In short
Reclaiming personal power and financial agency after life collapses, using Jen Hatmaker’s divorce-era awakening as the core story. The episode argues that “ostrich effect” (avoiding money) creates stress because you’re living in the dark, and that financial literacy is emotional safety and self-trust, not just math.
Guest background
Jen Hatmaker is a longtime writer/speaker focused on financial freedom and personal finance. She married at 19 and spent years in a marriage she believed was monogamous and stable, then faced a major betrayal during COVID.
Key claims
She says she ignored money by handing it over “carte blanche,” not asking for visibility, and not knowing bills, debt, retirement, or investments. After divorce, she tackled a 90-day checklist with a financial planner, including notarizing/scanning documents, moving accounts into her name, changing credit cards, and refinancing her home. She frames the shift as moving from shame to action and from money controlling her to steering it.
Notable examples
July 11, 2020—waking to her husband voice-texting his mistress; the “car with no gas” metaphor for financial ignorance; and her “financial assassin” mindset after getting her finances “on lock.”
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOReclaiming Agency in Your Life
1:04 to 2:54
Learn how storytelling influences personal agency and empowerment.
“So if they've been sponsoring us for this long, you know that we use and love them.”
Reclaiming Agency in Your Life
2:59 to 4:03
Learn how storytelling influences personal agency and empowerment.
“If somebody hears your story and truly takes its lessons to heart, how could their life change?”
Facing the Truth of Reality
4:03 to 6:22
Understand the challenges of facing uncomfortable truths in personal relationships.
“One of the things you said early on in the book that I can relate to so much because my background's in theater, my background's in marketing.”
The Moment of Realization
6:22 to 7:42
Hear about a pivotal moment that changed one's understanding of their life and marriage.
“And then I had to figure out how to build a true life, a real life, a stable life after that.”
Delusions and Awareness
7:42 to 8:03
Explore the psychological delusions that prevent facing financial truths.
“that prevented you from capital K knowing.”
The Financial Division in Relationships
8:03 to 14:00
Discuss the implications of financial responsibilities in a partnership.
“I had been told from the time I was young, based on the systems that I was raised in, that I opted in for later as an adult, that if you do this, this, and this, you will get a happy life.”
Personal Financial Reckoning
14:00 to 14:40
Explore the emotional toll of financial ignorance in relationships.
“That wasn't, that's not fair in any, I don't care.”
Women and Financial Awareness
14:40 to 15:20
Discussing the common financial struggles faced by women in relationships.
“And so what a reckoning I had post-abourse.”
Marriage and Financial Roles
15:20 to 16:40
Examining how traditional roles in marriage can lead to financial disengagement.
“whether it is the systemic narratives that men are better with money or that, you know, I'm not good with math, so I'll just let him handle it.”
Early Marriage Financial Challenges
16:40 to 18:00
Understanding the financial hardships faced in the early years of marriage.
“And so I didn't have any, neither one of us came into the marriage with any adult financial experience because we weren't adults.”
Show all 32 chapters
Shifting Financial Responsibilities
18:00 to 19:10
How initial financial responsibilities shifted over time in a marriage.
“garbage, credit card debt and student loans and all that.”
Invisible Labor and Financial Management
19:10 to 21:50
Discussing the emotional labor women face managing finances and household responsibilities.
“And we should have because the way that our life changed from those early years of, you know, entry-level jobs and scrapping together a monthly budget over the years was pretty monumental.”
Invisible Labor and Financial Management
22:50 to 23:41
Discussing the emotional labor women face managing finances and household responsibilities.
“I'm literally going to be on a beach at this time next week as I'm recording this.”
Invisible Labor and Financial Management
23:46 to 24:00
Discussing the emotional labor women face managing finances and household responsibilities.
“That's Q U I N C E.com slash F F pod for free shipping and 365 day returns.”
Navigating Financial Tasks Post-Divorce
24:00 to 27:30
A look at the overwhelming financial tasks following a divorce and how to manage them.
“New markdowns up to 70 % off are at Nordstrom rack stores.”
Empowerment Through Financial Literacy
27:30 to 28:00
The journey from financial ignorance to empowerment and literacy.
“But once I did, because I mean, obviously, you know this, this is the sermon you preach.”
Embracing Financial Literacy and Control
28:00 to 29:39
Learn how embracing financial literacy can transform your confidence and life.
“Of all the things, when people ask me a lot, I'm in interviews right now a lot for the book.”
The Stress of Ignoring Finances
29:40 to 31:05
Discover why avoiding financial knowledge can lead to greater stress in life.
“I'm just, I hope you're proud of yourself.”
Handling Financial Realities
31:06 to 33:17
Understand how confronting financial truths can empower decision-making.
“time, you have two ways of looking at your money.”
Facing Financial Humiliation and Shame
33:18 to 35:25
Explore the feelings of shame and humiliation surrounding financial ignorance.
“I'm like, let's lower the temperature and all these categories for a few months until this rebounds until this comes through or whatever.”
The Support System in Financial Education
35:26 to 37:59
Learn about the importance of seeking help and resources in financial literacy.
“I don't, I don't want to give myself too much credit because at least in my case, I didn't have the luxury of going, I'm just not going to face this because I'm too embarrassed.”
Transformative Power of Financial Control
38:00 to 42:00
Understand how taking ownership of finances affects all areas of life.
“And I am so grateful that you bring your expertise to bear to the world.”
Finding Stability Through Financial Independence
42:00 to 43:36
Learn how gaining financial independence can translate to emotional stability.
“And so that financial independence and knowledge and agency helped me feel safe and stable.”
Finding Stability Through Financial Independence
44:24 to 45:29
Learn how gaining financial independence can translate to emotional stability.
“We do quarterly leadership retreats at Her First 100K where we lock in for full days of strategy.”
The Cost of Self-Erasure for Women
45:43 to 49:06
Understand the emotional and societal costs when women prioritize others over themselves.
“I could talk about this for a thousand years.”
The Impact of Women Having Money
49:06 to 52:42
Explore how financial empowerment of women positively affects society and economies.
“We have more to offer than our codependent behavior on everybody else around us.”
Navigating Religion and Feminism
52:42 to 56:00
Delve into the complexities of growing up in a religious environment while embracing feminism.
“This is not something I talk about a lot, but I had to ask you.”
Navigating Personal Upheaval and Faith
56:00 to 1:04:35
Learn how to cope with personal upheaval and redefine your spiritual journey.
“My earthly parents were actually loose and fun and not rigid.”
Finding Strength in Crisis
1:04:35 to 1:07:45
Discover the importance of resilience and the potential for personal flourishing after loss.
“God, you just described almost everyone I know.”
Encouragement for the Journey Ahead
1:07:45 to 1:09:33
Get inspired by a message of hope and empowerment in the face of adversity.
“And I hope that is what everyone chooses that they go even right here in this moment of like health and wellness that I'm experiencing, I still want to figure out how to be like wide awake in every category.”
Encouragement for the Journey Ahead
1:10:24 to 1:10:39
Get inspired by a message of hope and empowerment in the face of adversity.
“Thank you for listening to Financial Feminists produced by Her First 100K.”
Encouragement for the Journey Ahead
1:10:49 to 1:11:28
Get inspired by a message of hope and empowerment in the face of adversity.
“like I did, and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Financial Feminist Host:This is your wake-up call to stop ignoring your money and stop letting someone else manage it for you. Today's guest was the epitome of what I call the ostrich effect. Burying your head in the sand, acting like your financial problems don't exist, until suddenly shit hits the fan and you have no other choice but to get honest with yourself about money. After waking up in the middle of the night to find her husband of 25 years voice noting his mistress saying, I just can't quit you, Jen Hatmaker's entire life blew up. And not only did she have to rebuild from scratch, she had to get really honest about the fact that she was completely ignoring and had no knowledge of anything when it comes to money.
0:37Financial Feminist Host:This is a common story that I get messages about every single day. Women at every stage of life, but especially 40 plus who are going through some sort of crisis, a divorce, a death of a partner, a financial awakening where they realize that they need to get their financial shit together and that nobody's coming to save them. Let's get into it. But first, a word from our sponsors. This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace has sponsored us for five years. So if they've been sponsoring us for this long, you know that we use and love them. Squarespace helps you offer services to get paid all in one place and they have cutting edge design tools so that you can build a bespoke website that perfectly fits your brand or business.
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1:55Financial Feminist Host:And listen, if you've ever been in an eight-hour meeting about the future of your business, you already know you're not remembering everything. You think you are, you're not. And the frustrating part is the best, most important decisions, they happen in those rooms. I used to walk out feeling good and then two days later be like, wait, what did we actually decide? So I stopped relying on my brain alone. Now I use the Plod NotePin S. It clips on and with one press captures everything, of course, with everyone's consent. And afterward, I don't have to piece things together. I get a clean breakdown of what actually mattered, what we decided, and what happens next.
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3:17Financial Feminist Host:If somebody hears your story and truly takes its lessons to heart, how could their life change? Well, if they walk that all the way to the end of the pier, they may decide to finally get into the driver's seat of their own story, maybe for the first time in their life. And that would be in every category. So my deepest hope is that a reader would go, I am done experiencing life as happening to me. And I'm going to exercise agency in basically every meaningful category of my life for the rest of my life. One of the things you said early on in the book that I can relate to so much because my background's in theater, my background's in marketing.
4:12Financial Feminist Host:we love this story. You said, we want the story of our lives, not necessarily our actual lives. What was the story you thought you were living? And what was the reality? Well, I certainly thought that I was involved in a monogamous, faithful, healthy, long-term marriage. That was the story that I wanted. It was the story that I helped write. And it's the story I hung on to against all evidence to the contrary. story. So even as that story was literally fraying at the edges in front of my eyes with every single alarm bell going off internally for me at my inner wisdom, absolutely raising every red flag it could get its hands on.
5:10I didn't want that story. I wanted the story I wanted. And so I decided to not know what I knew and rather hang on with both hands to the story I wanted. And so because I was unwilling to both believe myself and then courageously face down what that would have required, which could have been as simple as really hard conversations, really intentional intervention, really major upheaval in our rhythms and communication patterns. Because I was unwilling to do any of that in favor of the story, life handed me my ass. And so reality went ahead and chose itself since I wasn't willing to choose it. And so there I sat in the rubble going, I should have believed myself.
6:12I should have lived truthfully and in reality because then I maybe could have done something about this story. But because I chose fantasy, it crumbled to the damn ground. And then I had to figure out how to build a true life, a real life, a stable life after that.
6:30Financial Feminist Host:I know your story a bit. For somebody who hasn't heard it, can you tell me about that moment in bed in the middle of the night, that moment of realization. It was July 11th, 2020. You know, a lot of people, a lot of women have a date and whatever that date was depends on what went on in our lives. But there's a date a lot of women have. And then there's a before that date. And then there's an after that date, health, marriage, whatever it is. But for me, it was July 11th and it was COVID. so everything was already really hard. Everything was already really tight, really lonely, really isolated.
7:10And I woke up at 2.30 in the morning, dead sleep, because I heard my husband at the time voice texting his girlfriend. And I knew that that message was not for me. And that was literally the end of my life as I knew it up until that day. That was the last night he ever spent the night in our house.
7:36Financial Feminist Host:You had mentioned that you already knew what was going on in your brain or body that prevented you from capital K knowing. Like what delusions were going on and why do you think that was happening for you? Complicated answer because there's so many factors. Yeah. First of all, I had been told from the time I was young, based on the systems that I was raised in, that I opted in for later as an adult, that if you do this, this, and this, you will get a happy life. Here are the ingredients to have a long-term protected marriage. Do these things. That's what you'll get. Here are the ingredients to raise kids who don't suffer or stray.
8:33Do this, this, and this, and then you get all these valedictorians. Right? Like, these are the things that a good girl does, and that good girl gets a good life. So I did it. I did all of that. So some of my delusions were baked into that false theory that we have done the right things. We have crafted a marriage and a family in such a way. We have put these guardrails around ourselves. Therefore, we are literally protected. And so there was a part of me going, this could not be true. There's no way. There's no way that this partner would cheat on me. There is no way that this level of betrayal, which was on numerous stratum, could ever just happen to us.
9:30We don't. We already solved for X. So some of it was just my misplaced old belief in false systems. and some of it was fear because I didn't want to know what I knew. That was a terrifying knowledge.
9:52Financial Feminist Host:Well, because it meant you had to act. It meant you had to change your life. The disruption that that required was just not okay. I mean, I just thought I'd rather live maybe in this cognitive dissonance, dissonance in this internal turmoil, in this sort of like misalignment, then bust my family up, then create five new children of divorce from really disrupting our entire ecosystem because divorce breaks a million hearts. It's not just the two of you. It's my parents and his, my siblings and his. It's all of our children. It's our friend group. It at the time was our faith community. Like there was a lot of people in our world that would be so broken hearted by our disillusion.
10:48And we were just two of them. And so that disruption felt too costly to me. So I thought, I think I would rather pay the cost internally by myself than pay that external cost inside our whole community, which actually isn't true at all. They're also paying, by the way, because reality is reality. It doesn't matter what I want it to be, what I'm pretending that it is, or how I am behaving codependently in my community to convince everybody else that this is okay. It is what it is. And that was already disruptive. That was already hard to witness, hard to be around, hard to be connected to. That was all a house of cards anyway.
11:38And it was a real, it was just a fool's errand to try to keep those cards propped up.
11:46Financial Feminist Host:Obviously, as someone who writes, speaks, talks, lives about financial freedom and personal finance, I think one of the most compelling parts of this experience and what I've heard about it, about it's just the fact that in addition to all of this, there was so much reckoning when it came to money and your own financial knowledge or maybe lack thereof. What was the money story you told yourself you were living? This was one of those areas in the postmortem that I had to get really candid with myself about and really frank, because the truth is, you know, and you know this, you deal with women of all stripes and a lot of them are partnered or married.
12:37And so it's, they're not all single charting their own course. A financial division of labor is not super uncommon in a marriage, like a little, like a little, like there's plenty of times where it's even appropriate that one partner kind of functions as the tip of the spear. The other partner is certainly involved and included. But in my marriage, and this was, this was mine as I examined my own like complicity, my own contribution to where the edges were fraying. I just docked it out. I handed that over carte blanche. I did not ask for visibility. It wasn't withheld from me. It wasn't like you're not allowed to see the abuse or anything.
13:23Yeah. I just didn't ask. I didn't ask. I wasn't curious. I wasn't involved. I thought you're handling this. I'm handling a million other things. Like what could go wrong? We're never going to get divorced, obviously, because of the system we've, you know, chosen. So you will be responsible on our behalf. and I will trust that you're doing it. And I demonstrated an absolute complete lack of curiosity, interest, investment. And by the way, that was a heavy burden to put on one partner. Hey, you be in charge of all of our money and I'll just trawl a lot over here. That wasn't, that's not fair in any, I don't care.
14:07Even if one person takes the lead, that is too big a burden to put on just one partner. But so my story was shrug. That was my story. Shrug. I don't know. But I don't know. Not sure how much money I make. I don't know where our retirement funds are. I don't, I'm not sure about what we're investing. I couldn't give you a real accurate reading on all of our bills or our debt. That is how zeroed out I was on our like financial life. And what a catastrophe. what a catastrophe and i have i mean there's some blame to be placed on how some of that was going but i accept the blame for going i'm not a part of this i don't need to see it i don't need to be involved i'm not interested in fact checking i don't want to be in these conversations You do it all.
15:06And so what a reckoning I had post-abourse.
15:12Financial Feminist Host:I think your story is so common. It's especially with women dating or married to men. And whether it is the systemic narratives that men are better with money or that, you know, I'm not good with math, so I'll just let him handle it. Or it's the sometimes truly a interest in it, but maybe you have a partner who's just like, no, I'm the provider, so I'll handle it. Or the more vindictive, like I will, I, you know, performing like financial abuse. I think it's just, it's so common. And I get messages literally every single day from women, especially who are 40 plus, who are like, I have no knowledge of what's going on.
15:54Financial Feminist Host:Or my knowledge is so limited that you're telling me things that I have never heard before. And that even the financial basics are blowing my mind. So do you think it was like societal narratives? I also know, of course, religion is such a huge part of your story. Like, do you have an impetus that you can draw back to to say, oh, that's kind of where it started that I thought I was bad with money, or I thought somebody else should handle it? Like, what was that catalyst? It's interesting. I, when we were in the early years of our marriage, and of course, I got married when I was 19. I'm a literal child.
16:35Child bride. I was a child bride. I was a teenage bride. That in, like, unironically. No, truly. So, I mean, I wasn't even an adult. Like, I was a college sophomore. And so I didn't have any, neither one of us came into the marriage with any adult financial experience because we weren't adults. We probably weren't earning money
16:58Financial Feminist Host:or at least not substantially full-time money. money. That's what I was about to say. In the earliest years of our marriage, we were so poor. I mean, we did not have two dimes to rub together. There was no such thing as like savings or, I mean, we never made enough to cover what we owed. I mean, every month was a Rob Peter to pay Paul situation. And so I really, really early on in our marriage, there was a short lived season that I took the financial reins. I was going to be in charge of the bill pay. I was in charge of all of it, but because I, I can be, and was certainly at that time rigid about
17:47debt and wanting so deeply to be in the black and out of the red and to have sort of a much more stable, robust financial experience than the one we had, which was like climbing out of garbage, credit card debt and student loans and all that. I would take whatever we made and I would not only pay everything that was due, I would pay down on it. And I was trying to chip away. And there's nothing wrong with that, but I did it in such an extreme way that like, I would zero us out and be like, well, how, how do you suggest we pay for groceries now? And so somewhere in that very early season of Jen just going whole hog on the finances without any finesse for two poor kids who needed to finesse it a little.
18:40I handed that baton over. And so I never took it back after that. And so I think I just we just settled into these roles and rhythms and went, OK. And for a long time, more or less, it was functional. Like more or less, that's your main thing. I have this main thing over here I'm doing that you don't do much of. And we just sort of agreed upon it and never revisited it. And we should have because the way that our life changed from those early years of, you know, entry-level jobs and scrapping together a monthly budget over the years was pretty monumental. The way that our careers changed, our income changed, our everything was so much more expansive and so many more moving parts.
19:36Like if ever there was just an obvious financial footprint that would have said, hey, this might be a good time to kind of team back up on this stuff. and let's get on the same page and create a financial roadmap that makes sense for the family. You would have thought I would have raised my hand and done it. But I can only point, I think maybe a little bit to laziness. And I say that in that I was so busy and overwhelmed with every other thing in my life. I just thought, look, if this one thing can be done without my constant decision-making and input, well, God let it be. And then that was it.
20:13I don't think I ever picked it back up again until I had to.
20:16Financial Feminist Host:It is interesting. I've never thought about it this way until you just said, it's almost like we have so many conversations on the show about emotional labor, right? The emotional labor that typically women are doing in relationships with men, right? The picking kids up for school and oh, it's tea ball practice and it's snack day and I got to bring the oranges and the fruit snacks, right? Like it's all of those things. And women feel the burden of that so deeply. I would not be surprised if the conclusion is then, like you just said, oh, there's one thing I don't have to worry about. He can handle it because he's better at it or because I have too much on my plate.
20:53Financial Feminist Host:So let's just give it to him because I have to project manage. If I'm compensated doing work, I have to go to work. I have to project manage there. I have to project manage my house. Here's one thing I don't have to worry about. A hundred percent. Like that is really how it felt. and that's not a good reason and it's certainly not an excuse No, but it's understandable considering how much we expect women to do in a more traditional relationship or even in a modern relationship it's still very, very taxing if you're the partner with everything inside their head about how things work That's right, that's so true My compassion, not just for all other women who bear that burden, but even that earlier iteration of myself is pretty high.
21:44I remember the first time, really in recent history, in the last 10 years, I heard even the term of that sort of invisible labor at home. You know, that wasn't really a conversation we were having when I was a young wife and mom. That was expected. We were just expected to roll forward with the responsibilities that our mothers kept, but with the added responsibility of being a modern working woman. Nothing gave. It just added. And so I remember when I finally started hearing people talk about that invisible labor, I could have wept with just feeling seen and understood for the first time. I can make a list this long of everything I did in a given week that wasn't on a calendar somewhere.
22:33You know, it wasn't on a work list somewhere. So anyway, yes, I think that among other reasons, I just sort of thought this is one category I can phone in because somebody else is managing that labor.
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24:31Financial Feminist Host:So you had mentioned that the first 90 days, so the three months after your divorce, you were handed just this mountain of tasks, but specifically financial tasks. closing accounts, refinancing your home, learning how to budget. What was the most intimidating item on that list? And how did you push through that? Jeez. I can feel it in my bones. Like when you ask the question, I had, isn't it interesting when people say that money is about math, it's not, it's about emotions. It's about psychology. It's about your trauma. Yep. Yes. That's so interesting. math is the last thing it's about anybody can sort through some numbers that's not actually that hard no um it is so emotional i went to a financial planner for the first time in my life after my divorce and with actually no idea what we were no idea didn't know expectations i didn't know what he was going to ask me i didn't know where we're going i just knew i'm super overwhelmed about money and I need a helper.
25:37And I remember sitting in his office at his little round table. I hadn't brought anything. Like he's asking me all these questions, a state of all the accounts and dad, and where's your 401k and what are your shared investments? And do you have beneficiaries? And I remember just sitting there going, what the fuck? Like, not only did I not know the answers, I didn't know where to find the answers. It's like you said earlier, when you're giving people like financial lessons 101 and they're like, I don't know what language you're saying. That's how I felt. Like, it was so overwhelming that I went out to his parking lot and cried my eyes out.
Read the full transcript
26:18Like, I don't know. So he gave me a list. He was like, I think that's when he realized, oh, geez, we're starting at the bottom of the mountain here with this one. So he gave me a list of tasks and he said, do all of this for 90 days and then come back to me. Then we might be ready to start talking about investments and your future. Like you got to get a handle on your present girl. And so all I remember from that season, it is such a fog of exhaustion and fear. was notarizing and scanning 7 million pieces of paper to get all my stuff in order. Getting every bill put back in my name. Everything needed in notary.
27:06Like, you're off the account, I'm on. Close this account, open a new one. Pick out the right credit card, put it in your name only. Refinance your house. You've got to get this mortgage in your name only. Like, go through every single auto draft, auto deposit, Everything has to be canceled. Everything has to be redone. New accounts, new passwords. I swear to God, I have never worked so hard in all my life to get all of that wrangled. But once I did, because I mean, obviously, you know this, this is the sermon you preach. This is all knowable and it's all doable. All of it. It is all manageable.
27:49It is all handleable. Literally every single bit of it. Once I got to that finish line of my list that was never, it just kept growing. Of all the things, when people ask me a lot, I'm in interviews right now a lot for the book. They're like, what are you the proudest of? I'm like, I think I might be proudest of the money. and how deeply committed I became to being absolutely financially literate, responsible. I just decided to become a financial assassin. And I have, like I have, my shit's on lock now. And I am so aware of where every penny is, where it is going. how I am moving it around, what it's going to look like in five years, what it's going to look like in 10 years.
28:44And when I think that five years ago, I was just like, I don't know what our debt is. I mean, it is a big reversal in my life. And so what I want women to know is I promise you, you could not have been dumber than I was about your money. And so if I can do this, anybody can. Anybody can. And it's not just because I have a career that's, you know, stable or that is able to provide for me, no matter like what your amount is, you can still drive your own financial car and tell your money where it's going. Like, anyway, what a, the amount of security and comfort that it has given me to, to bring this out of the murky, foggy darkness into like the absolute light of day.
29:37here it is. Here are the numbers. Here are the things here. I can't even quantify it actually.
29:46Financial Feminist Host:I always cry. I'm just, I hope you're proud of yourself. Like all of that is what I want every single woman to feel. Two things. One is that so many people tell me, I don't look at my money because it stresses me out. And we call it the ostrich effect in my work, which you bury your head in the sand. You act like your problems don't exist because they think I'm not going to look at my money because it stresses me out. The stressful thing is actually living in the dark. You're not stressed because of money. You're stressed because you have no idea what's going on with your money. So the exact coping mechanism you have of I'm not going to look at it is the actual thing that's causing you stress.
30:34Financial Feminist Host:And the metaphor I like to use is it's like getting in a car without knowing how much gas is in there. And you're just driving, right? And you're just raw dog in life, just being like, I could break down at any time at 2am without cell reception on the side of the road with nobody to help me. That's the thing that's stressful. Not the, I might not be able to afford that. At least, you know, it's a more stressful trying to live your life wondering, could the car break down at any moment? Could I careen off a cliff at any moment? And the other part that I think is so powerful about your story is that I tell women all the time, you have two ways of looking at your money.
31:13Financial Feminist Host:Either, oh my God, it's all me. Like I have to make every fucking decision and I'm in complete control. And that's terrifying because what if I screw up? What if I don't know enough? What if I, you know, say something stupid in a meeting with a financial advisor. And the other version of this is it's all me. Like I get to call all the shots. I get to validate and grow my own strength in this. And the fact that you got to the end of these 90 days and like you just said, I'm a financial assassin, right? And you can hear it in your voice that you're like, I don't take shit from anybody. I know what's going on.
31:50Financial Feminist Host:I'm in complete control of my money rather than money controlling me. That's the power, not oh shit it's all me it's like yeah it's all me here we fucking go i cannot agree more god i cannot agree more that is the truest statement the the the huge question mark over it all was the source of so much anxiety like where's it all going is it is there going to be do we have less than 15 years. Right. Like hoping that somehow it all just like sorts itself out behind my back without my like visibility or investment is so insane. And so it's actually such a relief to have the knowledge. And even if you go, oh, wow, I'm not in as decent a place as I wanted to be, or as I thought I was, even that is still a relief because now you know what to do.
32:51Now, you know how to steer your money and how to budget. And I have to still toggle that quite a bit. I mean, I have spent several months this year going, my income has shifted, has downshifted seasonally for a couple of reasons and probably not long-term, but in the short term. Therefore, I need to change my metrics. I, I, so, but I know that because I'm paying attention. And so I dropped several things down. I'm like, let's lower the temperature and all these categories for a few months until this rebounds until this comes through or whatever. Um, and just the fact that I knew that was happening and all of a sudden I wasn't looking at my bank account in shock or confusion.
33:37I just feel like we can handle anything. I think we can handle anything. Um, as long as we know about it.
33:43Financial Feminist Host:Can I ask you a very vulnerable question? Sure. You could tell me no. I hear a lot from women that the moment it gets financially real to them, so the moment they're sitting in the financial advisor's office and they rattle off a bunch of things, that they feel extremely stupid and very small and that they just collapse in on themselves. Yeah. How did you not allow that to happen and instead, yeah, pull yourself together in the car after sobbing, but decide that was going to be an inflection point and an action point, not a, I'm going to continue to ignore it and I don't want to feel stupid. So I'm not going to do this.
34:24Yeah. God, that feeling of humiliation is so real.
34:28Financial Feminist Host:Yeah. That's the word it is. It's humiliation. It's shame. It's guilt. Why didn't I do this before? That is the number one thing I'm fighting in my work is that shame and humiliation. Like, why didn't I know this? Why do I, why am I so stupid? Why am I failing? I don't have anybody to turn to. Yeah. Yeah. God, I went through all of that. And the shame was so enhanced for me because hell I've spent 15 or 20 years sort of coaching women toward toward like wholeheartedness and even independence and autonomy over their own stories. And then here I have this entire really important category that I have absolutely neglected.
35:24And so the humiliation of that was real. I don't, I don't want to give myself too much credit because at least in my case, I didn't have the luxury of going, I'm just not going to face this because I'm too embarrassed. I had to, I was divorcing. I, I had to, I had to sort out my bills. I had to sort out my bank accounts. I had to refinance my house. Like there was no option, um, to continue to just, you know, shut that drawer. But then I also, I think I also want women to know that it's very self-propelling. It may feel super overwhelming at the beginning. Not may, it will. It did to me at least.
36:11Very overwhelming. The mountain was so tall. The task list was so endless. Like I had 50 tabs open on my laptop every single day, just trying to get it all sorted out. But once you knock off those first couple of financial tasks and you go, okay, all right, all right, I done. I did that. It's finished. It's handled. Then that ball starts rolling downhill. Like some of the fear and unknown and anxiety just kind of gets taken out of the room at that point when you kind of go, this is knowable. It's kind of a pain in the ass and it takes time. Like this is going to take hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of your life, of course, but it is doable.
37:03And then the other thing that I found out really quickly is that, and you are such a prime example of this, you have helpers. There are so many incredible helpers in this world right now going, let me hold your hand. I will teach you everything I know. I'll help you. I'll sit by you. I will advise you. I will mentor you. My bankers, my wealth planner, my online accounts like yours that I followed going, check. Okay. Good questions to ask. The books, the resources, no one's actually alone. So if you feel alone, that's actually not true. You don't have to be at all. There is a host of experts willing to walk ordinary people through their own financial literate path.
37:58Thank you for doing that. I'm so serious. Thank you. I'm not joking. Voices like yours, yours exactly, and others who joined you for me in 2020, 2021, it was like you held up a flashlight for me on the darkest path where I'm like, I don't know what's, I don't know how to even take a step forward. And I am so grateful that you bring your expertise to bear to the world. And you say, I'm here to help you because you do, and it matters. And I'm sitting here is living proof. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, God. Thank you. That is so nice. Because that's how I feel about you. That's so nice. Thank you.
38:52It's not I'm not even being nice. No, I know. Serious. I felt like you and the other people like you who willingly offered your knowledge and your expertise to people like me. You were my best friends in that boat. And you didn't even know me. And you helped me row that boat to shore. And I am just, I'll just never get over it. I'll never get over how grateful I am at the opportunity to learn from you. And you've made my life better, just period. Wow, wow.
39:28Financial Feminist Host:That is, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That is this feeling. I can't get through this without like sobbing. That is the feeling I want for every single woman on the planet. Like period. That is the feeling I want of ownership and of self-reliance and not the self-reliance that's like, I don't need anybody or I don't need help. But the self-reliance that's wise enough to say, I don't know this and it's going to be really tough to learn it. but I'm brave enough to do it. Totally. Totally. And everybody can. Yep. So my question for you that I was going to ask next, but it's kind of perfect, is like, what did taking ownership of your money look like for every other part of your life?
40:21Financial Feminist Host:Totally. How has your life changed, your career, your relationships, maybe even your faith? Like, what does your life look like now that you can say, yeah, I am in control of my money? It's hard to think of a piece of my life it hasn't touched, it hasn't altered. I think, for me, it like goes down to the foundational impact that taking control of my own money had on me, which was in a season of my life where I had felt, and I was so betrayed, my entire life was absolutely dismantled. And that introduced so much like fear and loneliness and insecurity into my story. Taking control of my money, which was really the first big mountain I climbed.
41:22I was still slogging it out in therapy on my heartbreak, but the money was my, was my big sort of first leg of the race. And what it, what it, the way that it impacted me was that it gave me a sense of safety. And I had, I had up to that point felt so unsafe in my life. I had been harmed and everything felt out of my control. Other people were making choices that were dismantling my life piece by piece. And so I felt afraid. I felt unstable. And so that financial independence and knowledge and agency helped me feel safe and stable. There is no way to explain how much feeling safe and stable translated to every other category.
42:29Because all of a sudden I could exhale and go, okay, if I am trustworthy with my own money, then I can maybe also be trustworthy with my healing process. I might be able to be trustworthy in my other relationships. I may be able to be trusted to be the author of my future all by myself. And it introduced a confidence into my life when my confidence had been shattered, absolutely shattered. And so I feel like it was the springboard that sent me leaping through the next 10 categories.
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45:42Financial Feminist Host:What is the cost of a woman listening, ignoring or not building her own self-trust? Oh my God. I could talk about this for a thousand years. Me too. There's a reason that we don't. So first of all, I have so much compassion for so many women who have kind of outsourced all of that autonomy and spent their lives kind of in backbreaking service to everyone else around them. I know that that comes from a good place. I do. I know that that is at the deepest heart of it. Well intentioned. That is how women tend to operate in the world, which is everybody else around me is more important than me. I love everybody else around me so very much that I will, I will sacrifice whatever it is that is mine in order for them to flourish.
46:56Like, well, and it means being a good girl.
46:58Financial Feminist Host:That's what a good woman is. Absolutely. The good girl playbook. Selfless to a fault. Selfless. Don't want, don't desire, don't need anything. Give everything of yourself away to everybody else. Everything. and whatever you need is paramount. And if what I have to do to make sure you get what you need or want is just full self-erasure, then I'll do that. I mean, I know for me, growing up, both in my generation and sort of in the religious environment that I was raised in, the banner over girls was selflessness. That was our North Star. And I mean, if you caught a whiff of selfishness, boy, the kickback was fast and furious and predictable.
47:52I swear to God, I'm 51 years old. To this day, I will sometimes say something out loud that I mean with my full chest. And it is true and good and right. And I will still catch a little whisper in my brain of, that sounds selfish. that you said the word me one too many times in that sentence, the rot is set on that mindset for sure. And it takes intentional work to reverse that. But there is a cost to living like that. And so when we decide that we don't want anybody else around us to ever pay their own cost, We will pay it for them. Whatever it is you want, we'll fund it. Whatever it is you've already done, we'll help mitigate the consequences.
48:44Whatever it is you want, we will bend over backwards to make it happen. There is a cost, but the cost is to you. The cost is to your soul. The cost is to your future. And frankly, the cost is to your greatest and highest good, what you could be bringing to this world instead of all that codependency. Like we are better than that. I'll tell you that right now. We have more to offer than our codependent behavior on everybody else around us. And so it's not just us who suffers. Frankly, it's everyone else too. When they're getting that limited version of who we are. Here's what I know about women.
49:20Cause you know, the, the, the trope around this is, Oh God, here come these feminists, just me, me, me. I, I, I, you know, like all they're going to care about is themselves all they're going to whatever that all is but here's what i know about women having led them for over 20 years having been deeply embedded in 99 female community what women want that heinous idea is almost universally so good for the world. We want good things. We want goodness for each other. We want good. We want incredible flourishing for our families and our neighbors. We want justice. We want equality. We want, we want a world that is fair and good and right and true.
50:17We want good things. So yes, fuck, let us have what we want. If women start getting what they want, y 'all are all gonna benefit from it. And so in my lifetime, I would love to see more women get what they want. Because I think that is gonna be one of the primary cures to all that is ailing this like failing culture right now.
50:45Financial Feminist Host:Yeah, I always say that nothing bad happens when women have money. and it's because of everything you just said like we want to feel seen we want others to feel seen we're more generous we are more empathetic we're more socially and self-aware responsible yeah and I think you know you said 99 the one percent of women and we've all met one or many right that don't seem to be girls girls and like don't and the only reason they're not is because they have been fed the narrative that that's how they get ahead that's the only reason they're not of course like that's it and so really everybody's a girl it's just like that's the it's the narrative that we all have to compete against each other in order to have that one seat at the table i want to build my own table i'm fucking tired of only wanting having one seat i love those tables I sit at those tables.
51:43I build those tables. And by and large, my experience of women is exactly that. It is beautiful. It is inclusive. It is not ruled by scarcity. It is generous in nature. I mean, when you even just look at the money piece, like you mentioned, I mean, obviously you talk about this to your community, but you can just look globally at what happens. Just look at the data. I don't care if you could have a black dead heart. You do not have to care about equality or any. Fine. Have hate in your heart. Just look at the data. Yeah. At what happens when women have money and access to money. Yeah. The GDP rises in that country.
52:27Violence goes down. The whole, the whole country flourishes. Education goes up. Like birth rates go down. It is incredible to see what happens when women get what they want. It is incredible.
52:42Financial Feminist Host:This is not something I talk about a lot, but I had to ask you. I grew up Catholic. I went to 18 years of Catholic school. And I was a church every single Sunday, sometimes multiple times a week because I'd go at school and then I'd go with my family on Sundays. And I got confirmed. I did the whole thing in college. I chose a Catholic college to go to. And then when I graduated college and started, I mean, I graduated college in 2016. So I should tell you a lot about where my head was, where I was 22 and coming into an America with what I thought was our first female president. And of course, that's not what happened.
53:24Financial Feminist Host:What a year. God. What a year. And so I was just having a lot of conversations, a lot of internal deciding of who I was and what I stood for. And as I became more and more feminist and more and more radicalized, there was so many parts of my life and identity that were direct odds with the religion I grew up in and the one I was still practicing. and so I don't think I've gone to mass since 2018 yeah and that has been a really both like difficult but also so easy decision for me easy to the point where it's actually kind of nerve-wracking or like suspicious because I'm like if this was such a deep part of your life like I once calculated like how much time had I spent in church over my life up to that point it It was a phenomenally high number.
54:22Financial Feminist Host:And the fact that I could let it go actually pretty easy, that wracked me even more. I know that you have and I think are still going through this kind of deconstruction of religion, of faith. What role is God playing in your life right now? It's all very familiar what you're saying. I had a feeling it would be. Yeah. And there's a lot of us here. Like you could kind of swap out the denomination or the faith tradition and the structures are similar. We kind of grew up in a similar worldview, similar limitations. any sort of high control religious environment yeah is kind of a ubiquitous experience that a lot and i will say my parents although practicing catholics were the a la carte catholics like yeah pro gay rights pro women's rights like it was not a conservative kind of viewpoint but But just the act of being, and I love that for me too, but also just the act of being in a Catholic church, even if my own church in the Pacific Northwest did not subscribe, it was still the Capital C Church doing all kinds of harm.
55:55Oh my God. I was just on a couple of hours ago with Anne Lamott, and I literally just told her, my personal parents. My earthly parents were actually loose and fun and not rigid. And my dad was kind of, he was sort of a type of pastor, but a very rogue one. And so it was so interesting for me because not unlike what you just said, my actual home was permissive and highly loving and functional. But the system that I was at, the church that I went to was not. so the pastor on Sundays the youth pastor on Tuesdays Wednesdays you know I would church all the time I mean I've been I've been to church I have been to enough church for like 700 grown adults put together so I am over churched and then I married the very first youth pastor that walked in front of my face um because that was a that was a very prescriptive path for me marry young you know because otherwise how are you gonna have sex because i grew up in purity culture so we weren't allowed to that wasn't allowed so i signed a chastity card when i was 15 yep god bless so did i i mean i didn't live by it but i signed it i didn't either don't know where she is yes god i never knew her i never knew her but but i did i maybe didn't keep the the pledge but I certainly kept the shame.
57:34And I kept that message landed. And then I've been in some form or function of ministry for a lot of my adult life. That was sort of my comeuppance through my career was an evangelical subculture. And I've obviously migrated far away from that at this point in my life as my faith has evolved and I've just evolved as a person and politically and ideologically, I don't have anything in common with that community anymore. And the breach is too, the chasm is too wide. It's too wide. Yeah. It's too wide. But I mean, even as I lost my marriage and the church that I'd helped found here in Austin was very progressive, you know, a very liberal church, very all-inclusive, all the ideologies that I have grown to like cherish and care about.
58:22When I went back after my divorce, and remember I'm a founder there, So I can't just be there as a person. You know, I'm just not that. You're a figurehead. I just, I just sat there triggered the whole time by everything. Every word spoken, every sentence, every sermon, every song, what felt performative to me, what felt unsafe or untrue. And then I was bearing like this, the weight of everybody else's shock and sadness about my divorce. We were their pastors. and their pity, which was even worse. And I just couldn't do it. And I thought, I don't want to be here. I don't, this is not serving my, if I, I have faith still, but this is not serving it.
59:10This is an enemy to any sort of nurturing faith that exists in my heart at all. And so I was like, well, I am not going to be here simply because I feel like I have to. That is not who I am anymore because see our entire previous conversation. And I haven't been back to church. So it's been almost five years. And church for me right now looks like CBS Sunday mornings with Jane Pauly. Never miss it.
59:41Financial Feminist Host:The minute at the end of nature and quiet. That's church. I have my coffee. I have my blanket. I have Jane. I sit on my porch swing with a book and I have brunch with my people and that feels holy to me and that feels sacred. And I feel still loved and held by however you want to think about God, whatever, however you want to name God or think about how God finds us and we find God. I, the path to divinity to me has a thousand roads and I bless them all. And so right now my path is Jane porch swing and coffee. And that feels like enough. That feels like enough for me right now. I don't know if I'll ever go back to church.
1:00:31I'm not sure. I just don't know.
1:00:32Financial Feminist Host:Yeah. That's how I feel. I mean, I'm yeah, it's almost, I guess, 10 years or eight years and I don't miss it. Yeah. Which tells me a lot. I don't either. If it's not, if it wasn't doing anything for me, there's a million other things to do it for me. Church wasn't really it. And there's a million other things to do it for you in a faith context. Like if what you're wanting to nurture is your soul and your spirit, if you are wanting to increase the capacity that you have to love your neighbor and to be generous and good and true and kind and loyal. There are so many ways to really like serve that part of your heart that doesn't necessarily involve sitting in a pew.
1:01:25And so go find it. If it's a walk out in the woods, that's your church. If it's pulling up a beach chair and watching the waves come in, that is your church. like if it is sitting around a brunch table with the people that you love most in the world and giving each other the gift of time and presence and energy and love that's church so the definition for me is quite wide the organized religion part for me feels unsafe and not healthy at this moment and i don't know how to separate myself from the version of it that is like Christian nationalism that, I mean, I know how to separate myself from it, but that whole thing is just so painful to bear witness to and to feel even associated in an ancillary way that I just know I cannot, I got to be as far as the East from the West from that right now.
1:02:24Financial Feminist Host:Yeah. Well, and I've heard it said too, for anybody listening who is not even spiritual, like doesn't believe in God or doesn't believe in a higher power. It's just like, what connects you with other people? What connects you to love? Um, right. A couple of years ago, when I saw Liz Gilbert speak, she called it like love in the room. Like, how do you be love in the room today? And some people might call that God. Some people just might be, yeah. How do I be the best kindest, like you said, loyal, generous, brave person I can. For me, that's like nothing beats going to live music or like to see theater because that's my background.
1:03:01Financial Feminist Host:And so like, I just, that is church. That's church. Oh, that like group emotion that like you're sharing with all those people in the room, that moment in time, like art is love. Art and the experience of art collectively is absolutely of a church. And so I didn't know your background was theater, like musical theater. Major in theater. yeah yeah but I got a degree in straight theater but have been in musicals and doing theater since I was five or six and then singing before I could talk played the piano when I was five so like that's my love I've seen Leslie Odom Jr. like three different times four and that's oh there is no better church than that man's voice like that's the perfect example no take my money oh every time I've seen him I'm just oh it's just yeah that's church he is a he's incredible I love so good there I just and I love concert I love I love everything you're saying right now I'm feeling warm in my heart just thinking like about the last five experiences I had in a room like that yeah with art in front of us yeah beautiful yeah counts I could literally talk to you for so long.
1:04:15Financial Feminist Host:But my final question for you, for people listening who are standing in the middle of an upheaval, divorce, loss of faith, shifting roles, a full identity crisis, what is one piece of encouragement you'd want them to take away from your story? God, you just described almost everyone I know. you know at almost all points of life are we going through transition change or loss just pick a category and if you haven't gotten to it just live longer you will get there yeah um and so i i hope that what people walk away with when they read awake is that genuinely, I mean this as sincerely, this is as earnest as baby Jesus in the manger.
1:05:14No matter what you have lost, however precious it is, however shattered you are, I mean, it could just be the worst thing that you've ever thought of. Even then, your capacity to heal, to mend, to reinvent, to recover is so expansive. I am telling you, because I am not special. I am just a person. I'm just a person like everybody else. Literally. I do not have some special capacity. I don't have anything that's like super out of the ordinary. and I am telling you that even then, I believe that our best days can still be in front of us. It stunned me to discover there was a minute that I thought my life was so ruined and everything I ever wanted and hoped for and built and dreamed of was gone in an instant.
1:06:17And I could not get it back that I remember thinking, I'm never going to be happy again. And I said that and I meant it. I thought I'm really, I'll patch my life together enough to be functional, but I will never have a spark. I will never be happy. I will never have the spark of joy that I had before. I'll just muddle through. And so it was kind of a surprise to discover that I did more than just recover. I actually flourished. And I don't love the system, but sometimes disaster is the best thing that could ever happen to us. when it just rattles the cages so hard that we are forced to reckon with whatever stories we are telling ourselves, whatever narratives we are self-selecting, whatever truths we are avoiding, whatever peace we think we're keeping, which is actually at the expense of our own peace.
1:07:19When those things are no longer available to us and we're forced to go, all right, what's true? What's real? And then finally, what do I want? every one of us has that in front of us. And the good news is I don't think anyone has to wait for a catastrophe to live like that. I actually think you can live wide awake because you choose to right now in the light of day, like you don't have to wait for a crisis. And I hope that is what everyone chooses that they go even right here in this moment of like health and wellness that I'm experiencing, I still want to figure out how to be like wide awake in every category.
1:07:59So that would thrill me if that is what readers walk away with in their own stories.
1:08:05Financial Feminist Host:Thank you for your work. Thank you for your words. I have a copy on my bookshelf. I am so excited to read it. Please plug away my friend. Tell me where people can find your book. Thank you. It's everywhere. it's wherever you get your book if you have an indie store that you love we love to see an indie store get a little love from its readers it's basically on every single platform and and i'm i'm so honored to put it in the hands of its readers i can't you know once you write a book and you you hand it off it becomes something new it becomes something new in the hands and the lives of its readers and that's where it lives now.
1:08:49And so I'm like a kid on Christmas morning, like watching like this, just seeing what it's becoming like in all these lives. It's just stunning. So thank you for having me on. Thank you again for all that you've meant to me and the ways in which you have taught me and led me and encouraged me unbeknownst to you as I was rebuilding a financial stable life. And for all that you do for women, I, it just, it's, this is going to have generational impact. And so I'm really proud of you and really glad to have spent this hour with you for sure.
1:09:24Financial Feminist Host:Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Right back at you. And the book's called Awake and Oh Boy, Aren't You? So I'm so excited to read it. Thank you. Thank you so much to Jen for joining us and for her just remarkably kind words. You You can get her newest book, Awake, a memoir, wherever you get your books. I'm so excited to read my copy and I'm so hopeful that this episode, her story and our work continue to inspire you and continue to, I was going to say force you, but sure, force you to get honest about your money and about your life and realizing that you are in control. You get to call the shots and everything changes in your life when you know what's going on with your money.
1:10:10Financial Feminist Host:So if this is important to you, if you know that this episode would touch somebody else and give them the wake up call they need, I would appreciate you sharing the episode. Thank you so much for being here, Financial Feminists. Thank you for your support of our work and we'll see you back here soon. Bye. Thank you for listening to Financial Feminists produced by Her First 100K. If you love this show and want to keep supporting feminist media, please subscribe or follow us on your preferred podcasting platform or on YouTube. Your support helps us continue to bring this content to you for free.
1:10:39Financial Feminist Host:If you're looking for resources, tools, and education, including all of the resources mentioned in this episode, head to herfirst100k.com slash sspod.
1:11:09like I did, and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch.
1:11:18Financial Feminist Host:Upfront payment of$45 for three-month plan, equivalent to$15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. Default terms at mintmobile.com. Are you one of those media strategy people, clicking through slides, scrolling spreadsheets? Yes? Good. This is for you. Because on Spotify, there's an audience that's different. Locked in. loyal, invested. They're called fans. Fans don't just listen to music. They feel seen by it, like it belongs to them. So when your brand shows up on Spotify, that's who you're talking to. And you're right next to artists like me, Lizzo.
1:11:54So are you ready to talk to fans? Spotify advertising. You're among fans.
From the publisher
What happens when the life you’ve spent decades building shatters overnight? Today’s guest, Jen Hatmaker, joins me to talk about the moment everything collapsed—and how she rebuilt her identity, her faith, her confidence, and her finances from the ground up. In this deeply honest conversation, we explore what it means to wake up to your own power after betrayal, divorce, and a total life upheaval, and how taking control of your money can become the foundation for reclaiming every part of your story.
Jen’s links:
Book: https://jenhatmaker.com/awake/
Website: https://jenhatmaker.com/
Visit https://herfirst100k.com/ffpod to stay up to date and find any resources mentioned on our show!
00:00 Intro
00:54 The Story We Tell Ourselves vs. Reality
02:04 The Moment Everything Changed
04:00 Why We Ignore Red Flags
06:36 The Cost of Disruption and Divorce
09:14 Money Reckoning After Divorce
12:07 Why Women Opt Out of Finances
15:19 The Emotional Labor of Money
17:22 The First 90 Days: Financial Overwhelm
20:06 Becoming Financially Literate
22:44 From Shame to Action
25:22 Taking Ownership and Finding Safety
28:22 The Cost of Self-Erasure
31:07 What Happens When Women Have Money
34:07 Deconstructing Faith and Identity
38:42 Finding New Definitions of Church
41:18 Advice for Anyone in Upheaval
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