Financial independence opens doors and provides options. This is what Dr. Susan Spraker tells her wealth management clients and her financial planning workshop students. It’s a message that she knows is true from first-hand experience.
Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s in rural South Carolina as the only daughter of parents who often struggled to keep their small tourist business afloat, Dr. Spraker vowed that she would lead a more financially secure life. While earning a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of South Carolina, she worked at numerous jobs, including as a waitress. After college, she taught for a year, then was recruited to work at South Carolina National Bank. During her teaching and banking jobs, she kept waitressing to make extra income. That work ethic, and a commitment to saving money, allowed Dr. Spraker to pursue and earn graduate and doctorate degrees at Indiana University, where she was the school’s first female Ph.D. in the Urban Geography program in the mid-1970s.
“At the bank I worked five days a week, and then I worked both weekend nights as a waitress at two high-end restaurants. I made more money waitressing, and I was able to pay for my first car in one year and save quite a bit,” Dr. Spraker said. “When I learned that as a female I was not allowed to be a branch manager trainee, I decided to leave the bank and pursue my master’s degree. I had the freedom and the power to do this because I had no debt and plenty of savings to fall back on. I was willing to take the risk of quitting a secure but low paying job to invest in myself and my future earnings capability.
“My education and financial independence have opened a lot of doors,” asserts Dr. Spraker. “It (financial independence) is about having choices, more confidence to take reasonable risks, being less restricted in making personal and business decisions.”
A fee-only financial planner with over 25 years of experience in the retirement planning field, Dr. Spraker provides clients a full spectrum of wealth management guidance. She was recently named again to Wealth Manager Magazine’s Top 50 Women in Wealth Management list. Spraker Wealth Management, which Dr. Spraker founded in 2008 after leaving her partnership of 10 years to pursue active portfolio management, is an independent, fee-only financial planning and wealth management firm.
Not only does Dr. Spraker advise clients nationwide, but she also conducts financial planning workshops for women, like the one entitled "Women, Money, and Realizing Dreams: Control Your Financial Life and Live Your Real Life" at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, Calif.
In her workshops, Dr. Spraker addresses critical financial planning topics such as risk tolerance for investing, credit pitfalls and asset allocation strategies, but she also explores the very emotional and often avoided issues of one’s deepest life goals versus current spending habits and financial balance sheets, as well as the psychological impacts upon financial decisions of parental money beliefs and spending, saving and hoarding habits.
Among Dr. Spraker’s recommendations are:
Make a commitment to avoid credit card debt. “People become slowly entangled in debt, once credit card at a time. I recommend cutting up every card but one. If you have accumulated date, use no credit whatsoever until all balances are paid off. Apply all income over and above mortgage payments, food and medical to making the credit card payments. Then make no new purchases on the one remaining card for at least 90 days to prove to yourself you can live without credit. Freeing yourself from debt is the first step to financial independence.”
Start tracking expenses. “In my workshops, I have everyone fill out a living expenses worksheet. It’s a rude awakening for many people. They recognize that they cannot keep their current spending pace and get out of debt or realize their real dreams. People feel empowered when they realize they can control what they spend and can escape debt. Our consumer oriented society can relearn what’s important, focusing on personal goals and dreams instead of owning the latest advertised car or new gadget that isn’t going to get you to your true life goals. Once automatic consumption of frivolities stops, serious monthly investing can start. That’s the short-term behavioral goal. Learning to systematically invest to reach life goals.”
Write your life goals and work towards achieving them. “Many people are unhappy in their jobs, burned out, but they cannot change careers because they have no savings to fall back on. Once they find they are spending more than they are making, they have to decide if they have the determination to start making the required changes to spend less than they are making. A lot of people have more than they need to live comfortably. I ask them, if you were financially independent, what would you become? What would you do differently than you are now? If you had only five years of life remaining, how would you spend it? This focuses them on real life goals and how to use money to reach life goals. It’s about the person you want to become. Maybe you want to teach but can’t afford to. Getting out of debt, controlling consumption and becoming committed to building your nest egg helps you to achieve your true life goals and dreams.”
Dr. Spraker is striving to show women that they can be self-reliant financially, even if they currently are struggling and searching for a way to improve their financial picture.
“You can get out of debt just as you got into debt,” Dr. Spraker said. “Knowledge and direction are important, as is discipline. Once you have knowledge and direction, it is easier to maintain discipline because you feel empowered, and you have hope.”
