When I initially moved here to Vegas, one of the things I wanted to happen was to find love before my birthday and the Holidays.
 
When I set my mind to something, I’m the type of person that will make things happen and will figure out how to make it work.
 
I haven’t dated in almost seven years, so it was exciting but at the same time I was nervous to get back in it again since I remembered dating wasn’t all that fun before.
 
I started getting back into dating two weeks after I moved here by signing up for different dating apps. Since I was so proactive, next thing you know, I was going on dates almost every night.
 
One of my biggest motivations was the fact that I really didn’t want to spend the holidays nor my big fortieth birthday by myself.
 
I had a number of good dates and some bad dates. Since I’m a spreadsheet and numbers type of person, I even started tracking my dates in a spreadsheet. 😄  A great conversation piece whenever I would meet up with my girlfriends. I might even blog about the experiences when I get a chance, so you can learn from my mistakes the most effective way to approach the dating game! Feel free to let me know if this is something you’re interested to read about. 😉 I’m also gauging the interest level here.
 
During my dating phase, I also proactively made new friends – in spite of COVID – since finding that special someone wasn’t my only goal for a fulfilling, whole life here in Vegas. I am also truly grateful that my business had already been doing well, so I didn’t need to put in a lot of hours since moving here. Despite that, I continued to get new clients.
 
Many of the friends I’ve met have said how dating is very challenging here in Vegas due to the nature of the city. Many are even jaded.
 
I’m the type of person who always looks at the positive in everything since I truly believe in the Law of Attraction (LOA). You can read my article on how I used LOA to quit my corporate job and how it helped me be profitable. I’m very happy with how things are going and I truly love being an entrepreneur doing what I love while also being able to make a living from it.
 
Even with my positive nature, dating was indeed challenging and emotional at times. I’ve had many disappointments that almost made me jaded. I had to take a couple of breaks before getting back into dating as I didn’t want to show up as a negative person.
 
In the midst of the dating disappointment, I finally released the need to find someone to the Universe and just focused on enjoying my life. I follow the philosophy of being happy 90% of the time. If something makes me unhappy, I either avoid it, find solutions, or change instead of focusing on the problem. I think we all deserve to be happy and we should each be the number one person who is the expert in this area of our own life. So I decided I would take myself and my two dogs on a road trip for my big fortieth birthday and Christmas. One lesson I’ve learned when I became single again is that the person whose company you should enjoy the most should be your own. If you can’t do that, you can’t be in a relationship. I was pretty excited and felt liberated when I made this decision and decided to just trust the Universe and life.
 
Friends asked me if I would be lonely during my trip, however, since I have my dogs and me, I would always say no. I’ve truly embraced being my own companion since I became single and moved here. It took a lot of internal work and self-love to go from being someone who is lonely and afraid of ending a relationship due to the fear of being alone, to someone who truly enjoys her own space and life.
 
I’ve also had my moments when I’ve asked for this gift from the Universe for my birthday and just released it out there.
 
A few months later, while I was still dating and meeting new people, I wasn’t as proactive as I was in the beginning. As a result,  the dates slowed down to once a week or every two weeks. Imagine that. 😄
 
Eventually, I met someone through a dating app (our Christmas picture shown was taken at his family’s house) who I became friends with and it just unexpectedly became romantic. It’s still a new relationship but I’m optimistic about where things will go.
 
I hope you enjoyed this peek into my Vegas life. Remember to trust the Universe and do your best. Find your flow and trust in the abundance of life. Have an attitude of gratitude and be the expert of your own happiness. No one else can do that for you.
 
As you know, I’m a financial coach and money is an essential part of living a life you love and affording a certain lifestyle. I wouldn’t feel as fulfilled if my finances weren’t in great shape.
 
I am currently offering 25% off my financial coaching packages. To qualify for the discount, just  set up a complimentary chat and sign up for a coaching session by December 31st.
 
I am also offering $100 off my LinkedIn course as part of the Christmas sale.

Do you feel that you deserve to be successful?

This past week there’s a theme among my clients who are struggling with their finances.

You get to the point where there’s only so much you can cut down from your budget unless you want to make drastic lifestyle changes but most people aren’t ready right away.

So the next thing we work on is to figure out how to make more money.

This is where we find out their core deep issues.

A common theme among my clients is that they don’t feel they deserve to be successful or they’re not worthy of it.

Unfortunately, you get what you believe in. 

Too many put an invisible glass ceiling due to their limiting beliefs that they don’t deserve to make more, that making more money is like taking away from someone else. 

Due to these beliefs, you stay where you are at until you heal and work through those money traumas so you can transform your relationship with money.

Most come from their childhood that they’re not aware of. Part of the work we do is going through their money history to identify where did the core defeating money scripts and belief came from. 

Then we can start our real work from there.

The first step to healing is awareness. You can do all the practical work you want but if you don’t deal with your emotional issues, it won’t last.

And this is not something you can just google away. 😊


Christine Teh is a personal finance coach who lives in Silicon Valley and serve clients virtually. She also offers tax preparation and consulting services and LinkedIn coaching as well.

Schedule a complimentary chat now to see if her financial coaching services are right for you!
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​I immigrated here to the United States when I was only 20 years old from the Philippines, along with my mom and 2 younger brothers. 

My dad passed away when I was only 16 years old.

I am a second-generation Chinese born and raised in the Philippines.

We all moved in with my single aunt. I got kicked out a few months later due to not following a 10 pm curfew, which will be another story to write for another day.

I have been on my own mostly since then and had to work full time to support myself. 

My first job was doing data entry making about $10 an hour.

I worked between 20 to 40 hours of overtime every week so I could start saving money.

Tuition for an immigrant before I became a California resident was $100 per unit at the time. And here was a 20-year-old who got kicked out from her home with almost no money in her bank account that definitely couldn't afford that.

So, I worked those long hours and put my education on hold for a year. The data entry job probably made me almost a thousand US dollars net a week. This was a lot for a 20-year-old with no money.

Working those long hours was also how I became a speed typer. I did this until I became a California resident and became qualified for the $20 per unit fee to continue my college education.

Moving forward, I kept working full time and going to school at night part-time or sometimes even full time. 

I did this for many years until I finally graduated five years later with my bachelor in Computer Science. It took me longer because I was also working at the same time.

I didn’t really have a life all those years. It was a lonely, depressed life filled with just working, going to school at night and doing homework and studying in between.

My hard work did pay off because eventually, I got a good job in the Data Analytics field when I graduated.

I stayed in the Analytics field for 12 years before I made the switch to Corporate Finance when I was at Visa and realized Analytics wasn’t my passion. 

Finance or money has always been my love for a long time, and I was also just naturally good at it. I didn’t decide to pursue doing financial coaching until I started working with a life coach who encouraged me to do so. 

That’s when I started my coaching business part-time in 2016. Since I wasn’t quite ready to quit my corporate job, I decided I also wanted to move internally to the finance department and see how it went working in the finance field.

But after working for corporate finance for a year, I realized my passion is really working with a person's individual finance, not at the corporate level. 

So I decided to take the leap and pursue my dreams of being an entrepreneur in May of this year.
It definitely was one of the best decisions of my life.

I even wrote a blog about how my first month being on my own went.

And that, my friends, is my story.

I didn’t come from a background where I suffered financially and had a lot of debt. 

I have always been interested in money and how it works, and I just find myself naturally good at it.

I also get such a high after each coaching session that I just know this is what I am meant to do.

I really love learning new things related to money and just helping my clients navigate their financial life.

I get a lot of questions about taxes as well, which is why I am currently pursuing the IRS Enrolled Agent designation.

I don't necessarily love tax but I do enjoy learning about it.

I also follow the philosophy, if you can't run away from it, why not make them your friends? 😉

I hope you find what you love to do as well. I think life is just too short to not be happy to continue in a career you don't love.



About the author: Christine Teh is a personal finance money coach who helps people attain financial freedom and transform their relationship with money to create lasting changes. You can learn more about her by checking her About page and how to work with her. She is currently accepting new clients. If you are interested in a chat, you can schedule a complimentary call.

It means different things to different people. In my opinion, it's when you generally feel at ease with your finances and confident about achieving or on track to achieving any financial goals you set your mind to.

Let me start by sharing my story. For me, one of my definitions of financial freedom is being my own boss. I've always dreamed of no longer having to answer to anyone, not having to deal with corporate politics, not working hard so someone else can look good (typically the higher-ups),and not worrying about looking good during performance reviews with the hopes of getting promoted. Being my own boss means I run my own schedule. My day starts when I want it to. I don't wake up to an alarm clock anymore. I set my schedule and priorities based on what's important to ME and not due to someone else's fire drills or lack of planning. I wrote a blog about how my first month went. June is now my second month coaching full-time and I am already profitable halfway through the month. For me, nothing beats being my own boss and running my own show and having my own rules without the need to ask for approval.

When I was in corporate, retiring early at 55 was one of my goals (and my retirement model supports that as well). But now that I'm running a business I love so much, I might never have to retire. I'll work as long as I am able to help people. Usually, people dream of early retirement because they're not happy with their corporate job. Do you really want to continue working doing something you don't truly love just dreaming about the day you don't have to work?
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Share your story, what are your financial dreams? What does financial freedom look like to YOU?
Schedule a complimentary chat if you'd like to see how I can help you achieve that.