Transcript: Find Financial Freedom And Confidence With Expert Coaching

Intro: Welcome to Your Confident Self, the podcast that empowers women to step into their boldest, most confident selves. I’m your host, Allegra Sinclair, and I’m here to help you unleash your full potential in every area of your life. From the boardroom to the dance floor will explore practical strategies and mindset shifts that will help you show up as your most confident self in every situation. Join me each week as I either bring you a lesson straight from my own executive coaching practice or I dive into conversations with inspiring women who have overcome their own fears and self doubt to achieve amazing things. From entrepreneurs and executives to artists and athletes, my guests will share their stories and insights so you can learn from their experiences and apply their lessons to your own life. Whether you’re ready to ask for that promotion, start your own business, or simply feel more confident in your own skin, your Confident Self is the podcast for you. So grab your headphones and get ready to unlock your full potential.

Allegra M. Sinclair: Welcome to Your Confident Self, the podcast that empowers women to step into their boldest, most confident selves. I’m your host, Allegra Sinclair, and I’m here to help you unleash your full potential in every area of your life, from the boardroom to the dance floor when explore practical strategies and mindset shifts that will help you show up as your most confident self in every situation. Join me each week as I either bring you a lesson straight from my own executive coaching practice or I dive into conversations with inspiring women who have overcome their own fears and self doubt to achieve amazing things. From entrepreneurs and executives to artists and athletes, my guests will share their stories and insights so you can learn from their experiences and apply their lessons to your own life. Whether you’re ready to ask for that promotion, start your own business, or simply feel more confident in your own skin, your Confident Self is the podcast for you, so grab your headphones and get ready to unlock your full potential. Hey, this is allegra welcome to the show. I am so excited. I know I say I’m excited a lot because it’s true. I’m just an excitable kind of person, but I’m really excited today because we’re talking about financial confidence, which we have never talked about here at Your Confident Self. And my guest today is a certified executive coach, certified life coach. She has a real estate broker’s license and she has authored four books. But more than that, she understands us and she knows that money can be an overwhelming topic. And she is passionate about creating financial confidence for women so that it enhances our well being. She is passionate about empowering and educated women in their financial journey. So I am super excited to welcome Patty Handy. Welcome to the show, Patti.

Patti Handy: Thank you allegra. I’m so excited to be here. I appreciate you having me.

Allegra M. Sinclair: I am, too. Because you’re going to make money for dummies happen, right? I’m not belittling or minimizing in any way the magic that people who understand money provide. But when I say money for dummies, I simply mean you’re going to make it more accessible to folks who don’t have expertise in that area.

Patti Handy: Yes.

Allegra M. Sinclair: Have you always been fascinated by money? Were you one of those children who saved up their allowance and bought fantastic things in like six month increments?

Patti Handy: You know me. Yes.

Allegra M. Sinclair: Actually, I feel very seen right now.

Patti Handy: I am feeling seen and heard, and the clouds are parting. So when I was about nine, we lived up in the hills and we were about 3 miles from any stores, and I’m a candy person. I have a sweet tooth. And I thought, well, other people in the neighborhood probably love candy. So I started my own little candy business up where I would buy candy at the store and then I would sell it to my neighbors for obviously more. And that’s when my little entrepreneurial spirit started, and I had my own money. It was my own cash, and it went from there. My path through school and my careers have always revolved around money, finances, banking. Spent 17 years as a mortgage advisor, about three and a half years as a financial advisor, and then pivoted to financial coaching. As I had spoken to ladies and noticed the frustration and overwhelm that they experienced and thought, you know what? I’m going to make a bigger difference and bigger impact doing what I’m doing.

Allegra M. Sinclair: Well, then you’re an excellent person to be teaching us this, because you have been in this space by choice, by choice, since you were a young candy entrepreneur. Awesome. So I know that you had an experience. That’s what I’m going to call it. I say that we don’t have crises, we have experiences, we have opportunities to pivot. But you had a specific experience which changed the urgency with which you viewed money. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that? And what made you then say, you know what, I need to pay more attention to this in a different way?

Patti Handy: Yes. Well, yes, like you said, it wasn’t unfortunate. It was a life event and a divorce when my son was 18 months old. That made me have to look at money in a different way. I was actually the person in the marriage that managed the money. My husband didn’t know how to invest or anything of that nature, so I had that comfort level with it. But even with that and being financially savvy, when you’re going through a divorce and you’re emotionally distraught and you’re vulnerable and you’ve got just chaos in your life, your common sense goes out the window. It just goes out the window. You don’t think rationally. You are just trying to stay above water. And I had, like I said, a young little toddler, and life was about him. So, long story short, through the divorce, I made some silly mistakes that I knew better. And my intention is to take those experiences and help others, not do those and teach them what not to do. And that also was an impetus for me to do what I’m doing. Shortly after my divorce, I thought, you know, I’m going to take this experience and somehow turn it around to help others. And I want to help women who are going through divorce or just alone in life and help them become comfortable and confident and not be fearful or overwhelmed when it comes to money. So although my experiences through my years in the mortgage world and in the financial world have been great experiences, I truly feel my experience of my divorce and then just life experiences has been my greatest teacher. Really?

Allegra M. Sinclair: So you mentioned fear, and we talk here about punching fear in the throat, but tell me, what is it about money that frightens women? Do you think you’ve been doing this for a while. Why are we afraid? It’s just dollars and cents.

Patti Handy: It is just dollars and cents. But the fear comes from the unknown. And the unknown, if they’re not comfortable with money, if they never were responsible for managing the money, if they weren’t taught it at school or taught at home, it’s foreign to them. It’s a foreign language. I don’t know Italian, so I don’t speak it and I don’t fear it. But I don’t have Italian in my wheelhouse. A lot of women don’t have finances in their wheelhouse. They just never had that need. And so something you don’t know, something that you don’t understand, we often just fear by nature. It’s that state of unknown and that state of limbo, especially when you’re alone and it’s all on you to navigate. It becomes even more frightening because it’s like, I can’t make a mistake. I’m going to lose my money, I’m going to lose my investments. I don’t know how to rebuild my credit after this. I don’t know how to start saving. Where do I begin? Where do I even start? And so all the questions that surround those who are going through a divorce or lost their spouse, it’s a difficult time, and it’s also a difficult conversation because, like I said, it’s so unknown.

Allegra M. Sinclair: My grandmother used to say, in times of trouble, common sense is not very common. It makes sense that when mayhem appears, our common sense would flee.

Patti Handy: Yes.

Allegra M. Sinclair: So I want to do a couple of things because there was a lot in what you just said, right? So sometimes there’s a situation where you’ve just never thought about it and hey, where do I begin? Sometimes there has been a life event, an opportunity, if you will, that you do need to recover from. So what do you do then? But what I’d love to do to start is say, what are some mistakes that you think as a whole women make with money that you would like to encourage us to stop doing or to start doing? You know what I mean? So what are some of the top mistakes that you see women making around money?

Patti Handy: Yes, great question. So I think probably the number one is they are too how do I say this? It’s like there’s such a fear that they do nothing, so it’s the paralysis by analysis. They don’t take the time to learn about investing. They don’t take the time to learn about and this is a very fun, blanket statement. So it’s not really fair because there’s lots of ladies I run into who are completely comfortable with this. But again, when you’re going through such an emotional time in your world, the last thing that you want to do is learn how to invest money and learn how to find out what mutual fund makes sense and find out how to clean up your credit or how to buy a house on your own. These things are just too much. So coming back to your question, it is just doing nothing. It’s a paralysis by analysis. And then when they do take action, they are speaking to people they don’t necessarily know. They go online, they research, they go to YouTube, they hear all this stuff online. Much of it is not accurate. Much of it is not true. And they need to seek out an expert. They need to seek out somebody who they can trust. So if they have a friend or family who has a relationship with a financial advisor that they can speak to, or a financial coach that they can speak to, then that’s where you start. The other thing I would say that you should do is trust your gut. We as women are very, very intuitive. And when something feels off, when something feels uncomfortable, that’s your inner voice, that’s your intuition, that’s your higher self. Call it God, universe, whatever you want to resonate with, they’re giving you a message. And I say this because I’ve also seen situations where when I was a financial advisor, clients would come in and say, oh, yeah, I got this particular product, ABC, I’ll call it. I won’t name out products, but I was sold as after my divorce, and it was a horrible investment. It was a bad decision, and it was a high commission earning product for the person who sold it to them, but it wasn’t a great product for the individual. So when something feels off, if you don’t understand it, if you cannot take what you learned from that person and explain it to a fourth grader, then you shouldn’t be investing in that product. So don’t feel like you have to be pushed into buying something. There’s no urgency. There is nothing that you have to do immediately unless it’s specifically to a particular situation that is of urgency. And only then do you reach out to an advisor, your CPA, your attorney, your team of experts that know you and know your story and have them help you.

Allegra M. Sinclair: So I’m writing furiously because I have follow up questions. I have questions. Patty okay, but let’s come back to the beginning. The first mistake you said women make is they do nothing. So not everybody who’s listening will have gone through a divorce, right? Perhaps they are married, but they’re the person who is supposed to make financial decisions, but they haven’t made any because they don’t know how. Or they’re single, or there could be a lot of different situations why they’re listening to us and feeling less confident about their finances. So if I start at the very basic level, what types of things should I have in my financial toolkit? Now, I know we need a bank account, right? But I remember a friend of mine having a check account who used to giggle and say, as long as I have checks, I’m writing them. So just give us, like, the Financial Confidence 101. What types of things should we have in our toolkit? Because you mentioned investments. Do I have to have investments? Do I have to have life insurance? That kind of stuff. So what’s, like a bare minimum? You’re okay with money?

Patti Handy: Okay, so it’s going to be in several different buckets. Okay, so your basic checking savings account is the bottom of your foundation, right? You have to use your checking account to pay your bills. Typically, that’s what happens. You do online banking, debit card, whatever, but that’s your checking account. That’s the money that’s coming in and out and that’s always active. A savings account is your, I want to say your emergency fund. And I’m going to suggest that goes into a money market account, which is at the time of this recording, is yielding far greater interest rate than your regular savings account at your typical large bank. So that’s very liquid. It’s like a savings account. It’s liquid money that can be taken out in a day’s notice. So a checking account, a money market account, and then you have your other investments. So by that I mean your retirement accounts. So that can look like your work, that can look like an IRA that you have for yourself, that can look like a Roth IRA, which is a tax free retirement account. You have a brokerage account and your brokerage account is all your taxable money. So that is something that if your savings account now has six months worth of emergency funds in it and you’ve got some money that you want to park and put into the market and put to work, that’s a brokerage account. So everything is taxable in a brokerage account. So that can be invested in mutual funds, ETFs index funds that could be invested in fixed income or bonds that could be invested in money market within your brokerage account. So depending upon and this is a much deeper conversation, but high level, depending upon your age, depending upon your risk level, your risk tolerance, depending upon your cash flow needs, will determine your asset allocation within all of your accounts. So if you’re somebody again, I’m speaking high level here, but if you’re somebody at retirement age, for example, and you have $10,000 a month coming in from your pension, rental income, Social Security, any other sources of income, and your monthly expenses to run your home is, say, 6000 a month, you’ve got a $4,000 a month positive cash flow. So that asset allocation, all those investments will be invested a certain percentage in the market versus fixed income. And if you have that positive cash flow, you’re going to be in a different situation than somebody who is pulling money every month from their retirement accounts to just pay their bills. They’re going to be much more conservative. So I know I threw a lot of information out there, but that’s just very high level. You’ve got your retirement again, you’ve got your brokerage account, you’ve got your checking and your savings. And under savings would be the money market account. Those are the main buckets. And of course you have your HSA accounts if you have that option. But the ones I spoke of are kind of the more the common ones that we speak of.

Allegra M. Sinclair: So your expertise is showing. But that is good because I heard a lot of alphabet in there that I was like, I’m not sure what some of that is, but I knew what most of it was. But what I heard was where you could begin. So if you’re listening to this, there is no shame in this. Let’s start there. While you’re yet breathing, there’s time to begin wherever you are. I loved that when Patty and I were talking before we got on the podcast, she’s like, we carry shame around money and sometimes we shouldn’t because we’re feeling vulnerable or we feel embarrassed, but we didn’t know. Right? Or you could have been in a situation where you weren’t able to do some of the things that you thought you might have done. So this is not what we’re doing here, trying to shame anyone. We’re just saying, hey, if you’re starting from ground zero today, here’s where you begin a checking account and a savings account, which ideally has emergency funds. And did you say six months worth of funds in your savings account?

Patti Handy: In a perfect world, that’s for six months of reserve in case job loss, something unexpected happens. I love that.

Allegra M. Sinclair: So if you had nowhere else to start, a checking account to manage bills and then work on building up a savings account until you have six months runway in there, and the suggestion there was a money market because it’s generating more interest than your typical savings account. So that is great if I had nothing else going on, right? So if I hadn’t done anything and I was ignoring it all, that’s a great place to start. And then what I heard was once you get there, then you can start looking at some other things which will depend on your situation, your age, all that kind of stuff. But another key piece in there, one of the other mistakes that I heard was when you’ve decided to do something, or if you’re considering doing something, being less than diligent about whose brain you pick. Was that nice and gentle? Was that Southern belish of me? Don’t ask people you know, with no money what you should do with your money. Right. I always tell people I don’t take advice from people I wouldn’t trade places with. Right, yeah. So why would I ask someone who didn’t have any money what I should do with my money? Because then we’re both not going to have any money. So be diligent about that. Take your time. Find someone who is an expert who will understand you and your situation. And the other piece I loved was somebody who will speak to you in a way that you understand. I think that we’re hesitant around money, just like I’m hesitant sometimes about my car. Now, I happen to be a little bit of a car nerd, but when I’m at the car dealership in the service department and they start using all sorts of terms that I don’t understand, I am that woman who’s, like, heard all that, didn’t understand any of it. Let’s try that again. Talk to me like I’m five. Right, but that’s, like, at the subaru place. Who cares? If I was having that conversation with someone about my money, I might be hesitant to say I didn’t understand what you just said.

Patti Handy: Well, it’s funny you say that, because that’s one of the conversations that I have with students, and that is, if you don’t understand it, you absolutely, positively, whether you’re comfortable or not. You say, I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying. And a lot of times, advisors will throw around the acronyms, and they’ll speak fast about investing and whatnot, and I will be careful with what I say here. But, yes, if you are uncomfortable in that situation, be totally okay with you know what? Thank you for what you just said. I didn’t pick up most of it. Can you speak to me? Can you slow it down a little bit and then maybe word it a little bit differently? And I’ll give you an example. I was in a meeting with a client this is probably a year ago, and we always had two advisors on our teams at my firm, and the other advisor was explaining what a Roth conversion was to our client. And this client was a very sophisticated woman. She had a sizable portfolio. She was not a dummy by any stretch. And I could tell by her face it was zoom, and I could tell by her face she had no clue what she was hearing. And so I said her name. I said, did that make sense to you? And she’s like she just shook her head no. I’m like, okay, let me rephrase it. So I slowed it down, and I rephrased it. And then she’s like, oh, okay, I get that. And it made all the difference. So find someone like you said, find somebody that you absolutely are comfortable with, that are willing to slow down and speak to you at whatever pace you’re comfortable with. And if they don’t, then walk away. I mean, just run. Really?

Allegra M. Sinclair: That is the thing. If you’re in any relationship and the other person is not interested in you being able to participate yeah, that’s the truth. Run. Absolutely.

Patti Handy: And that goes crazy, like you said in life, right?

Allegra M. Sinclair: Yes. If anybody acts like you don’t have a right to be fully involved, yes. Run. Run twice, get snacks, hydrate, and then run again. Just don’t stay there because there are so many people. Absolutely. If you want to start with asking for recommendations, that’s great. But you deserve somebody who talks to you in a way that you enjoy so you feel empowered about it. Right. It’s like with anything else, when you’re trying out new skills or you’re learning new things in new areas, you’re going to be slower in the beginning. It’s going to be a little bit uncomfortable. You’re going to laugh at yourself. Right. You might say some things that people would perceive as being silly, but how do you get to the place where you’re confident if you don’t go through that little bit of discomfort, right?

Patti Handy: Yeah, that’s a lot of what drove me to leave the role as an advisor and go into coaching, because a lot of that is the education side and the coaching side. So that if that particular client does decide they want to use a financial advisor, they have the ammunition, they have the confidence, they have the questions. And I’ll tell them, here, ask them this, ask them that, and if they respond this way or that way, whatever, be mindful of this response. So having that education is huge. And a lot of financial advisors, they’re excellent at their craft, but they don’t spend the time in educating and really empowering their clients with what they’re doing, how they’re doing it. And a lot of clients just say, take my money here, I don’t want to do it. That’s why I’m paying you. You deal with it. And that’s fine and well, that’s fine as well. But if you understand what’s happening, then you can ask the right questions and then determine if you know what, I’m not sure that allocation does make the most sense. I’m not sure if that tax strategy makes the most sense for me. You have that knowledge and that confidence to question things, which is what I really want for everybody.

Allegra M. Sinclair: Love it. So I have a couple other questions that were actually spurred by things that you said earlier, but you just mentioned something, and I don’t want to forget to ask you. So when we were talking before, you told me that you made a career pivot at an age when most people would be too afraid to do so.

Patti Handy: Yes.

Allegra M. Sinclair: And you kind of gave us a little hint right now about why it is that you did that. But I’m from the south, and we don’t tell people’s age if they don’t say so. But if you’re comfortable, I’m kind of putting you on the spot a little bit. Shame on me. Bad Podcast host. Bad coach. But if you’re comfortable sharing, when did you make this pivot and what apprehension did you have about making such a pivot at that spectacular age?

Patti Handy: Yeah, well, great question, and I have no shame or an embarrassment about my age and my pivot. So I left my firm in April and just launched my financial coaching practice in the last few weeks and I will be turning 63 in August, and most of my friends are looking at medicare and Social Security and retirement, and I’m like, hell with that. I’ve got 30 more years left here. I’m going to do something that’s impactful and inspiring and that can serve people. And I feel this is very in alignment. So, yes, I am doing this at the ripe old age of right now, I’m 62, so I’m going to stay with that number.

Allegra M. Sinclair: So I work with a lot of people who aren’t sure where they want to move up in their company, whether they want to do the same thing at a different company, whether they want to do something completely different. And I will have people in their 30s tell me they feel like it’s too late for them to pivot. And I’m like, no, my aunt went back to college when she was, like, 72 because she had never been able to get a bachelor’s. 72 went to college, and she graduated, right? So I’m like, at what age do you decide that you don’t deserve joy? So I was kind of putting you on the spot, but I knew you’d share it because you told me before. But I just loved that case study of, hey, you can change anytime you want to. Now, I’m sure there was some fear attached to pivoting because you had been in your previous career, you were earning a certain amount of money. You have a child, right? You’ve been a single mom. But I’m thinking, what were some of the things that you told yourself, all the reasons you told yourself why you could not pivot, and then what was the one reason that you decided that you could?

Patti Handy: Well, the common sense part of me that says, oh, I shouldn’t pivot is, okay, I’m leaving a job with a nice salary. I have benefits, I have a that stuff. And I’m leaving that to go out on my own where I have no income, no benefits, or now self paying medical benefits and just taking this big leap of faith. And I actually had a couple of friends call me ballsy, and I thought, okay, that’s cool. So the friends called me ballsy, and it was in a loving way. It was a very loving it wasn’t a derogatory comment, like, low key impressed with you. I think so, yeah, I think I think that is it. And I had a lot of friends say, god, that’s so inspiring. Good for you, and you’re going to show your son what you can do at any age and people around you and your family. I’m like, that’s great, and that’s all lovely, for sure. That’s icing on the cake. But the primary reason I made this pivot and the shift was the conversations that I had in my office, some with lots of tears, of women who came in on their own, whether it be divorced or widow, that were just so afraid and so overwhelmed and just didn’t know where to go. And didn’t know where to start. And oftentimes we could not serve them because many financial planning firms have a minimum requirement and some of these ladies didn’t have the minimum portfolio, so we couldn’t serve them. And it was heartbreaking to send them away, so to speak. I kind of gave them some direction, but I couldn’t advise on specifics because they weren’t a client. But I wanted to serve that demographic. My intention is to empower women with so much education and knowledge that they are so comfortable having a conversation and if their friends started talking about something, they could just ride with it and have no problem. And I want that shame, that embarrassment, that overwhelm, just to be dust.

Allegra M. Sinclair: Awesome. So what I heard was it didn’t matter kind of how many reasons there were not to do it. The reason to do it was so much stronger.

Patti Handy: Yes.

Allegra M. Sinclair: Okay. I love that because it doesn’t matter how many no’s there have been. You only need one yes. The yes, right? The most important yes.

Patti Handy: I’ll sneak this in here. I truly feel like I mentioned this earlier about listening to your intuition. I feel like we are all guided and I feel like if we are taking that time for stillness and for reflection and if you hear this voice telling you something, trust it and follow it. Don’t just up and quit your job and do something willy nilly, but don’t ignore that voice. If you feel a calling to do something, look into it, think about it, do some research, find out, go deeper with that sensation. And I feel like I was nudged. And I’ve been nudged and looking back, I’ve been nudged for the last 20 years since my divorce, I’ve been nudged to do this. As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to take this experience and do something someday. And my conversations with ladies over the years were helping, but I wasn’t doing this role full time and now I am. But it was a nudge. It was definitely a voice. And I feel so in alignment with my purpose and why I’m here that it just felt so good. And I didn’t want to look back on life and go, what if I did that? And I and I didn’t do it? So I I didn’t want to have any regrets. And I I just feel in my heart and soul that this is what I’m supposed to do.

Allegra M. Sinclair: That’s a thinker. So you were more afraid of regret than you were of taking the leap. That is awesome. So earlier you had mentioned your situation. Your life event was a divorce and you kind of had to pick yourself up and kind of start over. So pretend someone within the sound of my voice is in that situation. Do you have some quick tips for this? In the midst of divorcing or newly divorced woman who. Now is thinking, I haven’t had to think about money, and now I do. Like, where should she start?

Patti Handy: Well, out of the gate, you need to really take care of yourself. So the self care aspect of your life is going to be critical because you can’t make good decisions, whether it’s financial or otherwise, while you are emotionally drained, when you are dispent, you’re in a vulnerable place and you can’t make good common sense decisions like we talked about at the top of the hour. So take some time, give yourself some grace. Spend some time taking care of yourself. Do things that you enjoy with people you enjoy being with, whether that’s exercise, Pilates, pickleball, yoga, whatever it is that you do to take care of your body. Eat well, find ways to quiet your mind, whether it’s meditation or walks or whatever. Spending some time with a trusted good friend where you can just vent and cry and just do whatever, but take time to truly center yourself and find that strength, especially when you have kids and you’re dealing with trying to raise your kids and trying to take care of yourself at the same time. You’re going in 20 directions. So don’t go and run into investing and making these big life decisions when you’re just trying to take care of yourself. So having that self care is foundational. So that would be the first thing, and only when you feel write it up, for lack of better words. Is that even a word? I’m not sure that’s a word.

Allegra M. Sinclair: We make up words here all the time. Are you sure we make up words?

Patti Handy: It’s a word we are writing ourselves up.

Allegra M. Sinclair: Yes.

Patti Handy: When we feel back on track and we’re past that fog, then we can start to think rationally, start to do our homework, research out what has to get done, take an inventory of what it is that you have in terms of your assets, your liabilities, what your debts are, what’s coming in, what’s going out. Look at your cash flow. And that’s kind of the start of the roadmap that I talk about too. It’s like, where are you today? Let’s put that on paper. Let’s get a real good handle of where you are today. A lot of people don’t know where they are today, except that you could.

Allegra M. Sinclair: Have a lot of anxiety just from the unknown. Right? You could assume that you’re in a terrible financial situation when you met, you might not be. Tell me, what does financial coaching look like? What is that?

Patti Handy: So financial coaching is a combination of education and coaching, which is life coaching, because we all bring our issues to our world, which affects our finances. So for me particularly, I created an online course that encompasses nine different areas of our lives, and they can go in and watch these videos, and it’s combined with group coaching calls every week so they have a chance to speak with me. They have a chance to watch these videos. So they have the education piece, they have the coaching piece. And it’s about understanding many aspects of their world. So typically coaches will go into their money story. Like, why is it that they have this relationship with their money? Why do they feel like they’re struggling, wanting to learn how to invest, what’s going on in their subconscious mind? And that’s a whole nother episode. Allegra that goes deep. I have actually a whole module on that piece, but we will typically go through the budget. They’ll look at what’s coming in, what’s going out, what kind of debts you have, how do we pay that off if that’s an issue? Cleaning up your credit. Oftentimes a credit can get a little beaten up after a divorce. So how to rebuild that, how to buy a house on your own if you want? This is my course. Most coaches, financial coaches, don’t necessarily get into the buying the house and the credit that comes because of my mortgage times and world. I have that component.

Allegra M. Sinclair: Got you.

Patti Handy: But overall, kind of generic speaking, financial coaching really is, like I said, a combination of education as well as life coaching and understanding, getting to the root of why we’re doing what we’re doing.

Allegra M. Sinclair: So I know that you have a gift for my listeners and it is a roadmap. Tell us all about that.

Patti Handy: So, yes, the roadmap is something I wish I had when I was going through my divorce. It’s like, where do you start? Where do you just begin when you are coming out of that fog? So if you go to Mindinghermoney.com so Minding and then HerMoney.com, there is a roadmap there you can download for free and then watch a short training. If you want to learn more about the program, you can book a call with me and then we can have a conversation and I could learn about your particular situation and then determine if the program makes sense for you. But that roadmap kind of basically tells you the nine areas of your life that you should be focusing on and that you should be getting educated on and feel comfortable with to kind of get yourself back on track.

Allegra M. Sinclair: So is the roadmap specifically for someone who is post divorce or is it just a roadmap for someone who wants to get started with financial confidence?

Patti Handy: It’s really for both. This can absolutely apply to anybody. This could apply to a married couple. Honestly, I mean, it’s nine components of your life that you should be comfortable with and have a rock solid understanding of. I’ve addressed it specifically for the divorced and widowed women. A lot of the coaching is around, like starting over if you just don’t even know where to begin and you aren’t comfortable with the lingo and you aren’t comfortable with understanding just who to trust. A lot of that’s covered in the program as well as the live group coaching calls. But money is money. The money rules are money rules. So this could be something that anybody could benefit from.

Allegra M. Sinclair: Awesome. Is there anything we haven’t gotten to that you’re like allegra if all else fails, your audience needs to remember this. Is there anything you haven’t gotten a chance to pour all over us yet that you want to?

Patti Handy: I would say be gentle with yourself, give yourself grace. Just know that this, like you had said, this opportunity, although it’s a painful experience and I can say now that I’m out on the other side of it, it has made me a better person. It has taught me so much. And I think that’s true of any experiences that are challenging in life, that once you’re on the other side of it, you recognize the fact that it was a wonderful learning experience and an opportunity for growth. Although it’s painful, whether it’s a physical, mental, emotional, you come out the other side. So it’s having the faith that you will get through it, giving yourself the grace, taking it at the pace that you feel comfortable taking it at. Again, don’t let anyone talk you into or out of anything that doesn’t feel right for you. Don’t make any quick decisions without having the advice of your trusted team. So that’s, again, maybe your CPA, your financial coach, your financial advisor, your attorney, whoever is in your trusted circle, let them help you during this very vulnerable time and just love on yourself.

Allegra M. Sinclair: I love that and I thank you so much for coming today and giving us hope, because if we’re already doing a great job managing our finances, there was more that we can do. And you gave us some great ideas on what we might look at next and who we could partner with to help us, as opposed to going to Wikipedia or just posting a random question on Twitter and then following the instructions of whoever happened to respond, please don’t do that.

Patti Handy: Please don’t do that.

Allegra M. Sinclair: Whoever happened to respond. And if you’re in a different place and you don’t feel as confident as you would like to round finances, well, then there’s lots of hope there as well. No shame, just hope and some concrete ideas for where they can go from here. So thank you so, so much for being here. If everyone falls in love, I know they can get more@mindinghammoney.com. We’ll also include the links in the show notes to Patty’s website as well as her favorite social media handles, so you can tap into someone who actually has some information, whose information you could trust if you choose to reach out that way. So thank you again so much for being here. And everyone, don’t forget to get your copy of The Roadmap free is my favorite price at my ##money com. We will catch you next time. Thank you, Patty.

Patti Handy: Thank you allegra. It’s so fun to be with you today.