Leah Hadley [00:00:01]:
Welcome to Intentional Divorce Insights. I'm Leah Hadley, certified divorce financial analyst, accredited financial counselor, and the founder of Intentional Divorce Solutions. I'll be your guide through the complexities of divorce, finance, and emotional wellness. Join me as we uncover practical tips and empowering insights to help you navigate your divorce with clarity and intention. Welcome back to intentional divorce insights. I am so happy that you are here with us, and it is my absolute pleasure to introduce our guest today. With over 35 years as an investment adviser, Lynn Kitchen is now giving back through education. At her financial clinic, she distills her knowledge into easy to understand financial courses. A pioneer from a young age, Lynn was among the first women on the West Coast to establish her own broker dealership.
Leah Hadley [00:00:54]:
She has since built and sold 2 investment advisory firms. Now, Lynn has founded Money Talks For Women, a transformative financial clinic designed to elevate women's understanding of investing, enhancing their confidence to make informed decisions. Lynn believes that every woman has an inner ace money manager just waiting to be unleashed. They simply haven't been shown how, and she says, that's where I step in. Lynn is on a mission to equip 1,000 women with the tools for financial freedom, empowering them to make significant impacts in the world. Thank you so much for being here with us, Lynn. It's such a pleasure to have you on.
Lynn Kitchen [00:01:35]:
Thank you, Leah. I'm delighted to be on with someone who believes just exactly the same as I do to empower women and to help women to create financial freedom and make better decisions.
Leah Hadley [00:01:50]:
Absolutely. And you have such an amazing background and have been at this for so long. Can you tell us a little bit about your background as a pioneer in the financial industry?
Lynn Kitchen [00:02:00]:
Yeah. I'd love to. You know, I jumped into the financial business right out of college at a time when women were not allowed to be a stockbroker directly with no experience, and that was me at the time. You actually had to pay your dues first. You had to be a secretary to a stockbroker for at least 5 to 7 years, or you had to be an assistant to a stockbroker, they didn't trust women to work directly with the public. But I said, no. I'm a good salesman. I deserve this opportunity.
Lynn Kitchen [00:02:35]:
So I was just one of those, you know, glass ceiling breakers in our generation. That's awesome. And, so, I landed a job right out of college as a stockbroker. And within 4 years of working with a major company, I established my own broker dealer, which at the time was unheard of. There were women in New York City who were establishing their broker dealers. But on the West Coast, kind of out in Podunk West Coast, it was slower going. But I said, this is my chance. So I opened my first broker dealer and began to hire other women, to give them a chance to, you know, get up the ladder, the corporate ladder in, in finance and help other women, to do the same.
Lynn Kitchen [00:03:27]:
And it was a wonderful opportunity. I built the company. I sold it. And then I joined another firm. It was a small boutique investment advisory firm who were looking for a partner who knew how to run an investment advisory firm. And so, I joined them. It was just the 3 of us. And we built up that company and eventually sold it.
Lynn Kitchen [00:03:50]:
So it was a total of 35 years. And during that time, we had a nonprofit called Pacific School of Finance, where I taught investment courses to adults. And it was a way to, you know, get clients who would be better educated. And what I learned was that education makes a big difference in how a client actually progresses. And you know that, Leah. And I just want to take a moment here to commend you, Leah, and tells is tell your audience how amazing it is to be working with someone or, you know, on this in this audience, attracted to someone like Leah, who who is dedicating her life, really, to helping women in the financial area to empower you, to help raise your your thinking, to help raise your your standards, potentially going through some tough times in life. Right? But every one of us needs someone like Leah in our corner who has the kind of financial background, experience, and dedication to your needs. And that's what I loved about being in the financial business myself was that opportunity.
Leah Hadley [00:05:14]:
Thank you so much for your kind words, Lynn. I really appreciate that. Now you've seen a lot in working with people in all different kinds of scenarios. What has been your experience with women as investors when they're getting divorced or they're going through a difficult financial transition?
Lynn Kitchen [00:05:31]:
That's a great question. My experience being an investment adviser for 35 years now, remember, Iā€™m retired now. I think it's been about 10 years since I've retired. But during that time, it was rare to find women who would come forth with a portfolio, to come forth with being the decision maker on her own was rare. Maybe, you know, a handful, maybe 2 handfuls in a career of 35 years. It was rare. Most women would come as a couple or a part of a couple, and most women, I noticed, were very reticent. They didn't wanna speak up.
Lynn Kitchen [00:06:19]:
They wanted their husband or their significant other to lead. They were there to kind of learn to absorb. Maybe later, they would have discussions and the woman would have her opinion. But I noticed that it was a dis and it was disturbing to me. And I would always, you know, try to pull out the woman who was, you know, across the desk and ask her opinion. And it was interesting that most women felt as if they didn't want to give me their real opinion in front of their spouse.
Leah Hadley [00:06:56]:
Right.
Lynn Kitchen [00:06:56]:
Sometimes they would call me later and say, hey. You know, I heard what you said, and I I I I'm in agreement, but I'm kind of nervous about this, this, and this. What can you help with that? And so I very much think that women have been culturally ingrained to take a back seat. And then, when they get into trouble, for example, or they like you had mentioned, in your specialty is divorce or other times in which a woman finds herself in need of being that leader, you know, they're not equipped. They're not very well equipped. Or not just divorce, but other life threatening or life situations, like a spouse dies, and then suddenly, you know, you're in control, but you don't know much about it. And so historically, I think women have control of the purse. We end up with ownership of a lot of the assets in America, and yet we act as if it's somebody else's job.
Leah Hadley [00:08:09]:
It's so true. It's so true. I see it all the time. So I think that we can agree that many women fear that they will be left behind financially or that it's too late for them. Why do you believe that it's never too late, Lynn?
Lynn Kitchen [00:08:26]:
I believe it's never too late. I'm so glad. I know you believe that too, Leah. Don't you? Absolutely. It's never too late. We can have the rug pulled out from under us. We can go from 100 to 0 pretty quickly in a lifetime. And sometimes it happens to us several times in a lifetime.
Lynn Kitchen [00:08:52]:
I mean, none of us are, you get out of jail free on that one, on that one. Right. All of us go through times in which we have to start over. But those are the times when we actually learn about our resiliency. We actually learn about our power, as an individual, as a woman, as, someone who can go again, who can rise up again, and with the proper kind of guidance and having people around you who are willing to support you, A specialist like Leah, who not only has the understanding of the financial world, you know, and being a brilliant portfolio manager and, you know, specialist. It's great to have specialists in your corner, but it's also important to learn a mindset that it's never too late. It is never too late, and I'll give you a great example. You know, in the 1987 crash, some of you may not be old enough to have gone through that crash, but believe me, I was managing money through that crash, and we had many clients who came to us after that class crash who had lost everything.
Lynn Kitchen [00:10:23]:
You know, they may have been leveraged. They put too much on margin, meaning they borrowed against their stocks, and they just went really way out into debt. A lot of people do that in real estate. It doesn't matter whether it's stock market, real estate, you know, whatever your asset classes are, it can happen. Those implosions can happen, and it's not even your fault. But, we easily were able to reconstruct an opportunity. And within 5 years, those clients were back on track. And so it doesn't take that long.
Lynn Kitchen [00:11:01]:
What it does take is someone in your corner who has the knowledge and the experience, to begin again.
Leah Hadley [00:11:08]:
Right. Right. It's so important. And speaking of which education is so important, and you have this fantastic financial clinic that is supporting women. Can you tell us a little bit about why education is so important and talk to us about the clinic?
Lynn Kitchen [00:11:28]:
Yes. Thank you. Well, now, after retiring and then playing around for 10 years or so, I had an intuition that now's my time to give back. I actually had a little voice inside me that said, well, you know, here I'm in an advanced age as you can see. And I had this little voice saying, well, are you going to die with all this information left inside you? And I realized, you know, I do have 35 years and a lot of experience, not just in the stock market, but bonds and real estate and all of these different asset classes. Why wouldn't it be now that I could give back and help other women? So I I formed a financial clinic. It's online. It's easily accessible.
Lynn Kitchen [00:12:22]:
And I know that there are a lot of investment tools online, and it's easy. Now, you know, data is available to us. Information is so available that sometimes it's confusing and overwhelming. So what I love to do because I have a background in teaching this and keeping it simple. What I love to do is take complex, complex, financial strategies and make them so simple that a high school person can understand it, whether you're male or female. And what I believe that's lacking and is, you know, that I encourage you to think about for yourself, those of you who are watching, is, why not me? Why can't I be a confident investor? Why can't I change myself into wanting to make better decisions? Which is one of the things that I know that you stand for, Leah. Making better decisions takes education. Wouldn't you agree? I mean, it takes more than just going to sleep at night and being afraid of what your circumstances are, you know, what your portfolio, and all of all of the different responsibilities that you might be facing now.
Lynn Kitchen [00:13:43]:
But if you have some education, it makes everything more simple. You can move forward faster and you can change your life and you can believe in yourself. Because at the bottom, underneath all of that is confidence. The confidence to become someone in control who can master your own financial destiny. I mean, that's really what we want, isn't it, ladies? To have at the end of the day, enough money to outlive our lives and to be able to do the things that we want, have all of the money that is required to fulfill our dreams, and to really have the kind of life that we want. And when you roll that back and you say, well, what could make the difference between where I am now and that dream in the future? Leah has an answer. My answer is education. And, Leah is here to help you actually, you know, put things in place.
Lynn Kitchen [00:14:46]:
But what about you? What are you doing to bring yourself up? And I think that inside every single woman, here's my belief. I believe inside every single woman is an ace money manager just waiting. They're just waiting to be empowered. And empowerment is nothing more than the willingness to learn more, little bit of time that you want to educate yourself. And with that education, I mean, leaps and bounds, it goes pretty quickly. You can transform your life that way. And not only that, but you can become a better client. You can work you know, you'll hear Leah talking about the concepts, and you'll be able to say, oh, oh, oh, oh, Now I get oh, yeah.
Lynn Kitchen [00:15:38]:
I see that I understand what she's talking about. Boom. Boom. Boom. And don't you agree, Leah? It's better to work with someone who has a little bit of partnership. It's good partnering.
Leah Hadley [00:15:50]:
Absolutely. So one of the things that we often talk about with our clients who are recently divorced is when we're talking about risk tolerance, a lot of people are feeling more conservative post divorce because of everything that they've just gone through. And one of the things that we talk about is as you become a more educated investor, you can feel more comfortable taking risks and getting higher returns. But we have to be able to elevate that knowledge base in order to get to a position where that makes sense and it's the appropriate recommendation.
Lynn Kitchen [00:16:21]:
Bingo. I I couldn't say it better. You know, and where do people go to get that education? I I know that Leah has taken great pride in helping you, everyone who's here. And, you know, I believe in it. I believe in education, and I also believe in giving people opportunities to learn.
Leah Hadley [00:16:47]:
So tell us more about the financial clinic.
Lynn Kitchen [00:16:49]:
Well, it is an opportunity. It's classwork, you know, but it's but it's in bite sized pieces. So 1 month, 4 times a week, we gather for an hour or hour and a half, and we begin at the beginning. So I have the beginners course. You matriculate after 1 month pretty fast, to the 2nd month, which is, you know, it's so it's like a pathway. You can go from beginner and by the 3rd month, you can kinda consider yourself as advanced, because we make it simple and very quick and easy. Those are the courses. And however, if you feel like you're not really ready for that, I also have a community of like minded women, and we just get on Zoom and have q and a's every Wednesday night.
Lynn Kitchen [00:17:43]:
And, that's called a mentor membership program, Wealth Builders Express. Get on board. It's like a train, a fast train to learn more. But it is in a community of like minded women where they ask me questions, and I give laser coaching or answers on different parts of the economy that maybe they don't understand or would like to know. And sometimes, they don't really have the confidence to ask their husband or ask, you know, a question to anyone else. And so we make it a safe space so that any question is a possibility. So it's a lot of fun.
Leah Hadley [00:18:28]:
Fantastic. And you have a special offer for our audience. Right?
Lynn Kitchen [00:18:31]:
I do. Just for you. And this is because I absolutely want to support what you are doing, Leah, in the world, with women, going through different times of their life of, maybe divorce, but it it could be that, you know, you're you're moving forward and really making progress, and you're beginning to build wealth. And so I'm inviting those people who really want a little bit more education. My offer is to come join me on the membership for 1 month to this q and a, question and answer with the like minded women. It's a community of women. I invite you for a free one month so it's really 4 sessions. Come on board.
Lynn Kitchen [00:19:18]:
If you missed the session, it's a replay available to you, both video and audio replay. And it's a $79 value. And, I'd love to give you the taste of that for free for 1 month. Fantastic. Because you're Leah's guest.
Leah Hadley [00:19:39]:
That's wonderful. And we will leave the details below how you can take advantage of that. So wherever you're watching this, check out for the details in the show notes, and we'll make sure that you have access to that free month, which is such a generous offer. Thank you so much, Lynn, for that. Now when it comes to reinventing oneself financially after divorce or any other traumatic shift in one's life, what would you say is the number one most important action step a woman can take to improve her life?
Lynn Kitchen [00:20:08]:
The number one most important action step that a woman can take, not only after divorce, but any time, is now. Now begins the beginning of the rest of your life. I mean, that's a cliche, but it is so true. Begin now right where you are with what you have. And believe me, we always have more than we think we do.
Leah Hadley [00:20:37]:
That's right. Any final words for our audience, Lynn?
Lynn Kitchen [00:20:43]:
I'm just excited that we are 2 women together, you know, really locking elbows and saying to the world, hey. There's more. There's more for us. Let's let's move forward fast so that we can build wealth together and have the kind of impact that I know more and more women want to make in this world. And why not you? Why not us? And why not now?
Leah Hadley [00:21:08]:
Absolutely. I love that, Lynn. Thank you again so much for joining us and sharing your wisdom with us today. I know that everybody got a lot out of today's episode, and I do hope people will take advantage of this very special offer that you've made for us.
Lynn Kitchen [00:21:22]:
I hope so too. Thank you so much, Leah. Thank you for all the great work you're doing in the world. I support it 100%.
Leah Hadley [00:21:29]:
Thank you. Thank you for joining me on intentional divorce insights. It's a privilege to share this time with you. I hope each episode offers valuable guidance to navigate your journey. If you find our content helpful, please leave a review to help others discover the benefits of intentional decision making in divorce. Until next time, take care and continue to embrace your path with intention.
