From the vibrant heart of a Hispanic community and the trials of single parenting, one resilient soul emerges with tales of financial liberation and trailblazing diversity.
Kathryn Swain's story is a testament to the transformative journey from monetary struggle to investment savvy, a beacon of hope for anyone bound by their economic beginnings.
This clip episode is a rich tapestry of personal growth, embracing the stock market's ebb and flow through self-taught wisdom, and stepping into an industry where the voices of minorities are often echoes rather than roars.
Kitcaster Podcast Agency Did you know that podcasts are a great way to grow your personal and business brand voice?
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DISCLAIMER: This description may contain links from our affiliates, sponsors, and partners. If you use these products, we will get compensated - but there's no additional cost to you.
From the vibrant heart of a Hispanic community and the trials of single parenting, one resilient soul emerges with tales of financial liberation and trailblazing diversity.
Kathryn Swain's story is a testament to the transformative journey from monetary struggle to investment savvy, a beacon of hope for anyone bound by their economic beginnings.
This clip episode is a rich tapestry of personal growth, embracing the stock market's ebb and flow through self-taught wisdom, and stepping into an industry where the voices of minorities are often echoes rather than roars.
Kitcaster Podcast Agency Did you know that podcasts are a great way to grow your personal and business brand voice?
---- CONNECT WITH TRANS-PARENCY PODCAST SHOW ON SOCIAL MEDIA ▶︎ YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCozHvJj0NTeKtvC8P5gyxqA ▶︎ INSTAGRAM | https://www.instagram.com/transparencypodcastshow/ ▶︎ FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thetransparencypodcastshow ▶︎ TIKTOK | https://www.tiktok.com/@thetransparencypodcast
DISCLAIMER: This description may contain links from our affiliates, sponsors, and partners. If you use these products, we will get compensated - but there's no additional cost to you.
Speaker 1:
Here's the. Here's another truth about me I'm, I'm, um, I'm half Hispanic and I grew up in my household. My parents split up when I was very young and my mom and my grandmother raised me and they spoke Spanish only. Um, my grandmother, my mom was a single mom. Her mom was a single mom, Um, they're, my grandmother's dad was a single dad. So so you know, we've never been wealthy, to the point where we just say oh, I remember talking to kids in high school.
Speaker 1:
They're like oh, I've got my trust account, I'm thinking about what to buy with stocks and I thought who, who has a trust account? Um, and that was that was my first you know introduction, which is going to a more affluent, you know school and finding out about this stuff. But growing up in in not to say poor, I would never say poor, but I definitely we didn't have money in the same way that other kids did. And so for me to, when I started to think about a career so think about a career it was more of a necessity, finding out about things that we didn't. It wasn't natural to us.
Speaker 1:
Yes, it wasn't natural to think about a retirement account for one day, or investing or options, or you know. Nothing of that existed in our world. Nothing of that existed in our world.
Speaker 2:
The school doesn't teach that as well.
Speaker 1:
Right and I knew that, to break that cycle of being a single parent who was struggling to get by, that I had to make a conscious decision to focus on that as a priority in my life.
Speaker 1:
So I literally just started in high school studying the stock market and by the time I graduated from college, I got a job at 21, working in an office as a sales assistant, and what was funny was that the first office I worked in there was 40. At that time there were brokers. We now are financial advisors financial planners, but they were, and out of the 40 brokers, only two were women.
Speaker 2:
Wow.
Speaker 1:
And and out of the sales assistants, the people who supported those 40 brokers, I think there was one like 16 of them. They were 16 women and, excuse me, 14 women and two gay men. Okay, and that was my first education to the business, which is, if you want to be successful, white males tend to dominate.
Speaker 3:
And if you are going to survive in this business.
Speaker 1:
You know and you're a woman you're going to be, you're going to be in support, and that's that was the first realization that hit me, that that this is real and and you and you have to survive. You have to kind of do anything you can to get to that, you know.
Speaker 2:
Next level so, um, do you have any advice for people who, like I, say, never invest because, like we, the school system never teach us about financial literacy? Um, so, a lot of time, like people, I don't have money to invest, I I can't even pay my bills and stuff. So do you have any advice to people like that? Because today, especially today's world we have, we're facing inflations, we're facing, um, you know, and there's a lot of economy, um, uncertainties, we might have recession coming up. So all this is tied up to you know how much you can invest, not how much you can save, correct. So do you have any advice to people like that, who might think you want to do it, but not sure where to start?
Speaker 1:
yeah, you know the biggest thing and almost it's. It's funny, there's like certain things that certain communities know and then certain things that other communities don't know, and one of them was just the power of compounding. The power of compounding for me was a revelation and it sounds so simple and I'm sure you've probably seen some example of the power of compounding in school. But as far as a portfolio goes, you know the difference between someone who saves $100 a month and puts it, and just puts it in the market.
Speaker 1:
You do not have to be an expert. You do not have to pick Amazon versus Apple versus AT&T, or Boeing or Chevron or anything like that.
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 1:
All you have to do is put $100 a month into the market. Now, $100 for a lot of people is a big deal, but a lot of people also, $100 is something that they can't afford. You know that's $100 a month is $3 a day.
Speaker 1:
And so if you can take $3 a day and you put that money, that $100, to work each month and you just blindly put it in the stock market to work each month, and you just blindly put it in the stock market when you're 25, if you go 40 years out in the future, at 65, you'll have a million dollars. Yes, now the trick is, if you just wait 10 years, which is, hey, I'm 25. I really need that a hundred bucks. I like to go out to name whatever bar, whatever you know you like to. I love shopping, so that a hundred dollars doesn't seem like a lot today. But the difference between starting at age 25 versus 35, at 35, that instead of having a million dollars, do you know what you have? It's, it's closer to $300,000.
Speaker 3:
Wow, yeah, that's significant.
Speaker 1:
And so that 10 year difference in your early age is what makes all the difference. And so getting people accustomed to the idea of saving for their future. Because I'm trans, we all know the burdens that we all face as trans people burdens that we all face as trans people and so much of my money and focus and everything went into basically making my transition as good as it possibly could. The idea of investing literally when I went through transition was like the last thing I was thinking about.
Speaker 1:
But the moment you're you're feeling like you are who you are. Well, the real world comes, you know, like like the tide comes rushing back in and you got to figure it out quickly. Yes, and so the best thing you can do is to start saving up a saving program. The earlier you can do it, well the earliest you can do it, and that's the difference.
Speaker 3:
That's really good. That's really good if, if I had done that, I wouldn't be in any different. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I actually just started two years ago and I've, you know, read a lot of books is pay you self first. So I kind of follow what you just said, but maybe 10% or 30% from what I my income and then put it in the IRA rough IRA, traditional IRA. And then yeah, so I can't wait to see what happened after 10 years, like you said.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, yeah. And our community faces so much unemployment, underemployment Talking back into your industry of financial services, how difficult it would be for a woman in general, much less a trans person, and so our community is even more plagued by some of these difficulties. And so what is the vision with LGBTQ? Invest in that, in the difficulties and the the setbacks that we have faced in our community. How, how can your company make a difference?
Speaker 1:
so one of the things you know, one of the things I've had lately, now that lgbtqi is in business, is that when I talk to prospective customers, these are folks that are, that are gay, lesbian, trans, bi, whatever they are and allies, especially allies. They say to me hey, catherine, I love what you're doing, but I already have a guy over at.
Speaker 1:
Merrill Lynch or I have a gal over at UBS, or I have someone at JP Morgan that I really love, and my message to them is you know and I and, by the way, that relationship is really valuable but the thing you have to know is that, while you might have a representative that really speaks to you, the people who actually manage that money, the people who are taking your investment dollars and putting it to work in the market, they're mostly again, to kind of echo this they're usually the management and ownership is a single class of people.
Speaker 1:
It is white, Republican, conservative men and, yes, LGBTQ people do exist in the investment management space, but, as I can attest, I've had in my career nothing but those guys as my bosses and I've had nothing but gay and women as my assistants in my career, and so what LGBTQI is really meant to do is meant to create a safe, positive and inclusive space so that those of us in the community not just are heard and you know and listened to, you know for our investing needs and our futures, but, more importantly, the money that we are handing to that advisor, they are not just handing it over to the same person who might be investing in Chick-fil-A or might be investing in.
Speaker 1:
You know, we just had this weekend um Coachella. You know the Coachella festival. I mean, think about the millions and millions, the tens of millions of dollars that goes into Coachella. And the owner, um is, uh, the gentleman named Anschutz. He's a huge advocate for anti-LGBTQ laws that are being passed in Florida, that don't say gay bill and the anti-trans bills. And to think that you in the community, who are fighting for your rights, are then handing your money to someone who then hands it to someone who supports people like.
Speaker 1:
Trump, no, no, you have to put a line in the sand. And when you think about what other firms are available to me, lgbtqi is one of the only firms that exists that is 100% trans-owned or LGBTQ owned and focused on the community, and we are investing in a socially responsible way, so that we apply screens to the world of investments to only invest in companies that are LGBTQ, positive and inclusive and actively going out to try and help the community, and it's pretty easy for us to identify which company those are, and then from there, we then do our normal investment analysis Amazing, amazing.
Speaker 3:
I think about those families in Texas, for example, that are facing the issue of do I stay here, do I? Where do I go? You know who's answering, who's helping me in this, and so I think your vision is that breath of fresh air. Your vision is that cup of cold water that our community needs, and that's one of the reasons we're so excited about having you here and and amping this up as much as possible, because those people are making the decisions the philanthropists that owns soccer teams and the I guess the Dignity Health Sports Center and Staples. You know, those are the people that are making the decisions and we have no right, no recourse for that. But actually now we do in your vision yeah and so.
Speaker 1:
So really, you know it's funny because I I started to go there earlier, you know, when I was 25. If someone said that there was an lgbtq firm where I could go and work with other LGBTQ investors as a trans woman, I would have been there instantly, and at 30 and 35 and 40. And the fact that that never happened there was never a place for me to continue my career. That is largely what LGBTQ is about. It's about jobs for the community and, more importantly, taking folks who were like me when I was 25 and building their career so that they have a destination. You know, so if you're 25 and you just got out of business school or you went to work as an undergrad and you say I'm gay, I'm trans, I'm whatever you are and you say I want a place where I'm respected and I can be successful as an executive, and eventually one day run my own firm.
Speaker 1:
That place does not exist for you today, until now, until now, and that's what we're trying to do can I actually say one? Thing because, um, I, my whole family, is from texas. We've actually been being being Hispanic, we've been in the Rio Grande Valley for over 300 years, so my family was, it was part of Texas before it was Texas, and when I came out, I was really surprised to find out that I had family members who were trans and living in Texas.
