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Posts Tagged ‘single mother’

Single On Valentine’s Day: One Woman’s Story of Tragedy, Triumph and Resilience

Thursday, February 14th, 2013

By Guest Blogger Helen Georgaklis

My name is Helen Georgaklis. I have been an entrepreneur for over 20 years. I have started up companies in the computer industry, to insurance, to retirement planning, to where I am today- an educator who works with children full-time teaching them how to become authors of their own stories. I have dedicated my entire career as a financial specialist to women, both young and old, in building their own financial wealth. I made a living managing their money, but my work was far more as a counselor than anything financial. This is my story.

I was born an Expo baby, 1967, to Greek parents; my father a Greek immigrant, my mother a first generation Greek born in Canada. I learned early on in life what survival meant, and have been doing just that since the tender age of 5. It’s from that point that I remember the very first beating I got from my father. I was physically abused as a child, to the age of 22, and had spent my adolescent life lying about the welts and bruises I had on a weekly basis right up until I got engaged to be married, but still living at home.

child abuse

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On Settling

Monday, February 4th, 2013

By Guest Blogger Elizabeth Denham

I never thought divorce would happen to me. I had a friend who was going through one at the same time that I was. Her favorite thing to say was, “I didn’t get married to get divorced.” Really? ‘Cause I did! Planned it from the start! After countless times of hearing this precious little phrase, I wanted to knock this girl to kingdom come.

So there I was, 33 years old, three kids, and divorced. My three boys were ages were 3, 5 and 7 by the time the Big D was done. I didn’t consider dating for about a year. Then came boredom. Now believe me, with three boys ages 7 and younger, there is little time for true boredom. But there is this sense of boredom with being alone, or maybe it is just the evolution into readiness to date.

How do you even begin to date? I had begun accumulating divorced friends. It is a real phenomenon. Once you are divorced, single/divorced friends magically appear. It was either that, or people started dropping like flies into divorce. I had a few friends and we tried going out. There were men who would ask for my phone number. If they “seemed normal” and I gave it out, most of the time there was never a call. There were the young men. At 33 and beyond, I began to feel like one of the oldest people in the bar. If a guy younger than 30 hit on me, I wanted to know what bet he was trying to win. It was not flattering or funny.

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Mad Money: Yay or Nay?

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

By Guest Blogger Lindsay Blanche

Did your mother ever tell you to keep some “mad money” around just in case? Mine did, and hers was in the bottom drawer, towards the back of her small jewelry box. Relatively speaking, it was not a lot of money. I believe it was anywhere between two and four hundred dollars, depending on the time of the year. But the important thing was that it was a secret from my dad. Even though she frequently dipped into this fund to buy the holiday and birthday gifts for my dad, she never told him it was there.

My mother was a wife at the age of 18, and was married to my dad for forty years. This was a long time before separate checking accounts were a common thing, and she would never have considered not consulting him on a major purchase. So, the concept of her hiding money from him was a VERY big deal.

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Women Would Rather Talk About Their Sex Life Than Their Finances

Monday, October 25th, 2010

By Guest Blogger Sandra Finkelstein


I was brought up to believe you never spend more than you have (ok dipping into my dad’s wallet sometimes helped!).  I learned to save and make pretty good choices all things considered. Then I met my husband and from the time we started dating until the time we divorced, I allowed myself to make decisions that were NOT in the best interest of myself, nor my family.

Divorce is an eye opener for many women, for you get to see what you really are worth dollar wise $$$! You are required to put together your financial statements in order to do equalization.  I always laughed and told my friends, the only person who truly knows a person’s worth are their lawyer and their accountant.  Many people appear to be financially sound but aren’t.

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Lying by Omission

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

By Our Anonymous Man on The Fence

There’s something to be said about liars; liars lie in so many ways and for so many reasons. Liars lurk in business, in marriages, in friendships, in life, to hurt; whether innocently, stupidly or maliciously. However, lying by omission is in a completely different league. This form of lying takes on a life of its own. Firstly, what is lying by omission?

One lies by omission by omitting an important fact, deliberately leaving another person with a misconception. Lying by omission includes failures to correct pre-existing misconceptions. (Wikipedia).

lying by omission

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A Single Mom’s Valentine’s Day. One Woman’s Story…

Monday, February 15th, 2010

By Guest Blogger Helen Georgaklis

My name is Helen Georgaklis. I have been a Financial Counselor for over 10 years. I run my own company full time while raising 2 children as a single mom both with little or no support at all. I have dedicated the past 6 years to helping women, both young and old in building their own financial wealth. My living is in managing their money, but my work is far more as a counselor than anything financial. This is my story.

I was born an Expo baby, 1967, to Greek parents; my father a Greek immigrant, my mother a first generation Greek born in Canada. I learned early on in life what survival meant, and have been doing just that since the tender age of 5. It’s from that point that I remember the very first beating I had from my father. I was physically abused as a child, to the age of 22, and had spent my adolescent life lying about the welts and bruises I had on a weekly basis right up until I got engaged to be married, but still living at home.

child abuse

(more…)