The Wealth Warrior — With Sarah Tinkler

Everyone takes a different approach to their finances, but Sarah Tinkler sees some people who have what she calls “a constant money anxiety animal sitting on their shoulders.”

“Their philosophy is, ‘Let’s just spend all our money today and enjoy life today. Because I have no clue what the future will look like,’” she said. “And those folks do live wonderful, fun lives. But they have a constant money anxiety animal sitting on their shoulders.”

Tinkler is a wealth management advisor with Warrioress Wealth in Denver, Colo. She is associated with Northwestern Mutual.

She said she believes her role is to empower clients to leash the money anxiety animal by providing them with the knowledge they need to move forward and protect their financial futures. “Our purpose is to step into being a warrioress to empower you to own your story, heal, get out of your own self-sabotaging way and attract your wildest dreams.

“By giving my clients knowledge, I can get them to the mindset where they realize, ‘Hey, we’re going to be OK,’” she said. “By helping them develop a strategy and keep with it little by little, year by year, they find that they’re actually in good shape financially. And I think this realization helps people enjoy today more.”

Tinkler fell in love with the insurance and financial services business after originally dreaming about living abroad and working in an embassy.

She graduated from Valparaiso University with a degree in political science and international relations. During her time in college, she lived in China and Mexico.

After graduation, she applied for various international jobs while preparing to take the law school entrance exam. But Tinkler’s life was changed by a chance meeting at her sister’s wedding. Tinkler met her sister’s financial advisor, and her career path was set.

“He introduced me to the folks in the Madison, Wis., office of his wealth management firm,” Tinkler recalled. “They were hiring, and I decided to say yes to that opportunity to give myself a little bit of financial comfort as well as the benefits package and health insurance while I was looking for what my next role would be.”

She started her career as an associate financial representative in the Middleton, Wis., office of Northwestern Mutual in 2006. It didn’t take her long to find her purpose in the industry.

“When I started, I was astonished that this industry even existed. I had no idea that people went to school to study finance. I had no idea that this is how people have solid houses, take great vacations and send their kids to college without debt. That this is how people retire comfortably.

That this is how people give money philanthropically in a big way. I had no idea that this industry enabled people to do those things.”

Tinkler said one of her early goals as an advisor was to break down the barriers that keep consumers from obtaining professional advice.

“A big portion of the wealth gap is actually a knowledge gap or an access gap. When I found out that so much of this is learnable, I took my nerdy self to learn all the things I possibly could about money — how to grow your money, how to build wealth, how to take those lessons of the 1% and take those on a smaller scale to the average American.

“That’s how I fell in love with this career and this industry. And I didn’t look anywhere else ever again.”

Tinkler moved to Denver in 2010 as she continued her career with Northwestern Mutual. Her practice serves about 600 households in 43 states, conducting most client meetings via Zoom.

“We have a broad range of clients — from people in their 20s to people in their 80s,” she said. “If I had to make a generalization about the types of clients we serve, I would say we serve people who really want and crave an authentic connection and a shame-free, judgment-free space for their planning.”

About half of her clients are women, many of whom are recently widowed or divorced. Tinkler is a member of the LGBTQ+ community and serves a number of clients from that community as well.

“We are bringing in and onboarding new clients on every side of the political spectrum and every side of the age demographic and from all parts of the country,” she said.

“I think the people who choose us as their advisor want someone who doesn’t mansplain to them. I think people feel that a female advisor is willing to do a better job of listening to them and will be more empathetic and less judgy. So I have that working for me.”

No matter what someone’s financial situation is, many people have some shame or embarrassment over their lack of understanding about money. Tinkler said she aims to put clients at ease and help them overcome their money shame by creating an environment she describes as “gentle, safe and empathetic.”

“Even some high-income earners will tell me they feel embarrassed to say, ‘I have no idea what my compensation package details are. I have no idea how my stock options work. I have no idea about my 401(k); I just did what someone told me to do years ago.’ I think some affluent people are embarrassed to say they have no idea where their money goes every single month or what their cash flow is. They have no idea about various tax diversification strategies. I’m not going to sit there and be a ‘financial bro’ who asks condescending questions. I’m always going to phrase things in a very gentle and safe way, so that even the affluent feel no shame and no judgment in having conversations with us.”

Tinkler’s judgment-free approach to working with clients also applies to her work with LGBTQ+ clients.

“I think so many of the questions that I ask my LGBTQ+ clients and the planning conversations I have with them are just open-ended, gentle, inclusive and vulnerable. I allow my clients to be vulnerable with me, and I’m vulnerable back with them,” she said.

Although her LGBTQ+ clients have many of the same needs as the rest of her clients, Tinkler said her LGBTQ+ clients need something extra.

“I would say that my clients in the LGBTQ+ community have their central nervous systems just a little more exhausted from constantly needing to be safe in any setting that they’re in. They always have to scan their surroundings and be aware of their physical safety, their emotional safety, their energetic safety when they’re out in public.”

Tinkler has made her office a safe space for her LGBTQ+ clients.

“My clients see that my office is proud and decorated. There are flags. There’s a sign that this is a safe place. I have drag queen artwork on the walls. It’s just a colorful, vibrant, open and welcoming space, as opposed to a sterile mahogany office, and I think it helps LGBTQ+ clients relax a little and feel safer.”

Tinkler said that when she talks to her LGBTQ+ clients about her wife, her world and her vulnerabilities in her practice, “it shows that I’m a safe place.”

In addition to Tinkler’s LGBTQ+ clients having different emotional needs than the rest of her clients, they have different financial needs as well.

“LGBTQ+ clients have higher housing costs. They have higher family-starting costs. They might be getting a later start in life with saving and investing. They need to have a greater financial cushion in the event of job discrimination or career discrimination. They need to have their estate-planning documents and their beneficiary arrangements more buttoned up than other clients do. They also have more of a need for planning for long-term care and end-of-life care.”

Putting the pieces together

Tinkler said that many of her clients already have done “bits and pieces of financial planning on their own.” But they need her help to create an overarching financial plan that pulls those bits and pieces together.

“For example, a lot of people may have a high-yield savings account. They have a couple of old 401(k)s. Maybe they have some idea of what their current job’s benefit package looks like. Maybe they have a few accounts here or there. But they don’t know how everything plays together in the sandbox. They have no idea whether they’re on track to reach their goals. They don’t know at what age they can choose to stop working or what money they want coming in after tax from the day they retire until they take their last breath.”

Tinkler’s interest in helping others live a full life extends outside the financial services realm. She is a Forrest-inspired flow yoga instructor, certified personal trainer and life coach. She teaches yoga about six times a year at a retreat aimed at executive women.

“I also teach a workshop for successful women — entrepreneurs and executives — about remembering who you are, remembering how fierce you are, remembering your sixth sense, remembering the intuition and the instincts that you have. Society tends to cause women to doubt their instincts and doubt their intuition.”

She is mentoring nine advisors and helping them to find solutions to the challenges they face.
“I think it is a really good coaching style to be curious, be gentle, to ask lots of hard, thought-provoking questions. To help someone wrestle with their own barriers, their own limiting beliefs, and then help them come up with things that feed their soul — things that they could be doing more of in their daily life — to feel more authentic and to feel more unapologetic.”
Tinkler attributes her success to her love of people.

“I love people, and I respect all cultures. I get along well with people from all walks of life. And I truly just want people who haven’t historically had access to good financial advice to have access to good financial advice.”

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at [email protected].