Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Joyce Palmer, Founder and President of JP Financial Group Discussing Concerns for Women In the Medical Profession

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

Joyce Palmer, the managing partner of JP Financial Group LLC, is a force to be reckoned with in the world of finance. With a dedicated focus on serving women, Joyce is committed to creating financial legacies and empowering women to take control of their financial futures. As a joint owner of JPFG Wealth Management LLC, she brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her clients.With over two decades of experience, Joyce understands the unique financial challenges and opportunities that women face. Her own life experiences have shaped her perspective, as she recognizes the impact of gender on financial decisions. Joyce firmly believes that women have distinct needs, considering their longer life expectancy and the likelihood of living alone as widows or divorcees. She is passionate about providing tailored financial solutions that address these specific concerns.What sets Joyce apart is her genuine dedication to her clients. She actively listens to their needs, concerns, goals, and objectives, ensuring that their voices are heard and understood. Joyce takes pride in building strong personal connections with her clients, offering a level of empathy and relatability that fosters trust and confidence.Joyce’s commitment to continuous learning and professional development is evident in her impressive credentials. She holds a BA in Business from Virginia State University and has completed extensive studies and certifications in income planning strategies, social security benefits, estate planning strategies, and long-term care health insurance. This diverse knowledge base allows her to provide comprehensive and well-rounded financial guidance.Beyond her work, Joyce is actively involved in giving back to her community. She serves on the board of directors for The Charlotte Post Foundation and Faith in Action Community and Education Transition Services (F.A.C.E.T), a nonprofit organization that supports women and children transitioning from homelessness towards independence. Joyce’s passion for empowering women extends beyond the realm of finance, making a positive impact in the lives of those she serves.If you’re ready to take control of your financial future and work with a financial professional who understands your unique needs, Joyce Palmer is the trusted advisor you can rely on. Contact JP Financial Group LLC today and embark on a journey towards financial success and empowerment.Learn More: https://jpfinancialgroupllc.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-joyce-palmer-founder-and-president-of-jp-financial-group-discussing-concerns-for-women-in-the-medical-profession

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the Authority positioning coach. Today we have back with us, Joyce Palmer, who's the founder and president of JP Financial Group, and we'll be talking about concerns for women in the medical profession. Joyce, welcome back to the program.

Thank you, Mike. Thank you very much. I'm happy to be here. Hey, well, I'm excited to talk with you because this is a really specialized field and women who deal with these financial type concerns. You know, it could be women in the legal profession, medical profession, but this is a special nuance that you have a passion for. So let's just get right into, give us a little bit of an overview of your work with women in the medical profession and then just start talking about some of the, the issues that you were providing value to them about? Sure.

So JP Financial Group, we're actually a financial boutique for ladies. We affectionately say we like men too, but we do and typically focus on women. And we do have a specialized program that address women in the medical field, medical professionals, nurses, doctors, technicians. We view them as very, very special. They are the real heroes. And I think we observed that and learned that through COVID because they were on the and they were the ones that really held everything together. So we always employed and raised our nurses and medical professionals, but especially now. So our program is designed to help those that are nearing, our entering retirement,

and they want to make sure they have all their financial ducks in a row. And they have some unique concerns as nurses and medical professionals, and we work with them on that. Yeah, so what is an example of one of those type of concerns that you are noticing that they're dealing with? Yeah, it's a common theme with the nurses and medical professionals. One is debt. Many of them incur debt when they start out because they have to go to school and many times several years in school. So student loan debt and just debt in general tends to be a concern.

They also are trying to always do work-life balance. juggling the that's a that's a old that's a myth right that's an old old legend that that people talk about there's no such thing is that I know I know work like balance you know um and it's especially it's especially challenging for ladies in general but as medical professionals they're they're the nurse at work in most cases they're the nurse at home too so sure so when a little one is sick or the big one is sick. They have to play nurse role at home. And so a lot of times balancing work and family is a concern for them.

And then career advancement, especially the nurses and medical professionals that I work with. The medical industry is always advancing and there's always changes going on. And so there's a call for them to stay with training and continue education and always learning more of things. So that's one of their concerns, too, is being able to keep up with the advancements in the medical field and in the work. Okay. So you laid out three really powerful points of the student loan kind of debt management, work-life balance, and then advancement. let's unpack each one of those. What are some of the main points that you are seeing in the student loan debt management side of things that maybe a lot of people might go, you know,

I hadn't thought of it from that perspective. Yeah. So debt, we always say debt's like the financial cancer. So the medical professionals, they get that. So high cost of medical education, especially for women in the medical field, is something that. they have to deal with. So what we do is we're looking at kind of balancing when and how to accelerate the debt, whether they attack it, you know, from a snowball effect or whether they're looking to refinance or consolidate some of the debt. So with the debt, there comes the question of

how do you attack the debt and then identifying good debt from bad debt. So many of them, we have the conversation and we just let them know that debts overall is not good, but there is some debt that's not so bad, like your mortgage. That's considered a good debt. It's the bad debts, the credit cards, the student loans, the personal loans, those are the ones that kind of eat away at you that you have to focus on. So when we attack the debt, we first look at their budget and their spending.

Well, actually, we don't call it a budget. I forgot about that, Mike. We never say budget at JP Financial Group. We like the word spending plan. What's the positive word for budget? It's spending plan. It's spending plan. So for ladies.

I love that. And I feel that, you know, there's these little connotations of words. Like, you know, budget makes you feel your tense, get all tensed up. But a spending plan, guess what? People like to spend money. And you just can't spend it in 19 different places. is all of the place. So the spending plan, you know, needs to fit into this old school word called a budget. But I really like that mental shift that you bring up there.

Yeah, we do. We do. Because if you tell a lady, you know, that she works hard for her money and now she cannot, she's on a budget. Just by just by saying that, you immediately go to the opposite end of the spectrum and say, I'm going to spend just because versus if we say you can spend as much as you want after you take care these priority things first. Well, let me ask you this question. And I think we could spend about seven and a half hours on debt. You know, like you said, it's the cancer of, you know, it's just so much, you know, issue with debt and money management.

But when you're thinking about the future and you think about retirement, should you pay off all debt? And we're talking about here, student low debt. So how much student loan debt percentage-wise should be paid off before you start going. And now I'm going to look at planning for retirement. Or is there a way to kind of straddle the fence and accomplish both at the same time? Yeah. So I like to focus on getting rid of those bad debts first before we go in and retire.

The house, the mortgage, that's a good debt. And that's okay. We're okay with that. But we like to try to say when you're getting ready to go into retirement zone, if you can reduce as much debt as possible. It's going to allow you to sleep better at night. Now, sometimes that's not always possible, but that's the strategy is let's try to eliminate the debt as we're going into retirement zone as much as possible so that we can keep our debt load lower when we're going into retirement. Yep, excellent. So now let's jump into that crazy word that neither one of us really understands work-life balance.

Let me ask you this question. Do you have a better word like you did for a budget and spending plan for work-life balance? What do you call that? No, we haven't come up with one for that. Well, you need to, yeah. Because work-life balance is, you know, I think, especially for women in a medical field, when they're in the beginning stages of their careers, there is very little work-life balance, right? They're studying, they're working, they're learning, they're picking up double shifts.

So as they advance in their career, what they start to find is they start to begin to have a little bit more work-life balance. And I think that may be the case for all of us, but especially for the medical professionals, the nurses because in that early stage, they really do not have work-life balance. It's all work. So the work-like balance piece of it is something that starts to happen. Another thing we're seeing with work-life balance is, especially what retirees, retirement doesn't always look the same anymore. It's not just completely stopping and staying home and doing nothing.

Retirement now could be, especially again, nurses and medical professionals, it could be going to a part-time schedule. It could be going to working as a consultant in the medical field. So the retirees now are starting to get that work-life balance a different way. And as nurses and medical professionals, they're doing it part-time, they're doing it contracting work. I have a couple of my clients that have retired, and now they're sitting with clients, sitting with seniors, and that's kind of like a hobby slash, you know, host retirement thing to do. And it gives them still an opportunity to do something they love doing, caring for people. It gives them a chance to still make some extra income, but it gives them the freedom to make their own schedules.

So work-life balance is starting to change. little bit, I think, for us. So what do you say to clients that say, okay, but guess what, Joyce, I feel like I'm behind the schedule on retirement planning because of this and this and this and this that happened. COVID hit or whatever the case is, you know, just I'm not where I want to be. And I want to take care of my family. And I want to take those extra hours and those extra shifts so that I can catch up or provide

for my family the way that they deserve, all of that. Well, on one hand, it's I want to provide my family. for my family and give them a better life and plan for retirement. But on the other hand, you could work 29 hours a day if you really, you know, pushed it. So how do you advise them to go, okay, we want to plan for the financial things, but also you need to plan for yourself as well with that work-like balance? Yeah, that's a good one, Mike. My nurses and medical professionals, what they are great at is taking care of everyone else.

Yeah. They take care of their patients. They take care of their families, their care gifts. But what they're not good at is taking care of themselves. So they sometimes put themselves last on the list. So my job as a financial advisor to medical professionals is to make them a priority. So part of our conversation is you've cared for everyone else and now let us care for you. let us care for you and put you the top priority.

And that's what my team does when we're working with our medical professionals because they're sweet people and they would go forever taking care of everyone else and not themselves. So we really reverse the role and we play the caregiver for them financially, making sure they have a clear financial checklist, making sure that we address every one of their goals and their dreams on that financial checklist and give them step-by-step action items that's going to give them the peace of mind to know that they can step away and take care of themselves and it's going to be okay. Yep.

It's like the age-old analogy that we hear so many times about going flying on an airplane. They always say if you're flying with someone, you know, like a child, put your oxygen mask on first because if you are impacted negatively, you can't help the person with you. Right. That's exactly right. So let's now move into career advancement because I want to hear a little bit about that, but it kind of makes me think this. Like these things tend to work together. Like work life balance, I need to work so hard to catch up. But if you are working good and advancing yourself in your career, then you're making a little bit more money and you have a little bit for your schedule potentially to then help with catching up or planning for retirement. So talk a little bit

about how that career advancement ties in. Yeah, career advancement in the medical field for ladies is a key point. Unfortunately, women still lack behind when it comes to the wage earnings. We still make less than our male counterpart on an average. So that's still an issue, especially in the medical field where you may have nurses or medical persons that may not be at the higher level of income. So helping them to learn how to negotiate and to position themselves to make more money, understanding that women tend to lag behind when it comes to the salaries. So having that conversation with them and giving them a gauge as to what the average salary range is for their position. And if they're a female, they may have to step up sometimes and say, hey, look, I think

I'm making less than my male counterparts here. And I want to negotiate a little bit more income. So that's one of the areas with career advancement is learning to negotiate to be effective with getting themselves in position to make more. And then the other area is that in the nursing and medical field, there's a lot of room, there's a lot of room for advancement with different levels. They can come in on one level, but they can continue to get their education done and they can go to another level. So it does lend itself for them to have some upward mobility in their careers. I love it. It's really important to be thinking about the long term, but then also right in front of you, you might have that student loan debt, but then associated to that, you might need to

be handling work-life balance and then to achieve some of the advancement you need is to have some of those negotiating skills, career advancement, that kind of a mindset. But yet you've explained really well how they all play together and you need to be keeping all of those plates in the air spinning so that you're moving forward toward that successful financial outcome that you desire. So I think that is just really great, Joyce. Thank you for those insights. If someone is interested in learning a little bit more about these aspects and you, and how you serve your women in the medical profession. What's the best way they can reach out and connect with you?

Sure. They can go to our website, www.jp Financial Group LLC.com. While they're on the website, I would invite them to check out our podcast, Proactive Woman Podcast. We have some great episodes on there. We do also have a specialized program for Mets. medical professionals. So I would definitely love to share that with anyone that is in the medical field and they want to make sure that they're on the right path to having a happy, successful retirement and have all of their financial ducks in a row. So.

Excellent. That makes so much sense. Well, thank you so much for coming back on Joyce. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you again. Thank you for happy, Mike. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www. www.Influentialentrepreneursradio.com.