Sharon Epperson with CNBC interviewed Lazetta and clients Cyndi and Ron Williams on the benefits of working with a financial planner, and closing the wealth gap.
Cyndi and Ron Williams, both 57, admit they are not as financially secure as they want to be. Like many baby boomers, they say the vision they had for their lives 20 to 25 years ago is not the reality they are living now.
“I had these visions of getting ready to retire, being able to go here, go there and just have money because I have worked hard for decades,” said Cyndi, an IT project manager in Bowie, Maryland. “I’m not saying that I don’t have flexibility, but there is a gap between the flexibility that I thought I would have and where I am now.”
Job changes, layoffs, helping children through college — life events (some unexpected) caused them to make a few financial missteps along the way, she said.
Both grew up in “solidly middle-class” African-American families, but Ron says that while education was always emphasized, financial literacy was not.
“When you miss steps midway, they become more critical the older you get,” said Ron, who is dean of the business school at Coppin State University, a historically black college in Baltimore.
Read the full article on CNBC.