This is Motleyful Answers. I'm Alison Southwick, joined as always by Robert Brokamp,

personal finance expert here at The Motley Fool. It's the last Tuesday of the month,

which means you get to eavesdrop as Broz sits down for a nice chat with someone he reveres in finance.

This month, he's joined by Christine Ben's Morningstar's director of personal finance.

They'll talk about how people should approach the long-term care conundrum, how to close the

gender gap in finance, and much, much more, all on this week's episode of Motleyful Answers.

It's the last episode of the month, which means we get the chance to interview a bright, shining light in the world of financial planning.

And this month, it is a real privilege to spend some time chatting with one of my favorite writers at one of my favorite websites.

Christine Ben's the director of personal finance at Morningstar.

Christine has worked at Morningstar for almost 30 years.

It's on Morningstar's 401K committee co-hosts the Longview podcast, and in 2020 and in 2021 made Barron's list of the 100 most

influential women in U.S. finance. Christine, welcome to Motley Fool Answers. Robert, it's so great

to see you. Thank you for having me on. So let's start with your story. How did a political science Russian language major end up as Morningstar's director of personal

finance or finance, as you pronounce it?

It was a roundabout path.

I studied Russian language for like 10 years, so four years in college as well as six

years prior to that, had always

had an interest in politics, in government, and international relations.

So I emerged from college thinking that I would do something, putting those two things

together.

And at that point, when I emerged from college, the job offerings that would leverage my Russian language experience were, seemed kind of dull to me.

So I interviewed with the NSA, I remember, and that position, as far as I could tell entailed just kind of listening and on-phone conversations of Russians who might be living in the

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