I worked in the tech industry straight out of college. Through the first Dot Com Boom. Aaaaand through the crash. When I got laid off. Fun times.

In my 30s, I got bored with my work in tech and changed careers into financial planning. I also got married, had two babies, moved cross-country twice, and went back to school for a graduate degree. In my 40s, I bought my first home, started a business (this one), and my husband retired (from tech) to become a stay-at-home dad. I am now watching my two daughters grow into teenagers and college is starting to loom!

I don’t know if I’d have had the guts to make all those changes in my life without the money and flexibility my husband and I both got from the tech industry. Which is why I love working with women in their mid career in the tech industry.

The longer I practice as a planner, the more I age, and the more time  I spend simply observing fellow humans, the more I recognize the importance of working to achieve clarity about what truly matters to us. And your opportunities in the tech industry can help you build that life.

What else about me?

Wellllll, I grew up in Newport News, Virginia. I went to Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where I majored in Economics, gained 10 pounds (unlimited Fruit Loops? whut?!), and learned to banish writer’s block. I moved to the Bay Area in 1998 and worked as a technical writer for 10 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, mostly in the software-security sector. ‘Tis also, it should be noted, where I met my husband. We both worked on the Engineering team at a small startup.

After I changed careers, I got my Master’s of Science in Financial Planning from Golden Gate University. I then worked for fee-only Registered Investment Advisors, back in Tidewater Virginia.

In search of a home better suited to us, my husband, my two daughters, and I moved to Bellingham, WA. Julia the Dog—a sweet girl, if not technically a good girl—joined us a couple years later.

So much of what makes me happy—hiking, biking, cooking, yoga, lifting weights, kale, and ancient minivans missing hubcaps—are part of the fabric of life here. For those rare times when I have a stretch of silence and time, I love reading books about European royal history, sci-fi/fantasy, and Anything Russia.

I am a Certified Financial Planner™ professional, Retirement Income Certified Professional®, a Registered Life Planner™,  and a member of the XY Planning Network and the Financial Planning Association.