statistics that you share are like, Oh my God. Like if we took our power and use them for good, I'd just imagine how this world would be. And so I'm just , man, to understand the power that we have at our fingertips, if only we knew.
And that's why I'm so glad that you wrote this book and I'm so glad that you're here to share because what you grown and what you have done with your personal life. I feel like. You have gone above and beyond to be able to just share it with us. And that's what it takes, right? That's what it takes to make change.
And so super grateful for you. Let's dive into your book a little bit and how, and the book, because the book comes with a massive amount of resources and I wanted to dive into that and how it can help women activate their money.
Janine Firpo: [00:05:14] Okay. I'd love to do that. I want to just address something that you said, because when I started writing this book, my initial intention was really to talk about the different options you have in terms of positive investing.
Right. But what I learned along the way is how many of us are afraid of our money? How many of us don't want to have anything to do with it? How many of us just want the simple fix of, you know, I'm going to throw some money in this 401k and I'm not going to think about it again? Yeah. I mean, I was stunned when we, with MBAs women who have worked in the finance field, women who are successful executives, they don't know what their money is doing.
It doesn't matter what background, what socioeconomic doesn't matter. It's the same for many, many women. We just don't feel comfortable with our money. And it's because we have been told that we're not good at it. And then we're not smart at it. In fact, only 9% of women believe that we would be better investors than men.
And yet when we do invest, we outperform them. So there is a set of myths and fallacies here about women in our money that we just need to really get over. And so the book changed in that instead of just being about how to invest you know, values aligned way. It really teaches women how to invest.
So the book is split into three parts, which I'll go over quickly so that your audience understands a little bit what it's about. The first part is really setting the foundation. So it explains what is this values aligned investing. And for me , it's a very personal choice, what we choose to invest in.
And I explain that. And then we go into the stories. We tell ourselves about money because whether we realize it or not, we carry a lot of biases around money and beliefs around money that actually get in our way. Oftentimes. So how do we break through those biases and what are some of the foundational things that we need to know in terms of being smart investors like asset allocation and so on.
And then the whole second part of the book, which is the biggest part goes literally asset class by asset class talks about what it is, how it works, how you invest in it, and then how to find values, aligned investments. So cash. Cash alternatives, fixed income stocks. I go into private investing, which a lot of women don't even think about, but there is some cool Juju in private investing.
If you want to get into that and then alternative kinds of investments. And then we end by talking about things like how to find a financial advisor. And when should you find a financial advisor and how do you find one that will actually listen to you and actually help you invest in a way that's more meaningful, how you take your 401ks and your retirement funds and you activate them.
And finally, one of the things that I think is really important is because this kind of investing is hard. Investing is actually hard. It is not a five-step to financial freedom. It is not a one. You do it now. And you're done. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Being a smart investor is something you learn and you get better at over time.
But because it's a bit of a. Lift, I think women should do it together instead of alone. So I'm a huge advocate of women coming together in clubs to teach each other how to be smart investors. And we help them do that through the book. I've been in three financial and investing clubs in my life and they've always been fantastic.
So the book really goes sort of from soup to nuts and helps women along every step of the way. And then. We because we really want women to take action. We don't want them to just read every chapter ends with the take action section and there will be a companion website that will have worksheets.
Templates videos, training materials to actually help women take action on the things that we talk about in the chapters. And there's even a complete curriculum that is being built to go along with the book and all of this will be freely available on the web. What
Naseema McElroy: [00:09:45] I really love is the actionable part and how much we're building around, making sure women take action on these items because you know who we get in this state of analysis paralysis.
And that's what often holds us back financially. And like you mentioned even though we don't believe were better investors than men, the facts speak to like that we are excellent investors, but we just got to know what levers to pull. We got to know what tools are out there for us. And I love that your book just like walks you through, so now that you understand this concept, This is what you're going to do about it. And this is what we need as a community. This is something that every woman should have. And like you said, I love that you're using this as a foundation to build like financial clubs and groups so that women can collectively work through the book and actually take action because, you know Women do things a lot better , in community.
It's easier to grasp things in a community setting when we're working together, but also I just can't see the potential. For what women can do with this information, how we're changing legacies, how we're changing generations and how we can have such a major impact, like period in the world, because you know, when women get educated and when women do better financially. They empower communities, they change communities positively. And so this is just an awesome tool to empower women to do that. And I'm super excited for your book to come out in May. I'm definitely going to be promoting it. And I know that nurses and women in general could really, really, really use this to change their financial trajectory. So I really appreciate it.
Janine Firpo: [00:11:40] Well, I appreciate all those kind words. And, you know, I heard recently someone talked to me about that, all parable, that when you it teach someone to fish, when you teach a man to fish, you know that he can go forward and do that on his own. When you teach a woman to fish, she feeds the commuinty.
So I think there's something really powerful about that. And I do think that as women collectively, if we start putting our money to use in the things that matter to us, we will change the power dynamics in this country because power flows where the money goes. And so. We have the ability to make those choices.
Right. And I do get, I mean, your, your audience is a group of women who have made choices in their lives to live from purpose. They're doing things that really matter in the world. They're taking care of us right. In our most vulnerable times. And my bet is a lot of them are moms. Some of them may be grandmoms at this point.
So they're also living super busy lives and finding the time to think about our money, particularly when it feels arduous to us, or it feels like it's something that we really don't have a lot of control over, or we don't know about. It's the thing that gets shoved down to the bottom of the to-do list all the time.
But when we start coming together, we can share the burden of the learning. We can share the burden of the research and we can make it easier for everyone. So what I'm talking about is not actually asking women. To change what they're doing. It's not saying whatever investment strategy you have stopped that investment strategy, and let's do something new.
This is really about how you take that investment strategy that you have and add another element, which is what is the purpose of my money and what is my money doing? And then make choices about where you invest that are different. So for example, simple thing. Is your bank accounts, right? How many of us think about where our bank accounts are?
And most of us probably have them in major banks. Do we have any idea what that money is doing? No. And many women don't think that they're investors, but I'll tell you something. If you've got a savings and a checking account, you're an investor because somebody is using your money to do something. Right.
So imagine if you took your money out of your bank and you put it into a local community bank, you put it into something called a community development, financial institution. You put it into a credit union, you put it into a smaller financial institution that is actually transparent in how they're using your money.
And your money is actually going to support female entrepreneurs. Who can't get capital, or it's going to support underserved people in your community who can't get the money. They need to buy homes or to buy cars or to send their kids to college, right. That begins to make you feel really good about your money.
Particularly when you start to get reports from your bank, that's telling you, this is how your money worked this month, or this is how your money works this year. It makes having money so much more meaningful. It makes our money more in integrity with us. It makes our money be more about purpose as well, as far as getting the financial return that we want.
So. As nurses, women are already living in purpose. And I think that they will feel so much better about their money if their money is in purpose too.
Naseema McElroy: [00:15:41] Yeah. And I want to repeat this again for the people in the back that didn't hear you when you said it, the power flows are the money goes. I love that statement because we as women have a long way to go. As far as you know, the power dynamics in this country, it should not be that in 2021, we're still making less than our male counterparts, even in nursing, by the way.
That happens. And so, yeah, I mean, like that's what I always say. And mines is a lot less eloquent than yours is that if you want to make change, you got to hit people in their pockets, but you got to hit your own pockets first. Like you have to empower yourself financially. And I feel like it is our obligation to build wealth because without those finances. It is super hard to make any kind of change because most of the time you're in survival mode. And if you're in survival mode, you can't really impact the way that you want to impact. And so I love that you are empowering women through this book so that we can make these changes like, and I can see it.
And I, and I just hope that my audience can see it, especially as nurses out there. Yes, because we do go into nursing because we do care. But often we're the bread winners in our entire families where we're the rock, you know? And if something were to happen to us, everything would fall apart. And so this is a reason why we have to do this because it's not just us is our communities that are depending on us. So this is super important. And I want every woman to really embrace this and really understand the power that we have at our fingertips, but also the power that we're giving away when we don't take control of our finances.
Janine Firpo: [00:17:37] Absolutely. In fact, you talk about. The pay gap, right? Well, there is a gender wealth gap as well. And part of it is because of how we choose or don't choose to invest our money. And the reason that we are considered quote, unquote, risk averse, or the reason that we're really conservative a lot of times with our investing is because we don't know when we know.
Then when we feel confident and when we know what kind of risks we're taking, we're willing to take those risks. We just aren't willing to take them when we don't know. And so this is a really big issue and it's a big issue because as women now, we live longer than men. Right. We are generally in the workforce for a shorter period of time than men.
Our peak earning years are about a decade earlier than men. And yet we need a retirement bucket that is bigger than what men have, right. So it's super critical. If we want to retire at some point in our lives, if we want to have a good life afterwards, we need to pay attention to this stuff. Now, and the other thing is, and you talked about generation.
I want this to end. I want it to end that dads teach their sons about money and not their daughters. I want it to end that we come from mothers who didn't know enough about money to teach us as their daughters. I mean, I, my book is dedicated to my mom. And the reason it is, is because I know that I would not be in the financial position that I'm in today.
If it wasn't for her, if she hadn't taught me how to be smart about my money, I have lived under my means my entire life. I have saved. I have invested smart because of my mom. I got into real estate because of my mom. I wouldn't be here because of her. Right. So I don't have children of my own, but I'm trying to help other.
Women that I know, but those of us who do have daughters, we need to do this, not just for us and not to just leave them a financial legacy, but also to teach them as we're learning so that our daughters are also capable and confident around money.
Naseema McElroy: [00:20:06] Ironically, that's why I started this platform is because I have two daughters and my circle of friends. All have daughters. There's a couple of little boys sprinkled in there, but there are so many women and girls that I'm surrounded with and just in my own journey. I was super empowered by just like paying off my debt and how much that freed me, that I was like, man, we have to know this and it's our obligation to teach our kids this because they should never have to go through the things that we go through.
And that's okay. Exactly why this platform was created so that my friends and their daughters would have a resource so that we can be empowered. And so that's, I love that it's all coming full circle.
Janine Firpo: [00:20:55] Well, we've talked a lot about just our power in general, around money, but I also, I want to go back to the values piece because I think it's so important. And so one of the things that I talk about in the book is something called the sustainable development goals. And these are 17 goals that were pulled together by over 35 nations in the world. And they were ratified by the United nations and they are 17 goals that governments and companies and individuals are working to achieve.
And they're things like end poverty, end hunger, addressing climate change, sustainable cities and communities, gender equity, social justice. These are goals that most people don't realize are being worked on at an international level. And I use them to make my own decisions about what I want to support with my money.
So one of the things that I've chosen to support with my money is other women. So that's why I moved my savings account to my local banks, because I'm supporting women through that. And I'm doing private investing as well. So I'm actually part of a, a group of 99 women who pooled our money together and we are investing in females, CEOs who are starting companies because country, we hear all the time about venture capital. Well guess what? Only 1% of new companies in this country are even capable of getting that kind of money are set up for that kind of money. And of those only 2% of the venture capital investments in this country in a year, go to women.
Women of color, like a fraction of like teeny tiny bit, 1%, right? That's it. So women have to stand up to support other women. I also put my money to work around environmental sustainability and like cradle to grave kind of stuff. So I'm, I'm invested in a very cool company that is taking, for example, the non-biodegradable plastic.
It is churning it up, turning it into a gravel substitute and then selling that gravel substitute to construction sites. So it is taking plastic out of the landfill and turning it into something else. So there are. Like really interesting companies and opportunities out there, but even for someone who's only invested in the stock market in index funds, because I know in the fire movement, that's like a big deal. I know that one of the things, one of the funds that people talk about all the time is the Vanguard total stock market index. VTSAX
Naseema McElroy: [00:23:39] yes.
Janine Firpo: [00:23:41] Okay. I own it too. I own it too. I'm selling it off little by little, but I also own another Vanguard fund called E S G V. It is environmentally socially responsible.
And here's the deal. It is doing better than VTSAX
Naseema McElroy: [00:24:03] but what's the expense ratio on it?
Janine Firpo: [00:24:05] It is tiny, just like VTSAX. I love it. It's really small. So I am out performing and I am not paying more in fees. None of that. No. And so when I talk about this kind of investing, I am not talking about giving up financial return.
I'm in another investment. It is a actively managed stock fund. I get that. That is frowned upon by a lot of people. But now the thing is it's run by a woman in Oakland who it's called Nia capital and she is really thoughtful about what she invests in. She's invested in about 50 companies. I think 96% return last year after fees.
Okay. So first of all, let's talk about fees and returns because like, listen, I'm not mad at higher fees. If I'm going to get a 96% return, what are you kidding me?
That was one year. So, you know, I mean, like
Naseema McElroy: [00:25:13] it averages out, but.
Janine Firpo: [00:25:15] Well, she's been in that. She's been doing this for six years and she's outperformed every year. So you're right. That is super important. Right? This whole thing about fees, fees, fees, fees, and you have to get the lowest fee. No. What you want is the the best return. And if you're going to pay a higher fee, but at the end net fees, once you've taken the fees out, you have a higher return. That's what you're should be shooting for. Not just low fees, low fees are not. The Holy grail. That's what I'm trying to say.
Naseema McElroy: [00:25:50] And I'll be all. That's not it. It's not it. Yes. Oh my God. I'm going to have to connect with her and Nia capital,
Janine Firpo: [00:25:57] a lot of interesting stuff out there. And it's all talked about in the book.
I gave examples of where and how to find banks that matter to you, banks that are focused on. Supporting black people in this country, banks that are supporting native American people in this country, banks that are supporting small ag. If that's what you're into banks that are supporting climate change, there are banks that are supporting all kinds of things, and we teach you how to find those.
We talk about investments you can make. If you have extra capital that you want to keep like cash. But where you can make more return. We talk about what you can do in the fixed income and bond market and what your options are there. We give you explicit examples on public equities of how to figure out what you own right now.
What it's holding. Are you in the gun industry? Are you supporting private prisons? We'll tell you how to figure that out based on what you own right now. And then we'll give you tools to show you how to go find investments that are much more values aligned in the same type of want large cap.
Broad index fund will help you figure out how to find those that are more values aligned. You want small cap will help you figure that out. And then we teach you about private investments. What's private debt, private equity. How do you become an angel investor? What is crowdsourcing? How do you do that?
We talked to you about. Alternatives like real estate and renewable energy and water and timber and how you can invest in that, through the stock market, or if you have more capital through other types of vehicles. So all of that is in the book and the companion website. Wow.
Naseema McElroy: [00:27:41] I'm just blown away with how detailed this book is and the website.
I know, like one thing that you talked about and you haven't addressed a little more, is that like, most people in general want to own like real estate. And that's something that I have not heard about as far as like value aligned investing, like in real estate. And I've had my own real estate struggles with some discriminatory lending practices and things like that.
So if I can flip the real estate industry on its head, Like that is one thing I'm super interested in. So I know that you said that the way that you purchase real estate has been values aligned. How did you do
Janine Firpo: [00:28:21] that? So the original real estate that I have is not, it's just single family houses that I have, and I'm starting to figure out my own path to that, but I do have some of my money invested in, so I've got personal real estate, like single family homes in the Bay area that I own, my parents got into real estate.
In the 1960s in the Bay area, believe it or not. And so I learned from them when I was in my teens, my job was going in the summers and repainting interiors and exteriors, pulling out carpets and houses, redoing houses that my mom had bought and my sisters and I were her crew. And then she would rent them out.
So I've learned at an early age. But there are interesting things like affordable housing. So I'm invested in some. Private debt instruments that are supporting affordable housing in the Bay area and putting that kind of thing into place. People are looking at things like ADUs, which are accessory dwelling units, right.
And thinking about, well, on my property, do I have room for an additional place to start increasing density? There are some interesting things that I'm looking at around. Community owned housing cooperative housing so that you, maybe you help buy a building, but then the residents of that building, buy it back from you over time.
So that families who previously had faced possible eviction as something went on the public market would no longer face those evictions because now there are co-owners and they're able to buy slowly over time. So there. Are experiments like that going on around the country. And I am actively looking at and hope to figure you're out this year.
Some I'd like what I'd personally like to do is sell some of the single family homes that I have and repurpose that money into real estate that I think is either in supportive community, in support of people. In co-living situations. Right? I mean, I think that one of the things that we have really found through COVID.
Is how isolating some of our lives can be and how important community is. And I think that the way we have set up our lives and the way we live, we don't live in enough community with other people. So I'm really interested in the question of how can we use real estate to start thinking about. These alternatives and the other, the last thing I'll point out about real estate, because this opportunity is available to people for very little money.
There's a very cool website is called small change. It is a crowdsourcing website and the woman that does this is her name is Eve picker. She's an architect. She lives in Pittsburgh. She's from Australia, but she sources these real estate opportunities that are really socially responsible. And you can invest in them for as little as $500.
And she's got really interesting returns. I mean, you're taking a risk. It's a real estate deal. There's risk. But if you do your research and your homework, and she's got a website it's called impact real estate investing. And she was just talking to a guy. I think his name was George Gilliam in his last podcast.
He played professional football first for the Seattle Seahawks, and then he was on the 49ers and now he's quit. And he's really about how to help educate Yeah, people impoverished communities about money and how to be smart about money. He said that I think it was over 80%.
All players, professional football players lose all of their money. Within three years, they're broke within three years of leaving the profession right. And doing this really interesting community. Project where he's doing a real estate community project. Anyway, there's just a lot of interesting stuff.
That's kind of percolating under the covers that most people don't know about.
Naseema McElroy: [00:32:31] You are as true gem, like I I'm like just in awe of all the resources that you know, this is your life. This is who you are. But the wealth of information that you have is just incredible to me.
But the fact that you have bundled it up and put it in this book, like. I'm truly grateful for this, because like I said, I know it's going to change the world. Like no doubt, no doubt. I'm just honored to be like, just a minuscule part of getting your story out there because it's so needed. This is great.
Janine Firpo: [00:33:11] Thank you so much for that. It's really been it's it's been a work of love. I mean It has, and I really do hope that it helps. And I, I really just want to see more women empowered at the end of the day. That's all, that's what it's about is empowering women and helping them realize our money can be put to great use. And we can change the world.
Naseema McElroy: [00:33:37] Yes. Yes. So how can we get our hands on this book? Like I'm, I'm like excited. Like I'm here for
Janine Firpo: [00:33:47] it is available now on Amazon for pre-order and many other books sites as well. It's again, it's called Activate Your Money. So if you just go on Amazon and look at activate your money and use my name.
If you need it. And my name again is Janine Firpo. So that's J a N I N E. And my last name is F I R P O. You will find it and you can pre-order and the book will be available on the 11th of May. You won't see a picture yet because we're still working on the cover, but it's there.
Naseema McElroy: [00:34:20] Amazing. I think I got a sneak peek and I love what I see.
So I think you guys are in for a treat
so make sure that you guys get this book again. It comes with tons of resources and. Super duper massive website and resource guide that comes along with it curriculum, like everything that you need to take action, because we know it's all about taking action. I don't want you guys to just sit here and listen to this.
And like, this is incredible. This is a good idea. Yes, this is needed. I want you guys to take action and this gives you every. Every method to take action. And so like I said, I know it's going to change lies. I'm super appreciative that you have amassed this information so that we can all benefit from it.
I know I'm personally super excited to dive into the material because. I just know that for me, it'll make a huge difference. So again, super grateful for you, Jenny, you are an incredible, you are an amazing resource and I am just here to support you in any way that I can. You're amazing.
Janine Firpo: [00:35:36] Well, thank you so much for having me on your show. It's really been a delight and I've so enjoyed getting to meet you. And I look forward to that continuing.
Hey there I’m Naseema
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