The Rhythm of Money

When the market drops sharply, doing nothing can suddenly feel irresponsible. When it rises quickly, waiting can feel like you're missing your chance. But does the market movement actually require a financial decision, or is fear or excitement creating the urge to make one? In this episode of The Rhythm of Money , we draw on years of experience as an investment advisor to explore what happens...

How do you know whether you have enough money for retirement if you haven’t decided what you actually want retirement to look like? Retirement planning usually starts with a number. But before you can know whether that number is enough, you need some idea of the life it’s supposed to support. In this episode, we start there. I also share what I learned from retiring twice. The first time, at 51, I...

What do you want to happen to your money and property when you die or get seriously ill or injured, and do your current documents actually make that happen? This episode explains the basic pieces of estate planning , including what a will does, what can bypass your will entirely, when a trust may be useful, and why simply creating a trust is not enough if the assets were never actually moved into...

Insurance isn’t meant to protect you from every possible loss. It’s meant to protect the financial life you’ve built from the losses that could seriously damage it. But how much insurance do you really need? In this episode of The Rhythm of Money , we look at insurance through a simpler question:  What risks could you comfortably absorb yourself, and which ones are large enough and likely enough t...

Have money in an IRA or 401(k), but still aren't sure how much should be in stocks, bonds, or different funds? That's asset allocation , and it's often the point where investing suddenly starts to feel complicated. But you don't necessarily have to build and maintain that investment mix yourself. In this episode of The Rhythm of Money , we look at two ways asset allocation can...

You can have the right investment accounts and still have no idea what actually belongs inside them. In this episode of The Rhythm of Money , we break down the basic building blocks you're likely to encounter inside a 401(k), IRA, or brokerage account: index funds, mutual funds, ETFs, stocks, bonds, target date funds, and balanced funds. Contents  00:00 What Goes Inside an IRA, taxable accoun...

You’re saving and investing, but do you know which account should get your next available dollar? This episode orders priorities, exploring 401k matches, IRAs (and how to think about traditional versus Roth without getting stuck), brokerage accounts and your cash reserve. Along the way, we talk about the Roth five year rule, the backdoor Roth option if you're above the income ceiling, and the...

How much cash should you actually keep available, and when does saving become something that should happen automatically? In this episode of The Rhythm of Money , we look at the role cash plays in a healthy financial life, not just as protection against emergencies, but as a source of flexibility, choice, and room to move. You’ll learn why manually setting money aside can be useful while you’re bu...

A good debt strategy can be the key to not just ending financial anxiety, but improving actual financial results. You can know exactly how much debt you have and still be unsure what to do with it.  Should you pay off the smallest balance first? Focus on the highest interest rate? Keep low-interest debt while using your money elsewhere? Or address the debt that creates the greatest vulnerability i...

You may be able to afford a purchase and still wonder why it keeps showing up without your intending for it to. Repeated spending often buys more than the item or service itself. It may create ease, offer relief after a demanding day, reinforce how you see yourself, or provide something you have not found another way to ask for. In this episode, you’ll focus on one spending category and look at th...

Ever wonder why good money habits don’t stick, no matter how much you want them to? In this episode of The Rhythm of Money , you'll learn the tiny step that actually recalibrates your inner compass around money to naturally point toward getting more of what you want: the Micro Habit.  A small financial action creates evidence. That evidence changes what you expect from yourself, until you&apo...

What you believe is possible with money is already shaping what you spend, save, finance, and prepare for today. In the first episode of Season Two, Indigo Dutton shares a story from her work as the island project manager for a Native Hawaiian land trust community. Families were offered an extraordinary path to homeownership, yet many had already made financial decisions that prevented them from q...

This is the Season 1 finale of The Rhythm of Money, and the final guided practice.  This is where financial safety and money somatics get you ready to transition into Season 2’s concrete financial work. After you finally look at your full financial picture, comes the part that matters just as much, letting your body catch up and stabilize in the feeling of money competence that you’ve shown yourse...

This is the episode the whole season has been building toward, the one where you actually look at your financial life. Today we put together two simple, honest pictures of where things actually stand right now, not a budget, not a complicated spreadsheet. We walk through exactly what to gather: what you own set against what you owe, and what comes in each month set against what goes out. Before an...

What if body awareness didn’t have to begin with a problem? In this episode of The Rhythm of Money, I’m sharing The Daily First Receiving Practice, the simple morning embodiment practice I use to begin the day from awareness, receiving, and gratitude before effort begins. We’ll cover: 1:45 Why Body Awareness Shouldn’t Begin With a Problem 4:15 Building a Habit of Receiving Before All Else 9:15 Gui...

If manifestation hasn’t fixed your relationship with money, it might be because you're fighting a nervous system response. What if ending financial avoidance began with addressing the “energy drain” at its somatic root?  In this episode you’ll learn why financial avoidance can be so hard to stop, especially for midlife women who may have income, responsibility, experience, and intelligence, y...

What if earning more money isn’t the thing that creates wealth in your life? You’ve probably spent a lot of your life being the one who gives. This episode asks what happens when you turn in the other direction, and what that turn has to do with building real wealth. Receiving is a financial skill. Not a feeling, not a personality trait, but something you develop the same way you’ve developed ever...

This episode is for the woman who handles a lot, understands more than she gives herself credit for, and still notices that certain money moments make something in her tighten, rush, avoid, or override.   We’re naming “The Flinch,” the half-second between your body’s first response to money and the story your mind tells afterward.  This isn’t about being bad with money. It isn’t about not knowing...

You can understand exactly why your financial life isn't quite where you want it to be. You can name the patterns, recognize where they came from, and still find that something in you sidesteps the accounts, defers the decisions, and keeps the real picture slightly out of focus. That gap, between what the mind understands and what the body does, is where most financial change quietly stalls o...

This episode is for the woman who has been learning about money, researching her options, saving articles, listening to podcasts, and getting ready to take action, but whose financial life still may not be changing in the way she wants.  We explore the difference between preparing to deal with money and actually coming into contact with it: the account, the number, the call, the document, the cash...

This episode is for the woman who has spent much of her life giving (time, care, money, attention, energy) and may be beginning to notice the cost.   We look at what happens when giving becomes identity: becoming the one who helps, supports, covers, pays, adjusts, understands, and keeps things moving, while receiving becomes uncomfortable or even wrong, if it ever happens at all.  This is not abou...

Understanding something about money is one thing. Being able to act differently because of it, in the actual moment, is something else entirely.   Before changing financial habits, many women first need a way to notice what happens inside when money comes up — the tightening, avoidance, overwhelm, urgency, or shutdown.   In this episode, we work on closing that gap, using a tool you can reach for...

In this opening episode of The Rhythm of Money , we begin with a quiet pattern many women carry without realizing it: the belief that goodness and financial security don’t fully belong together. If you’ve ever felt conflicted about wanting more, receiving more, or building a life that supports you more fully, this episode gives language to what may have been running underneath the surface for year...

Welcome to The Rhythm of Money , a podcast for women in midlife who are ready to build a financial life that can sustain them abundantly, and for decades to come.  In this short trailer, I share a bit of my own story: how I went from nearly $80,000 in debt at age 40 to a seven-figure net worth, and retirement at 51.  I also share what I've come to understand about why some women find their rh...