Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Researchers for McKinsey recently determined that women spend less time on the job than men in comparable roles in career paths eight point six years for women versus ten years for men, and that they were more likely to make decisions putting them in roles in industries that were dying. Gosh, it's kind of it's really grim. Yeah, large career gaps, especially during child rearing years, and the desire for more
flexible work took a toll. Listen to this, Carol, Such time and career choices, they said, docked women's lifetime pay by a cool half million dollars.
That's a lot.
Women, they urged, need to choose careers in fast grown fields and spend more time on the job.
Rap.
That's a strong message. I mean, that's a big difference. And if you think about people living longer and like maybe on their own, like how do you support yourself?
Simone Foxman writing about this for Blueberg News. Check out that story and more if you're interested.
All right, curious what Alison Kassik has to say about all of this. She's the author and journalist who has worked at CNN and is a freelance correspondent for ABC News. Equal Page just one of the things she tackles in her deeply personal new book. It's entitled What's Up with Women in Money? How to do all the financial stuff You've been avoiding. She joins us from Long Island. You know, we've been talking about your book, and you know very
deeply personal your story. You go there right in the beginning of the book, tell us about and share with our audience why you said about writing this.
Yeah, great to be on your show, Thanks for having me. So I wrote this because, yes, I was CNN's business correspondent, often reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. But at the beginning of my time there, I wasn't involved in my own financial life. I let my husband handle all things financial, and that was That was not a good decision, because when the marriage went't bad, when you know, I wanted to get out of the marriage, I felt stuck.
I stayed in the marriage longer than I should have, years longer than I should have because he kind of knew where all the money was and how to handle all the money things. And I had two kids under the age of ten at the time. You know, what if I made a mistake, what if I lost all of our money. The difference is that I just didn't
have the confidence to make those big financial decisions. I didn't have the experience of making the decisions over the course of my marriage, and that in essence cut down on my confidence in my ability to make those decisions. But as I got through that, I realized that there are a lot of women different kinds of jobs, high income scale to low income scale, married, divorced, widowed, single, who feel the way I felt that. You know, they don't have any kind of involvement or as much involvement
as they should have in their own financial lives. And it's not something that women talk about because you know, we don't want to be seen as an intellig There's also a lot of embarrassment and shame around it as well.
Why do you think men are the ones who end up doing this stuff in a lot of relationships, Like you have a chapter in here on how to buy a car with confidence, understanding insurance negotiating in your words like a man. Why do men? Why are men the ones who usually do this in relationships?
You know, I think if I could answer that in one reason only, there are I think there are many reasons, but I think the biggest reason is that it is cultural. There's a cultural aspect that women have with money, and I think it starts early when we are girls, and whether we like it or not, girls and boys are socialized differently. And it's not that girls are told not
to care about money. It's just that boys are often introduced to the family finances earlier, They're encouraged to be financially independent earlier, and so you've got these girls who grow up being uninvolved, and they can grow up to be women who avoid money issues, and that of can be compounding in the way that you avoid something long enough, you become fearful of it, and so lack of interest can lead to a lack of information, and that lack of information can lead to a lack of confidence and
being able to manage all things financial, you know, whether it's managing your spending, managing your debt, being able to invest, and being able to negotiate your salary, all of that hits confidence. And I think I think if I'm going to answer it in one answer only, I'd say, it's the culture.
It's got to be the culture, so you know, it's it's It's interesting. Carol mentioned this is a deeply personal book, and I mean it really is. You're not just you.
Don't.
You don't just talk about your relationship and your marriage that prompted you to write this, but also your upbringing and your relationship with your father. And I think a lot of people would say that that was really challenging. I'm wondering, though, as a parent now, how you make sure that your kids are equipped to make these decisions independently.
Very good question. I'm not a perfect parent, and I've got two kids once nineteen, my son is nineteen, my daughter is twenty two. They are invested in the market. Yes, I've taught them how to do it, and I've encouraged them to consistently invest as much as they can. I've explained to them the difference between savings and investments and what the difference is, and why it's important to invest your way to wealth because you can't save your way
to wealth. The thing is, these things are not taught in school, so there's only so much parents can do, and really, I think so much of this is really just taking the effort to learn it on your own or through osmosis or hopefully you've got parents to guide you. I'm certainly trying to guide my kids as much as possible.
You know, it's interesting, Allison. We talk about this a lot here, and I feel like you've obviously you know, you're a journalist, and I know this topic has come up over the years, and I would say for those of us who've been doing it for a while, just like yourself, I feel like I could go back ten years and have this conversation. Twenty years, I could have this conversation.
I think about.
CEOs, female CEOs who've come in and talked about even that in their households to some extent. So I'm wondering, you know, why haven't we we've talked about financial literacy forever. Why isn't that happening? What is it that we are missing? Because you can teach stuff at home, right, But I wonder if we made it part of our curriculum from kind of a younger age, teaching kids about money, the importance of money and all that good stuff, how different things might be.
Oh, I am one hundred percent with you, And to be honest with you, I don't know why this stuff isn't really being taught, and I think it's actually beginning to be taught. It's being thrown into the curriculum. I don't know how much, really, And I'm wondering if maturity has a lot to do with it, because can you imagine getting into all the finer details of investing with a fifteen sixteen year old there's all I think there's also maybe a mindset here of younger of younger people.
I know when I was younger, and it may have just been because we didn't have access to investment platforms like we do today.
Right in fractionally investing, you.
Know, I think that I think that you think that you have got, you know, fifteen years old. Let's say they bring it into the schools at fifteen the curriculum at fifteen years old, You'll pay attention, But I guess how seriously will the kid take it because they think they've got forever to start investing. And I think unless the curriculum really hits home about the importance of investing early and consistently, but investing early, maybe then it'll catch on.
But I think you make a really good point, and I did. I did write this book through a journalist's lens, So not only did I get the tips and tools of financial literacy, I wanted to tell stories, so not just inspirational ones through the celebrities that I interviewed, but also names you wouldn't recognize a lot of these people. A lot of these women are anonymous because they are
ashamed that they're in this situation. So I, for example, I interviewed a venture capitalist who who described money as something that she was fearful of, and she, at fifty three years old, she hadn't invested in one retirement account, didn't know the basics of personal financing, and really was felt overwhelmed. And this is a woman in venture capital, in the venture capital space who was highly highly successful, but she had not invested in herself because she didn't
have the confidence. I mean, it is really amazing that we can be badasses at our jobs, but then in our own life there's this disconnect that's really inexplicable.
Yeah, and I guess what I would say in terms of I agree with you, like a teenager, they're gonna be like yo, you know investing, you know, Warren Buffett, like all that stuff might go past, but just the idea of debt versus not debt, savings versus, you know, just kind of those kinds of things or like you know, you even talk.
I love this idea.
I think I even remember my parents like having an envelope in the drawer of cash that was like the cash for the month or something. And we don't really do that anymore, right, everything's digital, but having that concept of like a digital envelope of this money is my spending money, this is my savings money. Like those concepts are really clean and pure and I think make a lot of sense. And I do think about even today of giving a kid and saying here's some spending money.
That's it. You've got it for the month. Figure it out, Like that's teaching them to budget.
Right right and getting them involved. And as parents, you know your kids are watching you. They're watching if you're piling on dead onto your credit cards, they're watching you know how how you shop around for things if you broke, if the refrigerator is broken, do you just buy whatever? Are you taking them with you to go shop around and get the or at least online to shop around and get the cheapest priced. You know, I think involving
children in money details is really a first step. It seems so simplistic, but it really is a way to get them involved.
Okay, we have been talking about your book in the newsroom and you coming on, and I have a bunch of questions actually from one of my producers. We only have time for one. We only have about a minute left here. But if you've got two four oh one K plans from different employers, how do you determine whether to merge it or just leave it alone.
I've been told, I've been told to merge them. But you're asking the wrong person. I'm not a certified financial planner. I can't even I can't even give you financial advice. Okay, that is not my realm. I So, like I said, I approached this book as a journalist. I did research and interviews to get these to get these topics on paper. And yeah, they'll have to go talk to their at CFP.
All right, that's fair.
Actually good advice.
Actually that's great advice. And she's a journalist too, and I know she'll end up doing research. Thirty seconds left here, there's a lot in the book. It's very usable, it's really fun. What's one piece of advice you want to leave our audience with, just quickly.
Ladies, be involved in all things financial in your house. Have great visibility onto what's happening. Know what your assets are, know your debt, know who your beneficiaries are on your accounts, know the passwords to your accounts, and especially know how much debt you are caring and get involved in the tax process as well. It's so as we're nearing tax time here, be involved in filing your taxes.
All right, really fun, Good luck with everything. Alison Kassick joining us her new book, What's Up with Women and Money? How to do all the financial stuff You've been avoiding, joining us from Long Island.
I want to see what Brooke may has to say about this, because she's managing partner at Evans may Well. They've got about one point three billion dollars in assets under management. She joins us this afternoon from Indiana. Brook you argue that the conversation has really shifted from inflation, kind of done with that now we're thinking about tariffs. But what is the conversation around tariffs.
To your earlier point. It's uncertain right now. You know.
Our concern is that the uncertainty will lead to an economic slow down more than actually the facts at hand. When you look at CEOs recently that were surveyed, the survey took place late January or early February, they indicated that they're optimistic, more optimistic than they've been in recent quarters. That said their biggest concern is geopolitical instability, and that's tariffs in addition to a few other policies.
So the sooner there's clarity.
There, the more likely they are to hire and to spend and you know, and for there to be additional business investment.
So it is interesting when you think about kind of the environment that's out there top of mind for you, because I think the headlines are fast and furious. They can change on an hourly basis, They can certainly change on a daily basis, They can change on a weekly basis, But is there kind of a longer term thought that you have about the environment. We are certainly from an investment perspective, and that could even be one that we don't want to do anything until it settles down.
Yeah, we're setting the expectation with our clients that they can expect volatility in the near term. Until there's more clarity, we're going to see a lot of ups and downs in the market. That said, right now, the unemployment rate is four point one percent. We've got a pretty healthy labor market. Even though we only added one hundred and fifty thousand jobs in the last read, we're still we
still have more job openings than we do unemployed. So the labor markets what's held up this economy the last few years. And even though sentiment has shifted, that's not necessarily a good indicator for future market performance. We've got a sixty five hundred dollars or sixty five hundred price target on the SMP between now and year end, which would be about a fourteen percent bump. And again, once we have some more certainty, I think the market can move higher.
So Brooke, I'm wondering about something that Alex was. It
was Scarlett who just said this on our simulcast. It's this idea that tariffs are like, yes, maybe we'll get some clarity next week, but the President has shown that he can change his mind when it comes to this stuff, especially you know if he has an off ramp with tariffs, if government of Mexico or the government of Canada, for example, proves that it's taking action at the border to prevent what he argues is a poorest border and fentanyl being
allowed into the US, or maybe other parts of negotiation. So even if we do get some clarity on April second, there's still going to be this uncertainty about whether he can just take back whatever he said on April second in the coming days.
No.
Absolutely, and I think that we're going to see that for the next four years.
So get used to it.
In other words, well, wait a minute, So that's we can do about that.
Because I think there's an expectation that things are going to settle down. So you saying that going to be four years of volatility not necessarily.
I do think, though, we need to accept the fact that they're would be pivots at any time.
Right now.
You know, we've got a broad range of initiatives that they're trying to tackle, and while we'll probably see pivots for four years, I think that they'll be less as time goes on the next few months. I know they've got a very robust agenda that they're trying to push through, and I think a lot of this is to set themselves up for an extension of the twenty seventeen tax
cuts and possibly even a lower corporate tax rate. So once they've been able to demonstrate that there might be tteriff revenue or other income streams, then I think that we'll still see some pivots, but they might not be as frequent.
Do you think the tax cuts are priced in fully right now?
Like?
Is that the expectation the market has.
I think an extension of the twenty seventeen tax cuts are priced in. However, I don't know that we've fully priced in a corporate tax rate that would be lower than what it is today, and as we know, you know, that would be pretty agreedive to earnings. So I think that there are there is some upside if we actually see tax cuts a corporate tax rate cut.
If we actually see a corporate tax rate cut. Are you optimistic? Are you pessimistic? Where do you fall in this? There's not a huge when it comes to Republicans in Congress.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that it's pretty imminent that the twenty seventeen tax cut extension.
Will go through.
I think it's going to be a little bit more difficult to push through a corporate tax cut. I think that they're going to have to demonstrate that we're going to have tariff revenue or other cutbacks to actually be able to push it through.
Is all of this going to create bottom line and economy in the United States that continues to grow and that maybe outperforms other developed markets.
A corporate tax rate could the other, you know, the other initiatives. You know, if we possibly see less regulation that could be assisted. That could be a tailwind for some companies. But reality is, us businesses figure out how to make money in all types of environments, and if we've got a strong labor market, people are going to spend, and ultimately the economy is going to stay afloat.
Do companies like companies have figured out ways to pay a lower effective tax rate? So is it really that big of a deal if the corporate tax rate is lowered because companies have done such a good job of figuring out how to pay less in taxes.
Some have and some don't.
Some aren't haven't been as effective, So there are companies that would benefit. You know, I know that a lot of the big tech companies have been in the headlines for the low amount of tax they pay, but that's not true across the board, so there would be some companies that benefit and therefore make it accretive to earnings, hey Brook.
One of the things that our alex Steel just stressed and rightfully so, in our simulcast chat on the clothes, the equal weighted the S and P five hundred equal weighted index was just down about two tens of a percent today, you know, compared with what out one in one point one percent drop in the S and P five hundred, So it was a lot of those big cap tech names that really drag down the S and P five hundred. That equal weight just a little bit lower says what that difference says what to you?
It's exciting to see broadening in the market.
You know, the last two years, big tech specifically, you know, the mag seven has really been where the performances come from. We saw somewhat of a shift from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four, and now we're seeing even a greater broadening today and that's what we want. That said, you know, we think that there's some opportunity right now in big tech, but on all mag seven companies are created equally. Today we had some negative news out of Nvidia,
but systemically the company not much has changed. They're trading at twenty six times forward earnings, and when you look at their growth rate, it's actually less than their PE or it's higher than their PE ratio, which is the type of company you want to be invested in. However, you look at Tesla and it's trading at one hundred times forward earnings and the growth rate is really paltry
relative to the PE. We're seeing slowing sales in China and Europe, and probably some slowing sales here in the US. So I don't think you can go in and just buy big tech in this environment.
You have to be selected.
But there are some opportunities out there in addition to looking at the broad market or equal weighted.
All right, we're gonna have to leave it there, but we appreciate you taking the time. This afternoon, Brook May, managing partner in Evans May Wealth, joining us from Indiana one point three billion dollars in assets under management. Carol I found the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, nonpartisan institute.
They found that America's largest consistently profitable corporation saw their effective tax rates fall from an average of twenty two percent to an average of twelve point eight percent after that Trump tax law went into effecting.
Twenty eight two per cent tax rate.
It's how much lower can it go for me?
For that?
For that, this has boom bark.
Okay, remember we recently talked about this Bloomberg story. It was about Air France unveiling a redesigned first class cabin dubbed Lerenia, seeking to attract well heeled customers with travel experience that it says is actually kind of similar to stepping into a private jet.
We'll see what our next guest has to say the new cabins, I just want to lay it out for everybody. Just remind you each of the four enclosed suites feature three and a half square meters of private space with a seat and a chase chaz that converts into full length bed. The cabin took about three years to develop. It's about a quarter more spacious than the previous iteration.
I think it's a ten k round trip ten k.
Yeah, not inexpensive, but not.
Private jet level, all right, very very far from private jet.
So let's see what Andrew Collins has to say. He's president and CEO of Sentient Gent back here in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker studio. Good to have you here. It feels like everybody's chasing what you guys are doing. How are you.
I'm great and it's great to be back.
Thanks, it's nice to have you here.
My understanding, we got to talk to you as we were kind of busy, frantically working ahead of talking to you. You've been busy too. Tell us what your world is like right now.
I'm on the road a lot private aviation, as you remember, had the boon in COVID and it really hasn't slowed down. And so for Sension, we're seeing about fifteen percent year over year growth right now and the forward bookings are actually encouraging. So you know, I know there's kind of a lot of pausing in the markets right now and people scratching their head a little bit. But from a travel perspective, I'm really not seeing a lot of leakage.
Why did you have to Why do you have to travel so much?
So we have offices all over the world, So we have headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, in Boston here in the City and then we have offices in Mayfair. We have a large operating center out in Farmborough in the UK, maintenance in Milan, so we're all over the world.
But when you're traveling, I mean you're not selling the product.
So I'm always selling the product.
What does that mean though, I mean it's the jet card. You guys are known for the jet card, Yeah, which is unique offering in a space. Right, you know you're the same parent company as Flexjet, which also offers a different type of product.
Absolutely, yeah, but how do you like explain.
How the business model sort of complements that.
Yeah, so there's two differences, right. Flexjet is probably the premier private aviation company and the globe, and it's got a fleet of three hundred aircraft and some of the newest aircraft. Senchin has just surpassed its twenty fifth anniversary. Invented the jet card and it's an asset light model, so it leverages pre screened operators around the globe for
usage of their aircraft. So we have technology that harnesses and schedules aircraft all over the world and it allows for a different type of way to fly an entry point.
Are you ever paying Flexjet to operate for your customers.
There are some non core fleet aircraft that occasionally we do leverage, but most of the time we're using more of a Part one thirty five operator in the United States or in Europe.
So this would be like a small fleet based somewhere. It could be yeah, exactly, that has passed your certification correct and you're essentially paying them to then take your customers correct.
We handle and so it's interesting when you mentioned commercial private aviation is all about that consumer promise and that service level. So it's kind of like curb detail and so yes, you might be able to replicate in cabin experiences, but outside the cabin, getting through like a commercial hub or something like that is very different than you know, pulling right up to a tail and getting on a
private aircraft. You really can't emulate that experience. And so it is it is, you know, interesting in that regard. But yeah, we're selling sort of time manipulation at the end of the day, right A jet card allows you to everybody runs off the same watch, but it allows you privately to manipulate the time.
What's the most difficult part of your business right now?
Now? I think I think the most difficult part of our business is we set a really high bar for our consumer standard. So it's the service level, it's the you know, getting everything right, having all the levers in the row right and making sure you need technology, you need the people, and truth be told, you really need the experience. We have a deep bench of experience, some people that have been here since the beginning with the model.
So I think that the consumer, especially because it's gotten more popular, has also a very high expectation, especially because of the price point. So you've got to deliver, and if we don't actually own that asset, we've got to make sure that we're delivering on that service level and tying that asset to the consumer.
Promise safety in this environment because over the last few months there have been a space of these high profile air travel incidents in North America. They've got the public concerns, some happening with commercial airlines, but several happening with private airlines, including a real tragedy in Arizona and then this close near miss in Chicago with Southwest and a flex jet jet. How do you look at incidents like that and how do you make sure that the product you provide is safe.
So I know our product is safe. We invest millions of dollars in safety. We have a chief safety Officer, independent Safety Advisory Board, we have an SMS that's a safety management system for those that don't know what that is. That's very advanced with the FAA. And so at the end of the day a lot of times and the report is just kind of being worked through in that particular regard in that incident.
Yeah, it's all about like a.
Lot of factors, right, So there's the factors we can control, and then there's the factors around you. So in that case, you're going to find that it's likely that there's some airport things that are happening. There's some some glaring and some things like that. It's not as obvious as one thinks, but I will tell you that we are. You know, we have an incredible safety record and we invest heavily
in it. And I've always been impressed with what we do and how we respond and how we react to things, and we open our doors up to anybody in that regard. I will tell you that everybody talks of a good game about safety in aviation, but you really have to put your money where your mouth is. It is a big investment, it's a big expense, and it's not something you would ever shortcut.
Andrew, how do you make.
Sense of kind of the environment we are? You know, we use words like potentially recession and volatility and uncertainty, and you know, the kind of world breaking apart in new pieces. How would you describe it from what you see, especially as you travel around the world and have global customers.
So it's interesting. In the States, I see still the robust demand. Like I said that, we're seeing the growth when we see a slow down, and we've seen pockets of it over the years for moments and pauses like the beginning of COVID and things like that. You tend to see a shift in your customer base, so you might lose some volume, but you generally tend to have pretty decent flying throughout. We saw it in the financial crisis. We actually maintained a whole different segment that flew, so
there's a resiliency to it. Additionally, our customer base tends to get impacted, but impacted different than say somebody on you know, your typical main street, So I think we're seeing you know enough, flying in Europe, I see a little softness, to be honest with you. Interesting, and you know, we're doing a lot of investing and a lot of building over there, so we're almost counter in some of the regards that other people are kind of looking at
it differently. We're blowing ahead with investments and an investment strategy over there.
Twenty seconds.
Why Europe?
Why Europe because outside of the United States, the European Union is the second biggest private aviation market.
Sorry I cut you off.
Remind us how much the jet card is per hour.
Jet card average jet card is about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for twenty five hours, and it can be a little lower on a light jet. It can be significantly higher in a large cabin. So ten thousand an hour, give or take.
Yeah, give or take. Cool stuff. Andrew Collins, President and chief executive officer of sent Jet, joining us right here in studio. You are listening and watching Bloomberg Business Week Daily