If you have ever said "I don't really spend that much" and then looked at your bank statement and saw how much you spent on food this episode is for you.

Food is the number one budget buster I see with almost every client I work with. And for high achieving women in STEM it hits differently because you are exhausted, you are stressed, and you deserve a good meal after the day you just had. The problem is when that becomes the default every single day.

I am sharing how I was spending over $900 a month on takeout as a single person, and the client spending over $2,000 a month on DoorDash for just her and her husband. Neither of them knew until we looked at the numbers together.

What we cover:

• Why food spending is so hard to control for high earners
• How stress, mental load, cultural ties, and social media all drive the number up
• Grocery shopping strategies that actually save money without the misery
• How to freeze food in portions so you never eat the same thing twice
• The adult lunchables method for fast satisfying meals without cooking
• How to handle social pressure around not eating out with coworkers
• How to enjoy eating out intentionally without guilt or overspending

This is not about eating less or enjoying food less. It is about being intentional so one of life's greatest pleasures does not quietly become your biggest financial leak.

Search Engineer Her Path on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow the show and leave a review if this resonated with you.

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠@engineerherpath⁠⁠

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⭐ Love the show? Share it with a friend and please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps more women in STEM find this message.

One of the best pieces of career advice I ever received came from a fellow engineer early in my career. Learn your job first. Then start having short 30 minute conversations with people around you to learn about their world.

I have been doing coffee chats my entire career and in this episode I am telling you everything I know about how to do them right.

Coffee chats are not just for job seekers. Engineers, employees, and business owners at every stage should be doing them. They are one of the most powerful and underrated tools for building a career and a network that actually works for you.

What we cover:

• What a coffee chat actually is and why most people do them wrong
• How to find and reach out to people for virtual and in person chats
• What to say and what never to say when you ask for a meeting
• How to show up, what questions to ask, and how to make a real impression
• Why you should never ask for a job in a coffee chat
• The one question to ask before every chat ends that opens doors
• How to follow up in a way people actually remember
• The best coffee chat I ever had and how it turned into a lasting friendship
• The weirdest one I ever had including the person who asked for my address to send a Christmas card and sent a love letter instead

LinkedIn: ⁠@engineerherpath⁠

Sign up for my ⁠email newsletter⁠

Visit my ⁠website⁠

⁠Interested in coaching with Sandra?⁠

⭐ Love the show? Share it with a friend and please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps more women in STEM find this message.

If you are a woman in STEM wondering if you are being paid what you are worth, this episode is for you.

Pay transparency laws are changing the game and there is more publicly available salary data right now than ever before.

In this episode, financial coach Sandra Park breaks down how to research your market value, handle the salary question with confidence, counter an offer strategically, and know when to walk away.

Plus, the real story of how mentioning a competing offer led to a same day salary bump without ever having to show proof.

What we cover:

• How to research your market value using LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, and public job postings
• How to handle "what are you looking for?" without leaving money on the table
• Why the first number is never the final number and how to counter
• Negotiating benefits when base salary stalls — signing bonuses, vacation, remote work
• Walk away power and why having multiple offers changes everything
• How every negotiation today affects your earning trajectory for the next decade

LinkedIn: ⁠@engineerherpath⁠

Sign up for my ⁠email newsletter⁠

Visit my ⁠website⁠

⁠Interested in coaching with Sandra?⁠

⭐ Love the show? Share it with a friend and please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps more women in STEM find this message.

Just got back from a conference and already fielding the same questions is it really worth it? How do you pay for it? What do you actually do while you're there?

In this episode, financial coach and Engineer Her Path host Sandra Park breaks down everything you need to know about professional conferences for women in STEM from finding and funding them to networking strategies that actually work before, during, and after the event.

You'll learn:

• How to find professional conferences through organizations, LinkedIn, and Eventbrite

• How to fund conference attendance including employer sponsorship, volunteering, speaking, and group cost sharing

• Why women in STEM struggle with the ROI question (and why that's the wrong way to think about it)

• Networking tips for introverts: how to work a room, skip business cards, and use LinkedIn QR codes

• What to do after the conference so the momentum doesn't die

• How one conference decision led Sandra to land her first remote job just four months later

Whether you've never been to a professional conference or you need help convincing yourself it's worth the investment this episode will change how you think about showing up for yourself.

LinkedIn: @engineerherpath

Sign up for my email newsletter

Visit my website

Interested in coaching with Sandra?

⭐ Love the show? Share it with a friend and please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps more women in STEM find this message.

I had the honor of being a guest on This Is How You Think, the podcast hosted by executive leadership coach Jule Kim, and this conversation got real fast.

If you're a high earning woman in STEM or a high pressure career wondering "why can't I save money?" this episode was made for you. Jule and I get brutally honest about our own money mistakes, the mindset traps that kept us both stuck, and the shifts that finally helped us stop overspending and start building real wealth.

From Jule's near daily Amazon orders during her time at Amazon, to my multiple real estate moves, to the powerful "I deserve this" mentality that derails so many smart, successful women, we unpack it all.

In this episode we cover:

• Why making more money often leads to more money problems
• The "keeping up with the Joneses" trap in corporate environments
• Retail therapy, stress spending, and entitlement mindsets
• Why women outsource financial decisions to the men in their lives and why we need to stop
• The mental load gap and why women want simpler finances
• Sandra's order of operations for getting your money right
• The spending category that destroys most budgets
• One 30 day exercise that changes everything
• When to get help instead of figuring it out alone

Connect with Sandra Park:

• Website: www.engineerherpath.com
• LinkedIn: Sandra Park

Connect with Jule Kim:

• Website: https://adviceactually.com
• Podcast: This Is How You Think on Apple Podcasts
• LinkedIn: @julekim
• Instagram: @itsjulekim
• TikTok: @itsjulekim

If this episode resonated with you, share it with a high-earning woman who needs to hear it and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your support helps more women find these conversations.

What does financial independence really look like for women in STEM especially if you don’t want to hustle yourself into burnout?

In this episode of Engineer Her Path, I’m joined by Bernadette Joy, a debt free multimillionaire, financial coach, author, speaker and former HR professional who retired in her early 40s. Together, we talk about how she paid off $72,000 in student loans, became 100% debt free, bought multiple homes (including one in cash), and redefined early retirement on her terms.

This conversation goes beyond spreadsheets and savings rates. We dive into:

• What financial independence looks like without extreme frugality
• Why FIRE culture doesn’t work for everyone especially women in STEM
• Aligning money with values, joy, and intentional living
• Navigating cultural expectations, status symbols, and career pressure
• Why wealth is about freedom, not just net worth
• The mindset shifts that matter more than math

If you’re a woman in STEM who’s questioning the traditional career path, feeling burned out, or looking to build wealth without sacrificing your life, this episode will challenge how you think about money, success, and what “enough” really means.

🎧 Perfect for engineers, technologists, and high-achieving women who want calm, confidence, and financial freedom not just more hustle.

Bernadette's Crush Your Money Goals website

Bernadette's Crush Your Money Goals book

Plutus Impace Summit

In this episode of Engineer Her Path, Sandra Park breaks down why viral “easy money hacks” and online saving tips often fail to move the needle. She shares real stories including a friend’s $10,000 savings coloring worksheet and a viral YouTube short promising millionaire results with tiny habits to show why building wealth requires bigger, consistent actions, not just small tweaks. 

Sandra explains how high earners sometimes need to focus on systemic financial changes, like housing, career, or daycare, while still managing small habits that don’t move the needle. If you’ve ever felt frustrated trying to save more and spend less, this episode will give you practical insight, motivation, and a clear path to align your money with your life goals. 

📩 Want help building habits that actually move the needle in your finances? 

Book a time to talk with Sandra: Schedule a call

Get 50% off the first year of Monarch, the personal finance/budgeting app that I use: Monarch Referral Link

When quitting feels like failure, how do you know when it is actually the smartest move you can make? In this solo episode of Engineer Her Path, financial coach and systems engineer Sandra Park shares the real story behind stepping down as a Toastmasters officer and why understanding sunk cost, burnout, ROI, and opportunity cost can change how women in STEM make career, leadership, and life decisions.

Sandra walks through how staying too long in commitments that drain your energy can quietly sabotage your finances, your time, and your peace. Using simple financial concepts applied to real life, she explains how to evaluate when something has truly run its course and why quitting is sometimes the most disciplined decision you can make.

If you are a woman in STEM feeling stuck, burned out, or afraid of what quitting might say about you, this episode will give you language, clarity, and permission to choose alignment over obligation.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why quitting is not failure and how many high-achieving women stay too long

• How the sunk cost fallacy shows up in careers, leadership roles, and relationships

• Using ROI to evaluate your time, energy, and emotional bandwidth

• Opportunity cost and what staying stuck is costing your future self

• How quitting can create space for growth, peace, and financial clarity

📩 Sign up for my email newsletter:
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🌐 Visit my website:
https://engineerherpath.com

🎙️ Listen to more episodes of Engineer Her Path:
Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms

⭐ Love the show?
Leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps more women in STEM find this message.

💬 Want help evaluating your own ROI in life or money?
Book a free conversation here

Curious about financial coaching and how it can change your money life? In this episode of Engineer Her Path, Sandra Park explains how financial coaching helps you take control of your finances, build a budget that works, break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, and develop a confident money mindset.

Start making smarter money decisions today and feel empowered about your financial future.

📩 Ready to take control of your money?Join my weekly newsletter where I share simple, practical steps to ditch debt, save more and finally feel confident about your finances.

👉 Subscribe here: https://engineerherpath.kit.com/cdc989db8f

Chapters

00:00 Understanding Financial Coaching vs. Financial Advising

08:50 The Role of Financial Coaches in Personal Finance

15:06 Building a Strong Financial Foundation

22:09 The Importance of Money Mindset

30:19 Identifying the Right Candidates for Financial Coaching

Interested in financial coaching with Sandra?

Sandra’s website: https://engineerherpath.com

If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who needs it and please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your support helps more people find the show.

In this solo episode of Engineer Her Path, financial coach and engineer Sandra Park explains how a Roth IRA works and why it is one of the best retirement investing options for beginners and mid career professionals.

If you want to learn how to start investing, build long term wealth, reduce taxes in retirement, and finally understand your options, this episode breaks it down in a clear and simple way.

Sandra walks through Roth IRA contribution basics, income limits, why consistency matters more than timing the market, and how investor behavior often matters more than perfect strategy.

📩 Ready to take control of your money
Join my free weekly newsletter where I share practical steps to pay off debt, save more money and build financial confidence
👉 Subscribe here https://engineerherpath.kit.com/cdc989db8f

✨ Interested in coaching with Sandra
Website https://engineerherpath.com

If this episode helped you, share it with a friend and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Reviews help more women find the show and start building wealth too.