The Kruegers, like Mel "Buddy" Patterson and his wife Shirley, met Winch through her class at the University of Wisconsin. Both couples wanted to learn more so they could handle their investments themselves, but they ended up turning their money over to Winch.
"I wasn't happy with my old advisor because he was losing too much money for me and I was not sleeping at night. I wanted to do it on my own," remembers Patterson, an Appleton resident who is a retiree from a Wisconsin paper company. "But I saw that Christina is really smart and I thought maybe I should let her handle it. She has completely regained the $300,000 my old advisor lost and I am sleeping a lot better now, even in this turbulent market."
Winch plans to weather the current market for all of her clients. She is expanding and redecorating her Appleton offices to make them even homier. In addition to her office work, she makes time for a regular radio broadcast on a Christian network where she offers financial advice to average people or those in financial trouble, and she plans to continue teaching. New clients are obtained by referral only, and she plans on opening five more offices in the next few years in New York; California; Madison, Wis.; Chicago; and Atlanta, where she already has clients located. The busy schedule does not scare her.
After three decades in the industry, she says, she has no plans to slow down. "I retired once, in 1990, and I have no plans to do it again," says Winch.