Ruchi Watson is the Director of Special Projects at the David Eccles School of Business and has been the advisor for Graduate Women in Business student organization for the past two years. For more information on the Women in Business, click here. 

Ruchi writes: 

A few weeks ago, I had the honor of attending another one of our great Eccles School Women’s Alumni Events, this time a social gathering at local watering hole, Squatters Pub.  While much of the evening was filled with meeting friends old and new, sharing laughs, and eating great food, we also had the pleasure of hearing from a wonderful speaker in Kris Liacopoulos.

Kris (as I now feel like I can call her, even though we were only able to chat for a few minutes; she’s just that kind of person) is the Senior Vice President and General Manager for Fidelity Investments’ Regional Center in Salt Lake City.  Not only did she attend the Eccles School for both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, but she is also the former Full-Time MBA Program Director – needless to say, she’s a great friend to the school.

Right off the bat, she shared her personal story with us, drawing us all into her “speech,” and letting us know that her words were going to be genuine.  While she mentioned that she does love to speak about leadership, she did so for just a short time.

Her main themes were:

• You (generally) find what you’re looking for…
  [which I took as – if you’re looking for something bad/negative, you’re likely to see it that way]
• There’s no day but today…[carpe diem!]
• You get to the top of the mountain one step at a time…[just keep putting one foot in front of the other]

While those were all great lessons in and of themselves, the majority of her presentation was focused on a slightly less prolific topic – women and money.

When I heard that, I have to admit that I instantly thought of Suze Orman, and my heart sank just a little to think I was going to be getting investment advice during cocktail hour.  However, when Kris started speaking, it wasn’t investment specifics she spoke about, but rather the idea that women have generally given up their right to manage their own finances.

I wasn’t surprised to hear that this is even more important in today’s society given that women are outliving men and the divorce rate is on the rise.  However, it was news to me to hear that the research says that women routinely defer on financial decisions and that Generation Y women are even more passive than previous generations.  It really made me think about my own situation.

I’m in my 30s, married, first baby on the way, have an MBA, and generally consider myself a fairly well-rounded and independent woman.  Yet, when Kris said this, I thought to myself: “Who does most (if not all) the finances in our house?  My husband.”  Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised by her stats after all.

As Kris spoke about how women don’t know how money in their household is being spent (even though they are statistically better investors), I began to think about my own situation even more.  Everyone always says the No. 1 thing people fight about in relationships is money, right?

I learned a lot from Kris’ presentation – not that I needed to now completely take over all household finances when it’s something that I don’t have a great interest in, but rather that knowledge really is power.  By not at least being educated about all aspects of our finances, I’m giving up that power and privilege too easily.  I know that my husband and I proactively discussed finances before we got married.  We share paying for bills and each has retirement accounts.  That being said, next time he’s joyfully reviewing our accounts (because he genuinely loves it), I’m going to scoot a little closer on the couch to make sure I know what’s happening with our finances.  I owe that much to myself, and to our new little girl on the way. Who knows, maybe she’ll be a finance-lover like her daddy?