Racheal: There's a continuing education course in the financial services industry where financial advisors and planners are reminded that they need to actually speak to both of the people across from them at the table. As in, they actually need to have a conversation with the wife, not just the husband. Well, my friend and client, Cris Caruso, came up in that industry.

She sat in those rooms, and she watched what happened behind the scenes, which is when the women had no relationship with those financial advisors or financial planners, as soon as they were widowed or divorced, they left. They walked away from that advisor because they had no relationship with them, because they had never bothered to attempt building one with her.

So she decided to start her own financial planning company. Savoire Financial is here in Richmond, Virginia, just turned four years old. It's woman-owned, queer-owned, built specifically for Gen X and elder millennial women who are the ones making the money decisions in their households, who are often their breadwinners, and who have never once seen themselves in the financial services industry.

She comes to this work from an incredible background in hospitality, which has really informed how she builds meaningful relationships with her clients and helps ensure that their relationship is a true partnership, to help them feel not only confident in their money decisions, but feel like they truly have somebody on their team who has their back no matter what life throws their way.

This is how the matriarchy is shaking things up in small businesses. I can't wait for you to listen to our conversation.

What Makes Savoire Financial Different

Racheal: All right. Welcome back, Cris. I'm so excited that you are joining me on the podcast again.

Cris: I am too. Thanks for having me.

Racheal: Yeah. Repeat interview here for you. Last time you were here, we talked about when you got your business started, but today I wanted to bring you back because there's been a lot that has happened for Savoire Financial over the last few years, and I felt like it would be such a good conversation, especially for the series I've been running, The Matriarchy Would Never, because your firm is so completely different.

So to start, I wanted you to share a little bit about what makes Savoire Financial different, and more specifically, how you have brought this hospitality mindset into a financial planning company.

Cris: Yeah. So Savoire just celebrated its fourth anniversary, so I think I was maybe a year in when we had our first conversation. So a lot has changed through growth and all kinds of things.

But I think part of what makes us different is that we are women-owned, queer-owned. We predominantly serve Gen X and older millennial women who are the decision-makers, the financial decision-makers in their households. In many cases, they're also the primary or only breadwinner in their household, so they are the primary earner.

In a lot of cases, they're also helping parents with money decisions. They're raising kids, which is money decisions. But recognizing that my clients are people who don't see themselves in the financial services industry. They don't see themselves represented in media, in commercials, in conversations.

My other subset of clients are LGBTQ folks, and so they follow in the same model of, for a lot of different reasons, we were taught that money wasn't for us. Specifically, women were under... You know, I always joke, Prince or Princess Charming may or may not come along and sort of take care of us in the way that we thought they would, and maybe they did come along, and they're not any better at finances than the next person.

And so I think we weren't prepared to handle finances in the way we are handling them today. And so it's super important to me to create a space that is relationship based, that is service based, that is based in a lot of behavioral decision-making rather than dollar decision-making, but at its foundation is based in education and understanding.

And I really feel like that is an interesting trend that is starting to shift in my industry, but it has been the foundation of what I do for many, many, many years.

The Invisible Assumption About Who Manages Money

Racheal: Well, and it's so interesting because when I kicked off this whole series, I was talking about the underlying assumptions that a lot of us are handed when it comes to owning and running a small business, and I definitely see this in your work too, because in the world of financial services, there are a lot of invisible assumptions that you were probably told when you got started. Do you have any of those that come to mind as, "This is the invisible assumption of how money is handled for people"?

Cris: Yeah. I mean, I think in my industry, when talking to other successful advisors, many of them are men, we are a minority in this industry. It was dumbfounding to me when I would sit in CE courses or workshops and they would remind people that we needed to interact with both people at the table.

And so the assumption is that the male advisor talks to the husband, and I put that in quotes for those of you who are listening, not watching us. And there is an alarming statistic of how many widowed women or divorced women leave that advisory relationship because they don't have a relationship with this advisor.

And so when you're coming up in this world, and you're coming up in this industry, and that's the norm, I knew that's not how I wanted to be, because I didn't want that experience if I was the person sitting at any table where I'm paying a professional a lot of money and I'm giving them a lot of trust to help me make decisions.

If I'm an equal contributor or, in some cases, the primary contributor to the finances in my household, I wanna be treated as an equal partner. I don't wanna have to have somebody remind my advisor to build a relationship with me so that they can keep my money someday if they're not really interested in having a relationship with me.

Racheal: And it's those type of invisible assumptions that are so baked in. I think I had shared at the CEO Retreat last month, which you were at, these are the things we have to challenge because we're really that first generation of women who have money, who have careers, who are often breadwinners.

And it does challenge a lot of these assumptions, but the model is still there. The default setting is still, especially when it comes to money, that the man is the one who manages money. And leading to the exact problems you're seeing, where suddenly you're divorced or widowed and you never talked to the advisor, have no idea what was going on, because they didn't even consider you an equal person in this relationship.

Cris: Right. And that it is totally okay to make all of these decisions without including... You know, I had a conversation with my mom at one point, and both my parents, because they fall into that very traditional role of, do you know, something happens to him, my dad, do you know where everything is? Do you know what we need? And she didn't, and so she did start asking those questions.

But there is an entire generation that we were raised by of women who aren't part of that conversation, who are absolutely unsure how to pay their mortgage or get access to their bank accounts. And that is changing, and it shouldn't be the norm.

For anybody of any age, it shouldn't be the norm, and it is changing for our generation of women. And as well as being an advisor, I run a business, and I run my business with a lens of, let's do this differently too. And I know we'll get to that later. But I run my business with that same lens, as well as how I interact with my clients and put my practice out as who we are in the world.

Why Referrals Come From Trust

Racheal: And I think that's something you and I have in common, just because we both started these businesses specifically to serve a very specific type of person. And when you're already focused on serving somebody who's underserved, then you automatically start thinking, "Okay, what about the way I was taught doesn't actually work for us?"

And you already come into it with that in the back of your mind. Like, there's a better way to do this, a different way to do this that will feel better and feel more aligned. And I think there's so many pros to that, but a lot of people are a little hesitant to break out and try doing things a little bit differently.

So as you have been growing your business now for, I can't believe it's been four years. You've continued to grow, really very strong year over year growth. All referral based.

Cris: Yes. Primarily referral based.

Racheal: A few people who find you here and there, but...

Cris: Yeah, when I do these kinds of talks, or I talk out in public, as I've been doing more of, people find me. But the majority of my clients come to me through referrals from my existing clients, yeah.

Racheal: And I think that is just one of the most undersold ways to grow a steady, sustainable business. Because referrals only come when you deliver an amazing experience. When people truly are getting the results they're looking for. And in your case, a huge amount of trust, right? You're managing all of their retirement assets, talking to them about estate planning. You're talking to them about very, very important things. So the level of trust required is just really, really important.

And I think that's where referral-based businesses can be such a game changer for so many small business owners. What are some of the things that have helped you to build that experience for your clients so that they feel that level of trust with you?

Two Premises for Every New Client Conversation

Cris: Yeah. So I always start new conversations with sort of two premises. The first one is that I acknowledge and recognize that money is intimate. Money is something that is personal. It often has a lot of emotions and feelings tied to it. We all have money stories. We have things that we were or weren't taught about our money.

And when I work with couples, we bring those money stories together. So one person has one money story, and another person has another money story, and then we have to start to bring those together.

And then the second piece of that is there is no judgment, just facts. So if something has happened in the past, we're just gonna own it. We're gonna name it, and we're gonna move on, 'cause we can't change it. I'm not going to make a value judgment about a financial decision you've made in the past, and then I'm going to help you move forward to make smart money decisions.

And then sometimes that smart money decision, which is where I'm a little different, is not the number that gives you the biggest pile of money at the end of the day, but it is the decision that is right for you, that is right for your family, that is values aligned, and really makes you feel good about the decisions that you are making. We have to balance the things we do today and longevity, because nothing is guaranteed. So we have to balance living an amazing life today and saving for the future. But we can do all of those things and feel confident about those decisions.

So I think recognizing that those money stories come into play, that money is emotional and intimate, and that sometimes we're coming with fear, we're coming with shame, we're coming with a lot of things, uncertainty, that helps build trust.

And I want to be that person. I always say I want to be in that top five, maybe 10 list of people that get that phone call when a life event happens. When you find out you're pregnant, when there's a divorce, when there's a death, when there's a job change. I want to be in that list because every single life event has a money component somehow. We have to make a decision about it. We have to deploy a strategy we've put in place, or we have to pivot because something that we didn't plan for is happening.

But every single one of those things has to do with money, and I want to be part of that team that helps you navigate that.

Why Shame Never Motivated Anyone

Racheal: And I have to say, just because I've known you so long now, this is one of the things that to me makes you stand out so much. Because a lot of the world of finance, in addition to being dominated by men, has been dominated by this feeling of shame if you don't do it correctly, right?

There's a lot of shame that is put onto people, and I even think about, and I'm gonna name drop Dave Ramsey right now, 'cause he makes me a little crazy, so I have no problem calling him out. But a lot of those people who have been the dominant voices in the financial space, you know, how to save money, how to build wealth, a lot of their messaging has been very shame-based and very much talking from an "I'm better than you" perspective.

But yours has always been, we're on the same team. We all make mistakes. We're all gonna get through this together. And to me, that's such a shift. And I would love to see more professional services take that shift away from the talking down, patronizing tone, to more, "Okay, I'm here to support you and to link arms with you and help you figure out the right next step. And every step of the way I'm gonna be with you. And I'm never gonna chastise you for being a human and making mistakes."

Cris: Shame has never motivated anybody to do anything. I mean, if ever, it pulls us in, right? It pulls us out of action if we are feeling shamed.

Racheal: Absolutely.

Cris: They may not call back. You may not ever wanna talk to that person again. If shame worked, then the whole world would be different.

And to tie that into the matriarchy would never... Him, Dave Ramsey, and so many of these other people are really tied to a Christian identity that is also shame-based, right? When we start to then tie this to church or beliefs that are also patriarchal and oppressive, then of course our money is going to feel oppressive, and the decisions and shame, not to even think that they're not relevant for the current times. We really just don't want that oppressive, shame-based... Nobody makes good decisions in shame.

Racheal: No, exactly, and that's why in this whole series I've been calling out this intersection between patriarchy and white supremacy and racism. All these things, there's this intersection that has caused so much harm and so many problems, but it's been how society has moved people in certain directions, right? How it's had control over people.

And what I truly believe is, matriarchy is not about control over anybody, not power over anybody. Instead, it's about all of us being supportive of one another, knowing that if I win, you can win, and it doesn't have to be one or the other, right?

And it should be that relationship, whether it's between me and you as people who work together, you and The CEO Collective, or between us as friends, or between you and your clients. It should always be a win-win.

And I think that's a major shift that is different for a lot of people, 'cause we've never, for a lot of us, been in those environments where we have felt that kind of "we're in this together, and I'm here to support you and help you get the best possible outcome." But it's always coming from a place of we're in it together.

Delivering Bad News Clearly and Kindly

Cris: Yes. And I mean, don't get me wrong, there are days where I have to deliver bad news, or I have to say, "This isn't quite going to work out the way we intended," or, "This is what we have to do." But I have learned over the years how to do it in a way that is clear, that is direct. To pull Brené Brown, that is clear and kind, and that gives us a path forward.

And I am always very cautious to not call out blame or past decisions. Like, here's how we move forward. This is the way things are, and you then get to take this information and decide how you want to move forward. 'Cause this is just the fact of how things are today. I still have to give bad news often.

Racheal: And I think, same, right? And I'm happy to do that, right? It's hard to give bad news. It's hard to give feedback where you're like, "Oh, I really disagree with this," or, "I think we're going in the wrong direction."

But I think as long as it's coming from a place of, I'm being clear and kind, of course, and I'm still creating an environment of emotional and psychological safety. Like, it's okay for us to have these discussions and navigate the right next step. And it's okay to make a mistake in the process, too. And there's no harm, no foul. You're gonna decide what to do with it.

I always tell my clients, "Here's what I'm sharing with you. I'm not married to this. If you decide it's not what you want, all you have to do is tell me, and then I will update on my end so I know where we're headed." But I'm always gonna be like, "Here's what I recommend. Here's my thoughts. Now the ball's in your court. What do you think?" And come at it from a place of we're on the same page together, and the whole goal is that we're communicating clearly about it.

Bringing Hotel Hospitality Into Financial Planning

Racheal: How does the hospitality background play into your client experience? Because this is something, I remember the first time you were sharing this with me, it really clicked for me as well. I'll get into my thoughts about it as you share more, but I think it's one of the more unique things, because your industry, the financial world, tends to be highly transactional. And when you were like, "No, I take more of a hospitality approach," I was so intrigued and curious by what you meant by that. So can you share a little bit about how that shows up in your client experience?

Cris: Yeah. So I am a twice career changer. I have been doing this since '04, and so by the time I hit this world in my early 30s, I had already worked in the hospitality industry. So I went to school to be a teacher. Even before that, I actually have an associate's degree in hospitality management. I have a bachelor's degree in education.

And so when I came into this industry, the light kind of sparked that this is a really great synergy between these two skill sets. So when I decided I wasn't gonna teach, I worked in hotels, I worked on a cruise ship for a while. I always worked on the guest services concierge side of hospitality and hotels.

And I worked in some really high-end hotels, so I learned that high-touch service model really early in my career, and I've sort of pulled that through into how I want to be with my clients. I want them to feel welcome. I want them to feel warm. I want them to feel invited in to this experience that I have created.

And so that looks like handwritten notes. It looks like gifts that are thoughtful. I just had a slew of clients these last couple of weeks move houses. And it isn't hard, but every one of our clients that moves gets a little welcome-to-your-new-house card, and they get a little stamp with the return address for their new address and their family's name.

It is a system, right? It is a thing. I send it over to my team. They know exactly what Etsy seller to get it from, 'cause we've been working with her for years, and she knows when to send it over, and she sends us coupons, and she's fantastic. But it's this thing, and it takes five minutes, but it is this really lovely little thing of saying, "Welcome to your new home. We're excited to have helped you get there."

And there's just so many little touches like that that we implement throughout the year, for babies and life events. And a lot of my clients are federal employees, and I was feeling so much of the weight that they were carrying early last year, with everything that was happening with DOGE and with the transition to this current administration, that I really put my head together with my team.

I was like, "How can we care for these people? How can we not just reassure them that their money is okay, but how can we care for them?" And we did. We put some little gift packages together. We sent people stuff. We sent them cards.

I really want people to be invited in. I absolutely love the book Unreasonable Hospitality, because it tells such great stories of how little things make people feel seen. And it just continues to build that trust relationship. It just continues to remind people that they are humans, that they are not a transaction, that we really believe in them and the work they're doing, and want to celebrate their milestones in life.

Small Touches That Make People Feel Seen

Racheal: I love the way that you just described that, and you've shared so many great examples within our community of different things you've done creatively as these little touch points, these little personalized experiences for people. And I think this is one thing that, at least in my experience, I feel like women tend to do pretty well. We really cherish our relationships, right?

And I think when I look at my own business, I didn't realize a lot of the time some of these things I was doing until somebody would call it out to me. I remember when I was hosting the CEO Retreats, I had a retreat when I had my office downtown, and I was debriefing afterwards, and Megan Ford, who's one of our friends, and she's part of the Collective as well, lives here in Richmond, Virginia, she brought this up to me about one of the reasons why my retreats feel so welcoming.

And she was like, "It's the co-regulation that happens when everybody's in the room and feels like they can let their guard down and just be themselves, show up, have real conversations, and not feel like they've gotta armor up and be this buttoned-up professional." We give people permission to just come in and be themselves. And sometimes it's a little surprising what happens when everybody is totally themselves, but it always just feels like you can be yourself and you're never gonna be judged.

Cris: And I mean, having just come from an industry conference [in] the South, I appreciate even more that I can come to one of your events, and as a vegetarian with a few food things, I know that I can eat anything that you provide, because you're used to feeding a room full of women, and that can be complicated.

But you have taken the time to figure that out. And that is one of those things that just takes an enormous pressure off of being able to show up that day without also feeling like I need to bring my own lunch and feel a little different. I feel included. I feel cared for. I feel seen.

And that is just based in that system of the way you create snacks and food, and that hospitality that you offer. 'Cause to me, you also know this about me, I love to cook, and food to me is one of my love languages. And so when people care for me in that way, it is super special to me, and I know that it's a system and that it works, but you've figured it out.

Racheal: And I think what we're trying to express here, as both of us are describing these different ways we do this in our businesses, [is that it doesn't take] some crazy, overwhelming effort to put these types of thoughtful touches in. I think it just takes a little bit of time when you're thinking about your business, like, how are you actually caring for and taking care of the whole person? Not just whatever they hired you for, but how are you actually being there for them?

And sometimes it's really, really small. It doesn't take a whole lot. Sometimes it's a quick message or a text or something. Sometimes it's just, "Hey, you've been a little quiet, I wanted to check in." And those things go a really, really long way.

But to me, this is how, as someone who's building a high-trust, relationship-driven business, these are the things I think about. Because to me, when I'm on the receiving end, it makes all of the difference. Suddenly you go from one of a bunch of people you could work with to, "No, I only wanna work with this person, 'cause they treat me so well."

Cris: Yep. I love that.

Boundaries When Clients Expect High-Touch Service

Racheal: I wanted to also ask you, because your clients are used to this level of care, this level of service, it might surprise people that you're not available on demand. And you actually took not only a whole month for sabbatical this year, but you were off for multiple weeks in the spring because you had a surgery.

So can you share a little bit about... 'Cause this is the other part of it. How do you deliver this kind of relationship, but also maintain boundaries and make sure that you can take care of yourself and not have people get upset about it? I think a lot of people feel like you either have to be 100% available all the time or locked down, and I think you found a really beautiful balance.

Cris: Yeah. It's taken work on my own internal work, so that's work I've had to do on myself. One piece is I keep my practice pretty small. So I talk to other advisors that have two or three times as many clients as I have, and I'm like, how can you know that many people, right? There's this thing that says maybe you can only really know 100 or 125 people, and I don't know who has that theory.

So I keep my practice small 'cause I want to have that kind of relationship. I wanna know people's kids. I wanna know their kids' names. I wanna know their dogs' names. I wanna know the things about my people, so we keep my practice pretty small.

And systems and communication. So when I knew I was going out in May for surgery, we started letting my clients know as soon as I knew. So we send out a monthly newsletter. We have a pretty regular social presence. We have a texting tool. And we sent out a separate email like, "Hey, Cris is gonna be out. Here's what happens, so you know, if you need something." And so my team knows, this is something I can handle, this is something only Cris can handle.

Now, when I had surgery, I was really only absolutely unavailable if I was on narcotics, so maybe about two days, three days. So my team knew if something came up, they could actually get to me. But they handle as much as they can. And my clients know that, and I love all of my clients, but there is very little that is a dire emergency.

And sometimes they come up and we handle them, but with enough lead notice, they know I'm gonna be out for two weeks. And my clients are also human, and because we have this relationship, they're like, "Great. Heal well. We'll see you when you get back."

Planning a Month-Long Sabbatical Around Business Cycles

Cris: Which then led to that two-week practice to be like, okay. You and I started in January helping me prepare to take a month off this summer, and we put it in the year-over goals. There were benchmarks in each of my quarterly plans as to what we were gonna do to move forward for that.

Again, we locked in those systems of, like, this decision tree for my team of, this happens, then this happens. We put in some office hours, because even if I'm off, I'm never completely removed from my business. It is mine. So I'm kinda always knowing what's happening.

But we established office hours, so on Monday mornings for about an hour each week, we made some time available. We did have some clients who ended up needing something, so I only had to do it once, but it made me feel better, and it made them feel better knowing that they could grab me if they needed me for something.

AJ air traffic controls everything and says, "Hey, Cris will be back. I'm gonna put that on her calendar for as soon as she's back. I'm gonna talk to her later today. I will handle that with her, and I will resolve this for you."

So, and preparation. We started around June telling my clients I was gonna be out for the month, should they need something. I will tell you, the weeks leading up in July were really busy with a lot of little things.

But it's also the nature of who my practice is. Having been DC-based for so many years, most of my clients are DC-based. A lot of them work on Capitol Hill, and the Hill shuts down. People take that time to get away, so they're also on vacation. A lot of my clients have kids, so they are in back-to-school zone. They don't really wanna talk to me anyway. So the alignment works.

Could I take September off? Absolutely not. Could I take February off? Absolutely not. But August, when we looked at the cycles of the business, was our quietest month, and so I wasn't stepping away in a season where there is a lot of demand within the business anyway.

Racheal: It was so fun to watch you go through this process and really think through it, because I think one of the reasons people think it's impossible to do something like take a sabbatical is they don't think through the level of what you just described, right?

And taking the time to think through it, and then taking the time to actually implement all of it. It's not like you just showed up the week before going, "I'm gonna take a whole month off." You planned for six months to take that whole month off, including getting your team on board.

And I think that's another huge win, is when you have the right people on your team, they want you to take that month off. They're excited that you're taking that month off, right? And AJ, who's on your team, fully stepped into it. They held down the fort and took care of everyone beautifully.

And I remember you came back from that, and we debriefed a little bit, and you're like, "Yep, and next time I'm gonna do this, this, and that," and I was like, "Yes. My work here is done." You are officially now gonna be sabbaticaling on a regular basis, and I was so excited for you, even though I know the first week you were kinda like, "What do I do with myself?"

But it was so great to watch you be able to take that on, and I think that's something I would love to see more women build into their businesses, is knowing that you don't have to wait until you are completely burned out to take time away. And you don't have to wait until an emergency happens to take time away. You can prioritize your health. You can prioritize taking time for yourself.

Even if, like you did over your sabbatical, it's not like you were just on vacation the whole time. You went on vacation some of the time, but you had a lot of downtime to do other things that you had wanted to spend time on, which was so amazing to hear, that you intentionally made time for that and made space for that.

Doing the Work She Asks Clients to Do

Cris: Yeah. And it's a piece of me doing the work that I ask my clients, or I'm beginning to ask my clients, to do. I've always been of that. I will never not do what I'm asking you to also do. So most of the things, where it's appropriate to my situation, I am doing the same thing.

If I'm asking my clients to track their money, I'm tracking my money. I know where our personal money goes. I'm asking you to do the same thing. I'm asking you to max retirement plans. Well, I'm asking you to start thinking, in the five to 10 years before retirement, how you want to spend your days, and what you do and who you are and how you exist outside of your job.

And in order to be able to do that, I have to start to have that understanding of myself, and to appreciate what a challenge that can be as an older, you know, Gen X, a middle Gen X-er. As I talk to my older Gen X-ers, my youngest Boomers, who are really in that window, or maybe are firmly in the window, the retirement trigger isn't the money, it's the readiness.

And so as we start to move in that, I understood I have to put myself in those shoes and start to figure out, well, what do I do when I'm not working? Right. And clearly, from the group chats, I don't know what to do with myself when I'm not working. So we still have work to do. But it is being willing to do the same work that I'm asking my clients to do.

Working for Enough Instead of More

Racheal: Well, I'm curious. Now that you're on the other side of the sabbatical, you're well into Q4 here, looking back on four years in business and how you were working prior, even before you started your own business, when you were working as a financial planner, what are some of the big things that have shifted for you as you have changed the way that you wanted to work, changed the way that you wanted to do business? What are some of the big highlights that you think other women need to hear? Because by us sharing this, it gives them permission to also do things differently.

Cris: Yeah. I think two of the biggest things that have shifted for me: I won't grind anymore. I do not grind. I do not work for the sake of working. I do not work for this nebulous more.

And so the second piece of that is I work for enough. I understand what my household needs to run. I understand what my future needs. I understand what I want for my life, and to pay my people, and to do what we need, and I work for enough. I work for growth in the business. I work for sustainability in my business, and for my family and my household. And I no longer just work for this never-ending more, for the sake of more.

And I feel like, especially in our industry, there are these weird, you need to manage this many assets, and you've really arrived when you get to this. I don't want that. I want a life that is fun and is robust and is balanced between work and my community and my family and my spouse and these things. And I don't just want to continue to strive for more, because more never comes, and more is never enough when it isn't defined. And I don't do that.

Racheal: I think that's such a huge thing for everyone to really let sink in. Because I think this is where patriarchy, especially hyper-capitalism, has trained us that we have to always be wanting more. And as someone in the small business space, I feel like the goalpost keeps moving, and keeps moving, and keeps moving, and I'm just like, "Okay, so you achieve that, then what?"

And there just never is a level of satisfaction, and it ends up being very empty, is what I find. A lot of people at the end sitting there going, "What did I do all this for?" And they've lost sight of that. And I love that you brought up, I just need to work for enough.

Cris: Enough. Enoughness is huge.

Racheal: Yeah. You take care of yourself, take care of the people you love, and still have room for an amazing life where you get to do the things you enjoy doing.

Cris: Yep. And enoughness includes my future. Don't get me wrong. Enoughness includes maxing 401(k)s and retirement plans, and it includes maxing for my future.

But one of the biggest conversations that I feel, again, is sort of contrary to some of the media we hear. I sometimes find that I end up with clients that are saving so much for retirement, they don't have enough money to live this life today. And my approach for that is twofold. One, retirement is okay, and we don't need to keep putting money in that direction. And longevity isn't guaranteed. We need to plan for the possibility of it, so again, we're planning for it. But we also need to enjoy our lives today.

And so sometimes that advice to pull back on this thing we've been told we always need to max out, or do, sometimes isn't really the case. I mean, for me, enough includes making sure we're planning for the future. For all of my clients, that is the case, but sometimes that advice is we also need to make sure we're living our lives today, because we just don't know what the future holds. And I've been doing this long enough to see a lot of different outcomes that remind us that we need to also be present in our life right now. 'Cause we don't know how long we have.

Racheal: And that's where I really feel like the one thing both of us really prioritize is having this beautifully full life. And not just chasing things for status or because we were told this is what we should be going after, but actually being very thoughtful about, okay, what matters to me? What do I want to bring more into my life?

And it's something that I think a lot of us don't give ourselves time to really be honest about. A lot of people get so caught up in what they're told they should want, or how things should be, or how things should look, that if you actually press pause and think about what it is you actually want, it can change everything.

Where to Find Cris and Savoire Financial

Racheal: I love it. Cris, thank you so much for jumping on with me today. It's always so much fun to share you with those who are listening to Promote Yourself to CEO. It's been amazing to watch you promote yourself to CEO over the last few years and continue to grow this beautiful business.

As we wrap up, where should people go if they wanna learn more about the work you're doing with Savoire Financial? And hopefully we'll be sharing more about retirement readiness and how to actually enjoy retirement, if that is of interest to people. I'm nudging Cris a little bit, 'cause we've been talking about her creating more content around this in the new year.

Cris: Yeah, so savoirefinancial.com is where you can find me. You can find more about my practice and my team. There's some great information there. I'm on LinkedIn. That is where I primarily put out content around current market events, current news, financial news, behavioral decision-making. So it kinda runs the whole gamut of what kind of information I'm putting out, but that's on LinkedIn for the most part. And that's where to find me.

Racheal: Perfect. I will link it all up in the show notes.

Cris: Great.

Racheal: Can't recommend connecting with Cris enough, especially if you're looking for someone in the financial planning world to support you. But also just an amazing, wonderful human that I adore, and I'm so glad she moved to Richmond and we've gotten to spend more time together over the last couple years.

Cris: Love.

Racheal: Yes, so much. Thank you so much for joining me.

Cris: You're welcome.