How I Helped a Client Catch Up on Retirement (Even After Avoiding It for 10+ Years)

Most of my first-gen clients are scared to look at their old 401(k)s.

Not because they’re lazy or irresponsible—but because they’re overwhelmed, confused, and honestly? Embarrassed.

They’ve been contributing to retirement accounts for years, but never really looked at them. They feel behind. They feel like they should already know what they’re doing.

And when they switch jobs, they don’t touch those old accounts because they’re scared of messing things up or triggering a tax nightmare.

Sound familiar?

That’s exactly where one of my clients was when she came to me.

She had been working in the corporate world for over a decade, jumping from job to job, contributing to various 401(k)s but never really keeping track of them. When we finally sat down together over Zoom and logged into her old accounts—there it was:

$141,000 sitting in an old 401(k) doing absolutely nothing.

No plan. No clarity. No strategy. Just cash collecting dust (and fees).

We didn’t panic. We didn’t wing it. We got strategic.

We brought in my trusted accountant (a brilliant woman of color who works with first-gen clients and queers like us) to:

• Walk through the tax impact of converting that money to a Roth account
• Time the move to avoid a massive IRS bill
• Build a long-term plan for reinvesting it intentionally

This is what most people don’t realize: wealthy people aren’t smarter. They just know how to use the system.

They don’t avoid taxes—they optimize them. They don’t guess—they hire people who help them make confident financial moves.

My client went from paralyzed and unsure to feeling fully clear on how her old 401(k) could fund her future.

And you can too.

If you know you have old accounts collecting dust—or if you’ve been contributing to your 401(k) without really knowing what it’s doing—it’s time.

Book a 401(k) DOM Session with me. In 60 minutes, we’ll:

• Log into your 401(k) together (yes, we screen share)
• Break down what you actually own (and what’s not working)
• Make a plan to optimize what you’ve already built

Doors close May 31st. This one-time session is just $297 and could help you grow $100K–$500K more in retirement savings over the next 5–10 years. If you meet with me in May, you can roll the $297 into my 6 month coaching program.

Wealth is not meant to be built alone. And you don’t have to keep guessing.

We’re building wealth juntos, juntas, y juntxs.

Your coach,
Charly