WEBVTT
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The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
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those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
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make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
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liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
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or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should
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be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
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W FOURCY Radio.
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Welcome to to Ask Good Questions Podcasts, broadcasting live every Wednesday,
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six pm Eastern Time on W four CY Radio at
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W four cy dot com. This week and every week,
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we will reach for a higher purpose in money and life,
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as well as a focus on health and wellness. Now,
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let's join your host, Anita bell Anderson, as together we
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start with Asking Good Questions.
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Hey, welcome to the Ask Good Questions Podcast. I am
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Benita Belle Anderson, your host, and I am super excited
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today we have another female financial advisor on with me today.
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Her name is Rachelle Smith CFP, and I will invite
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her onto the proverbial podcast podcast stage.
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Now here she comes.
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Hey, Rachelle, Hello, how are you. I'm good. You're coming
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at us from Orlando, Florida.
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Oh town.
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And I already asked her if she goes to Disney
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all the time, and she says, nah, I do not.
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Now I do not.
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So anyway, well, I'd like to begin with just a
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I'm going to kind of shorten this bio because it's
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a long one. She is the founder and president of
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Ames Financial Solutions, which is a virtual financial planning firm
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where she offers comprehensive financial planning services. She focuses mainly
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on gen X and Y, offering tailored strategies for divorce,
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C suite executives and first generation wealth builders, which I
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hope that we.
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Have more and more of those out there.
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Her commitment lies in providing financial planning services that ensures
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her clients navigate their financial journey with precision and confidence. Now,
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I'm just going to briefly talk about some of these awards.
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This girl's got some awards behind her. She's a finance
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contributor for Orlando's NBC affiliate WEESH two CW eighteen. She
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is a two time Stellar Award winner WKB sixteen eighty
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am and she is Investipeda's top one hundred five financial advisors.
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She was named to investi Pedia's Top Financial Advisors in
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twenty eighteen, twenty twenty two, and twenty twenty three. So
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she's also written a book in her spare time. She
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has authored a Women's a Woman's Worth Seven Key Essentials
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to Financial Independence. People need to have both of our books,
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don't they? Yes, and that is available on Amazon. She's
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also the CEO of RS Smith Consulting, LLC, which houses
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She's So Wealthy Academy, She's So Wealthy YouTube channel and
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She's So Wealthy podcast. So my goodness, you are a
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busy girl, and it's great because the industry needs more
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and more women.
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Just like you.
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I agree, Yes, I totally agree. So I am just
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trying to contribute when and where I can.
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Yeah.
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Absolutely, that's all any of us can do, right, Yes,
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So today we're focus is now. I went through a terrible,
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terrible divorce twenty five years ago. I didn't have me
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and I didn't have you twenty five years ago, and
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I had basically characterized myself as being curled up in
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a corner sucking my thumb for a while before I
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finally started clawing my way out of that.
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I had three daughters that were likewise hurting.
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And so today, because you focus on divorcees want I
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thought it would be hopefully we will get out to
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those people that need this. But so we're going to
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focus on that's kind of going to be a big topic.
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But why did you what was it that major decide
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to think about working with divorcees.
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I didn't have me either, So I had me, but
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I just didn't know right. So I am by no
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Number one client. So I talk about different situations that
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happened a lot of times, I'm talking about myself. And
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I worked at another firm for sixteen years and I
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was in their platinum group, where you had to have
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at least a million dollars or more. I'm also one
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of the early team members because they formed a CFP group,
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and so I'm one of the early people that was
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a part of that team or that group. And I
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worked with people who knew they needed a financial plan
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and people who were again kind of at that million
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mark or more. And so what I saw was that
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I only worked with men, and I thought there's something
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wrong with this picture here, because even when they bring
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in a couple to work on a financial plan, and
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only half of the couple kat right. The male have right,
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And so I thought, wow. You know, there have been
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times where I'd say, well, is your wife going to
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join us? And she's here. You know, we're kind of
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at the kitchen table. She's here, she's not really saying much,
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or she's kind of in the background. And so I
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always thought, well, men typically passed away before women, and
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you know, if there's a divorce, what does she do?
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Like she doesn't know. I had one woman asked me
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one time if she was able to get a new car,
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and I'm looking at their net worth and I'm thinking that, like,
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what kind of car are you gonna buy? Because you
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have way yes to buy a car. So I just
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felt like I can be relatable because I've had that experience. Also,
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I have witnessed other people having that experience, and unfortunately
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many of us have done it wrong. There is although
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divorce isn't a great thing, there is a right way
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to divorce. There's a good way to divorce.
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Yeah, so hopefully we're going to delve into that a
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little bit today. Yeah, so you did have a personal experience.
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I did and I did.
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Don't you think that we have more empathy when when
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you've gone through something, whatever it is. But I think
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people are able to relate to you more when they
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know you've been through.
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It, absolutely, and that's how you know. They always talk
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about being relatable and representation. Not that I want to
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represent four days.
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But like, I really wish I didn't have that experience, but.
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Right exactly, so I went through it, and uh, much
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of mine was done in mediation. There wasn't a whole
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lot of back and forth. But as I look back,
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I see where there are some things that I could
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have done better, I could have thought a little harder for,
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and of course that's why we have attorneys. But I
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just see where there's some things that I could have
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done better. And then I'm looking at other people who
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have way more to separate or to split up than
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I did. And so I'm like, everything is negotiable, even
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if you don't think it's negotiable for that stay at
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home mom whose husband travels and builds up miles and
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miles and miles and miles of sky miles, like, everything's negotiable.
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And so I don't think that a lot of times
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we're thinking of that, and so they needed me and
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they needed you to help with that.
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Right, Well, do.
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You think that your perspective has changed over the years,
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so Rischell, how long have you been in the industry?
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So I am three decades in good job.
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See, I started midlife, so I wouldn't be possible because
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I've been in this industry, you know for twenty five years. Okay,
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when I started midlife, yeah, I was a divorced and
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I you know, it was not anything I.
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Was expecting to ever do.
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See, you were one of those kids, like nineteen twenty
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year years old getting out there and well, man, what
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a fabulous what a fabulous contribution that you can make. Yeah,
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So back to that question, do you think that your
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perspective has changed around divorced?
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Yeah, it absolutely has. And before I tell you, when
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I got married, and at the time that I got married,
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I wasn't thinking about pre nup. I wasn't thinking about,
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you know, what happens to the assets and the home
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and all those things. None of that was on my
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mind because we were, you know, fairly young, so none
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of that was on my mind. But now it most
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certainly is on my mind, and I tell people who,
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especially if you're talking about that second marriage where everybody
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has kind of done their own thing. We have children
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from our relationship, whole lot. Absolutely, the perspective is different.
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Right, right, exactly.
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Yeah, I've been married again for the last fifteen years
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and my husband lost his first wife to cancer. Okay,
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I went through but his was a completely different perspective.
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One of the things that he confided in me was
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that he has a hearing disability and he was mad
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at her.
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There was you know, you.
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See these things about how you go through these different stages,
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and he was mad because he had depended on her
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a lot, and so then she up and dies and
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so now I find that I fill that role in
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a lot of ways. But I know that because of
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my divorce too. I've had people, you know, say, well,
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you need to talk to Bonnie because she's been through it.
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So yeah, that people people recognize that you will probably
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be able to be a good person to talk to
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because of your past experience.
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Yeah, and past experience, and also because of the industry
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that I'm in. So yeah, you know, sometimes you get
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that attorney and you going to meet into mediation and
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they don't know, should we be splitting the traditional ira
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or the roth ira or you know what, you know,
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what's even here? What makes this fair?
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What do you find that you're working mostly with female
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divorcees or do you occasionally have male clients?
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It's occasional with the males. It's predominantly females. I just
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like attracts like I don't know, definitely predominantly females. Occasionally
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a male, but I mean truly occasional, out of the
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blue occasional.
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Right, Well, so what kind of services do you provide
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some of these? So somebody's saying, we're going to get
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a divorce, what kind of services can you provide to
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those people that are coming to you for the first time.
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So for the people who are coming to me specifically
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for divorce financial planning, that is really what we're working on.
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And so it depends on when you come in, Like
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where are you in the process. If you are in
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the beginning stages of the process, that's actually better for
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me because I get to see, you know, what are
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all the assets, what are all the liabilities, and we
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have a better picture going into mediation or going into
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core as opposed to if it's after, if it's after
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then you just whatever you have you have and we
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just kind of work right your budget, your cash flow,
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your net worth and all those things after everything is divided.
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One of the things that I'll say, and I know
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that when I'm on a pie cast, people talk about like,
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what's that one thing that you would leave a person with,
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And so I'm going to say that early and that
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one of the things that women hold on to is
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the home, and there's just that attachment there. It's like,
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this is where my kids are, this is where the
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friends are, this is where the family is. And a
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lot of times that's true. But many times I've seen
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where holding onto that home puts you in a bad situation.
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If it's underwater, if the mortgage is too high, you
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have that emotional attachment, sometimes you have to let the
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house go, and that has been a big, big mistake
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for many women.
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And I in my experience there was also the thing
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that hit me in the face was the maintenance and
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the yeah, and he's not here anymore to help you here,
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it's like and then that made me angry.
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Of course, of course, yes, absolutely same same for me
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and I had a time that our that we were
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going through our divorce. We were in a buyer's market.
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I mean, it definitely wasn't going to be in our favor,
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and so it was like, oh, okay, well, you know,
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I'll just stay here and at some point, you know,
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of course we're it's you know, we're going to be
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above water because we didn't pay a whole lot of
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money down, but at some point we're going to be
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above water. We were like way below but it took
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a few years for me to even kind of break
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even or even think about selling, and so I knew
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I was going to be here long term. So for
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me it was okay, But for that's not everyone's case.
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Yeah, do you find that you're working with people before
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they're going through this or in the middle, or is
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it kind of a mix of all three It just
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depends or what do you think?
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Yeah, it's kind of a mix. But when I do
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a lot of my social media marketing and i'm out