Financial advisor Larry Mathis wants to prep female first responders for financial crises and help them make sensible decisions even in nonemergency situations.
Mathis, founder of Mathis Wealth Management in Phoenix, has organized Fiscal Fitness for Women, a two-hour seminar open to female first responders in the Phoenix area. He hopes to expand the course to a series of workshops and eventually expand it to female employees of corporations.
The impetus for the Women’s Initiative came in part from encounters Mathis had with women planners at the Invest in Women conference sponsored by Financial Advisor magazine in May.
“I was also motivated to do this by a situation the wife of a firefighter in Phoenix had when her husband was incapacitated. She made some poor financial decisions at that time because she did not have the knowledge she needed,” Mathis says.
The seminar, which is Oct. 5 and is being hosted by the Valley Women’s Firefighter Society, is designed to help close that knowledge gap. Mathis says he will use his book, “Mom Was Right,” as a basis for the course. His widowed mother raised seven children while making only a modest living and, at the end of her life, was debt free.
“I learned 90 percent of what I know about making good financial decisions from my mother,” Mathis says.
“The problem many people have is they do not know their financial options, and they do not know the right questions to ask to find out,” he says.
The free session will be tailored to first responders, who are all part of the Arizona pension system.