Caroline Tanis, a financial advisor, and strategist share her wealth of knowledge on how to build a financial plan tailored to your dreams and goals. From investments and taxes, to trust and estate planning, Caroline reveals tips and strategies on how ambitious women can take control of their financial future.

Through this episode, you will gain a roadmap to success, with advice from Caroline Tanis that can help you get to the finish line and live your best life. So tune in now to start building your bright financial future!

In this episode we cover:

• How do we define wealth?

• Tips on how to take control of your finances and develop a plan to achieve your goals

• Identify your true goals and create a plan that fits your lifestyle

Summary:

Financial advisor and strategist Caroline Tanis is helping highly ambitious women reach their dream life by building a financial plan tailored to their goals and needs. With women increasingly becoming the breadwinners in their households, Tanis works to ensure they are set up for success.

“My tip is always just to start,” Caroline said. “So many of us hide our heads in the sand and I’ll have conversations with clients and I’ll sit there and I’ll say, when is the last time you looked at their money?”

Caroline moved her practice out from a large bank in May 2022 and now offers services such as retirement planning, investments, tax strategies, trust and estate planning, and next generation planning. With her one rule being to identify her client’s true goals and aspirations, rather than what society or social media tells them, Caroline is committed to helping them reach their potential.

When building a plan for her clients, Caroline looks at their assets, risk, investments, trust and estate tools, and insurance needs. She also runs simulations to see how different events can affect their money. Her advice is to start by figuring out where all the accounts are and what type of accounts they have.

Caroline defines wealth as having a successful business that helps as many people as possible, while also being able to enjoy life and travel.

For ambitious women looking to take control of their financial future, Caroline is the person to turn to. With her dedication to helping her clients reach their goals, Caroline is an invaluable asset.

Mentioned In This Episode

• Where you can find Caroline: Website

• Caroline's gift: Women's Wealth Playbook

• Podcast show notes

• Don't forget to join our wait list for the next HobbyScool online learning summit. Our summits are free to attend and you can be the first to know when the next summit launches by getting on the wait list here.

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Transcript:

[0:00:02] Dr. Destini Copp: And today my special guest is Caroline Tannis. Caroline is a financial advisor and strategist that specializes in helping highly ambitious women and their families build a plan for their dream life. She is an advocate for women building wealth and increasing financial literacy in future generations. So Caroline, thank you so much for joining me. I am so excited to chat with you today, especially about this topic because I'm very passionate about it also. But before we begin, all the questions that I have for you, can you tell the good audience a little bit more about you and how you help people?

[0:00:43] Caroline Tanis: Yeah, of course. So thank you so much for all for having me. I'm so excited. One of my favorite topics to talk about as well, but I'm a little biased just to kind of give you a little bit more about me. So I started my wealth management practice at one of the largest US. Banks and just kind of got tired of helping to make these wealthiest families even wealthier. And I was like, I want to meet with the everyday person that needs help with financial planning, right? They want to do things like plan for the kids to go to college, how do we make sure we have enough savings for retirement? Maybe they want to buy a second home or have other goals like that they want to work on, rather than just, how do I build as much money as possible just to say I'm the richest person. And so I moved my practice out from the large bank back in May of 2022. No idea what even here it is anymore. I'm like, Let me look at the calendar. And so I moved my practice out and my clients were thrilled. They were so excited that I could offer them more services. So I'm doing everything from retirement planning for them, looking at investments we work on tax strategies, trust and estate planning, next generation planning for their kids, some even their grandkids.

[0:01:59] Caroline Tanis: And so it's the stuff that all of us need to do, but we oftentimes kind of kick it to the curb or it's on that running to do list that we all have but never get to that. Like, oh, I should update this or I should do that. We never get to those tasks. That's what I work with my clients on, making sure that God forbid something happens, they're prepared and they are taken care of, but also just planning for the future. And I always say helping to build their dream life.

[0:02:26] Dr. Destini Copp: And now is the perfect time to talk about it because we're in the beginning of the year. So if this is one of your goals, to get this aspect of your life kind of to where you want it to be, it's the perfect time right now to start talking about this. So today we're going to be talking about why women in particular should focus on building their wealth and doing all the things that you just mentioned there. But before I get into that, I'm just curious, how do you define wealth? Because I think wealth means different things to different people. It might even mean something different to me than it may mean to you.

[0:03:05] Caroline Tanis: And that's really my goal is to have people accept their definition of wealth, right? For me, it means that I am able to have an incredible business where I'm helping as many people as possible and educating future generations about financial literacy, financial education, but also enjoying so much of my life and my family. And for me, it's having both sides of the coin, right? It's that whole token of we all want it all. But for me, I love to travel, I love to experience new things and just have that quality time with friends and family. So for me, it's knowing that during the week I'm able to help so many people, help them build their dream lives. But then on the weekends and during my vacation time, I'm able to see the world, experience new cultures. I love to be at the beach. I think that's where I recharge my batteries best. And so for me, it's spending time at the beach with my closest friends and family. And kind of that to me is wealth. It's not necessarily a number in a bank account. And as we say this too, I'm sure there's a lot of business owners listening, they go in tandem, right? The more people I'm able to help, the more money you make. Right?

[0:04:13] Caroline Tanis: But I know that the value that I can provide people is just so immense that you get rewarded for it. And so I always like to start there. And for me, that's living my wealthiest life is providing this incredible value, having a rich, fulfilled life on the personal side. That to me is just the absolute wealthiest version of myself.

[0:04:36] Dr. Destini Copp: And I can tell you, you and I are in line on the beach count. So I would love just to I love just going and relaxing at the beach and taking vacations at the beach and maybe even someday having a second home at the beach. So that's definitely one of my financial goals there. So I love that. So let's talk about this because I think there has been some shifts over the years related to women in the workplace and their careers. And can you talk about some of those changes and maybe how that has affected how women can or should build wealth?

[0:05:13] Caroline Tanis: Yeah, and that's a great question. And it's so fascinating to watch kind of the migration and the shift and we've really thought expand and exacerbate during the pandemic. Right. A lot of I follow the Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg from Facebook. She runs the Lean In company and every year they do their annual what's the correct term for it? They do like an annual audit and talk about all the changes they're seeing in women in their careers, the money they're making, things like that. They do this big study. That's what I was looking for. And so when I follow every year the release of this study and it's fascinating to see the trends and the changes that they're reporting and also that I'm seeing in my own clients as well, and just seeing this big shift in migration of women who are two different things, right? They're either the breadwinners in their family now that's really become a big switch or they're also now working for themselves. There are a lot of women that left either corporate positions or were stay at home moms during the pandemic and said, you know what? I have this new opportunity in front of me where we have so much technology. I not only don't have to leave my home in some cases for a while, we all know we couldn't leave our homes, and we were all in the same situation, so there was so much more flexibility. So it's amazing to see all these women who have started businesses or who have moved up in their different positions at corporations and that expansion. And so it's really become a big shift where women are becoming more of the breadwinners in their households and are projected that this is going to continue as the years go on as well.

[0:06:51] Caroline Tanis: And the amount of wealth that we as women will hold. The numbers are just astounding I'm not even going to quote it because I know I'll butcher it, but it's just incredible to see that shift that has come out of the pandemic.

[0:07:04] Dr. Destini Copp: So now we're seeing more women become bread winners, I should say, whether that's them moving up the corporate ladder at where they are or starting their own business and earning money from that aspect, what do you think is going on in today's society that makes it so important for women to build wealth?

[0:07:28] Caroline Tanis: We are in a different position now than we've ever been where once again, you're seeing women have more power over the purse, if we're going to use that term. And it's time, right? There's no longer this it's crazy when you look at the statistics of in the 1960s is when women could finally get their own credit card without another co signer. I look at my grandparents, a generation who they couldn't own property, they couldn't do these things. We've come so far and it's time for us to really fully step into this and say it's time for us to be financially educated. It's no longer this. My husband will take care of it. Oh, I don't need to know about these things. We've learned so much that knowledge is power and it gives us the opportunity to really grow and expand who we are. And as we're making more money or just becoming more involved in this area of life, it's time, right, that's how we build wealth is by becoming involved, being in the meetings, being in the discussions, asking the questions. When I sit down with clients, my one rule is ask me what you think is the stupid question, because number one, it's probably not stupid. And number two, it could unlock something for us that is going to be a make or break decision for you. And it's always there are timid to tell me something or explain it. And I'm like, thank you so much for asking me the question, because this is what's going to catapult you into building wealth and building a financial security for your family.

[0:08:57] Dr. Destini Copp: So, Caroline, let me ask you this. Let's assume that you have a new client who has come to you and depending on their goals, I'm sure you'll advise them differently. But what is the process? What do you first start with and how do you start to work with that new individual?

[0:09:15] Caroline Tanis: A lot of it is, number one, we sit down and I want to know just their life. And I'm like, please just keep talking because I'm pulling different things out that I'm hearing about their life story and you hear those little bits and pieces of, well, I kind of want to do this, or my parents or my spouse wants me to do this. In my first initial meeting with them, I'm trying to pull out what their true desires are, not what everyone else wants from them, not what social media tells them they need to have. That's where I start with clients and really, then we move into our process, is digging into their goals. I've had clients I sit down with and they're like, well, my parents have always told me I have to buy a house. Well, that was a different generation. If you don't want to buy a house because you want different things in life, we need to build around what you want because if not, you're never going to get there. So it's identifying what their true, real goals are for themselves, where are they now? And then I work to build out a financial plan for them from using where we are now to where we want to get to. So I do that through looking at what are the proper investments that they should be investing in in order to get there, what trust and estate tools do we need to use if they have kids? What happens if, God forbid, anything should happen to them, what do we need to do for planning for the next generation? Looking at their insurance needs and really taking that 30,000 foot view so we can dig down into the details, which is going to help me plan and give them those step by step instructions and work with them step by step in order to achieve those goals. Right? That's really our mission, is how do we use financial planning to build that dream life?

[0:10:57] Dr. Destini Copp: So let me ask you this. Let me say that somebody comes to you and the majority of the aspects of their life, their financial life, they feel like they have intact, but maybe they want to save up for that second beach home or their kids college or whatever. What steps would you have them go through to do that?

[0:11:18] Caroline Tanis: A lot of it is looking at the different buckets of their assets, right? And once again, it always varies person by person. So do you have enough in your taxable account? Do you have enough in retirement assets? Where also is it best served for you? So the steps that we look at are, once again, it's the where are you now? Where do you want to get to? And making sure that their risk is also correctly aligned with it, right? Let's say if your kids are going to college in a year or two, the assets need to be in safe enough investments that God forbid, anything should happen in the markets. Is your money there if you need it? And so assessing if their risk is also aligned with the goals that they are trying to achieve, because it's a common theme that I see when I'm looking at clients investments is they pulled things from the Internet, they pulled things from a book. Their uncle recommended they do this. So once now we have this goal and this timeline. How are we aligned to make sure that the money is going to be there? Is it that we need to save more?

[0:12:21] Caroline Tanis: Is it that we need to be less risky? Is it that in some cases I've.

[0:12:25] Dr. Destini Copp: Said, hey, no, you're good.

[0:12:26] Caroline Tanis: I mean, you'll be ready for this event. And looking at kind of all these different areas is and putting it together and saying, will you be ready when the time comes to make that tuition payment? Will you be ready when the time comes to put the down payment down? And if not, here's the changes that we need to make. So we also use software to run analysis and things like that to process different simulations for, hey, if this happened, where would your money be if the market were to tank, where would your money be if you got a pay raise, what would happen? If you save more, what would happen?

[0:13:01] Dr. Destini Copp: Okay, any last minute tips for the listeners out there who are considering maybe this is one of their goals for 2023 is to get all of their everything you mentioned lined up. Maybe getting out of debt, maybe saving for their kids college, maybe making sure that they're saving enough for retirement at whatever date that might want to be. Any last minute tips for folks?

[0:13:28] Caroline Tanis: My tip is always just to start. I think so many of us hide our heads in the sand and I'll have conversations with clients and I'll sit there and I'll say, when is the last time you looked at their money? And they say, I'm so afraid to look. I just don't open the statements or I don't look at the credit card bill or my retirement accounts and they just kind of bury their heads in the sand. Take the first step, figure out where all your accounts are. What type of accounts do you have? Because when I sit down with clients, that's always the first thing I'm going to ask for is, okay, we need to build out your balance sheet and figure out what assets you have, what liabilities you have, and just start it's never as bad as you think it is. And there's always I love the Marie forleo it's, always figure out about because it's so true. But the thing is, you need to take that first step and look at your finances in order to know where you stand now. Because if you don't know where you are now, how do you know what you have to do to get to your goals now?

[0:14:23] Dr. Destini Copp: Caroline, can you tell people where they can find you to maybe they want to set up an appointment or just learn a little bit more? I believe you also have a free gift for them.

[0:14:33] Caroline Tanis: Yes, I do. It's the Women's Wealth playbook. And you can download that. I think it's going to be in the link in the bio. If not, you can also head over to our Instagram page where we have it for you to download. There's some great tips for you on how to have conversations around money, things that you can do to kickstart your wealth habits and so on. Instagram, I am at Tanis Fingroup Tanisfingroup, and you can also find me on my website, tannisfindgroup.com. If you want to set up an appointment, you can do so through either Instagram or the Contact US form on.

[0:15:07] Dr. Destini Copp: Our website and we'll make sure that all of those links are in the show notes so people can go there and find you and set up that appointment. Awesome.

[0:15:17] Caroline Tanis: I look forward to meeting all of you.

[0:15:18] Dr. Destini Copp: Okay, Caroline, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing all of your wonderful knowledge.

[0:15:25] Caroline Tanis: Thank you so much for having me. This is great.