Redefining Success: How to Prepare Financially for a Career Pivot with Colleen DiPaola

In this episode, Alicia speaks with wealth advisor, Colleen DiPaola, to explore what it really takes to pivot one's career with confidence and financial safety.  After 25 years in Corporate, Colleen chose to redefine success, and do the work she loves, by building her own book of business. While this pivot took incredible courage, it was grounded in planning, clarity, and the belief that a financial strategy creates freedom instead of fear.

Together, they unpack how to build a financial runway, manage uncertainty, and create a financial plan that supports you during times of change.  If you’ve ever wondered whether you could afford to make a shift, this episode offers both inspiration and practical guidance.

In this Episode, you'll discover: 

• How to redefine success as something that feeds your soul, as well as your bank account
• Recognizing the signs that indicate it's time for a career transition
• The power of planning and creating a flexible, action-oriented roadmap
• Why planning reduces fear and builds trust in yourself and your ability to pivot
• How to build a 9 to 12 month financial runway before making a pivot
• The power of scenario planning and “what if” thinking
• Practical steps for preparing financially: savings, budget, and micro-actions
• How to involve family in financial and lifestyle planning
• The importance of organization and breaking down big goals into manageable steps
• Reframing abundance to include valuing time, family, and meaningful experiences
• Micro-actions that build momentum instead of overwhelm

Timestamps:
02:40 - Recognizing the turning point and the desire for purpose-driven work
06:20 - Facing fears with a strategic plan
10:11 - Scenario planning and pivot points in personal life
12:17 - Developing trust muscles through “what if” scenarios
14:30 - Common fears around financial security when making big changes
15:52 - Involving family and aligning household goals
16:22 - Redefining abundance to include time with family and lifestyle values
20:24 - The importance of micro-actions and incremental progress
23:12 - First steps for those feeling stuck financially
30:02 - Household budgeting: lessons learned and involving children
34:50 - Lessons about courage, reflection, and trusting your plan

Connect with Colleen DiPaola:

• Colleen DiPaola is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® and a Senior Wealth Advisor at Resonate Wealth Partners with over 25 years of Wealth Management industry experience. No matter your financial goals, she can help you assess where you are and build a plan to help you reach them!
• Website: www.resonateweathpartners.com
• Phone: 201-735-2214
• Email: Colleen@resonatewp.com

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Keywords
#CareerChange, #CareerPivot, #FinancialPlanning, #MoneyMindset, #CareerTransition, #LeavingCorporate, #RedefiningSuccess, #AlignedCareer, #PurposefulWork, #IdentityShift, #NavigatingUncertainty, #ThriveWorthy

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Transcript

Alicia Dee (00:01.27)
Hi everyone, welcome back to the Thriveworthy podcast. I'm your host, Alicia D. And today I'm thrilled to welcome Colleen DiPaola. Colleen is a certified financial planner and she is a wealth advisor currently with Resonate Partners. And she recently, within the year, made a career change leaving corporate after 20 plus years. And she had a long standing career at Merrill Lynch helping other people build their business.

as a performance coach, a strategist, and a business manager. And she got to the point where she heard that quiet whispering, or maybe it wasn't so quiet, we'll talk about that. And she decided to change her life, change her career, and is now helping others to empower them to manage their finances and how they want to live their lives. So I thought it would be great, Colleen, to have you on today to both tell your story, because it's an inspiring journey, but also to help us from a practical perspective.

Because many of my clients want to make a change in their career and their life, but they get stopped with the financial piece. And so I know you have some great wisdom to share in terms of how to prepare for making a change. So with that, welcome Colleen.

Colleen DiPaola (01:13.742)
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here today and share some of the things that I learned along the way and share some of best practices.

Alicia Dee (01:17.141)
Yeah.

Alicia Dee (01:22.718)
Yeah, yeah, and you have a lot to share, I know, from the pre-conversation we had. So first, tell us a little bit about you, about the career that you had, and about kind of getting to that turning point and making a change.

Colleen DiPaola (01:34.446)
Absolutely. You know, as you mentioned, I was at Maryland for 25 plus years, right? And there came a point recently where I, you you did it, I did an inner reflect back on myself, right? To say, okay, I've been here 25 years, I've held many different roles within the organization, right? From support staff to strategist, to performance coach, to advisor. And I really wanted to focus on what do I want the next 20 years of my career.

to be and how can I take all the elements that I learned and really do what I'm passionate about and that's really empowering people to understand their finances and creating a plan and creating you know almost you know road map so that they can understand how could they be successful in you know in their lives.

Alicia Dee (02:23.958)
Yeah, yeah, I love that. I love that. tell us a little bit more about kind of what it was, know, what brought you to that point, what was going on at that point, because you had what many people would consider to be huge success on paper. But I know from talking to you, you got to a point where something was missing. So tell us a little bit about kind of how that came about and what that looked and felt like.

Colleen DiPaola (02:50.658)
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure you could relate with us and a lot of people can. Success early in my career was much different than what I measure success and what I think success looks like for me today. So early in my career, I was focused on, OK, how much money was I earning? What projects was I aligned to? And those types of things. And now, 25 plus years, success for me looks like what fills my soul, what feeds me. And for me, I'm in a sandwich generation.

Colleen DiPaola (03:25.282)
teenage years and I was in this point where I am surrounded by a community of people who were leaning in on me asking me for help in crisis mode right and and it was like either somebody passed away or somebody lost their job they laid off or you know somebody was going through a divorce going from two incomes to one income you know all of these different things what I call crisis mode and figuring out I was helping them during these moments

And I just, was like a calling to me to say, I should be helping people plan before crisis happens. And that's the driving part for me to say, okay, how do I turn this into something so that I can help the greater community, not just in crisis mode, but for everything in between and be and show up for people when they are in crisis mode and be that.

Alicia Dee (04:00.267)
Yeah.

Alicia Dee (04:16.043)
Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (04:18.03)
just to help them solve for a problem that they have in this moment.

Alicia Dee (04:23.86)
Yeah, and were these like friends and family people coming to you or that was part of the job you were doing at Merrill Lynch?

Colleen DiPaola (04:29.71)
across the board, was friends, family, and it was clients as well. Right. And it was in my community as well.

Alicia Dee (04:32.918)
Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (04:43.31)
you know, coming in.

Colleen DiPaola (04:48.952)
somebody passed away, have to settle in a seat, I don't know the first thing to do, what do I have to pay attention to, and you know, things like that.

Alicia Dee (04:56.852)
Yeah, and so it sounds like you really noticed that theme and you also noticed what you felt called to do, what your soul felt called to do, because you were very fulfilled when you were doing those kinds of things and helping people in that sort of way. Go ahead.

Colleen DiPaola (05:12.27)
You know, to be considered a trusted resource, there's no greater honor for me. You know, when somebody comes and seeks me out to help them and guide them through, you know, a decision or absolutely.

Alicia Dee (05:18.133)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

And so you got to the point where you understood that that's what you wanted to do. But knowing that that's what you want to do and then actually implementing it can be two different things for a lot of people. There's a lot that goes on in between. So tell us a little bit about that in between and how you navigated that.

Colleen DiPaola (05:45.838)
You know, the biggest part is the unknown, right? Fear is, I'm fearful of everything that I'm doing for the first time. That's just who I am, it's just in my nature, it's just who I am. But the other part that I'm blessed with is that I'm a planner, right? And so when I have always been a planner, all my...

Alicia Dee (06:01.9)
Right.

Colleen DiPaola (06:08.384)
holes that I want.

Colleen DiPaola (06:14.478)
But for me, it was it starting to transition. The transition. The transition.

Alicia Dee (06:18.622)
It was what? Setting up the transition. Right, okay.

Colleen DiPaola (06:24.59)
So for me, setting up to transition, that was the hardest part, right? Facing my fears and creating a plan, just like I have clients all the time, but for me to drive, be in the driver's seat, it was different, right? But setting up a plan, figuring out, okay, what are my fears? What are my goals? What am I really good at? What can I lean in

Alicia Dee (06:38.347)
Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (06:48.942)
But the things that I'm going to need.

Alicia Dee (06:51.628)
Mm-hmm.

Alicia Dee (06:55.752)
Yeah. So say a little share a little more about what that looked like and either if there's mentors who you lean on or if there was sort of moments of clarity that helped you kind of make that plan and work through that.

Colleen DiPaola (07:10.478)
Yeah, I mean for me, the biggest thing and I say this to clients all the time, have to have trusted people around you. You have to have committed people that are really...

why they should the work that you do with your clients is so incredibly important for me I had trusted trusted people around me so for me it was a mentor right for me it was also my CPA that was really important that's what I say to clients all the time you need we need to build a team around you that you can lean in on trust to guide you for different parts of your life right so for clients it's always a CPA and a state planning attorney maybe an insurance agent things like that

For me, it was a mentor, was my CPA, it was friends that I've known through different industries that hold leadership positions. Just to kind of walk me through and help me tactically look at what my plan that I was creating and make sure that it poke holes in it to make sure that I understood the decisions that I was making and the path that I was taking. That regardless of what other outside noise might come in that I could.

to revert back to the plan to keep me focused and to keep me.

Alicia Dee (08:23.572)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And so it sounds like the plan and kind of doing that, taking advice, having the people around you and working through that plan is what gave you the grounding to then have the courage to take the leap. Is there anything else you'd say about that? in terms of, I think there's a quote I love. how does it go? I think her name's Judith Glasser and it's like.

to make a change, your discomfort needs to be greater than your fear. And so you obviously got to the point where you were uncomfortable because you wanted to make a change. But you also then laid the plan, laid the groundwork, which it sounds like was a key piece to you getting to the point of like, I can actually do this. Is there anything else about that that you would share with people as to what you experienced, either emotionally, energetically, or just what else was going on in your mind, anything else?

Colleen DiPaola (09:20.162)
The one thing, and you just said a quote, and I don't know where this quote comes from, but my mentor, it always reminds me, growth happens when you're uncomfortable. And there's no greater truth than that. And so for me, it was a big reflection that I had to eat my own cooking. I sit and I plan the clients a day in and day out. But for me to sit there and eat my own cooking and really work through the different parts,

Alicia Dee (09:30.955)
Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (09:50.048)
It was, it wasn't easy, but it was refreshing at the same point, right? It was nice to just like get it, but it's like you almost throw up on a piece of paper and then organize around it, right? But that's, you know, how many clients that they don't do their planning because they're afraid of facing the truth, right? Or they don't even in the time because sometimes for example,

Alicia Dee (09:55.936)
Yeah.

Alicia Dee (10:09.526)
Yeah.

Yes, say more about that. So you up on a piece of paper. So what did you have to throw up on a piece of paper and like then make sense of?

Colleen DiPaola (10:19.618)
For me, it was okay, figuring out where, like throwing up in a sense of like facing my fears. Like what is holding me back? What is stopping me from making the decision of...

Colleen DiPaola (10:39.192)
you know, that big security net behind me and going independent, right?

Alicia Dee (10:50.88)
Mm-hmm.

Colleen DiPaola (10:57.294)
and things like that. Like how do I still create that?

Colleen DiPaola (11:03.534)
Okay, what happens if the plan doesn't go in the way that I'm expecting it to go? Right. So what if scenarios, right? So the same thing again, I go back to what I do for clients. I plan for what if you want, you have to retire at 60, but what if you want to retire at 55? What if something changes and you go from a two income house to a one income house? What if your child wants to go to an Ivy league school?

Alicia Dee (11:09.504)
Mm-hmm.

Colleen DiPaola (11:31.512)
You know, maybe a state school. Like, what are those scenarios? I did the same thing for me. Like, what if I don't achieve certain goals? Where am I going to pivot? What am

Alicia Dee (11:35.905)
Mm.

Colleen DiPaola (11:43.788)
And so for me, was just facing my worst fears that was the growing up war.

Alicia Dee (11:47.628)
And in what conclusion did you come to doing that? What did you learn through that process?

Colleen DiPaola (11:54.624)
My plan is my shield, right? So now I feel like as things start to get thrown at me, and that's just life, right? Life is hard. No matter which way you look at it, life is just hard and things, I'm going to speak for myself, things constantly come at me in different directions, right? When I the transition, both of my parents got diagnosed with cancer at the same time as I was getting my transition. So if you could just imagine what that's like, okay?

Alicia Dee (12:19.244)
Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (12:20.074)
And not to mention my parents live in Florida and I live in New Jersey. So when I tell you how important me having my plan was, it was my shield that I could bounce things away from me, not let it consume me and for me to stay the course. Now, did it mean that I had to transition and go down to Florida in my early transition period to go take my bronchial biopsies and things like that? Yeah. But I had the grace and I...

Colleen DiPaola (12:50.222)
and I'm

Colleen DiPaola (12:55.64)
But for me, that's why I really truly believe in spending the time and doing

Alicia Dee (13:02.868)
Yeah, and it sounds like too, I mean, the way you're talking about it, what if, what if, what if you're, you're creating a flexible plan.

And so, cause it's a lot of life. mean, that's classic, that it's like, you make this transition, you have a plan and then something like that, like both your cancers, both your parents getting cancer at the same time. You know, it's like the universe throws these things at us almost to be like, are you sure? Are you sure you don't want to stay in the safety of corporate? like, are you really sure you want to make this change? Are you really committed? And so part of what you're talking about, I think, or what I'm hearing is by going through that

Colleen DiPaola (13:11.106)
yes.

Colleen DiPaola (13:25.742)
Thank you.

Alicia Dee (13:40.686)
process and getting clear both on your fears and on what you can do in various what if scenarios. You're building a trust muscle, of. Like you're building something so that it's like, I trust myself enough to pivot. I trust myself enough to make a different decision if it doesn't go the way I expect. Because guess what? Life often doesn't go the way we expect. Or we come to a different point and we want to make a different choice.

So that's really interesting, but does that resonate? That's kind what I'm hearing from what you're saying.

Colleen DiPaola (14:15.63)
You know what a plan is a plan but a plan is meant to be changed right? Plan allows you to create the roadmap to say okay at these certain hurdles this is what we're going to do and if we don't get to these hurdles we might have to pivot but that's okay because we have the course mapped out. And that's exactly what it is. mean when you build a plan you can't just build a plan and put it on a shelf right? It has to be active in your life.

Alicia Dee (14:19.104)
Yeah.

Alicia Dee (14:32.906)
Right. Yeah.

Alicia Dee (14:39.403)
Right.

Colleen DiPaola (14:41.93)
we live in what you're doing and yes we may only from from a cadence perspective we look at it on at least an annual basis but I have to tell you that there's certain clients and especially the kids and things change and things change quickly and so it's just important that you have that resource to lean in on what I call crisis mode right that you have more crisis mode that you can pivot and that you

Alicia Dee (14:57.643)
Yeah.

Alicia Dee (15:03.435)
Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (15:07.266)
You can sit down with your trusted team to say, okay, this is what's going on. How do I make the best decision? Information that is here in front of me.

Alicia Dee (15:13.269)
Yeah.

Yeah, I love that. So you mentioned fears, and we all have them, and the fears are usually what holds us back from following a new path. You found the courage to do that, and you faced your fears and came up with a plan that helps you feel grounded. We'll talk a little bit more about your advice around that, because I do think it's very relevant for many of my clients and many of the people listening. But were there particular fears that were playing on your mind?

the most and if so what were they and how did you work through those?

Colleen DiPaola (15:52.886)
I think, you know, for me and I think for most people, financial, right? You're going from a security nut to you're operating in your own lane.

Alicia Dee (15:58.049)
Yep.

Alicia Dee (16:05.898)
Right.

Colleen DiPaola (16:06.668)
that was that was half a mind. But what did that mean? That just meant that I had to go back again to eat my own cooking to make sure that I had enough. Right. I had enough. I had a budget. Right. And I had a household budget, not just a company budget, the household budget that me and my family were brought into. Right. And sacrifices need to happen. Also making sure that whatever my

Alicia Dee (16:27.233)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Colleen DiPaola (16:44.078)
things like that. I could support my parents if that's needed, know, things like that. My goals, making sure that I could see the course and that I could see that making this change, how it affected those goals.

Alicia Dee (16:45.622)
Mm-hmm.

Alicia Dee (16:53.26)
Mm-hmm.

Alicia Dee (16:58.004)
Yeah. So talk a little bit more about that because that's interesting. You know, the household budget. the getting everybody on board, you know, because this is a change you're making. And I know that also from our pre-conversation, you know, when you make a change like this, life is different. And so often we focus on the, you know,

income might be different for a period of time, or always, it depends what we're doing. But also our time and our presence and all that stuff is different too. So can you talk a little bit about what that was like to work that through with your family? why don't we answer that question first and then I want to talk more about the before after. like, you know.

Colleen DiPaola (17:49.454)
Remember we were just talking about success and what success looked like. And a part of the success, what it looked like for me was also having that family time. I have kids and I laugh all the time because sometimes my friends will share, hang out with your kids while your kids don't wanna hang out with you. Where I have an 11 year old and a 13 year old. So.

Alicia Dee (17:52.747)
Yeah.

Alicia Dee (18:06.442)
Yeah, how old are your kids?

Colleen DiPaola (18:13.838)
My kids still want to hang out with me. They still want to be home and they still want to do things with me. And I laugh because it's so true because I see my older niece and nephews, I just see it, right? I see it across the street. But I say that in a sense then for me getting back my three hours of commuting time, because I was commuting to New York City more than New

Alicia Dee (18:28.224)
Yeah.

Alicia Dee (18:38.377)
Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (18:41.678)
You can't put a price tag on that. There's nothing that comes to that. I feel like I have my days back again. I can go to dinner with

Colleen DiPaola (18:56.96)
I like I'm jeopardized.

Colleen DiPaola (19:02.488)
So for me that was critical in the decision that I made.

Alicia Dee (19:05.932)
Yeah, and I remember too, when I was in corporate and had, you know, the quote unquote safety of corporate and the corporate salary and kind of all that, you know, there were a lot of times I was spending money on things because of the lifestyle I was leading, which

led me kind of very time-poor in a lot of ways. And so the ordering in or the going out or like the, you

know, the numbing, scrolling, shopping, buying stuff I probably didn't need, but I could afford it and like, you know, whatever. And so there's a whole behavior thing that happens too, because when you then start to align with what you really want to do, you know, you and you're in this transition period, you might need to look at your budget a different way. But like, to me, true abundance can be like being able to have that cup of coffee and cup of tea, whatever it is in the morning and not feel like you're rushing off.

and your day's already got you, or that you can be with your family and cook dinner together. So how has that changed for you when you look at true abundance or true wealth and when you factor in the lifestyle elements and everything else?

Colleen DiPaola (20:27.906)
There's, you know, there's just no comparison to the time that I that I've gotten during this transition. And with my kids, like I make dinner again during the night, during the week, excuse me. I don't have to. Before I was just rushing and I was taking the takeout or wherever because I didn't have time, but I for me and for

Colleen DiPaola (20:49.816)
something that we always do and it's just very important to us. So they were kind enough to wait for me to get home, but now I can cook again and I have the kids helping me cook. it's like, it becomes like a thing for us to like bond after a stressful day. It doesn't happen every day. I'm not gonna sugar coat it and say it happens. We have that again as a family, which I love, you know? So abundance for me is being able to share.

Alicia Dee (20:56.492)
Thank

Alicia Dee (21:08.044)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (21:18.03)
share not just monetarily but to share in experiences. And when it comes to budgeting, when I work with my clients, it's figuring out, there are fixed expenses but there are discretionary expenses too, right? And then helping them realize, okay, what are those discretionary expenses and how do you wanna budget for that, right? So that you don't feel like you're at the neck and you can't spend.

Alicia Dee (21:21.493)
Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (21:44.6)
But understanding that when you do spend, you're spending in more thoughtful ways, right? Realizing that part of it. But also the biggest part for me in the transition is making sure that I'm still focused on saving for the time.

Alicia Dee (21:49.804)
Mm-hmm.

Alicia Dee (22:00.81)
Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (22:02.55)
I do not work for the rest of my life and I do not want to work because I have to work.

Colleen DiPaola (22:11.662)
seen a lot of clients lose sight of that over the years. And it's just something that's ingrained in me that I want to make sure that we always stay focused on.

Alicia Dee (22:23.722)
Yeah. So you talked about having the conversation with your family, having a household budget. You've talked about understanding the must spends and the discretionary spending. And you talked about having the plan and kind of getting everything on paper and making sense of it. What else was important for you to have lined up?

before you made this change. And we can talk either about you or if you want to go into the advice for clients and how they should think about this, we can do that too. But I think you've had a very thoughtful way of approaching this that people can learn from.

Colleen DiPaola (23:04.075)
I pretty much covered it right for me it started with the plan within the plan I had different things within my plan the budget being one of those things. Another part of.

Alicia Dee (23:11.532)
Mm-hmm.

Colleen DiPaola (23:21.806)
Here's the overall plan of what I'm trying to do. Here are the micro steps that I'm going to be taking. Do you agree with them? Do you not agree with them? What should I be worried about?

Alicia Dee (23:26.378)
Mm-hmm.

Alicia Dee (23:30.006)
Mm-hmm.

Colleen DiPaola (23:31.694)
And

Alicia Dee (23:38.656)
Mm-hmm.

Colleen DiPaola (23:39.406)
So overwhelming. you take it all and you try to accomplish everything in one bite size, it's so overwhelming. So when I cut the roadmap that I'm like, okay, so this is what I'm gonna focus on the first 30 days coming out to do. This is what I'm focusing on the first 60, 90. I did my 30, 60, 90. Now I'm in quarters. So first quarter, 2026 season. And now I set my goals for those things.

Alicia Dee (23:57.363)
Okay.

Right.

Colleen DiPaola (24:05.89)
For me, I don't have focus and I don't focus on one thing at a time. It all becomes overwhelming and I shut down. Then that's when the fear comes in. Then that's when the doubt comes in. Then that's when I let all the noise in because it's like there's life happening around me. So my roadmap is always keeping consistent of like, what

Alicia Dee (24:13.302)
Right.

Colleen DiPaola (24:30.434)
Give myself a brace, right? You have to give yourself a brace. I say it to my clients all the time. I don't always take the same, you know, the same advice for myself, but I, in this instance, I had to, right? I had to take myself out of the mix and say, what would I?

Alicia Dee (24:33.292)
Mm-hmm.

Alicia Dee (24:47.436)
Mm-hmm.

Colleen DiPaola (24:48.77)
What advice would I give to a parent?

Alicia Dee (24:50.464)
Mm-hmm. Well, and I love that breaking it down. I think so often we make things too big. that breaking it down and really kind of saying, OK, this is what I'm going to do in the next 30, 60, 90 days. I have, what did you call it, micro actions? But have those steps so that you just take the next step. And you take the next step.

Colleen DiPaola (24:57.848)
Thank

Colleen DiPaola (25:14.574)
You'll be surprised how empowering just organizing your finances can be. For a lot of people, it's big task, right? They have money everywhere. They have, for different reasons, they have money in most cases everywhere, from the savings account to a checking account to a old 401k from a previous employer and their new 401k and all these different things. It's a lot to manage. And so you'll be surprised in the power of organization and just doing that.

Alicia Dee (25:20.426)
Yeah, yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (25:44.16)
of just organizing yourself so you understand where your money is and which buckets. And then the next step is taking those buckets and how do those buckets align to whatever polls I have, near-term or long-term.

Alicia Dee (25:58.774)
So a lot of my, actually I won't say my clients, because by the time they get to be my clients, they're kind of like actively stepping through this, but a lot of people who are thinking about making a change get stopped with this financial aspect, because they're like, well, this job pays the bills, I shouldn't complain, or it's, you know, what I think I want to do could never earn enough.

to live the way I'm living and so forth. So for that person who's got like either the quiet whisper or like the internal loud voice that's saying make a change, but they're feeling like there's just no way financially, what should they do? Like what are the first steps they should take? How can they work through that?

Colleen DiPaola (26:51.854)
Hopefully they have an advisor, trusted advisor. If you don't have a trusted advisor, you just don't need to seek a trusted advisor. This is what we do. We have resources, we have tools. Instead of you going and recreating the wheel yourself, engage with somebody that could help you through this process.

Alicia Dee (27:09.748)
And you mean a wealth advisor like you. So I think many people have someone who they work with maybe actively, maybe less actively. I think it's the whole probably range. But talk more about what that can look like and what people could expect.

Colleen DiPaola (27:30.124)
I mean, I'll walk you through my process, right? So if that gives you a sense. So typically what we do is we just sit at a table and we just talk through a bunch of different things, right? So we want to get to know you as much as you want to get to know us and our process, right? So for us, it's taking in all of your data.

Alicia Dee (27:32.298)
Yeah, perfect.

Colleen DiPaola (27:53.774)
And I'm saying like figuring out everything. Then it's understanding, OK, do you have a team that's around you? Do you have that team around you that I talked about? Or do you have a trusted CPA? Do you have a trusted estate or financial attorney? Things like that. If not, OK, let's help you get that one. And then it's working through, OK, what are

Colleen DiPaola (28:16.75)
we understand the full picture, then we start to help people with...

Alicia Dee (28:20.342)
you

Colleen DiPaola (28:27.902)
And then, you know, what our role is to make sure that you always have a person to advise you that you can turn to, but then also making sure that you're in your accountability, right? And the same set. Alicia, I'm sure you do this with your clients all the time. When you're in accountability for, you know,

Colleen DiPaola (28:47.822)
But then it's also for us to help you and why people hire us is explain it back to you, right? It's understanding a lot of people think that the investments drive the plan. No, the plan drives the investments at all times, right? So making sure that you're aligned and...

Alicia Dee (29:15.404)
And talk a little practically around someone wants to make a change and they're not sure, you know, they're going to need some time to ramp. How much of a runway do you recommend people give themselves? Like, do they need to make sure they have six months expenses, nine months expenses? do they, what are some of the things they need to kind of, you know, practically do?

Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (29:45.013)
Everybody's is different. it's hard to say. can say from a gauge perspective, typically if there's only, if you're going from a two income earner to a

Colleen DiPaola (30:00.589)
So that if you need to pull it, you're not sensitive to what's going on in the market. You have the cash there and you can pull from it. I'm going tell you, depending on the client...

Alicia Dee (30:07.04)
Mm-hmm.

Alicia Dee (30:11.041)
Mm-hmm.

Colleen DiPaola (30:12.525)
So some people, they like to roll the dice. Other people just want to know that they have the money put aside. So typically for what I would encourage is at least nine to 12 months at New York and a cash reserve somewhere. Doesn't need to be spending in cash not earning anything. It could be in a high yield savings account, right? But you need to make sure that you're

Alicia Dee (30:24.726)
Mm-hmm.

Alicia Dee (30:32.213)
Right.

And what if they don't have that? I mean, I think a lot of people are not, you know, in that, that vein anyway, you know, so sitting in cash particularly. So what advice do you have for getting to that or getting to something like a more comfortable situation?

Colleen DiPaola (30:55.181)
Hopefully time is on their hands, But you'll be surprised as to putting away just a little bit of money each month to build that goal, compounds, and how that works. So don't do it because you think, I don't have that. never be able to do that. That's not the, I don't want you to go leave.

Alicia Dee (30:59.169)
Right.

Alicia Dee (31:05.696)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right.

Colleen DiPaola (31:18.989)
Maybe if I take $200 or $400 while I'm working in corporate America, or have an income stream coming in, I'm not just saying it's corporate.

Alicia Dee (31:23.744)
Yes.

Alicia Dee (31:33.803)
Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (31:34.699)
So maybe there's other ways and other parts of your accounts that you might be able to to adjust for that. Maybe you could adjust your your your allocation point instead of being all invested in market. Maybe over time you can adjust that. mean, everybody's situation is different.

Alicia Dee (31:48.692)
It's different. Yeah. I also know people who like, you know, they probably weren't like thinking through it as much when they felt like they were in the safety of corporate. And then when they started getting ready to make a change and then they started looking at everything they had, they like had different stock that like actually they could easily sell if they want it, you know, like RSUs and like stuff that sits there, you know.

Colleen DiPaola (32:13.965)
need a team around you, right?

Alicia Dee (32:15.692)
Yeah. And so just being able to look at that and then, like you said before, sometimes you have accounts in different places because you're just not organized around it or whatever. mean, some people are very organized around this stuff and other people not so much. this is like your invitation if you're thinking about what's next to think through what are all those things. And if you don't have a trust advisor, so you get someone like Colleen and find someone to work through this with you.

because it's going to make all the difference to giving you that peace of mind. think one of the things that's huge is just our financial

security. That's our safety.

You know, so like, and we talk a lot at Thriveworthy around like, you know, we only move at the speed of safety. So, you know, if you're not feeling like you have the safety, like you've got the nest egg or whatever the right term is to be able to like make a transition, then your whole nervous system, your brain's going to stop you and come up with all the reasons why you can't do stuff because you don't have a plan like Colleen's saying, because you don't, you're not ready. Your brain's going to view it as unsafe. So all of this, what we're talking about today are steps you can take.

to help you feel safer and more prepared so that you can take the pivot. And I love what you said before too, which is like, don't kind of walk away with the idea that like, you don't have the nine to 12 months, you should just stop now.

Alicia Dee (33:42.828)
walk away with the idea of micro steps, micro actions. Like what is it something small that you can do? Like you probably could start putting 200 or $400 away, you know, every month without even blinking an eye in some cases. So, you know, what are some of those small things? I think the other question I have Colleen is that when you really kind of got into it, because you're someone who manages this closely, but when you got into your budget and you kind of went through a family budget or household budget with your family, were there any things that surprised you about like

Colleen DiPaola (33:59.789)
Thank

Alicia Dee (34:13.042)
You don't have to get into specifics, but just like the, my God, I didn't realize we spent that much on this, or like, this is not that big of a change for us to make, it's not gonna take away from our happiness or our joy if we don't do that anymore. Like, was there anything like that?

Colleen DiPaola (34:29.645)
For my eye opener, I want to say more for my kids, I'm going to say, was because we weren't buying as much groceries, and we were buying the food out, and although we weren't eating in the restaurants, there was that conception that, oh, you're saving vision or paying for that sort of stuff.

Alicia Dee (34:40.95)
Mm-hmm.

Colleen DiPaola (34:52.661)
It was eye opening for us to just see how much more we were spending on a weekly basis by taking out all the time versus home cooking. That was that was eye opening for us. But then the other thing was just eye opening.

Alicia Dee (34:59.485)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Alicia Dee (35:13.846)
Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (35:15.085)
pretty cool exercise to go through with my kids. going to be honest. And it was, it was something that I didn't do with my family growing up. But I know that this is kids for their lifetime. And I encourage people to go through that exercise of doing a household family budget and allow kids to see. Yeah, that Starbucks cup, you know, my daughter, the refresher from Starbucks. Yeah, that all adds up right at the end of line.

Alicia Dee (35:16.863)
Yeah.

Alicia Dee (35:33.312)
Yeah.

Alicia Dee (35:42.891)
Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (35:52.769)
So it was an eye-opener for my kids. And it was a really cool experience to go through as a

Alicia Dee (35:53.196)
Right.

Alicia Dee (35:59.22)
Yeah, and think you mentioned too, now your daughter's babysitting and earning her own money. It's an interesting, the whole thing is interesting, because I think we all have our money stories and they start from our families and in childhood. so by doing that and giving, you're essentially giving them that gift to help them understand where it goes and the value of their money and the value of their work.

Colleen DiPaola (36:26.433)
We do, we spend a lot of time with clients, it's here, you know.

Colleen DiPaola (36:35.031)
say this all the time, I wish when I was in my 20s, right, I wish I had somebody.

Colleen DiPaola (36:44.119)
that I know now.

Colleen DiPaola (36:49.761)
think about it, they're going to be the next, they are the next generation, right? And how could we instill with them?

Alicia Dee (36:53.131)
Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (36:58.539)
and discipline that their parents have. I know about your daughter, but I'm gonna tell you, my kids listen to sometimes the outside world before they listen to me, and it's the same thing with our clients, right? Their clients will listen to us in a different respect than they listen to the parents. Me, their parents are saying the same thing, which is coming from a different mouth, right?

Alicia Dee (37:07.316)
yeah.

Alicia Dee (37:15.787)
Right.

Alicia Dee (37:22.158)
a hundred percent. There's stuff that I tell her, my daughter who's eight, that then Nurse Barton at her school will tell her. And she absolutely listens to Nurse Barton. I went in the other day when I was serving lunch to say, I got to tell you, my daughter really listens to you. And like, you know, it's just, they need to hear it from somewhere else. It's like kind of a beautiful thing if you have that group of people around your family that way. And the money thing, I mean, I know I need to do some work with my daughter.

around that because it's like, mommy, just get your credit card. You know, like she's, she's only eight, but she really has very little concept. And I know some of that's my doing, you know, and so to help her understand that she's also kind of inherently entrepreneurial in a strange sort of way. But, I guess I am an entrepreneur, but I would not have considered myself one.

Colleen DiPaola (38:10.845)
where she gets that from.

Alicia Dee (38:18.438)
And it's very funny, know, like the lemonade and the hot chocolate sands. And she came home yesterday, she's like, I need to start advertising. I'm like, what are you advertising? So I'm like, how do you even know that word? But it's very funny, yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (38:30.465)
I'm these kids, what's really cool is when you're sitting, when I'm sitting at a table with my client and their kid, and we start going through investments and like, understanding what investments are and understanding, you know, the different opportunities that they now have. unfortunately, I...

Alicia Dee (38:51.467)
Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (38:52.929)
late in the game and my dad was retiring from his job. So it's just, it's so nice to be able to give back and to share and have those experiences with clients and their family and their children.

Alicia Dee (39:08.394)
Yeah, yeah. So OK, so well, this has been amazing. I guess just a couple of final questions. Looking back, so you started this last, you've been at this less than a year, right? So like, was it last, when did you start getting the?

Colleen DiPaola (39:26.989)
I transitioned in September. My transition was in early September.

Alicia Dee (39:31.316)
Right. And I think you told me that you started thinking about it going from a point of not knowing what you were going to do to then having a plan and starting to do it. That was like a six month period or something? Was that March to September?

Colleen DiPaola (39:46.677)
It was more around the summertime. It was more around the summer.

Alicia Dee (39:49.462)
Summertime. Yeah, because sometimes people don't start because they think, my God, it's going to take me so much time. And in reality, it's like once you get started, you get started and then things start rolling.

Colleen DiPaola (39:59.917)
It started and you start having conversations and you start thinking through it you're like, okay, these are things that I have to do. And then, you know, once you start to organize yourself, you'll be surprised how much more clarity you have on what you need to do in order to take that next step, feel secure. And again, for me, it was having that plan and having that shield. So this way it happened around me. I was in that transitionary period. It kept me focused on where I needed to go.

Alicia Dee (40:13.599)
I'm

Alicia Dee (40:18.592)
Yep.

Alicia Dee (40:24.14)
So any final thoughts in terms of what you learned through this transition either about yourself or about life?

Colleen DiPaola (40:33.933)
You know, there was an exercise that I did a couple weeks ago that I will be doing again. It was, we were in a women's group and it was writing a note to yourself, giving yourself the advice that you give to others. Man on man was that important.

Alicia Dee (40:53.29)
Yeah.

Colleen DiPaola (40:55.519)
facing fear, anybody that's up against, that feels like they're up against things and that just could never work for them. Write yourself that note and give yourself some time. I reread it. I reread it often, you know, probably once a week, maybe, maybe once every two weeks, something like that. Because again, I'm in the early stages of transition and there's a lot of things that come up, a lot of emotions that come up with it, right? And I have to tell you how empowered, how

Alicia Dee (41:19.936)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Colleen DiPaola (41:25.055)
impactful but empowering that was for me to just go through that exercise.

Alicia Dee (41:29.88)
That's beautiful. That's great advice. Thank you, Colleen. So this has been great. I so appreciate having you on. If people want to work with you, how can they get in touch with you?

Colleen DiPaola (41:40.211)
Absolutely. So I'll leave you my email address and I'll leave you my phone number if that works.

Alicia Dee (41:43.126)
Yeah? Great. Yeah, we'll put it in the show notes. And do you work with people virtually, like throughout the country or more locally in New Jersey? OK. Great. OK.

Colleen DiPaola (41:51.341)
I'm licensed all throughout the country, So domestic and not international, but domestically. But yes, I work with clients all over and I meet you at wherever you're at. So if you want to do virtual, we could do virtual. If we need to meet in person, we can something out. But for the most part, I welcome.

Alicia Dee (42:03.692)
Great.

Alicia Dee (42:11.168)
Great, great. So we'll put all of that in the show notes. Colleen, thanks so much for sharing your inspiring journey and for sharing all of your wisdom and advice. And it's been great chatting with you and look forward to continuing the conversation in the future. So thank you. All right, cheers. Bye.

Colleen DiPaola (42:16.513)
Thank you.

Colleen DiPaola (42:26.679)
Thank you so much. a great day.