From Bankrupt to Millionaire: This Sex Educator Says ‘Dating Your Money’ Is the Key To Building Wealth – NextAdvisor
We want to help you make more informed decisions. Some links on this page — clearly marked — may take you to a partner website and may result in us earning a referral commission. For more information, see How We Make Money.
She had a sky-high credit score. She paid her credit cards off in full every month. She made contributions to her retirement accounts and knew how to save. But even perfect personal finance hygiene was no match for $310,000 in medical debt. That’s when Wendy Petties declared bankruptcy.
“I was sick for a long time, and I was in this routine of doing whatever the doctor said,” she says. “It was great care, [but] I amassed all this debt.” Petties declared Chapter 13 bankruptcy in 2018 and decided she needed to completely rewire her relationships with debt, money, and worth to bounce back.
Petties is the CEO of Simmer LLC and runs Date Your Money. What started as a side hustle in 2005 eventually catapulted her to working full-time for herself in 2014. As a psychologist and sex educator who also holds an MBA, she uses her decades of experience — as well as her bankruptcy — to teach people how to build a better relationship with their money.
Four years later, the entrepreneur is now worth $1.3 million. Here’s what the Las Vegas-based coach has learned about money mindset along the way.
How Bankruptcy Became a Blessing
When Petties was training as a sex educator, she learned how important pleasure was in every aspect of her life — not just with other people, but also within herself. She says her bankruptcy debt is a tool she uses to teach others how to change their mindset around money.
“My debt was medical debt, which doesn’t make it better or worse,” she says. “I am perfectly fine with that debt, because I am healthy now. And I did not want to feel ashamed. My debt is a tool, [so] I started talking about it. This happened to me. I’m not a bad person.”
Petties started teaching people a three-step framework to rewire their habits with money: clarity, confidence, and competence. As a money coach with a sex education background, she merges the worlds of personal finance and relationships into one. Money is so ingrained in everything we do, but it doesn’t have to define who we are.
“My clients’ measurable outcomes are related to their personal net worth. There are lots of people who are making a whole bunch of money in their business and their personal finances are crap, or vice versa,” she says. “Or both are crap! Let’s get your …….
Source: https://time.com/nextadvisor/financial-independence/bankrupt-to-millionaire-wendy-petties/