The $30 million retreat in Palm Springs

A personal reflection on motherhood, identity, and the journey towards emotional and financial freedom.

The author shares her experiences of navigating the pressure to perform as a millennial mom, building a community with like-minded women, and findiing solace in a retreat that covers topics from tarot to tax strategy.

Embracing the pressure of being a millennial mom

The author was navigating the pressure to perform as a millennial mom, posting about Erewhon runs but also paying for them with an EBT card.

I was letting go of shame and exploring what it means to be a single mother without conforming to tired tropes.

A retreat for mothers in Palm Springs

The author teamed up with Sarah to build a retreat that held mothers in all the ways they needed, and their inauguraal Cool Moms Feelings & Finance Retreat in Palm Springs covered topics from tarot to tax strategy and spiritual liberation to credit card debt .

One of the greatest reliefs was a session with Greenlight, which gave us the words and tools to talk to our kids about money with honesty and intention.

Mothers find freedom in Palm Springs

At the retreat, mothers paid off credit cards, walked out of tarot sessions with clarity, and simply enjoyed each other's company.

We had every intention of going out but instead wandered into the hotel bar and danced into the night.

Conversations about money and identity

The author also spent Mother's Day weekend with her own mother, and they had a conversation about her relatinship with money, fears, and what she hopes to leave her children.

We saw each other as two women who had been quietly doing it alone for a very long time.

There is so much more work to do, but that weekend we only scratched the surface of becoming emotionally and financially free.

The real meaning of being cool

That's what it actually means to be cool - not the aesthetic, not the effortlessness, not the performance of having it together, but what's left when you put all of that down and are free.