Money, Divorce & Living Your Best Life | Financial Wisdom with Kathleen Judge

📝 Episode Description

Divorce, finances, and living your best life—financial planning is about more than money. In this episode of Doing Life Different, host Lesa Koski sits down with financial advisor Kathleen Judge to talk about money, divorce recovery, and creating a life aligned with your values.

Whether you’re navigating finances during divorce, looking to get more involved in money decisions, or simply wanting clarity on your financial future, Kathleen shares practical steps and empowering truths to help you take charge.

Through her personal journey of adoption, homeschooling, entrepreneurship, and an unexpected divorce, Kathleen offers real stories and strategies for women who want to feel confident, secure, and purposeful with their finances.

⏱ Timestamps

(00:00) Introduction and welcome to Kathleen Judge

(02:15) Why finances are deeply personal and tied to values

(06:42) Kathleen’s background and becoming a financial advisor

(12:08) Adoption, homeschooling, and trusting God through challenges

(18:50) Divorce, unexpected transitions, and financial fears

(24:20) Reclaiming financial confidence and setting boundaries

(29:45) Helping women become active partners in money decisions

(34:30) Marriage, money, and the importance of open conversations

(41:00) Advice for young couples navigating today’s economy

(46:15) Why knowing what you truly want changes everything

(50:02) Closing encouragement and next steps

✨ Key Takeaways

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• Healing starts with clarity: Finances reflect your values—know what you truly want.
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• Women must have a voice: In marriage or divorce, be an active partner in financial decisions.
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• Financial planning is holistic: It’s not just investments; it’s taxes, estate planning, and protection.
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• Confidence grows with knowledge: Asking questions is strength, not weakness.
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• God uses hard seasons: Divorce, homeschooling, and setbacks can lead to your true calling.
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👩‍💼 Guest Bio

Kathleen Judge is a Financial Advisor with Edward Jones, dedicated to helping clients make smart, values-based financial decisions. With a background in digital marketing, entrepreneurship, adoption, and homeschooling, Kathleen brings both professional expertise and personal wisdom. After navigating an unexpected divorce, she now empowers women and families to create financial strategies that support their goals and reflect what matters most.

🔗 Resource Links

• Learn more about Lesa Koski → https://lesakoski.com
• Lesa's Cabi Style Page

Kathleen.judge@edwardjones.com

314-856-9653

www.edwardjones.com/kathleen-judge

kathleenjudgestl

• linkedin.com/in/kathleen-judge1

🏷 Tags/Keywords

financial planning for women, money after divorce, divorce finances, kathleen judge financial advisor, money mindset for women, women and wealth, financial confidence after divorce, doing life different podcast, lesa koski podcast, christian financial advice, values based financial planning, women over 40 money, estate planning and divorce, healing through finances

Welcome listeners.

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I am happy that you're here and I'm so,

I feel so grateful that Kathleen Judge.

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Took some time to come

on doing life different.

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And Kathleen is a new friend of mine.

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I know a little bit about her, but

she's gonna share her authentic story.

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And what we're ladies, what we're

talking about today is finances.

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And I know don't turn this off

because sometimes when I hear that

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I wanna turn up, but it's more.

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It's more than that.

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You know, this podcast is about helping

you through hard times and I know

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Kathleen, in my own journey, I've had to,

to do a lot of work in the finance area

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of kind of being like a believable thought

of, I am a woman learning about finances

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and that's why I've got you on today.

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Because whether you are.

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Going through a divorce, and I know

Kathleen will share her story about

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that, or you just want to be more

involved in the finances, or maybe

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you're on your own and you're like,

what should I be doing with my money?

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So this is kind of for everyone.

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So Kathleen, absolutely.

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Thank you for being here and welcome.

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Speaker 2: Oh, thank you so much, Lisa.

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It really is an honor to be here.

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I love your podcast.

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It's so uplifting and such a

great way to help people who

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are going through hard times.

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We need each other, we need

to lean on each other and, and

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help each other through that.

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So I'm, I'm really honored to be here

and, and share my story and, and I

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certainly hope that, uh, it helps.

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Some of your listeners,

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Speaker: I know that it will, so you just

share, tell us what, what your story is.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Okay.

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Well, um, I'll, I'll try to

get, there's of course a long,

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uh, medium and a short version.

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Speaker: We're good with

whatever you just go.

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Speaker 2: Okay.

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So, I am a financial advisor

with Edward Jones and my focus is

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really helping people make smart

financial decisions so that they can.

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Lead their very best lives, meaning

they're able to take care of themselves,

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their family, and their loved ones, the

way that they really want to be able to

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take care of them, and that includes.

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Of course investment management.

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It also includes, um, ensuring

that we're mitigating taxes, um,

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ensuring that we have an estate plan

so that your heirs are taken care

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of, the way they should be includes

protecting your wealth so that if you.

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If you do go through a divorce or

litigation that your wealth is protected.

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So it's, it's really all encompassing.

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Uh, it's, it's very

comprehensive, I should say.

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And that's just to kinda level set

to give your audience a feel for,

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for what I do on a, on a daily basis.

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Speaker: Well, and Kathleen, as

you're, you're talking through this,

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it kind of hit me over the head.

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It really is.

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You really need to have someone

to talk this through with.

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Because it's very personal.

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It is very right, very personal.

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It's so dependent on what

you value and what you want.

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So, and if I can tell this audience, if

there is anything that I can help you with

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today, one thing that has changed my life.

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Is knowing what I want.

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And if you can know what you want for your

future in your finances, when you go in to

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meet with Kathleen or a financial advisor,

I just think that's gonna be so amazing.

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Speaker 2: I love that

so much, Lisa, because.

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People think of financial advisors

as just investment consultants, and

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I think of it very, very differently.

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My goal is to help my clients really

dig deep and articulate and identify

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what are the things that make them tick.

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Mm-hmm.

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Why is it that they want to

help a child with a certain.

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Project or have leaves a

certain kind of legacy.

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'cause once you are able to articulate

those deep values and that deep sense

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of worth, then we can put together

some really exciting financial

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strategies that bring it to life.

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And that's what.

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That's what our finances are for, are

for helping us live our best lives

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with no matter how much we have.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So I love that.

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Speaker: And, okay.

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And so here's another thing that I

caught about you is that you went through

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something difficult and learned from it.

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Yeah.

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And it led you to do this work.

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So now I gotta jump into

what is your authentic story?

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Okay.

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So I, uh, start, I, I, as I mentioned,

I'm with Edward Jones and I started with

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Edward Jones way back in the nineties.

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At that time, I was a kind of a digital

marketing pioneer, and, uh, they brought

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me in to build the very first website.

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And it was a great, it was

just a, a fantastic project.

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I, I.

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Was able to get a bird's eye view of the

company in a really short period of time

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because every part of the organization

is represented on the website.

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And so I just fell in love with the

company and I really felt comfortable with

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their values and the way that, uh, they

really do put clients' interests first.

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Certainly not perfect.

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Uh, by any stretch.

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But, um, but I fell in love with that.

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And so, um, so I was there

for several years and then we

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adopted twins from Ukraine.

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Speaker: Oh wow.

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And

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Speaker 2: yeah.

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And so I really wanted to just go

to like 30, 25 or 30 hours a week,

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but back then it was all or none.

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And so I made the choice to, um, to

do something different and we owned a

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construction company and so I helped

run the construction company and,

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and raised the kids of course, and

did other consulting on the side and.

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I ended up, but my, my children

went to, uh, I guess kindergarten.

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Yeah, kindergarten.

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And, um, it was a disaster for

both of them for different reasons.

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My daughter had learning disabilities.

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She ended kindergarten hating school.

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My son had some, um, physical things

going on that they weren't able to help

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with, and he ended kindergarten hating

school and it just broke my heart.

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Those early years are really, the

purpose is to instill a love of

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learning, and so we took a step back

and it was actually my husband who

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said, Kathleen, I think you should

homeschool until we find the right place.

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And I was like.

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What You are crazy.

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I am no more meant to,

I am a corporate woman.

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I am not meant to homeschool.

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And um, so he was like, well, just

think about it and pray about it.

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And so two weeks later.

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I was just absolutely, you know, God had,

I felt like he was telling me, he gave

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me the green light and that, so I had

a 180 turnaround and I was like, okay,

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Speaker: I

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Speaker 2: wanna

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Speaker: homeschool.

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Okay, Kathleen, I love you so much.

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I knew this was gonna be

good for so many reasons.

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So I also, I adopted my baby.

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Aw.

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So, yeah, I have two older ones,

and then we adopted our baby.

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I too homeschooled for a short period

of time, and my daughter will tell you,

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no child should be homeschooled by me

because I really took it seriously.

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But Kathleen, you, there's so

many cool things about you.

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For one, back in the nineties

you were designing a website.

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Lady, you are cutting edge because

I'm remembering the nineties.

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I don't even know if I had a computer.

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Oh,

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Speaker 2: we, we made the news.

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We

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Speaker: did.

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That's so awesome.

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Oh gosh.

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So awesome.

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Okay, so let's keep going

on this journey here.

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So, and I know, so I only did

homeschooling for one semester

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and it was because we were

transition transitioning schools.

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I kind of didn't know what to do.

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Um, I have a dear friend.

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Who was like, I can hardly read a book.

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And she felt God calling her to

homeschool and she did an amazing job.

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Oh.

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But it was hard.

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It was very hard, you know, was like,

this isn't really what I want to do, but

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this is what I am being called to do.

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So God bless you and Okay, keep going.

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Speaker 2: Well, the, the, the

best way that he has ever kept me

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on my knees, God has kept me on

my knees, is through homeschool.

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Lemme tell you, by far the

hardest job I've ever had.

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Yeah.

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But I, I went into it thinking,

okay, it is just gonna be a year,

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and we'll find the right spot.

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Mm-hmm.

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Well, one year turned into

two, turn it to three.

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Turned into four and pretty

soon we finished eighth grade.

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Speaker: Wow.

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Speaker 2: Yay.

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And so, um, it was a fantastic

experience and I have, of course, so

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much I could say we could do a whole

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Speaker: podcast on that.

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Speaker 2: Podcast was just on that.

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Yes.

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Um, well, and

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Speaker: Kathleen, I think that back in

the day when you were doing it, it wasn't.

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So widely accepted.

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No.

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You were like, I was kind of a weirdo.

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I've been known as a weirdo 'cause

I can just fly around, but it's like

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God will put something in my heart.

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Yeah.

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And I just can't not do it.

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Yeah.

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Right.

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You know?

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Well,

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Speaker 2: and, and with in my situation,

you know, both my kids had some issues

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and so my daughter with these significant

learning disabilities, very intelligent.

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Mm-hmm.

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Just these significant learning

disabilities and she just.

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The public school system was not a fit.

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The private school system was not a fit.

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And then the homeschool curriculum

is really meant for people like me.

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I learn, you know, like I, I, I test fine.

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I can memorize stuff, right?

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You know, gimme a worksheet and I'm happy.

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But that is not her.

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And so.

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God put in my path, a gentleman who

spent his entire career in education.

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He had a PhD in elementary education

and he retired and had a heart for

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children who were being homeschooled

with learning disabilities.

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Ugh.

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I know, right?

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Yeah.

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And so, I mean, how many, how many

people are like that in the world?

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Like he's probably the only one.

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And so we traded, um, he did all

of my consulting for the kids

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education, and I did his marketing.

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And it was fantastic and I just saw

so much growth in my kids and, um, it,

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it was just a fantastic experience.

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Um, but kind of fast forward,

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I very unexpectedly got divorced.

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Um, uh, yeah, I, I, and I know

people say, you know, if you look

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back, you can always see the signs,

you can always see it coming.

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And I have just looked under every

rock and crevice of my memory and

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I really did not see it coming.

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Um, but anyway, um.

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So we divorced in 20.

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So you're homeschooling

these kids, you're Yeah.

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You're doing the marketing and trade.

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Yeah.

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So I've been, I've been outta the

workforce now for at least 12 years, man.

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And, um, yeah, and, and suddenly

responsible for mine and my

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children's futures, which I'm gonna

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Speaker: guess, I'm sorry to

interrupt, but I'm gonna guess it's

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not something that you want it.

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You know, or something that

you would've picked maybe so.

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Speaker 2: So it's kind of interesting

because when we got married right outta

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college, and I always had the aptitude

for finances from when I was very young.

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I knew how to save and

I knew how to spend.

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It just came naturally

to me and I enjoyed that.

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However, our marriage

just didn't work that way.

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Um, my husband made the decisions

and I, I, I think I would've,

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well, I know I would've preferred

to have been much more involved.

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And looking back now, I see how

much power I gave up by not really

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inserting myself and, um, and making

sure that, that my priorities and

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my values were being represented.

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So.

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So when we got divorced, I

was, you know, of course I, um.

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Felt terrible.

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I don't know.

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Do you remember, um, a

Saturday Night Live character?

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Um, the, uh, the big guy who, um,

had this skit where he's like, I

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live in a van down by the river.

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And that's what I had pictured in

my mind is, oh my gosh, we're gonna

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end up living in a van by the river.

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No, but you know, I mean, you, your

mind goes to crazy places, but I,

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I knew I could pull it together.

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I knew I, I was capable and

I also knew I needed help.

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Yep.

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I could not do it on my own.

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Speaker: Well, and Kathleen, I gotta

stop you for a second because as you're

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talking about this, I'm thinking about

yes, this is for people who are going

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through a divorce and afraid because they

don't know what to do with their money.

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But it's also for all of

us who are in marriage.

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Oh, absolutely.

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And.

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What I am have been learning,

which is, you know, painful to

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my husband probably a little bit,

is how to set these boundaries.

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Mm-hmm.

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Um, you know, I, I wanna be involved.

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Yeah.

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This is mine too.

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Yeah.

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So even though you probably

created way more, I mean the

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retirement plan, that's all him.

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But I was the one there.

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I mean, I would, I can't

imagine what I could have done

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with my life if I had a wife.

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Right, right.

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So I'm not, I'm not gonna

say that's not mine, but yes.

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But it, but still can

frustrate me, Kathleen.

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And so I need to, I need

to work through this.

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So I'm just gonna sit in the chair.

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I usually don't like to talk about things.

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I'm not healed over until I heal.

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And it's happening now.

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Let's heal.

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Let's heal together, let's heal.

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So one thing that can be tricky is.

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So I take care of all of our finances.

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Mm-hmm.

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But I can't.

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Call for any of the stocks or

the funding because it's all him.

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Mm-hmm.

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Mm-hmm.

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And he's so darn busy.

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It's not that he doesn't allow me to, but

he hasn't even done the paperwork to allow

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me to talk to people to get work done.

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Mm-hmm.

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Right.

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Frustrating.

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Speaker 2: Yes.

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So, and, and that is very common,

Lisa, and I find people coming to

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me, both male and female, and, and.

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With a whole range of

emotions around that.

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Some women feeling ashamed that

they don't know as much as they

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feel like they should know or they

don't know as much as their husband.

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And I just wanna say that is

not, there is no shame in not

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understanding financial strategies.

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You know, I don't know how to.

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Do surgery on myself and I, nobody

would expect me to know that.

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And for some reason our, our culture

and our society has kind of put this

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on women that we just don't know.

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And, and we, we don't need to

know and maybe we don't have an

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aptitude and, and so, you know, if

a financial advisor ever makes you

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feel like that, run the other way.

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Yeah.

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Um, and, and I have had multiple co

in fact, I think in the last year

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I've had three couples come to me

because the, the husband, well of

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course the wife was uncomfortable with

how their financial advisors were.

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The team was dealing with them.

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They were, you know,

ignoring her viewpoints, not.

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Not inquiring of her wants and wishes

speaking over her head intentionally.

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And the husband recognized that

this is not a good, this is not a

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good situation because he is gonna

pass before she does statistically,

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there's almost no way around it.

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He's gonna pass before she does, and

if she's not at least comfortable with

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her financial advisor, that's a whole.

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New layer of stress that you have to deal

with and your spouse has just passed.

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Yeah.

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And so they have come to me and said,

you know, the, the, in a couple cases, in

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two of the cases, the, the wife she'll,

you know, she'll come in and say, okay,

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I, I, I, I understand about, oh, maybe.

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You know, 25% of what you're saying.

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And I'm like, that's great.

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You know?

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Right.

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Stop me, ask me.

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Let's talk about this.

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And then over time they'll, they

learn more and more and become

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more and more comfortable.

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But I think more than anything, I.

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We build up trust.

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Yeah.

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To where both he and her, you know,

they both have trust in me that I

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am, I want what's best for them.

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I wanna know what they want and then

I wanna help put together financial

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strategies to help them get there.

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Right.

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Speaker: Well, and I, okay, so now I'm

kind of going back to how beautiful

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it was that that husband came to you.

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Yeah, and, but this is what I wanna say.

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Not everybody has that.

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No.

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It is rare.

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It's rare.

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It's rare.

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And we need to.

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We need to learn to do that for ourselves.

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Yes.

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Right?

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Yes,

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Speaker 2: I agree.

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So we

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Speaker: need to put your hand

on your chest and say, I am

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a woman learning finances.

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I am worthy, I am loved, I, I am.

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You know, create it for greatness.

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And you go into that financial planner

and you ask the questions, don't you know?

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Absolutely.

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You take some deep breaths so that you

can be in the framework where you're

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actually learning because you can learn

this and you wanna know what else.

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It's not that hard.

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Think, well, you know what?

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We can do hard things.

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We can do hard things.

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And I think the hardest

part of it is the shame.

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I think I felt so much shame.

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I don't know how to, I

don't know how to, right.

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Take care of finances.

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I'm not good at it.

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I just like to shop and

spend money or whatever.

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That's not true.

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That is not true.

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It's not true.

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No, no.

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No, it's not

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Speaker 2: at all.

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I, it's, it's a, it's an absolute lie.

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And I will also say I've done so

much research on women and finances

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and, uh, you know, one, one.

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Uh, fact that's really proven out

is that, um, is that women are loyal

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and they don't wanna rock the boat.

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And so we have a harder time saying

to our husbands, listen, I want

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in, I want in on our finances.

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And really forcing that.

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Hand, it can be very hard to

do and sometimes it, it does.

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It means, like with the three couples

I mentioned that came to me this year,

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it means a change of a financial team.

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Mm-hmm.

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Because, you know,

'cause the relationship.

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Should not just be with

one person in the marriage.

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The relationship needs to be with both.

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Speaker: Amen.

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And I feel so grateful I would work

with you if I didn't already have

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a friend that I was working with.

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And he is someone that I worked

with on mediations and liked him.

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And really, and believe it or not, we

never had a financial advisor, my husband,

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he wanted to do it all on his own.

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We really ended up not doing.

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As much planning as we

probably should have.

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I mean, he was real good about

putting the money away, so we're fine.

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I'm like, retire Johnny Cakes.

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It's be elaborate.

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But, so I feel extremely comfortable

with my financial advisor and I think

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there's something to be said for me

being the one to take the initiative.

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Mm-hmm.

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So I'm just gonna say, Kathleen, if

there are women out there and maybe

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you don't have an advisor yet, or

you're not liking yours, take the step.

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Reach out to Kathleen.

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Now I need, need to understand

you're in Missouri, is that right?

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I'm in.

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I'm in Wisconsin right now.

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Yeah, but I work in Minnesota.

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Do you work everywhere?

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Speaker 2: I do.

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I have.

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I have clients all over the

country, California, Colorado.

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Arizona, Florida.

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I, I, all over the country, I do take

clients, um, and serve clients everywhere.

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So geography is not really

a, a barrier these days.

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It's just not, which

I think is a blessing,

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Speaker: right?

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It's a

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Speaker 2: blessing.

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There's, in fact, my, my last

several referrals have been

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people who are outta state.

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So, you know, existing client that's

happy and they have referred someone

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that lives outta state and it works fine.

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Yeah, it's great.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Speaker: Well, I mean, if you

think about it, I don't go into

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the office of my financial advisor.

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Right?

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You don't need to do that anymore.

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Speaker 2: No, you really don't.

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Uhuh.

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Speaker: Okay.

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That's awesome.

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And I just would, I mean, I

would recommend that people

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contact you, so we will have your

contact information That's great.

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In our show notes.

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But I have you have a little question

about, these are kind of different times.

451

Um, and I wanna ask you for

your expert opinion mm-hmm.

452

On things that we can be doing.

453

And I gotta say this is, it's such

an odd time and I remember hearing

454

when I was younger that this is the

first generation, our children mm-hmm.

455

Are the first generation who will

not do as well as their parents.

456

Right.

457

That's hard because my son and

daughter-in-law have two babies.

458

My.

459

Oldest daughter is a medical

doctor and her husband's an

460

engineer and they have a baby and.

461

It's everything is different, the cost of

houses compared to what they're earning.

462

Mm-hmm.

463

And yet they strive to create

the life that they had, you know?

464

Right.

465

Or that their father was

able to provide to his.

466

His children.

467

And I gotta mention my Sophia,

my baby that I adopted by far.

468

She's just in college now, having fun.

469

So.

470

Well, good for her.

471

Yeah, she's good.

472

So she's not so tied down with all this.

473

She's still like, you know.

474

Mm-hmm.

475

Living in that not, that's

not reality yet, but that is,

476

that is something that's real.

477

And I can't imagine being back then.

478

And feeling like you're working so

hard, but you can't give your children.

479

Mm-hmm.

480

Which we know that stuff isn't important.

481

The main thing is the love,

the attention, the right.

482

But what, what do people

do in this economy?

483

What, what would you advise?

484

Um, right.

485

Speaker 2: So, excuse me.

486

Um, first I wanna say one thing.

487

I forget, and that is that for your

listeners today, if anyone wants.

488

Me to do a stress test on their portfolio.

489

I would be happy to do that.

490

So I take a look at your finances and

put it through rigorous tests and say,

491

okay, what parts of your finance of your.

492

Strategies hold up under different types

of circumstances and, um, it's, it's

493

just a, a treasure trove of information.

494

So before I forget, I

wanna put that out there.

495

Yeah.

496

I appreciate that.

497

Yes.

498

Yeah.

499

And then for the younger

generation, it is tough.

500

My son and his wife are expecting,

and they have been looking for

501

their first home, their starter

home, and they each time get outbid.

502

Speaker: Well, and it's crazy because,

um, my daughter finished her residency

503

and couldn't sell their home in Iowa City,

and so they couldn't buy anything here.

504

So their, they had to rent.

505

Right.

506

And then.

507

But now they're having trouble selling.

508

It's a, it's a townhouse and they're

having trouble selling it, which you,

509

when they came in like four years ago,

we had to, you know, they had to buy it

510

sight unseen because things were flying.

511

It's just, it's so crazy and dependent on.

512

On, you know, what level of home

513

Speaker 2: you're

514

Speaker: looking

515

Speaker 2: at?

516

Yes.

517

Well, so my overall advice for, for,

for that generation, and I think this

518

goes for everyone, is again, going

back to having conversations with

519

your spouse or if you're on your own

conversations with yourself about what.

520

Are your priorities.

521

Mm-hmm.

522

What are your values around money?

523

What are your values in your life?

524

And then let yourself, you know,

let your mind just explore, okay,

525

what are the things that are

really, really important to me?

526

Mm-hmm.

527

What are the things that I.

528

When I leave this world,

what do I wanna be known for?

529

Yes.

530

What are the things that, when I am on my

deathbed, I wanna be grateful that I did?

531

And so really thinking about life

in those, in those big, important.

532

Ways, and then, and then you can

start to visualize it with goals.

533

You can say, you know, whatever

that may be based on your values.

534

Hmm.

535

And based on your goals.

536

And then, and then you can

put the financial strategies

537

in place to get there.

538

Yeah.

539

And I, a, a young couple.

540

They wanted to, they wanted to upsize.

541

They, you know, are in the tiny

little house and they're gonna have

542

some kids and they wanted to upsize.

543

Well, after going through, um, some,

uh, I have an, uh, established process

544

that I use, and after going through

this established process, they.

545

Realized that their, her parents are in

Wisconsin and not healthy and they love

546

Wisconsin, and the, the parents live on

a lake and that the most important thing

547

to them right now is to have a place in

Wisconsin on the lake near her parents,

548

and they still wanna footprint here in St.

549

Louis.

550

But it dramatically changed

what they had come in thinking

551

that they were going to do.

552

They were thinking, we're gonna sell

our house and buy a new big house.

553

Mm-hmm.

554

Instead they sold their house,

bought a smaller house, and then

555

bought a lake house in Wisconsin.

556

Um,

557

Speaker: Kathleen, I love that.

558

And you know what, you just beautifully

circled this whole conversation, kind of

559

back to what we said at the beginning.

560

You need to know what you want.

561

Mm-hmm.

562

Absolutely.

563

And you know, we said that if

there's anything you get out of this.

564

Sit down and think through.

565

Yeah.

566

And talk to your partner.

567

Yeah.

568

Um, about what do you really want.

569

Yeah.

570

And then you're ready.

571

I love that you're ready to start

planning and moving forward.

572

Mm-hmm.

573

Speaker 2: And you know, a lot of that

turns into marriage counseling session.

574

Yes.

575

Amen.

576

Yep.

577

Yep.

578

Which is great.

579

That conversation, you know,

you do need to go through some

580

tough conversations usually.

581

Even know Kathleen,

and that's what I have.

582

That's fine.

583

Speaker: Yep.

584

And what I have learned is that when you,

so if you have someone that's not willing

585

to have that conversation with you,

586

Speaker 2: mm-hmm.

587

You know, you'll

588

Speaker: see.

589

But what I've found is when you

work on yourself and you start to

590

think, this is what I want, and.

591

You work on setting your boundaries,

either, a lot of times that

592

person's gonna jump on and join you

593

Speaker 2: mm-hmm.

594

Speaker: Or they're not.

595

Right.

596

And that's gonna be telling too.

597

Yeah.

598

But what, whatever way it's

so important, start with you.

599

It absolutely is.

600

Speaker 2: And you know, I think had I,

um, had I been more, uh, vocal in my.

601

First marriage about my

needs and wants early on.

602

Not that we wouldn't

have ended in divorce.

603

We may have ended in

divorce a little sooner.

604

Yeah.

605

And, um, and then I would've

had more time, um, you know, um.

606

Doing my, my, the things financially that

support my goals and, and values, right?

607

Well, and it, it all turned out fine.

608

We're in a great place and I'm grateful

for my ex-husband and I'm grateful

609

for the position that I'm in, and I'm

really grateful that I went through.

610

All of that because it gave me a heart.

611

I never thought I'd be

a financial advisor.

612

Mm-hmm.

613

But it gave me a heart to help

others who are in the same situation.

614

Yeah.

615

And so I feel like this is the

work I'm supposed to be doing.

616

Amen.

617

And it never would've

618

Speaker: happened.

619

Yep.

620

And so in that sense, everything

happened just as it should.

621

Yes.

622

You know, I mean, yeah, you can look

back and, and say that about many things,

623

but we are right where we need to be.

624

Speaker 2: Yeah.

625

Right

626

Speaker: now.

627

Speaker 2: Yeah.

628

As part

629

Speaker: of God's plan, you know?

630

Yeah.

631

He has a plan and it's unraveling

before our eyes, and so.

632

Yeah, I think this has been

such a lovely conversation.

633

Kathleen.

634

I'm so thankful that I got to

talk to you today and I wanna stay

635

connected to you and well likewise.

636

And so maybe we can do this again.

637

I'd love to.

638

I'd love to

639

Speaker 2: there.

640

There's so many financial topics

we can explore around this.

641

Speaker: Yep, absolutely.

642

Do

643

Speaker 2: this again.

644

Speaker: And listeners, if there is

something that you're interested in

645

hearing more about from Kathleen, send me

a little note message me because we could

646

dig deeper into something specific too.

647

So I just have truly

enjoyed getting to know you.

648

You are a beautiful soul, and thank you.

649

Thank you for being here.

650

Oh,

651

Speaker 2: thank you.

652

It's such a pleasure.

653

I appreciate it, Lisa.

654

Speaker: You take good care.

655

Okay?

656

You too.