StoryInsightful

My financial coaching business brings in around $60,000 a year

CNBC Make It

Charlie runs a financial coaching business earning around $60,000 a year, working 40-50 hours weekly from a portable office. They specialize in serving LGBTQ, transgender, and first-generation Latina clients, focusing on financial empowerment and money boundary-setting. A key focus is addressing the financial vulnerabilities caused by family estrangement within the LGBTQ community.

Summary

Charlie, who refers to their world as the 'Charlieiverse,' operates a financial coaching business from a portable office, working between 40 and 50 hours per week starting around 8:30-9:00 a.m. Their daily routine includes scheduling emails, hosting Instagram Lives, and recording podcast episodes either solo or with guests.

Charlie has carved out a niche clientele that includes a significant number of LGBTQ and transgender individuals, as well as first-generation Latina women and oldest daughters. These clients share a common thread: they often lack traditional family financial safety nets and are therefore highly motivated to build financial independence on their own terms.

On the practical side, Charlie helps clients optimize their finances by moving money into high-yield savings accounts and navigating difficult money conversations with family. A notable strategy Charlie promotes is encouraging clients to help family members improve their credit scores rather than taking out high-interest credit cards to support them — a boundary-setting approach to financial generosity.

Charlie identifies family estrangement as the single biggest financial challenge facing LGBTQ people, arguing that it is an underdiscussed issue. When queer or trans individuals are estranged from their families, they lose not only emotional support but also financial safety nets, including potential inheritances that cisgender or heterosexual family members might receive.

Key Insights

  • Charlie reports attracting a large number of LGBTQ and transgender clients specifically because they are estranged from family and have no financial safety net to fall back on, making financial self-sufficiency especially urgent for them.
  • Charlie argues that instead of taking out high-interest credit cards to help family members financially, a better approach is to teach those family members how to improve their credit scores so they can access cheaper debt themselves.
  • Charlie identifies family estrangement as the biggest financial challenge for LGBTQ people, describing it as an underrepresented issue in financial conversations.
  • Charlie asserts that LGBTQ individuals estranged from their families lose an entire social safety net — not just emotional support, but also potential inheritances they might have received had they been cisgender or heterosexual.
  • Charlie also specifically serves first-generation Latina women and oldest daughters, a demographic that similarly faces pressure to financially support family members without adequate personal financial infrastructure.

Topics

Financial coaching businessLGBTQ financial vulnerability and family estrangementMoney boundaries and family financial conversationsHigh-yield savings accountsFirst-generation and marginalized community financial empowerment

Transcript

[0:00] Another day in the Charlieiverse. I'm just setting up my portable office. This is my workplace. I work anywhere from 40 to 50 hours a week. I start my workday around 8:30, 9:00 a.m. I'll schedule emails. I'll do an Instagram live. I might have a guest on my podcast or I'll do a solo cast. I also attract a lot of LGBTQ clients, a lot of trans clients who are estranged from family and know that they have [0:30] nobody else to fall back on and they want to make sure that they're setting themselves up financially. A lot of firstgen, Latina, oldest daughters as well. I help my clients move their money to high yield savings accounts.…

Full transcript available for MurmurCast members

Sign Up to Access

More from CNBC Make It

Get AI summaries like this delivered to your inbox daily

Get AI summaries delivered to your inbox

MurmurCast summarizes your YouTube channels, podcasts, and newsletters into one daily email digest.