– WHO –

Wife. Mother. Military Spouse. Advocate for Financial prudence.

I am happy to be in our forever home of Portland Oregon. I live here with my husband, who I admire deeply, and our four fantastic teenage children. I am grateful for the people in my life.

The Pivots…

Life holds both unexpected blessings and challenges that cause us to change perspectives and require us to pivot at times..

One such blessing was meeting a handsome Air Force pilot named Brent whom I married in 1999.  But, it also brought the challenge of moving every 2-3 years requiring me to pivot professionally and work remotely at times.  

September 11, 2001 changed a lot of perspectives including mine. My husband began fairly constant deployments near Afghanistan and I reassessed work-life balance. I needed a more flexible schedule to accommodate his erratic one.  This resulted in me leaving Gap, Inc.

Soon after, we had our first child, moved cross-country and immediately discovered we were having spontaneous triplets. This caused me to pivot to full-time motherhood, even home educating the kids to give them continuity in elementary school through four multi-state moves.  

While raising four children on a single income, moving every two years, and being the main household manager, I continued to learn about finance, especially personal financial planning. Many a friend received budget advice or input about avoiding debt. I had found a new passion and experienced much joy in helping others.

In 2012 we experienced another perspective change – Brent received a life-threatening diagnosis. At the time, we had four elementary aged kids and I hadn’t worked in 10 years. Your mind goes lots of places at those times. Mine briefly flitted to the worst case, and you know what? We had taken care of the financial part, we were fine. I was able to fully focus on him and his recovery without a worry for the kids’ financial future. Financial prudence brings blessings in the midst of crisis.

Eventually Brent was medically retired from the Air Force. We took a year to travel and enjoy each other as a family (if you want to read more about it you can at our blog-in-process: www.wakeupandsmellthejoy.com). 

Once settled in Portland, I knew exactly what I wanted to do — to pivot back to full-time professional money management.  This time specifically focusing on the individual investor.  I embraced the stability of not moving every two years and went to work with a local hybrid advisory broker/dealer firm. After four years, I am delighted to transition to my own firm.