By the time Mary Sterk was 19 years old, she was already a divorced single mother of two kids under two years old. They lived in a low-rent apartment complex, and bought groceries with food stamps. She didn’t get any child support and had to desperately try to make ends meet with her minimum wage job and a welfare check.
When Mary looked around her home, she realized that many people in these apartments had been there for years. They were never able to dig themselves out of the financial hole that they were in. She didn’t want that to be what her future held. She didn’t want to let the fact that she had been a pregnant teenager dictate the rest of her life. Mary didn’t want to be another statistic. She wanted something better for herself and her children. And Mary realized that in order to create a better life for them, she had to learn how money worked.
So she spent her days working and taking care of the kids, and spent her nights with her nose in a book, taking classes. This was hard. She was exhausted for about five years. But Mary learned a number of really important things along the way that have shaped her money philosophy, and ultimately defined how she works with clients today.
A good financial plan has a lot of moving parts. How do you know what should be included? In this episode Mary Sterk draws on her life experience and financial expertise to guide you through the components of a strong plan - one that connects the money you have with the life you want to lead.
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