When Love Drains Your Finances with Christin Luken

You can be smart and still struggle with money.

This week, we’re joined by Christine Luken, known as the Financial Dignity Coach, who shares her powerful story of hitting financial rock bottom and rebuilding from the inside out.

Christine opens up about what happens when emotions take over your financial decisions, how she went from being an accountant in collections to becoming a trusted financial coach, and the moment the police showed up at her door that changed everything. We discuss the emotional side of money that no one talks about. Often, women stay stuck in financial patterns that don’t serve them. Together, how do we start making decisions that support both our present and our future?

Christine reminds us that money isn’t just numbers. It’s emotional, personal, and deeply tied to how we see ourselves. If you're ready to take back control of your finances after divorce, join us for next week’s Money Talks “Financial Clarity: What You Need to Know Before, During, and After your Divorce”. Click here to register for FREE and bring your questions!  

This episode is supported by Marguerita Cheng, CFP®, RICP®, CDFA®, CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth. Marguerita works with women navigating divorce to bring clarity, confidence, and control back into their financial lives. At Blue Ocean Global Wealth, the focus is on helping women understand their options, make informed decisions, and feel empowered about their financial future, especially during moments that feel uncertain or overwhelming. If you’re going through divorce and want support that’s clear, grounded, and centered on your long term wellbeing, you can learn more and connect with Marguerita at www.blueoceanglobalwealth.com and follow her on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Yo

Want to take this conversation one step further? Join us for our next Money Talks, a free 30 minute live session where we’ll dig into a question we hear all the time from women business owners: Budgeting for Businesses to Offer Benefits. Click here to register for FREE and bring your questions! 

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Transcript

Maggie: [00:00:00] Love makes you do crazy things.

Dr. Barb: yeah, and you know, some people get so enamored in, in relationships and they're afraid to be alone and they do whatever they can to keep it going and. Can find themselves in a very vulnerable and unhealthy place, at least financially is where we're speaking from. 

Maggie: But you can change them. You can fix them.

Dr. Barb: Yeah. Not true, right? It is. You get what you get. You can't, you can't, what do they say? Marry the potential of somebody. You, you get what you see.

Dr. Barb: You know, when you're in a relationship, the whole financial conversation has to be like a business as our podcast guest describes so well. And the other thing that I really loved is that you can't just say, okay, I am going to take a right turn and do something different.

Dr. Barb: You need tools, you need resources. You need somebody that you can go to that says, no judgment. Wherever you are, I'm gonna help you move forward. And [00:01:00] moving forward is the first step, whatever that might be. Whether it's calling a financial coach or talking to a friend or ripping off the bandaid and finally seeing where you are financially.

Dr. Barb: You know, I always think the first step is the hardest, but once you do that, you are well on your way.

Maggie: Well, and it's like if you wanna do something you've never done before or be somewhere that you've never been, you have to do something that you've never done.

Maggie: You know what I mean? And so it's like if you knew how to get out of the situation, you had already done it, but there's something holding you back. And so it's like you've gotta use new tools and resources then to get to that new spot. Otherwise you're just gonna keep running in circles.

Dr. Barb: Yeah, and I think with that comes courage, right? Comes some self-reflection, some comes some bravery to say, this is not serving me, it's not working for me. I need to make a change. And taking that first step to make a change and then using the right resources that'll help you move forward. And that's what we're talking about today is, you know, our guest shared a very [00:02:00] vulnerable situation that she found herself in and really talked about what it took for her to get out of that, the resources she used, and how she learned so much from that situation.

Dr. Barb: Now she's a fabulous coach, helping others get out of similar situations.

Maggie: So I think this is a great conversation of like, you're not alone and you can get out of it. So let's dive in.

Dr. Barb: Let's do it.

Gloria Steinem once said, we will never solve the feminization of power until we solve the masculinity of wealth. Barbara Provost and Maggie Nielsen are the team at purse strings that will help you navigate the ins and outs of financial independence so that you can be financially fearless. This is women in money, the shit we don't talk about.

Maggie: Christine, welcome to the podcast. We are thrilled to have you on. [00:03:00] 'cause man, I think this is gonna be a juicy, juicy story for the audience. So before we dive in, can you share who you are and what you do?

Christine: Yes, yes. My name is Christine Luken. I'm known as the Financial Dignity Coach. I have been coaching people on their personal finances for close to two decades now, so I like to say I am one of the oGs of financial coaching because I feel like I spent like the first seven years of my coaching explaining to people what a financial coach is, and now I feel like they're everywhere.

Christine: I did not get into coaching because I have always done things perfectly with my finances. In fact, it's quite the opposite. So in my twenties, I was in a seven year relationship and eventually became engaged to this guy who I jokingly say he was more like my son than a partner financially. He just had very bad financial habits. He was in and out of jobs, even [00:04:00] in and out of jail. And I thought that if I just loved him enough that he would change. And he did. He got worse. So, yeah, it's, it's funny now. It wasn't 30 ish years ago, 25 years ago. But I think the hardest part for me hitting financial rock bottom,

Christine: is that I knew better. I was an accountant. I was working at the time at my family's business. I was the staff accountant for this multimillion dollar industrial company. And yet I was bouncing checks. I was in collections and I had allowed my heart to hijack my wallet. I did a lot of things in the name of love that I would not have normally done, I think the hardest part for me was reaching out for help because I was afraid I was gonna be judged. I was afraid my parents were gonna say, I told you so. Thank God they [00:05:00] didn't. 

Christine: think 

Maggie: nothing

Maggie: worse than an I told you so.

Christine: I know, and I, I think they were just very relieved that, okay, good, she's finally seeing the light. But they didn't rescue me from my financial messes, my dad said, look, I'm. I'm not gonna lend you money.

Christine: I'm not gonna pay off your debt. But you know, what we will do is give you a safe place to regroup and I will help you create a plan to rectify your finances. So I was able to move back home for a couple of months rent free, which was a great blessing, but it was also very humbling. And, yeah, I mean, obviously not having a grown man child to take care of anymore.

Christine: My finances got better pretty quickly. And I just got really curious about why do smart people, especially smart women like me who were on the honor roll and had an accounting degree, like, why do we do dumb [00:06:00] things with money despite having the knowledge? And that's when I realized it's, it's because of our emotions and.

Christine: Back then, so my rock bottom moment was back in 2000. No one was talking about the emotional side of money Back then, it was pretty much Dave Ramsey, Susie Orman, and here's your checklist of things to do. Like, here's your roadmap. Just follow this plan. And if for some reason you can't stick to it, there's something wrong with you, or you have no self-discipline and.

Christine: That just rubbed me the wrong way. And I said, there's gotta be a better way to do this. And that's when I started really mining my own experience really. And just saying like, why did I make this mistake and. If I were to do this again, what could I do to prevent myself from doing this?

Christine: What sort of [00:07:00] tools would've been helpful? Or even just the self-awareness to have around this particular issue with, with spending or financially enabling somebody. And so I started to build this this toolbox of emotional money tools that I would. Teach and coach people on alongside the basics of personal finance.

Christine: It's not like we're throwing those tangible, practical things, out. It's like, let's bring these emotional tools alongside of the budgeting and the debt reduction and the saving and investing so that when we hit these emotional roadblocks that keep us from going forward, we've, we've got a tool to get ourselves over that hump.

Dr. Barb: So my question first is, what was rock bottom for you? Like it'd been a rocky road for a long time, but at what point were you like, okay, I'm done. Did you take a look at your dad, [00:08:00] or.

Christine: well, it actually wasn't, it wasn't financial.

Christine: It wasn't financial. And I'm happy to tell you the story because I actually do talk about it in the opening chapter of my book, financial Dignity After Divorce, and it was the cops were at the door.

Christine: They were looking for my fiance, he had had two DUIs in six months, and he was not fulfilling what he was supposed to fulfill because of those DUIs, and so the cops woke me up at three o'clock in the morning. I had my cookies and milk pajamas on. My dog at my side who was barking up a storm and the cops asked if they could come in and I searched the apartment and I said, yeah, you can come in. And so, I'm holding my dog's collar and my dog is barking because there are two strange men in my house.

Christine: And one of the cops said to me, you need to [00:09:00] control your dog, otherwise I'm gonna shoot him.

Maggie: Oh my God.

Christine: I said, officer. You're a stranger in my house. My dog is doing his job. He's protecting me. Let me put him in the bathroom. If you wanna search it first, that's fine, but this is not his fault.

Christine: He's doing what he's supposed to do. And so he agreed, they searched the whole apartment and then they left 'cause he wasn't there. And as soon as they left, I let my dog out of the bathroom and I slid down the wall into, a puddle of tears, and I just like, I just hugged my dog and I thought, I'm done.

Christine: Like I am done living like this. And for a lot of women, it's not just the financial stuff. There's all these other emotional things that are happening. And so it wasn't just the fact that he was misbehaving with the money. There was substance abuse, there was a lot of other dysfunction that was going on.

Christine: There was obviously a lack of respect [00:10:00] for me. And sometimes we need that moment to say this is the line. And for a lot of women. It's not themselves, it's their kids or their pet where they're just like, we're done here. And sometimes that's, that's what it takes to get us to say, enough is enough.

Maggie: It is interesting how sometimes we do need something bigger than ourselves to get us to do it, which it's also like why? Aren't we enough to do it for ourselves? Which can be hard. It, I mean, and I don't know. I don't have the answers. Like I've been in situations where, yeah, it, thank God something else was there to push you forward.

Maggie: Right? Because other days, the days get long and so I think many women stay longer than they should many times, especially when money's involved. So what are some of those emotional patterns that you see that keep women stuck in relationships that are hurting them, financially and [00:11:00] otherwise.

Christine: Yeah. Well, I do think part of it is as women. We have been raised to collaborate and to nurture. So, for men, they've been raised to compete and provide, and so for them to pursue money and for men to pursue financial success. It's seen as, oh, this is, of course the man's gonna do this because he's gonna take care of his family.

Christine: But when women do it, it's seen as you're abandoning the family, which is very, very interesting. And so I think some of that is as a society and we as women, we have to remind ourselves and each other that. You taking care of you is the best thing that you can do for your family. 

Let's take a quick pause to hear from this week's [00:12:00] episode sponsor. Divorce can shake your confidence, not just emotionally, but financially, and in those moments, you deserve a guidance that brings clarity instead of fear. Hi, I'm Marguerita Cheng, certified Financial Planner, retirement income certified professional, certified Divorce Financial Analyst, and CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth.

I help women going through divorce gain clarity, confidence, and control over their personal finances so they can make decisions that truly support their future. At Blue Ocean Global Wealth, we focus on financial planning first because accessing competent ethical advice. Should not depend on the size of your investment portfolio.

Every woman deserves to feel financially confident, empowered, and resilient, especially during a life transition as significant as divorce. Visit blue Ocean global wealth.com to learn more about how [00:13:00] financial planning can help you navigate divorce with greater clarity and peace of mind. Now back to our show.

Maggie: Yeah. I mean, you can't pour from an empty cup. Right. We have to be taking care of ourselves and not putting everyone else first.

Christine: Yeah. it's hard because especially for women who are parents.

Christine: That's your first instinct is to take care of your child above and beyond your yourself. However, you are doing things that are to your detriment and you're not operating at a hundred percent, then it's gonna be much harder for you to be a good parent or, be a, a loving spouse if your, if your cup is empty.

Christine: Exactly. 

Dr. Barb: I just think so often as women, we get into these relationships and as you say, we collaborate. We try to nurture, we don't wanna rock the boat too much, and things happen that we gradually just keep accepting. Right. [00:14:00] And really financial abuse is what it is. Let's put a name to it. But it's things like not sharing information about the money not giving access to certain money.

Dr. Barb: Things like that where questioning money, um. we see this a lot and sometimes women will say, well, if I don't bring the income into the household, I'm just taking care of the children. It's really his money or he's in charge, and that's not true. It's not true at all. And so. I think after a while things compound and then we find ourselves in these situations where it was like, I just didn't know.

Dr. Barb: I mean, so many women will come to us and say, gosh, I should have, I could have, why didn't I, I, I trusted all of these things and it's, I feel bad for them. But at purse strings, that's what we're trying to say is, have these conversations. Check on this information. So. Can you [00:15:00] share a little bit of a what are the red flags that typically will, fly around us and we should be paying attention to?

Dr. Barb: And what are some shifts, that women can do to make some changes for themselves?

Christine: Yeah. Well, I think it really is about advocating. For yourself. And so,

Christine: I think this one mind shift really can open women's eyes, when you think about, being in a committed relationship or a marriage where you are sharing finances, your marriage is essentially a joint venture. It's a business that you and your spouse own equally.

Christine: And so whether someone is doing the income generation or managing the expenses, it doesn't matter. So if you think of a traditional company, it doesn't matter that somebody is in sales and bringing the customers [00:16:00] in, they're no more important than the person that is in charge of HR or the person that's working on the factory floor or in the shipping and receiving department.

Christine: It's the same thing in your marriage. It doesn't matter if you're the one doing the grocery shopping and buying the things for the household, and you're bringing in an income or one person's bringing in all the income. You and your spouse are 50 50 owners of your marriage and your finances. And so both of you are important.

Christine: Both of you should have decision making power, and both of you should have full access to the information. Obviously, the sooner you have these conversations, the better.

Christine: And one thing I always tell couples is, look, before you get engaged, you need to get [00:17:00] financially naked. You've already gotten physically naked.

Christine: By this point. There's no reason why you shouldn't become financially naked because. If you are gonna enter into a marriage, you're essentially going into business with somebody you would never go into business with somebody without knowing their financial situation. So just making that one little shift to say, it's like we almost feel like money and love are like oil and water.

Christine: Like I don't wanna ruin the romance by talking about money. Well, let me tell you, nothing ruins the romance. Worse than not talking about money and then finding out the real story afterwards.

Maggie: Yeah,

Maggie: That ain't that the truth. Whew. like, I kind of wanna get back to your story. You moved in with your parents, I'm sure you had a lot of income, then freed up to pay down some of your debts. How did you kind of prepare yourself to go into another relationship to kind of.

Maggie: [00:18:00] Trust yourself that this wouldn't happen again or to have yourself on those right tracks. So you know, we don't just repeat the process. 'cause that's so easy to do and I think so many women hold that fear that they can no longer trust themselves. Which is, which is hard.

Christine: Yeah, so here's the funny story. I met my husband at work. So I was working for the family business. I was working in the accounting department. I was also doing some stuff in the HR function as well, so I had access to Nick's credit score. I had access to Nick's background check.

Dr. Barb: Oh my gosh. I don't think you're supposed to say that.

Christine: Well, as the HR person I had access to everybody's stuff.

Christine: So, but what was interesting is that my brother. Was like, after I broke up with my ex, my brother said something. He goes, you know what? He's like, you need to date a guy like Nick. He bought his first house, he fixed it up and [00:19:00] he flipped it and he's just bought his second house. He doesn't have a car payment, he's putting money into his 401k.

Christine: He know he's just doing like really smart things. You should date someone like him. And then I was like. 

Christine: Nick and I'm like, he is kind of cute.

Maggie: We can't just go by the finances. We've gotta go by some looks, some personality as well. 

Christine: Yes. And then when we started dating, it was almost like when I was hanging out with my former friend group and when I broke off that relationship, besides my best friend, I pretty much, broke it off with that entire friend group 'cause there was a lot of dysfunction. None of them were handling their finances well.

Christine: And so when Nick and I started dating, it's one thing to have your parents tell you, here's the smart thing to do with money. It's another thing to have someone who is your peer show you what to do with money. And he was just a wonderful example [00:20:00] of, being a good saver and investing early and doing all of the smart things and also not caring about what other people thought about him and his decisions.

Christine: Because on our first date it was so funny because he said, Hey, I just need you to know I am going out this weekend and I'm picking up my newer car. It was a newer used car so don't be alarmed when this car stalls at stop signs, it always starts back up. It just, it's one of those things when I stop, it just stalls, but it always restarts.

Christine: But just know that we're moving up with the car. And I said, oh, okay. And I said, well, is your car paid for? And he said, yes. And I said, do you have car insurance? And he is like, yes. And I said. Do you have a driver's license? And he said, yes. And I said, well, then this is a step up for me. And he said you have low [00:21:00] standards.

Maggie: All right,

Christine: And I was like, yes. I probably, I probably do.

Maggie: That's pretty awesome. So that's great that you met him right away and he was able to be open and transparent about that. And it's funny that I think we all have something in our lives that we might be like financially embarrassed about, like kind of like his car, but he is like, he's gotta preface it, you know?

Maggie: No, no, no. This is not forever. I'm just in between, I'm getting a new one. Don't worry about me. This isn't the mo.

Christine: Yes. Yeah. Well, and it was just it was so refreshing that he was. He would just talk openly about it. He basically said, you know, I've been saving up for X amount of months. Here's the car I'm going to get. I've saved up cash for it because I don't wanna have a car loan. And just having those open conversations was very refreshing because the other conversations I used to hear was just about, that I'm broke and can I borrow $20 until payday.

Dr. Barb: Yeah. Well, it's interesting, something you said is you are kind of [00:22:00] the person with whom you hang around with, right? Like who are the, what, five or six people that you hang around with, and that's kind of your peer group. And so you're very similar to them. So they always say, Hey, you should play up.

Dr. Barb: Right? Get in the rooms with people who have more, do more, know more, whatever it is that you wanna learn about.

Christine: yeah, a hundred percent. Well, I just made that move in. January. I just joined an angel investing group in January because I knew that I'm in a very comfortable place now and I have a sizable net worth. And it's also like, okay, what's the next step?

Christine: What's the move that's gonna put me in the room with other women who are playing at my level and above? And it was a little scary to join because I felt like I'm the dumbest person in the room here because I don't know what I don't know about angel investing. You know, despite having an accounting degree and being a financial coach, there's a lot of stuff I don't know about [00:23:00] this. 

Dr. Barb: Well, and that's how we learn, right? Get with the people who know and soak it all up. 

Maggie: Tell us a bit about the work that you're doing now. 'cause I know you help, women who have gone through similar things. So tell us a little bit more about that and, and how you help them. 

Christine: Yeah, so I coach both single women and couples and there are a lot of women who are coming out of divorce. So most of my clients' income is not the issue. It is managing that income. So when you've gone through. Something that's very emotionally draining, it can feel like you don't have a lot of energy left over to make good decisions with your money.

Christine: And that's the time, usually when those kinds of women come to me where they say, you know, look, I'm gonna get child support. I'm gonna get a settlement. I need to make sure that I'm handling this the right way. And some of them. [00:24:00] Maybe it's been a while since they've handled their finances by themselves.

Christine: These are smart women, it's just they don't know what they don't know and they need someone to come in, help them get organized, help them to set up a system that is gonna give them good feedback so that they can see, here's where I am, here's where I need to course correct.

Christine: And also I think it gives them permission to relax and splurge on themselves too. When they know that all the important things are being taken care of, then they can spend on the vacation without guilt 

Maggie: and that's a much better relaxing vacation. 

Christine: Yes, a 

Maggie: A lot more relaxing when you know you can afford it and enjoy it.

Christine: Yes, a hundred percent. Or that it's not taking away from another important goal that you have.

Maggie: Right. And so for some women listening who are seeing some of these patterns in themselves, can you share like a small shift or two women can make to start [00:25:00] separating their emotions from their financial decisions?

Christine: Yeah. Well, here's the thing. You can't turn off your emotions, so you can't separate them completely. Here's the way I like to describe it, is that you have these two voices in your head at once at all times, so to speak. You have the voice of reason, which tells you all those important things like we should budget, we should save, we should pay off our debt.

Christine: But then you also have the voice of emotion. Now, the voice of Logic is kind of like that classical music station that you like hear in the elevators or in department stores. But your emotions are like the top 40 radio station where, one minute it's this loud Beyonce, you know, booming song, and then it shifts into this sweet love song by Ed Sheeran, right?

Christine: So our [00:26:00] emotional volume is always up and down. What we wanna do when we're making an important financial decision is just check in and ask ourselves How loud is my emotional volume right now? And if it's very loud, then we need to give ourselves the gift of time to say, okay. I need to let this emotional volume come down so that I can also hear the voice of reason.

Christine: Because I think our emotions and our intuition, those are very important things, especially us as women because how many times have we had this nagging feeling that we should or shouldn't do something, and we have said. No, this doesn't make any sense. I need to do the logical thing, and then we find out a week later, two months later, I should have listened to my intuition.

Christine: [00:27:00] Right? So it's not a matter of one is better than the other, it's, we wanna be able to hear both of them. And so for my, especially my divorcing clients. Emotions can run really high. And I just tell them like, look, we need to give them a productive outlet. So if your emotion is anger and you need to get that out, go take a kickboxing class.

Christine: Like go put on your running shoes and hit the pavement. Whatever you need to do to get that angry energy out of your body, 

Christine: if you're feeling sad. Go watch the Notebook or another movie that makes you cry, like don't cry over your own situation, but give yourself a productive way to get those tears out.

Christine: Because when you try to hold them in it, it only makes it worse. Your emotional volume only continues, to get higher and higher. So let's just let it rip and get it out

Maggie: You are gonna [00:28:00] make us feel our feelings, aren't you?

Christine: Exactly. But then on the backside of it, even though you may still feel a little residual anger, you might still feel a little residual sadness.

Christine: It's not gonna be so loud that you can't make a good decision. And I always tell people, you wanna filter your financial decisions through. Is this good for me now and later? cause sometimes we just think. I wanna do this 'cause this is good for me now because it releases the pressure, it makes me feel better in the moment.

Christine: But we need to also say a year from now, or even a week from now, am I gonna look back on this situation and say I should have done something different. 

Maggie: Yeah, that's a great tip. I mean, to be able to hear both, like you kind of said, even the volumes, if it's not at 10, maybe it's down to a four or five, and so you can hear everything a little bit more, on both ends. 

Christine: Yeah. And I think that's, [00:29:00] one of the things that I bring in the coaching with women who are going through divorce is that I have the ability to help them almost immediately pull that emotional volume down and show them like, okay, like, let's get centered. Let's deal with the emotions, and then let's look at this financial decision.

Dr. Barb: And you did say. At your turning point, you reached out for help, even though you had those feelings of, oh boy, I'm gonna get it coming at me. Like, oh yeah, you should have known better, blah, blah, blah. Who wants to hear that? Nobody. Sounds like you reached out to your parents, right?

Christine: I did, I reached out to my dad and thankfully he did not say I told you so he was probably just saying thank God she's finally come to her senses.

Dr. Barb: Yeah. Yeah. So when women are feeling, financially stuck and really need to make a change, they can reach out to you or other coaches who feel like, okay, I know that I'm listening to, the volume [00:30:00] of the decisions I'm making. I realize something's gotta change here. I don't know where to turn.

Dr. Barb: Turn to a financial coach. 

Christine: Yeah. And financial dignity is part of my branding. I actually own the trademark to Financial Dignity because I feel so strongly about that. And to me, financial dignity is the opposite of money. Shame. And so, it's normal for us to feel guilty when we've done something wrong, but the problem is we internalize that guilt rather than saying, I made a mistake with money.

Christine: I did this bad thing. Yeah, we turn it into shame and say, I'm a bad person because I did this. And unfortunately, shame makes us wanna hide. And when we hide, we don't get the help that we need and we don't get the knowledge and then we end up repeating the process. So, when you're feeling that shame, even [00:31:00] though the last thing you wanna do is tell somebody about it.

Christine: The best thing that you can do is tell somebody about it. Now, unfortunately, I have heard some horror stories of both men and women who have gotten a big shame sandwich from their financial planner or their CPA or another, financial professional. So you do need to vet whoever it is that.

Christine: You're gonna be confiding in to make sure that they're also an emotionally safe person to talk to. And I think many women naturally reach out to another woman, whether it's a financial planner, a CPA, or a financial coach like me.

Maggie: And so, with everything happening right now in 2026, it's been quite the year, rising costs, uncertainty, more women rethinking their relationships and independence.

Maggie: what would you say to a woman who feels financially stuck but know she needs to make a change?

Christine: Well, I think the [00:32:00] worst thing you can do is stay in the stuckness, right? We need to move forward. My dad always told me, you can't steer a parked car. 

Christine: So you need to start moving and then you can course correct. And so as you start moving forward. You may not exactly be going in the right direction, but that's okay.

Christine: It's, you're moving forward, you're taking steps, and I think one of the things that holds people back is a lack of knowledge and also being overwhelmed by all the knowledge that's out there financially. So, it's not like 25 years ago where you just walk into the bookstore and there were five books on personal finance.

Christine: Now it's like, everybody on TikTok is a financial influencer. And you're like, I don't even know if this is ai. I don't even know if this is a real person. Where do I find this [00:33:00] knowledge? And so getting out there and finding sources like this podcast and connecting with real people who have the experience that you can start learning from, because I think some of the fear is.

Christine: I don't know. So I'm afraid I'm gonna make a mistake. But even once you have the knowledge, there can still be some fear around, am I gonna make a mistake or not? And yeah, you probably are. We all do. We don't do this perfectly, with any other aspect of our lives, whether you're talking money or health or parenting or your relationships, it's this.

Christine: Evolution and growth over a lifetime. Getting the knowledge, taking the steps and course correcting. That's a part of life. And it's also a part of your finances.

Maggie: Yeah, I love that. And you're so right about, just some movement needs to be done right? It just needs to make a move. And all the social media, I always kind of joke that [00:34:00] anything you say about finances, there's always a little asterisk of like, it depends. And so you have to connect with somebody to be like, yes, but for me, Maggie Nielsen, is this a good choice?

Maggie: For you, Christine Luin, is that a good choice? 'cause our good choices are gonna be so different depending on our dependence, our age, our our goals, everything else. And so a lot of this knowledge, like, yeah, don't carry a ton of high interest debt is gonna apply to everybody, but most of the things are, it depends, it depends what do you want?

Maggie: And you gotta really figure that out first.

Maggie: So this has been a great conversation and there is a question that we do like to ask all of our guests. And so, going through this whole journey and, and now even being an angel investor, which is so exciting, what does financial freedom mean to you?

Christine: Oh, financial freedom to me means that I can relax deep down inside. It doesn't necessarily mean. That I have everything that I want right now, but what it means is that [00:35:00] I have choices and I have agency over my finances. So it's not being in a place of perfection. I like to say money's job is to support your happiness, and I think that's like an upward spiral. When I work with my clients, my goal is to get them to that place where they can say, all right, I may not even be exactly where I wanna be right now, but by and large, money is supporting my happiness and I'm on the journey and this is gonna continue. So removing that money, shame, being free for money, shame for sure.

Christine: But knowing. If it comes back because I've made a mistake that I have the tools that I can recover from this, that I have faith in myself, that even if I do make a bad decision, that I have the resilience to overcome that, [00:36:00] to learn from that and use that as a stepping stone.

Maggie: I love it. That's great. So thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story. We're gonna have your links to your coaching and your book all in the show notes so people can connect with you. But yeah, we appreciate you sharing your story and just being vulnerable as I know it's, it's not always fun in the time.

Maggie: Right. But now we can look back and laugh and then, and show the uphill strides that we've made.

Maggie: Until next time, be financially fearless. 

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