Financial literacy education webinar with Amanda Ryba

by Saiqa Anne Qureshi, Staff Writer, FWSF MarCom Committee

Amanda Ryba is a national financial educator and speaker from @illuminate.your.wealth and is part of the advisory council of Global Financial Impact, where she leads a team of 60+ financial professionals across the United States. On Wednesday the 11th of June, Amanda led a webinar about financial literacy. The conversation was facilitated by Kara King, CEO of People EQ, and focused on non-traditional ways to save and invest, supporting women to think outside of the box in terms of long term financial planning.

Amanda is passionate about empowering others, especially women, and is on a mission to demystify money and help people break generational cycles through financial education, faith, and smart planning. Her focus is on supporting financial literacy, to increase tax free growth and to promote the building of generational wealth.

Some key facts:

• Women typically retire with 30% less wealth than men
• 80% of women will be solely responsible for their finances at some point in their life
• On average people spend more time planning vacations than retirement
• 72% of women do not have a long term financial plan
• Only 23% of women feel “confident” about finances in retirement

There are three stages to long-term financial planning:

• Accumulation is the first key to ensure funds are being invested during working years. It is necessary to consider the percentage earned annually and the rule of 72. Each 1% of interest doubles in 72 years.
• Protection is the next key, think about fixed stable investments (checking, savings, high yield savings), then variable (stocks, bonds, mutual funds crypto, 401(k), IRA), and indexed (combination of fixed and variable investments) that could be made up of products such as Fixed Indexed Annuities, FIA and Indexed Universal Life Insurance, IUL products.
• Distribution: The final piece of this is around the tax implications of the distribution phase of retirement. Money is either Taxed Now (savings accounts, CD, brokerage accounts), Taxed Later (401K, IRA, pension plans), or Tax Advantaged (cash accumulation in an insurance policy, Roth IRA, Executive Bonus Plan). The taxed advantaged allows the interest earned to be tax free on that income earned and can modify what you get to keep. Additionally, many of those programs allow distributions as a loan which ensures uninterrupted interest on the original principal.

Beyond that it is essential to think about succession planning. Critical is estate planning, including a living will at a minimum, if not a trust. The trust allows the estate to avoid probate. Part of this is also power of attorney and an advanced healthcare directive, to ensure that you have plans in place in case you become incapacitated.

From Connections Newsletter (Past Event Highlights): July 2025

––––––––––––––––––––––

The suggestions of the contributor do not constitute professional advice and are intended for general informational and educational purposes only. Nothing contained herein is intended to be or should be used as a substitute for professional advice, and readers should not act or rely on this information without seeking specific guidance directly from a qualified professional.

The opinions and information expressed in this blog/post/webpage are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the views of FWSF. FWSF is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this content or any damages resulting from its use.