Heidi Casino, a Registered Financial Planner, never imagined she’d face financial ruin after years of helping others manage money. But when a business venture went south, she found herself stressed, sleepless, and financially depleted—a situation she never expected, given her background.
“I ventured into business. That really depleted my savings,” she told Financial Adviser PH. “That was my downfall. Sobra talaga. It reached the point where I had to transfer my kids from a private school to a more affordable one.”
The irony wasn’t lost on her. “I have been talking about financial literacy, I’m being invited to talk about how to save money, how to get out of debts… and then here we are in that same problem I talk about,” she shared.
Despite her credentials and technical know-how, Heidi admitted that even the best financial training can’t always prepare you for the emotional and mental toll of failure. “Even if you have so much head knowledge… there are still other factors you cannot control,” she said. “You can only control what you can do.”
Her turning point came not from a financial seminar, but from a Sunday sermon she stumbled upon on YouTube. “That was when I fell down to my knees and just prayed, ‘Sige Lord, surrender ko na ’to sa ’yo.’”
Once she let go, things started to shift. She did a financial needs analysis for her family, detached emotions from financial decisions, and added side hustles. She also did what she often advised clients to do: called debtors, negotiated payment terms, and upskilled.
“Praise God, after two years, I was debt free. Sobrang bilis non,” she said. “It felt lighter. It was applied knowledge now—hindi na lang siya head knowledge.”
Heidi’s story is a powerful reminder that even the most informed professionals are not immune to setbacks. But with humility, transparency, and faith, it’s possible to turn rock bottom into a powerful reset.
“Don’t feel like you’re a hypocrite,” her daughter told her. “All the more that you have to talk about financial literacy so that no one will ever feel that thing that we’re feeling right now.”
