I received an email from some clients of mine. It's a young couple I've been working with over the last year. Quite frankly, I adore working with them because they implement my recommendations and are seeing fantastic results. At any rate, the email was letting me know that one of them was recently in a car accident and her car was totaled. Fortunately, she's okay besides some bumps and bruises.

It would've been very easy for them to throw their hands up in frustration and give up when faced with this financial setback. Instead, they reached out to make an appointment to discuss their options. A year ago, they probably would've entered into a loan they couldn't really afford that would continue to set them back every month. What a difference a year makes!

The Most Important Step to Maintaining a Wealth Mindset

Making the decision to shift to a wealth mindset is the first step of many towards building a wealth legacy. Taking action is the second step. Both steps are essential...

April is Financial Literacy Month! It’s such an important time for me because I truly believe in the importance of education, especially around money. The reality is that the schools don’t provide much, if any, financial education.

So, I want to make sure you have the tools to feel confident in sharing this information with your kids and also so you are confident in advocating for yourself when it comes to your finances.

I remember learning about money at a young age — I must have been about 10 and my brother was 15. My mom was a single mom. She hurt her back and couldn't go grocery shopping, so it fell to us (my brother and I) to go to the store and get what we needed.

It was the first time we had to be responsible to get the groceries and it was a little scary. We were in charge of making sure we chose wisely so we would all have food to eat for the whole week and hadn’t loaded the cart with groceries that would exceed our budget.

Even though it was a...

When you want to feel empowered around your money mindset, there’s one thing that is at the heart of preparing to increase your income. Sometimes, in mindset work, we forget that we do have a great deal of control. While that control isn't over anything outside of ourselves, we can control our thoughts, reactions, and beliefs — and that is powerful! And it starts with asking.

Kids are great at this. For example: My kids always want McDonald’s. Nevermind that 99.9% of the time when they ask, my answer is no. But they always ask for it. I’m sure if you’re a parent, cousin, or caretaker of any sort, you’ve had this experience, too.

And as any kiddo is too familiar in hearing… Just because you want it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. But when you realize that in your money mindset journey that you have a great deal of power over your choices, you can learn to guide your thoughts and actions to prepare yourself for an increase in...

Often, as someone is entering a life transition, they have this feeling of “I can do it!” mixed with a hefty dose of “What am I going to do?” 

The goal behind Watch Her Thrive is to be a beacon. It’s more than just writing helpful blog articles to show you how something is done. It’s to empower you and show you that Yes, you can do it!

From my early career days, I’ve always been an educator. Sometimes in the traditional sense, like when I taught third grade in inner city Baltimore; and sometimes in the non-traditional sense, like when I became a published senior equity research analyst. And sometimes in the very non-traditional sense as my ex-husband and I navigated the adoption system.

No matter what I did, my mom was always my rock. She was non-judgemental, full of support and encouragement, and always accepting of my anti-status-quo ways. I wanted to blend all of that knowledge and personal guidance into a sustainable, fulfilling...

The holidays are full of emotions whether you’re single, married, newly divorced, remarried, or divorced for a while. That isn’t an exhaustive list by any means, so suffice to say that the holidays can bring up complicated emotions. As a matter of fact, it is immediately after this time when divorce filing rates spike.

Should you be contemplating divorce right now, know that you are not alone. Here are a few resources to help you weather the storm so you can thrive after divorce! In this post, I share links across all facets of my specialties from Great Lakes Divorce Financial Solutions and Great Lakes Investment Management. If you’re interested in diving further into their topic, I’d suggest browsing the blogs on those sites as I have a ton more information and I couldn’t link to all of it!

Increasing Your Income To Help You Thrive After Divorce

One of the first things I usually hear when I work with couples at Great Lakes Divorce Financial Solutions...

When you’re trying to reach a goal, it’s so important to make sure that you have someone available to help cheer you on. Accomplishing goals is so much easier when you have friends and family who can support you and provide direction to your life. The best accountability partners are the ones who will be there to not only support you during the hard times but also celebrate with you when everything is going great. 

Look Inside Your Home 

The people who are closest to you can make the best accountability partners. If you want to accomplish a goal that is very close to your personal finances, sometimes working with someone in your own home will help you reach your goals more easily. Look to your spouse as someone who can be a great accountability partner. Before doing this, make sure that you both are in it to accomplish this goal! 

Find Like-Minded People

When you’re finding an accountability partner, it will be hard for you to get someone who is...

I have been a huge fan of Disney animated films for as long as I can remember so I always welcome the opportunity to take my kids to see the latest release. Besides, Disney movies are often chockfull of life lessons and great conversation starters, and the new Frozen sequel is no different. From female empowerment to transformative change to emotional expression, the film hits on a lot of big topics. Many of which can be applied as financial lessons.

Spoiler alert: If you have not seen Frozen 2 yet, you may want to hold off on reading this until after you have.

Financial Lessons Learned from Disney's Frozen 2

Sometimes what we accept as true is really just a story we were told

In the movie, Elsa and Anna believed that their grandfather's gift of a dam for the Northuldra people was a peace offering. However, they later learned that their grandfather actually built the dam, knowing that it would harm the tribe’s lands. The grandfather then attacked a Northuldra...

What is your biggest fear? Ask a child and they may respond that it's spiders or snakes or some other creepy-crawly. However, as we grow older, we begin to realize that there are other kinds of things to fear. For example, fear of losing a job or fear of not being able to pay the mortgage.

The consequences of the things we fear can seem unbearable. Money fears are no different. So, what do most people do? Lie and hide. That's right. I said they lie and they hide. They lie to themselves about how serious things are, and they hide their fears or their consequences from others.  

Some of these may be the very people who could help, but fear and shame keep them from admitting they are in trouble.

Honesty feels risky

Getting honest about money when you are in trouble feels risky. In some cases, it can cause harm, and in others, it can create worse case scenarios. From missing a payment and having an adverse credit score to causing financial damage to a business or institution,...