When Financial Curveballs Keep Coming, with Bobbie LaPorte

Cammie Doder (00:04):
Welcome to Money Tales, where money gets personal. I’m Cammie Doder

Sandi Bragar (00:08):
And I’m Sandi Brager.

Cammie Doder (00:10):
Sometimes the moments that challenge your identity the most end up reshaping your entire relationship with money. In this episode, Bobbie LaPorte, executive coach, former Fortune 50 leader and author of When the Curve Balls Keep Coming shares what it looks like to navigate financial highs and lows with humility and resourcefulness. After years of corporate success, Bobbie found herself asking a very different question, what do you do when the path you expect to disappears and you still need to move forward? Bobbie’s story is candid and full of hard earned perspective and thoughtful generosity.

Sandi Bragar (00:49):
Here are three money conversations. This episode will help you navigate first, how your relationship with money is shaped early and evolves over time. Growing up between abundance and scarcity, Bobbie learned to be self-sufficient and still carries that lens into how she saves, spends and supports others today. Second, what it really takes to get through financial uncertainty. Bobbie shares the reality of starting over, including the humbling decision to take any job available while building something new and how that shaped our confidence and independence. And third, how to define enough when success keeps raising the bar. Through her work with high earning clients, Bobbie brings a grounded lens on balancing ambition and wealth with the relationships, health, time, and everyday experiences that often get pushed aside in the pursuit of more. Now it’s our pleasure to bring you Bobbie’s money tails.

Cammie Doder (01:51):
Welcome Bobbie LaPorte to the Money Tales Podcast.

Bobbie LaPorte (01:55):
Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.

Cammie Doder (01:57):
We’re thrilled to dive into your story, and I’ve started reading your book when the Curve Balls Keep coming. It’s a leadership playbook and like life. I am of course reading it as a professional, but I’m also reading it as a human thinking about life’s curve balls. And it really got me thinking about the fact of planning as best you can. Obviously you cannot plan for every curve ball out there, but plans are really helpful. And I was thinking about, of course, the work we do, the financial planning, the budgeting and the estate planning, et cetera, et cetera. But I was thinking about it with my life and I’ve really been leaning into planning to help myself in life decisions. And it brings peace of mind to me. It brings a calmness to me by going through it. It creates anxiety in the beginning like, oh my God, I’m unorganized. But as you start chipping away at all your long list of things, it really is helpful. Sandi, I wanted to share this. This is what you help clients do every day and what we do at Experian every day. And it is like I feel that the kind of pressure in my chest, the fear of the unknown, and as you get clarity, even if the clarity is not the answer you want,

Bobbie LaPorte (03:21):
Yeah,

Cammie Doder (03:22):
It’s still clarity and it gives me just relief knowing.

Sandi Bragar (03:27):
And so when we work with clients, one of the very first things that we do after we spend time getting to know them, what’s important to them, what their priorities are, what their values are, what they’re trying to achieve is we’ll prepare a long-term financial plan that looks

Bobbie LaPorte (03:40):
Exactly

Sandi Bragar (03:41):
Like what they told us they want their life to look like. And then from there we start planning for some of the possible curve balls. No one knows what’s going to happen. Sometimes life throws the curve balls at you. Sometimes you’re the one throwing them at yourself. And so it is impossible to model every single scenario, but certainly we take a look at things of what happens if in the case of a couple or an individual, what happens if you lose your job? What happens if you experience a major disability? In the case of couples, what happens if one of you dies earlier than expected?

Bobbie LaPorte (04:18):
What happens

Sandi Bragar (04:19):
If the other one of you dies earlier than expected? There’s just a lot of different planning, and we don’t do that to freak anyone out, but really just to start exercising those what if muscles? Because when you have your baselining and you have those, what if muscles flexing? You get insights into what life could look like and that gives you maybe some reassurance about where you’re starting from or maybe some insights of, huh, maybe there’s more I need to do in this particular area to shore up some financial resources or systems in order to help in case I do face this unexpected event, whether it’s a positive or negative.

Bobbie LaPorte (04:57):
I think that’s one of the things that we learned from COVID from a neuroscience standpoint is our brains are wired for certainty when COVID hit and nobody had ever seen anything like that before. And all the leaders I work with are like, and now what? Right? So even the smallest little, what I call bits of certainty that leaders can create, and that still exists today because AI is changing the world. We’re in all the people I work with or they’re reacting all the time. So any place where you can create little pieces of certainty about assignments, expectations, letting people know what they can plan on and what they can’t, it helps to alleviate that sort of cognitive load. And it really helps to put people in a position to say, okay, I know I can’t plan for everything, but I can plan somewhat, but more importantly, I can prepare, so I can prepare for how do I react when something like that happens?

(05:53):
How do I not get stuck? How do I move from being in freeze mode and just getting into a zone and just saying, I’m not going to look at anything. I’m not going to talk to anybody. I’m just going to keep my head down to saying, all right, well, what’s the possibility here? Yes, this is an issue, but how can I make something of it? How can I take a step and do something that’s going to benefit me or my family or my team instead of hoping that it’ll just go away? We know from the last five years it’s not going away. It’s

Sandi Bragar (06:17):
Not going away.

Cammie Doder (06:18):
Change is constant. Oh, Bobbie, this is going to be excellent. Would you start us off by providing an introduction and share events or decisions? A couple of ’em that have been instrumental in shaping who you are.

Bobbie LaPorte (06:33):
Again, thank you for inviting me. So my name is Bobbie LaPorte. I live in San Francisco now. I grew up in the suburbs of Boston. Came here, oh, let’s see, maybe 30 years ago. So even though I like the Bay Area, I think New England will always be home for me. And so I miss the change of seasons and the architecture, and I’m sort of like a old New England Yankee at heart. Anyway, but coming here I met somebody and then we did cross country dating for a long time, and then I moved here to start a managed care company. It really changed my life in terms of where I lived in terms of the kind of work I was doing. And I did that for several years after I’d worked for big companies on the east coast. One of the healthcare companies I was working for got purchased, and so that was like 2001, 2002. You’re probably old enough to remember the.com bus. Nobody was hiring anybody.

Cammie Doder (07:24):
I

Bobbie LaPorte (07:24):
Mean, this was sort of a really pivotal, it was scary point in my time. And so my partner has a construction business, and so it was a very opportunistic but a scary time for both of us. I mean, there was literally days we’d look at each other and say, okay, who’s paying the pg e bill this month? Because nobody was hiring anybody. He didn’t have clients. I didn’t have clients. And interestingly enough, connected to my background coming from New England, somebody said to me, there’s a really well-known he’s not alive anymore, a really well-known executive coach who lives in Marin. You should hire him to help you figure out what’s next for you. He works with executives in transition. And I said, seriously, that sounds like such a woo woo California thing to me. I mean, who would do that? I’m like a stoic New England Yankee.

Cammie Doder (08:14):
Roll up your sleeves and just get her done.

Bobbie LaPorte (08:16):
We figure this stuff out. Why do I need somebody to help me do that? But I did hire him. He had been an advertising executive. He was running all advertising for Jay Walter Thompson for Hewlett Packard. He got burnt out one day. He went to outplacement and they said, you’re really good at this. So he ran their CEO practice for a long time, and then he went out on his own. So anyway, I worked with him and one day he said to me, you should do what I do. And I was like, really? But he really helped me understand that while I liked being in Fortune 50 companies and running startups, the theme and the thread through all of that for me was how can I help the people in my organization be in the best possible place to be successful? How can I see them? What’s possible for them? So that’s what I started this consulting business. It was rough. It was really rough for a few years

Cammie Doder (09:04):
Starting a business,

Bobbie LaPorte (09:05):
The money

Cammie Doder (09:06):
Doesn’t just turn on right

Bobbie LaPorte (09:07):
Away,

(09:08):
And everything here is so expensive. And so that was a really pivotal point for me in terms of I was a reluctant entrepreneur, and so how my partner and I sort of managed through that time and who paid the bills and where was the money coming from? And so I learned during that time, and I think this is a lesson from early in my life, that sometimes you have money and that’s great. And for us it’s always to take care of family and friends and do fun things and help other people. We don’t spend a lot of money on ourselves. But when you don’t have money, you just figure out how that impacts you and what are the choices you make and what are the sacrifices you make and what do you give up? And when you find out what’s important, and then when you do have money, then you might treat that a little bit differently.

(09:54):
But he and I have gone through several of those sort of peaks and valleys over the last, almost three decades now. So I learned to live with less, and I learned that that was okay, and I learned to be self-sufficient at one point. After two or three years, no clients and everything’s expensive. And I said to him, man, I got to work. I have to do something. So I thought I used to be a bartender or I used to work in a restaurant, or I’ll go work in retail. I’ll do something. Even though it didn’t feel great in the beginning, it’s like, I guess I have to do this. But I went to work in retail. I said, you know what? I like people. I know how to serve customers. I just need to know that there’s a few hundred dollars every week that I’m contributing somehow. So I’m making, I’m not just sitting here bemoaning the fact I don’t have a job.

Sandi Bragar (10:40):
So while you were building this consulting practice, you fill in when you need to, but

Bobbie LaPorte (10:45):
There was a time when one day I was working and I was actually working at the Gap, and I said to myself, okay, I’ve been really successful in business so far. I have an MBA from Harvard, but I’m working at the Gap and I’m folding jeans and cleaning toilets. I don’t know if this is the right picture, but this is where I am and this is what I’m doing now and this is what I have to do to contribute to our household, and it’s okay. And that didn’t last for long, but that was one of those humbling times when I see people say, oh, I could never go do that, or I could never take a step back, or I’m making all this money. It’s like sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. And so I learned a lot about teaching people well and about being humble and about customer service. And now for all these years, when I go into places, retail places, I am very cognizant of the people who are waiting on you and that they’re making minimum wage, which back then was very different.

Sandi Bragar (11:36):
Bobbie, what an incredible story, and thank you for sharing that because I think you’ve brought to your life so many different things. One, when you start off on an entrepreneurial track, it’s hard, especially when you come from a very different background. There’s a lot you need to do in order to get the business up and running.

Cammie Doder (11:54):
And she was reluctant to do it. I appreciated that word. It wasn’t like, oh, I’m going to go do this.

Bobbie LaPorte (12:00):
No, there was no entrepreneurial spirit or bent in my background at all. I worked for IBM, I worked for ge. I was a big company. There was no way I was going to do that.

Sandi Bragar (12:09):
So you take a risk, go outside of your comfort zone, you’re impacted by what’s happening in the economy in general, which is true of so many businesses. And then you’re starting off in a time where it’s very difficult to land new business. You need money, you find an alternative pivot, and you really need to check your ego at the door to do that. And I’m curious, Bobbie, as you moved out of that period of time and you gained more success with your business, how did that experience working in retail to keep things going? How did it influence your money habits?

Bobbie LaPorte (12:47):
I think it informed when I did get money. I’ve had worked with tech companies now for 15 years and there’s been boom times and not so much boom times, but I think it made me appreciate more the value of having savings, of having a plan, of having money so that I don’t have to go back to that. I mean, God forbid if something happened and I had to, could do it,

Cammie Doder (13:12):
Can,

Bobbie LaPorte (13:12):
Yeah, I know I can do it, but it wasn’t a high point, let me put it that way in my life. So I think it helped me to understand the things that are important and what money can provide. And the philosophy I use with my clients is, your job is important. I understand that because in the Valley it’s just people are so intense, but your job is what makes everything else possible. And at the end of the day, yes, it’s a job and you maybe make a lot of money and you have all these RSUs and everything, but if your family doesn’t see you or your health is impacted or you’re not doing things that you love, who cares? And so many of the people I work with and clients I have are so wrapped up in that. So I try to reflect back and say, okay, so when I didn’t have money, how did I remember what was important about it and how can I share that philosophy of simpler things are more important, especially to, most of my clients are like thirties, maybe early forties.

(14:12):
They’re making lots of money, seven plus figures a year. And this is where my philosophy comes in, and I have to be, you talk about being vulnerable. I understand how that meant to me. I have to be careful, even though I know some of these people really well about how I guide and advise them about how they think about the times that they’re in now. But they’ll say to me, oh, my company’s cutting back and so I was supposed to get a $1.6 million bonus. It’s only going to be 1.4. That sucks. And I say, okay, let me just give you a sense of what that means to me when I hear that and try to help them understand the privilege position they’re in. And that like 99.5% of the population will never be in a position to have that kind of privilege and wealth and the ability to spend your money wherever you want, and that you should appreciate that you have it very, the value is an unusual place and not to have it be the thing that keeps you up all night and the thing that drives you,

Cammie Doder (15:17):
That perspective so powerful. And it’s really hard to do when you’re in the pot of these type of bonuses are so common and this so to have you as a coach. And I’m curious, how do you help people appreciate the smaller things of life? Do you have any tools or recommendations that because you’ve gone through something that you don’t want others to go through to have to learn these things? So how do you recommend we learn life has more than just more and more and more money.

Bobbie LaPorte (15:49):
I try to share my own experience, but I’ll also just say, think about your family. Think about what do you want this to look like in 10 years and are you happy right now? I mean, are you taking bike rides? Are you spending time with your kids? How often do you see your parents? What do you really love to do? Whatever it is. When was the last time you did that? And they listened to me, I think. But I just try to give them an appreciation that it’s not all about the W2 and the RSUs and everything, and I think they appreciate my experience and where I’ve come from and when I say, this is how I would think about that, you don’t want to do the proverbial wake up to 15 years from now and realize, oh gee, I never did this or I never did that. But it’s a really intense competitive place,

Sandi Bragar (16:36):
And I love that you’re having these money conversations in the context of the coaching because that is part of the magic of talking about money is being able to share different perspectives, to be able to share our experiences. You can never really guide people away from making the mistakes that you feel that you’ve made in your life. We all want to try to do that. Oh, well, you’re listening to me. And learning and avoiding mistakes doesn’t quite look like that. But you’re adding such a rich perspective. And what I’m hearing in the questions you’re asking of your clients is really getting down to what are their values? What are their values and their priorities? And I do think that is something in our society that most people lose track of very easily, especially when we work in competitive environments where everyone is displaying the shiny objects that they’re buying. That’s so interesting. So Bobbie, as you think about your relationship with money today, how would you describe it? You mentioned before about having an appreciation for times when you’ve had it and you haven’t had it, but when you think about the relationship itself, how would you describe it?

Bobbie LaPorte (17:45):
I think it’s better. I mean, it should be, I’m not young anymore. When you work for yourself, it’s still difficult. But I grew up in a household where in the middle class household, my dad was very outgoing, golfed, liked to hang out with his friends, go out to dinner. My stepmother was total opposite. It was like a real scarcity mindset. Can’t have this, can’t do that, can’t spend this money. And so I grew up in that and I learned I had to work. I had to find my own money. I had to basically make sure that I was self-sufficient and taking care of myself, which reflects back to the story I told about starting the business and not having clients. But there’s still some of that. So when I have money and there’s never extra, but when I think I have extra money, my approach now is just, I mean, I’ll put some aside, I need to make sure that I’m saving, but I just take care of other people.

Sandi Bragar (18:37):
Why am I not surprised to hear this?

Cammie Doder (18:39):
I know, yeah.

Bobbie LaPorte (18:40):
My family and my partners comes from a big Italian family and he has five siblings. And a few years ago, his mom died a few years ago and she had cancer, and they all live in San Jose. Her big thing was, I want to be around my kids. And so once a year we would rent a house. We love going to Tahoe, Tahoe on the lake, big house like a lodge, 10 bedrooms, giant house, double kitchens. They’re all cooks. Big deck. We’d have 20 people and 10 dogs there at one point. And we would just tell people, Marie’s going to come up. You come in anytime you want. And just being able to have everybody spend time with her and come and enjoy themselves, that’s an expensive thing to do. But we just felt, you know what? It was like a no-brainer. This is just what we need to do.

(19:25):
And so now I just look at my family and his family and say, who needs help? Who can I get over a rough spot? Who can we put in an experience that’ll help them? Even to little things like when we go away to Tahoe for a month or so, I pay the dog walkers. I pay the woman who helps clean our house. I pay my trainer. It’s just like that’s income that you’re counting on. I know you’re not delivering the service. I don’t care. I know it’s important to you. I’m going to do this for you and I’d like for you to accept it. So

Cammie Doder (19:54):
Wow, what

Bobbie LaPorte (19:55):
A model.

Cammie Doder (19:55):
Our

Bobbie LaPorte (19:55):
Philosophy is just let’s just make sure that we’re doing good things for people and taking care of them. And then we do things for ourself as well. But I think it’s healthier. I’m not in that in-between place. I was growing up where you can use yes money, you should go and spend it and enjoy it where no, there’s no money. I’m not in that better now. But launching a consulting business was definitely one thing that defined that. And the other thing that I didn’t mention is when I was going to college at UMass and Amherst, I had a falling out with my stepmother and she said, I’m not giving you my money for tuition. And it was like the beginning of my junior year, and I just transferred there and I changed my major and I was like, what am I going to do? So this is another, okay, how do I take care of myself and be self-sufficient and how do I figure out how to make happen, what I need to make happen? I changed my major. So I basically put all my classes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturday. I worked full-time in one of the campus offices, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, eight to five. I bartended three nights a week, and then I got this stupid little job making almost no money as the secretary of the Student Government Association. But I basically worked and studied nonstop. That’s all I did. But I got through those two years and I felt, okay, so now I know I can take care of myself and I know what’s possible.

Cammie Doder (21:21):
I think it’s really interesting that you had this experience. It was hard, I’m sure, but it gave you the foundation to do what you needed to do in the two thousands when the.com bubble happened,

Bobbie LaPorte (21:34):
Right? I knew what was possible

Cammie Doder (21:35):
And you knew what you had to do. You figured it out. And I think that’s incredible. Bobbie, I’d love to understand how you and your partner talk about money, and

Bobbie LaPorte (21:47):
You’ve

Cammie Doder (21:47):
Gone through such interesting times together. You are so aligned. But tell us about how you got to where you are today in your ability to have these conversations that are sound really quite productive.

Bobbie LaPorte (22:00):
They sound that way. I think for the most part, although everything is separate. I mean, we own property together, but we file taxes separately. His money is his money. I will say I am more disclosing of, I have this new contract, I have this invoice coming in. I can take care of these things. Can you take care of these? So we talk about it more, but he’s very old school Italian and he doesn’t like to talk about it very much. So I have to find ways to say, we have this expense coming up or this is happening, so how are we going to work through that together? So I think over the years I’ve sort of got a better sense of his perspective and his philosophy

Cammie Doder (22:44):
And how to bring it up. Sounds like you’ve learned how to bring it up.

Bobbie LaPorte (22:47):
I learned how to bring it up. I learned how to approach him in a way that he won’t think is invasive, very private. And then there’s also times, honestly, where I just let it go. So I’m like, that’s not a good subject. It’s not a good time. I just take care of things. I mean, we’re both in our seventies, so I mean, we should think we’ve figured this out by now. I mean, we sort of have, but it’s really tricky.

Sandi Bragar (23:15):
It

Cammie Doder (23:15):
Is tricky.

Bobbie LaPorte (23:16):
It’s tricky.

Sandi Bragar (23:17):
I want to highlight what you said though. How are we going to figure this out together? I think that’s such an important statement to make when talking about money with your partner, showing the value is on the relationship. It’s not on being right. It’s not on proving a point,

Bobbie LaPorte (23:35):
Right? It’s like, we need to do X. How are we going to figure this out?

Sandi Bragar (23:40):
That is so important. And I’m wondering, we talked at the beginning of our conversation about curve balls and about curve balls that come to us in life as a non-married couple. How do you guys think about the curve balls based on your decisions to keep your money separate and we make different decisions, but still live a life together, presumably in the same home? Yeah.

Bobbie LaPorte (24:02):
No, we, we’ve been in this home for a while. We have a plan. We have some investments together, but he has things that he likes to spend money on that I maybe don’t think are, but they’re valuable to him. I have things that I like to do. It’s productive. It works. I mean, you must know from clients you work with. I don’t know how other people who have had gaps in their employment and have ups and downs in their money life who live together but are not married. I don’t know what the rules of engagement are for others, but I feel like we’re sort of at a place now where we know we can figure it out.

Sandi Bragar (24:41):
I love that, and I just want to make it very clear, there are no rules

Bobbie LaPorte (24:44):
When

Sandi Bragar (24:45):
It comes to money and relationships, whether there’s a marriage or not a marriage, there are no rules. It’s all about figuring out what works for you. And I’m so appreciative that you’re sharing how you and your partner have navigated it because it just provides insights to others of us listening in on different models, different ways of doing things.

Bobbie LaPorte (25:04):
Yeah, I don’t expect that there’s a magic process or anything. I think everybody just handles it differently. But he comes from a family, and I come from a family where you don’t talk about those things. Old school, you don’t talk about money. If you bring it up, it’s like, well, the ground is going to open up underneath you or something terrible is going to happen,

Sandi Bragar (25:24):
But you’re doing it.

Bobbie LaPorte (25:26):
And

Sandi Bragar (25:26):
I know when you grow up that way, it can be hard, especially in the first conversations that you’re having about money. It just feels like you’re outside of a comfort zone because you’re doing something wrong almost. But you’re doing it all right.

Cammie Doder (25:40):
I’m inspired by that. I think that’s something we all aspire to. How do we learn? There aren’t rule books and playbooks unfortunately, but we can learn from others

Sandi Bragar (25:51):
Often. Not a lot of modeling either.

Cammie Doder (25:52):
Yeah, that’s right, Sandi.

Bobbie LaPorte (25:53):
There’s a lot more curve balls now, I think then than they used to be. Oh my goodness. Yeah. I mean, that’s why I say when the curve balls keep coming,

Sandi Bragar (26:02):
Bobbie, what’s your next money conversation going to be and who’s it going to be with?

Bobbie LaPorte (26:06):
So that’s good question. So it will be with my partner. We have a piece of property in Nevada that we are closing on next week that we sold. Oh, congratulations.

Cammie Doder (26:15):
Those

Bobbie LaPorte (26:16):
Will be interesting. So now we have to figure out how are we going to handle the proceeds, which are not insignificant. That’s really important because it sets the stage for making us really secure over the next few years, and it also provides an opportunity for us to do some other things we want to do. So I’m just waiting. We get the docs from the lawyers and from everybody else, and I’ll just say, oh, there’s something’s in your email. You should just sign it. And then, okay, so he’ll sign it and then in another week or two when we get closer, we’ll start to talk about, but it’ll be interesting. I’ll just say that It’ll be interesting.

Cammie Doder (26:51):
I hope. Interesting. Includes some fun and some dreaming of what you can do together. Sandi had a great phrase for this. Financial date nights. Oh,

Bobbie LaPorte (27:00):
Financial date nights. I like that.

Sandi Bragar (27:03):
Just hearing you describe the situation, you understand implicitly that money conversations don’t always have to happen right away. You don’t have to have them right after the transaction closes. You can take time with them. Be thoughtful.

Cammie Doder (27:17):
Oh my gosh, Bobbie, this has been so wonderful. Would you share with our listeners where is the best place to find you digitally?

Bobbie LaPorte (27:25):
Oh, on Bobbie laporte.com

Cammie Doder (27:28):
And we’ll include that in the show notes.

Bobbie LaPorte (27:29):
Okay,

Cammie Doder (27:30):
Great. Bobbie, your story is so inspiring and you’ve got, oh, thank you. So many life lessons that I appreciate putting it into the book and the coaching you do. Oh my gosh, yeah. Your clients are fortunate. We’re fortunate to have had you on Money Tails.

Bobbie LaPorte (27:48):
No, thank you for inviting me. I really enjoyed it and I appreciate the opportunity,

Cammie Doder (27:58):
Sandi, what a treat it was to have a conversation there with Bobbie LaPorte. She got vulnerable with us. I learned so much through this conversation, and some of it was just how she showed up and being willing to share these stories that were hard.

Sandi Bragar (28:16):
I appreciated it too. She just poured into that vulnerability. The story of her working at the Gap to make ends meets while she was launching this new business was so insightful. Sometimes you just got to do what you got to do to put food on the table.

Cammie Doder (28:36):
It must’ve been hard, but she doesn’t come across that way. Yeah,

Sandi Bragar (28:39):
I mean, she trained for something different, and then she is involved in a major pivot that wasn’t like a designed always on her mind wanting to do sort of thing, and she did it amazingly well.

Cammie Doder (28:52):
She brings this experience, I am sure, to her client conversations, which what a gift as a coach to come in and to help people see beyond what they can see themselves, which I think is what a coach can do. They get outside of your perspective, and I am sure all those experiences adds tremendously in our conversations with executives and leaders of businesses as a result makes them better. It makes the world better. I mean, I don’t want to be too dramatic here, but I do believe this is how it happens.

Sandi Bragar (29:26):
It does. I think it’s true for each and every one of us. We are who we are based on everything we’re born with and our natural proclivities, but also in large part by our experiences. And so when we’re able to share those experiences, good or bad, and as it relates to money in terms of money tales, just sharing vulnerably like Bobbie did, it really allows us to connect with one another, to learn from one another, to appreciate ourselves, and to share the unique perspectives that we have. Another thing from the conversation that I just really want to highlight, underline put Exclamations next to is the sharing that Bobbie did about the money conversations she and our partner are having and have been having for decades. There’s a lot of inspiration out there for many of us when we’re involved in a romantic partnership. Money always comes up, it’s always a factor, and I appreciated that she was highlighting the emphasis on navigating those conversations in a healthy, productive way that was best for both of them together. Right?

Cammie Doder (30:36):
It’s

Sandi Bragar (30:36):
Not always easy to do that, and she shared it takes time and energy, but I think the sooner couples can key into that and build their own methods for having these money conversations, the more productive their, not only financial lives will be, but their lives together will be because they’ll be creating positive unity that pours into the partnership that they have.

Cammie Doder (31:03):
I agree, Sandi, and she was so modest and said, oh, have we figured it out? I appreciated that because there is no figuring out the one way or the only way to do this stuff, that there’s so many, there’s two different people in this relationship, as you said, coming from different backgrounds

Sandi Bragar (31:22):
And life is always throwing curve balls at them.

Cammie Doder (31:25):
That’s right. As the book, as their book is so aptly titled, absolutely. And no,

Sandi Bragar (31:31):
That was a very special conversation and thanks again to Bobbie for joining us, and thanks for listening in. If you liked this episode, please share it with a friend and we’ll look forward to having you with us next time on Money Tales.

Cammie Doder (31:43):
See you then. Thanks for listening to the Money Tales podcast. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, share it with someone you think would benefit from listening and leave us a review on your favorite podcasting platform. Your ratings and reviews help more people find our podcast. If you’re inspired to gain clarity and peace of mind about financial matters, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team at Aspiriant. Go to aspiriant.com/start a dialogue, or you can email Sandi and me at podcasts@aspiriant.com. See you next time.