​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.

As some of you may know, I quit my corporate job and became a full-time personal finance coach this month. My last day at Visa was May 3rd, 2019. My journey before I took the leap was tumultuous. It took me nearly a month to turn in my resignation and take this huge leap of faith without another corporate job lined up. But I'm so grateful I did! I’ll now share the experience of my first month.

One of the main reasons I was terrified to take the leap was the uncertainty of earning enough income to cover my living expenses. Although I was generating some income while coaching part-time, it was not enough to stand on its own. I took a closer look at my budget in an attempt to cut expenses as much as I could without depriving myself too much. We cut down on dining out and have been preparing meals at home more, thanks to my boyfriend/partner who is also an excellent cook. With our mortgage, individual health insurance, non-discretionary expenses, food and some discretionary fun money; the monthly living expenses for me is not low. I live in Silicon Valley after all!
 
I have gotten tremendous support from my online community of entrepreneurs and received some great advice that completely changed my perspective. I changed my pricing structure and most importantly, my mindset. I will also touch a bit on the Spiritual aspect towards the end.
 
But I am ecstatic to share that I ended my first month 40% above my goal of just making-ends-meet! I was afraid I would have to tap into some of my savings. Although I have enough money in my savings account to last me till the end of the year, I’m very happy for not having to tap into it.
 
I know some of you might be thinking, is this sustainable? I will explain more below.
 
I thought I am going to have a lot of idle time without the corporate job, but this past month just flew by! My schedule has been packed. I haven’t had a boring day. The first two weeks flew by so quickly that I had to change my availability so I can manage my energy level during the day in order to not get drained. I give 100% to my client during our sessions, and I realize I can only do about 3 sessions per day. There have been days where I had 5 calls in a day (client + prospect calls). In general, if I am not busy with coaching clients or talking to prospects, I am busy marketing and networking. And when I am not doing anything immediately related to my business, I am busy studying for my EA (IRS Enrolled Agent) exam. I also work every day now since many of my clients are working professionals, thus I have to adjust to their weekend availabilities if they would like the session during day time or meet in person. I work with clients mostly virtually using Zoom.com. If they are local and prefer to meet in person, we meet at the local library.
 
I came to the realization that marketing does not need to be expensive. My main lead source does not cost me anything and have generated 10 clients this month alone. I am already on track for five client sign-ups for next month.
 
So, is this sustainable? I am going to tell the Universe and the world, YES! Think about the population of this country, I only need a minuscule fraction of them who are ready to take charge of their own personal finances. Thus I think it’s very viable.
 
I have also paid for Facebook ads, and that has not netted me any clients so far. Granted I am not an expert with social media yet. I am still working on that so if you are a Facebook or Instagram expert and would like to barter, shoot me a message. 😉
 
I also updated my website after receiving some great feedback. Recently, two new leads reached out to me directly through my website. That was a first! One of them is already considering to become a client, after our brief initial chat. 
 
I have never been happier every day. I wake up feeling grateful. I dance the happy dance a lot more now. My boyfriend is probably tired of rolling his eyes watching me do it. 😄
 
Lastly, this might sound woo woo for some of you… but since I am a Spiritual person, I’d like to share it.
 
I truly believe my success this month is attributed to my belief in the Universe having my back. I also believe in the Law of Attraction and absorbing every word I’m reading from the book “Ask and It Is Given” (picture shown below). There is only so much one can do to become successful, a lot of other things are out of our hands no matter how hard we try but if you understand and believe in the Law of Attraction and really study how it works. It will work for you. It is working for me! 😊
 
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