Women and money is a conversation most people only have in private, if at all.

Alicia Umpierre is a patent attorney with a Ph.D. in chemistry. She built her career with no family blueprint and no financial network to draw from. On Getting Rich Together, host Syama Bunten draws out the story behind the credentials. What emerges is the women and money conversation you know but rarely hear spoken out loud.

Alicia grew up in Southern California not thinking about finances. No one around her had a Ph.D. She didn't even know what one was until college. Without mentors, she says she might still be testing wastewater in a lab in Ontario, California. People told her what was possible before she knew to ask.

Her patent attorney career path didn't come from a plan. She followed what felt right. She left behind what didn't. A career change to law came from recognizing a dead end, not a vision. She passed the patent bar in two months, went back to school for her J.D. while raising a toddler, then had her second son during law school, and built a career most people don't even know exists.

What Alicia is still working on is teaching kids about money the way she wishes she'd been taught. Her own financial goals now center on a question many women know well: how do you build wealth as a woman when you know what you have, but don't have a trusted network to help you decide what to do next?

She watched her immigrant father work without rest his whole life. She doesn't want to do the same.

Syama built Wealth Catalyst because women and money deserved a better conversation. If you're ready to be in the room where that conversation happens in person, the Freedom Tour salons are gathering women across 32 cities this year, and the Wealth Catalyst Summit comes to San Francisco this October. Save your seat at wealthcatalyst.com.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Women and Money: Alicia Umpierre on Building Wealth Without a Roadmap

02:12 Growing Up Middle Class With No Financial Role Models

04:01 Why Math and Chemistry Became Her Foundation

06:24 Working Through College and the Value of Hard Work

09:17 How Mentorship Changed Everything

13:21 FromPh.D. to Patent Attorney Career Path

16:49 Passing the Patent Bar and Landing the Job

18:28 Going Back to Law School in Her Thirties

21:57 Building Financial Goals as a Couple

24:46 Teaching Kids About Money and Work Ethic

27:57 Retirement, Nest Eggs, and Investing Honestly