Women Leading The Finance Industry: Kristen Ricupero of Financial Fitness Coaching On The 5 Things You Should Do To Increase Your Financial Literacy

Learn how to plan ahead, with all things. It will help you with your finances more than you know. I believe you can plan for spontaneity just as much, but learn to plan ahead for your meals, shopping, spending and learn to think about events coming up in the near weeks and months. With a little planning, you can create a financial plan to prepare for them and feel confident with your finances. The more planning you learn to do, the less surprises and emergencies you’ll face.

As a part of our series about “Women Leading The Finance Industry”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kristen Ricupero.

Kristen is a Financial Coach & Profit Advisor who specializes in helping small business owners, entrepreneurs and driven professionals in both their business & personal finances. She works closely with individuals to simplify money, strengthen their financial management skills, eliminate debt, and create cash flow management systems to maximize profit and ultimately build wealth. By developing specific action plans that are tailored to each client’s needs, values and goals, it allows them to live and retire in ways they only thought they could dream.

Kristen is fueled by her passion to help others succeed and become financially free. In her spare time, she is an avid runner and lifter. She lives in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA with her husband and two children.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to the finance field?

Absolutely! The short answer is I got into the finance field because of the difference that getting my finances in order made in my own personal life. I’m happy to share a bit more about the longer story as well though.

In 2013, I was just like every other average Jane. I was spending, enjoying, & buying things I wanted without much of a thought. I was single but dating my now husband. I was also in debt and drowning, but hadn’t been facing it. I had $18,000 on a car loan, $5,500 on a personal loan and another $3,000+ in other credit card debt. I was looking for second jobs and wondering what I could sell to make my bills the next month. I had zero clue where my money was going. I made decent money, yet I was broke and living paycheck to paycheck and beyond.

I thought a budget was laying out my bills. I had no idea how to do a real budget although I’d had plenty of experience with corporate budgets. I thought in terms of payments. Famous last words — “I can afford that payment”….until I couldn’t. I hit a breaking point and decided it was finally time to change.

In 15 months, I paid off all my consumer debt. In 24 months total, we had also jointly cash-flowed our wedding and completed our full emergency fund. After the wedding, we combined finances and got busy saving for a down payment for our first house together.

8 years since the beginning, we’ve had an amazing financial turnaround by getting and continuing to live debt free. Our children will not know debt, I promise that every day. This is why I’ve become a financial coach. I want others to know and feel this freedom.

My passion turned quickly from all personal finance to small business finance and the small business owner and their finances in whole. I kept seeing the patterns repeat themselves among my small business clients of not paying themselves, putting everyone else first and working so hard for their passion, but not knowing how to make it profitable. And that’s where my focus lies today, helping my clients be more profitable in their business, bringing more money home and creating stability in the business, and then using their new found income to fuel their dream life.

Can you share with our readers the most interesting or amusing story that occurred to you in your career so far? Can you share the lesson or take away you took out of that story?

I’m not sure if this is the most interesting, but it’s one of my favorite stories. I have a long-term client who started with over $60k in business debt and $80k in personal debt. It’s a husband and wife who run their business together and I met her in a Facebook group in March 2019. I remember talking to her and simply trying to inject hope, she was desperate and feeling hopeless — they had tried to become debt free and get the cash flow under control for years, but they just weren’t on the same page about how to do it. She had left her full-time job to join him and they weren’t sure how they were going to make it.

We finally started working together in September of 2019 by the time they were ready to commit. By December, they were taking home more money than they thought was possible and through daily grit and perseverance, they became personally debt free in March of 2021 and will be business debt free before August 2022. What makes this couple so fun is that they are in their mid 50’s and thought retirement would be impossible. We’re now working with their financial planner on using their income to increase retirement investments, and continuing to dial in on their business numbers, processes and plans so that it’s not only possible, but they also have a very sellable business to add to it.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

Always! I have a few projects on my radar to be completed within the next 12 months. My two biggest ones are a course for realtors and a personal finance course.

I work with a lot of women who got into real estate so they can be more flexible for their families. I absolutely love real estate and of course, as of this interview, the market is booming! But overall, it can be a very volatile market with tons of highs and lows and cash flow is critical to them being able to go and stay full time in this career field. I want to help more realtors be able to make greater impacts themselves.

When it comes to the personal finance course, I know there are a few out there, but I still don’t think they encompass enough of a full picture to help people really dial into their intentional spending. Since I turned my focus to mostly business owners, I wanted to create a way to serve my personal finance audience strongly and on a different level.

I believe that group coaching and 1:1 coaching is the most effective for most people because of the nuances of personal & business finance, however, creating strong courses is an awesome way to get people who aren’t ready to make the time or financial commitment still the help they need!

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Financial coaching in and of itself is a growing business. One thing that sets me apart is that I work with business owners not just in their business, but on their entire financial picture, including the personal finances. I think so many coaches who are out there focus on one side or the other, but don’t know how to bring it all together to have it working like a well-oiled machine.

There are great bookkeepers, accountants and bankers out there as well who help clients in a similar fashion, but they don’t get as in depth as I do with my 1:1 clients in creating systems and dialing into the day to day management, expenses and recommendations on how to improve specific expenses and procedures. I often evaluate what they’re getting from their current financial professionals as well and if they’re not getting the service they deserve for the money they’re paying, I have accountants, financial advisors, bookkeepers, insurance agents, attorneys and others who I vet and trust who I often refer them to.

Ok. Thank you for all that. Let’s now jump to the main core of our interview. Wall Street and Finance used to be an “all white boys club”. This has changed a lot recently. In your opinion, what caused this change?

Oh wow, I think so many things. One, just the evolvement of society. Education has certainly empowered women to take role in places they previously weren’t welcome, or it wasn’t necessarily ‘the norm’ to find them there. There are more mentors and support networks available as well that are helping to lead the way for those women who have the interest, but aren’t certain on how to break through.

With that being said, I feel that the evolvement of technology and social media has also been an incredible contributing factor. We’re able to see so much more happening around us, for better or for worse in certain cases. In the case of better however, you may not have known the steps and leads that some women were taking to break through over the last 20+ years and that’s changed rapidly with social media since the late 90’s/early 2000’s. Both being able to watch and connect with other like-minded women who are ready to step into roles they’re passionate about is so incredibly inspiring and motivating.

Of course, despite the progress, we still have a lot more work to do to achieve parity. According to this report in CNBC, less than 17 percent of senior positions in investment banks are held by women. In your opinion or experience, what 3 things can be done by a)individuals b)companies and/or c) society to support this movement going forward?

At the forefront of all change is awareness. Continuing to bring light to it by individuals and society and awareness is the first step in correcting the imbalance. Something that’s really important to me when associating with other women is the growing movement of women supporting each other. I’m surrounded by some amazing women who can see right past competition to collaboration, and I believe that this is one of the greatest ways that individuals and society can continue working on the disparity as well.

As far as companies go, I believe that all publicly held companies should adopt a minimum percentage requirement to have women in leadership, management and senior positions. Simply by setting a 40%-50% minimum and timeline to achieve that, more women will be given the opportunities to step into those senior positions.

Let’s now turn to a slightly new topic. According to this report in Fortune, nearly two-thirds of Americans can’t pass a basic test of financial literacy. In your opinion or experience what is the cause of these unfortunate numbers? If you had the power to make a change, what 3 things would you recommend to improve these numbers?

Yes, it’s very unfortunate and I see it every day. The hardest part is, that financial literacy affects so many areas of our lives. Those with lower financial literacy rates have more relationship problems, stress, anxiety, health issues and so much more all due to financial problems. In my opinion, the cause is that we haven’t taken enough action yet, and most of what’s being learned, is via watching parents, guardians and friends and others in society.

There’s a lot more to this though, some know better, however, it’s hard to do better, again, back to some of the role social media has played. We’re watching every single thing that our friends, neighbors and people we don’t even know (and shouldn’t care about) are doing, without knowing their inner circle and story. The “keeping up with the Joneses” is getting worse by the day.

If I had the power, the very first thing I would do is mandate personal finance in school, starting in elementary school on a very basic level. We have to start teaching from an impressionable age and empowering children from all backgrounds with the information so they know that it can be better than what they might see or be a part of at home. I know a lot of schools are beginning to adopt financial literacy programs at high school levels, but I think it needs to be mandatory in all schools and high school is starting too late. Money is simply a tool we need to learn how to use. It should be viewed as basic as math or English.

The second thing I’d do, is create more free financial literacy and training programs for adults to take advantage of within local communities, at libraries, as part of community events, etc. One thing we really need to do is normalize the talk about money, debt and finances in general. Too many people are embarrassed to seek out help, thinking they’re the only ones who don’t have it figured out, when in fact, about 80% of their peers also don’t. It can be a fun process to learn about and literally life changing to take control of.

The third thing is that I would have high school students and parents go through a mandatory class around 8th grade to freshman year about how to attend college debt free. There are a lot of ways to get a higher education without student loans. In combination with that, I’d make it more difficult to enter into college loan debt.

I believe that education is so incredibly important, however, what I don’t believe is that people realize what they’re getting into with college loans, and there are other wise choices they could be making to minimize their cost, even at a later stage. I work with a lot of clients who feel hopeless financially speaking because of the burden they carry with their student loans. It’s my goal to educate as many people as possible on alternative ways to still get the education, without the debt.

You are a “finance insider”. If you had to advise your adult child about 5 non intuitive things one should do to become more financially literate, what would you say? Can you please give a story or example for each.

1. I think it’s important to learn to be intentional with all things related to money. Intentional with savings, intentional with spending, intentional with giving. When being intentional, it’s also important to dive in and focus on your values and goals. What’s most important to you? This is where your money should be going and when we spend time learning those things and understanding our natural behaviors, we can begin to make intentional adjustments. One small example I see in this is when people use apps to help control their behaviors, such as acorns to round spending and make those pennies into investments. When you’re purposeful with what you give, save and spend, you’ll make greater gains than those apps will ever help you achieve.

2. Surround yourself and spend the most time with those you want to be like. Find groups of people who are financially focused and join them. It’s hard to tell from ‘looks’ who’s financially savvy but surround yourself with others who have high dreams and aspirations and are going after the things they want instead of just talking about them.

3. Be open and willing to learn new things and to challenge your current beliefs. I believe that we are always learning and always growing. When it comes to finances, there is no one right or wrong way, but I believe there are best practices. It’s following those best practices and being open to new ideas that will help develop and facilitate your growth with financial literacy. For example, one best practice is to live on less than you make — a pretty basic concept. However, to achieve that, you need to know what those numbers are and have some form of a budget. There are tons of ways to do a budget and keep that in check, but I don’t believe any are right or wrong. You might be familiar with one type of budget such as a zero sum or bucket budget, but it’s important to be open to learning other ways and realizing that there are other options that can work for different people and personalities.

4. Learn how to plan ahead, with all things. It will help you with your finances more than you know. I believe you can plan for spontaneity just as much, but learn to plan ahead for your meals, shopping, spending and learn to think about events coming up in the near weeks and months. With a little planning, you can create a financial plan to prepare for them and feel confident with your finances. The more planning you learn to do, the less surprises and emergencies you’ll face.

5. Always be evaluating and setting goals. Goals provide direction, intensity and create new awareness and reasoning to doing specific things. One example is someone who wants to pay off their debt. It’s important that once you’re about 75% through a goal to start thinking about what’s next. It can help create excitement about finishing the current one, but also help to foster dreaming bigger, which I find usually leads to making bigger changes and faster progress.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Wow, so many. So first of all, I wasn’t always good at the stuff I teach. I had to go through my own things as we talked about in the beginning. So, the first people I think are all of those who shared their stories via other platforms and who have written various personal finance books that I learned from myself.

But when it comes to growing my business, I also have so many people to thank it’s nearly impossible! One is my former boss(es). They were a small family business, brother and sister who ran the company where I learned the ins and outs of small business administrative finances, and what it really means to be a small business owner. My previous experience in corporate left a bad taste in my mouth, and it’s learning from people like them, that’s created my passion for small business owners that much more.

Then there are so many people I’ve met along the way who either believed in me, took the time to introduce me to others, allowed me to do free events while I was getting my name out there, or who I’ve worked with, who shout from the rooftops that I exist and can help them change their financial future. I owe my growth and success to so many people I’ve met along the way, who don’t even know how much they’ve changed the trajectory of my business and therefore my life.

There was one woman, I distinctly remember, when I was with my daughter on maternity leave in the grocery store. I can’t remember anymore why we even talked, but something about the baby I’m sure and she had kids with her. I mentioned I was going full time with my business in the fall, when my maternity leave was over; this woman was also an entrepreneur and she told me about a group I should join. That group led me to a few incredible key women who I am really close with today who have impacted my business and growth so much, and I’ve never seen that woman again. It’s just another little testament to, you never know what your interactions with others will bring or help lead them to.

I also have several key women in my life who have become “business besties” who I can bounce things off of, collaborate with, cry with, celebrate with and get honest feedback from — I can’t do what I do without all the incredible women I’ve met and picked up as friendships along the way.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

In 2013, when I had started to get into finances, I was also very into weightlifting and exercise (and I still am). I remember Sagi Kalev once saying, “Today I have a choice. I can either count my blessings or my problems. Counting my blessings causes my problems to shrink, and soon I forget they exist.

Counting my problems makes my blessings shrink, and soon I forget that I have any.

When I don’t count my blessings, they disappear from my mind. Although they are still there, if I don’t think about them, I forget about them. Each day I need to remind myself of my blessings to keep them active in my mind.”

I don’t know what it was, but that quote has always stuck close with me and caused me to start focusing on counting my blessings every day and practicing gratitude with intention, which has led to everything else like a domino effect.

I often share that I have grown 10x as a person since 2013 when I began to focus on my health, my money and eventually, my business. I truly believe that where you focus, you will win. And in that same breath, I believe that you can have balance in your personal life and business. That doesn’t mean it’s always evenly spaced but focusing on work during the timeframe you set aside is critical. And so is focusing on family during the time you set aside.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I want to inspire others to learn to manage their money better and become debt free. Money certainly doesn’t buy happiness, but it buys freedom. It buys peace of mind. It buys options in your life. I meet so many people who feel stuck in either their business, their job, their relationship or another area because they don’t know how to make money work for them. When you take control of your money, you’re really taking full control of your life.

This is such a trickle-down effect. So many people are incredibly generous, almost to a fault sacrificing themselves and want to give more time and/or money, but don’t know how it’s possible. When our money is under our control, you can be more giving in a variety of ways. This can affect our communities, our relationships and even our children.

Thank you for the time you spent on this interview. We wish you only continued success.