The “Introduction”
from The Morality of Money

You might wonder, “Who is this lady, and why should I listen to anything she says about morality and money?” Let me start with the easiest of the two—I’m an expert in financial matters.

If you have a financial advisor, they have likely attended the type of classes I created and still instruct. I train them and have spent my entire 35-year career in the financial services industry—first as a sales representative and then as a marketing director for an investment firm. I helped brokerage houses and their representatives understand how certain investment products fit into their clients’ portfolios and the various tax benefits or consequences of specific trades, transactions, and liquidations.

I also had these fabulous financial professionals, true gurus in the field, share their knowledge with me. For the last two decades, this synergy of information and experience with licensed agents has helped them remain relevant for their clients and enlightened me about the global need for financial literacy.

I know money and investments and how to protect them. Equally impactful, I worked in and through bear and bull markets, recessions and prosperity, and high- and low-interest rate conditions. I have researched and seen how legislation, tax changes, and economic impact have helped or hindered middle America. I have also seen the effect of the national debt, chronic deficit spending, and a growing disparity between the rich and the striving middle class.

Over the years, I have also changed my mind about the best thing to do and the most moral choice, which brings me to the faith component of my approach to morally managing money.

In 2012, I began to explore a faith-filled life. Even though I was at the height of financial success, many of my relationships were not going well. I was a single mom with teenage kids. While they went through typical challenges, I wanted to ensure a balanced success for them. My family and friends were less than helpful in achieving this goal. As you explore the pages of this book, you’ll discover that many of these relationships were harmful.

If I look beyond these external causes and consider my true motivator for faith, I realize I wasn’t living my authentic life. At the time, I was not living the way GOD had intended for me, and something was missing. My life lacked wholeness and contentment. I was miserable and struggling.

I started attending a local mega-church, where I tried to connect by volunteering and other forms of involvement in the ministry. I noticed an interesting and painful correlation. The deeper I dove into my faith, the lower my bank balance tanked. The more I committed to spiritual principles, the fewer my financial returns. Fewer customers started a new relationship with me as I began my new life. It seems overly dramatic, but it is nonetheless true. When I made this change, my business sales dried up, and my financial security collapsed. It was like living in a barren desert.

I knew this was coming. I ran a successful insurance continuing education business for over a decade, and I knew legislative changes in 2010 would dramatically impact my business model. The prior two years’ sales dropped, so I adjusted and hoped for a leveling-off. Instead, my modest six-figure income fell to one-sixth of what it had been before. Yes, ONE-SIXTH!

I was freaking out and in a fearful free fall. I had lived my entire adult life with a comfortable income. I had a sizable mortgage with clear and achievable savings goals. My two kids were college-bound with graduate studies in mind. I was, I am, the quintessential poster child of the person who hopes to achieve success in the face of many obstacles. A divorced single mom who left an abusive relationship and started a successful women-owned business. Except it was falling apart.

When I had every worldly reason to turn my back on all this Christian nonsense, I knew GOD was taking me on a tour of faith-filled finances. The correlation between my commitment to faith and the instantaneous drying up of my financial world was too grand a parallel to miss. I was about to learn lessons that probably few in a boardroom would share, grasp, or conceive. I sensed GOD saying, “You’ve learned many financial lessons, but it’s time to see this through Our lens. Let Us show you a few things.”

Show me They* did.**

Many who have suffered profound tragedy frequently say, “It was one of the best things to happen to me.” I am one of those people. I would not have this new perspective and enlightened faith without this loss. This book explores the lessons I’ve learned because they work. I’ve transitioned from the depths of financial loss to financial recovery. I have clear and attainable goals, along with a plan to achieve them. Like my kids, I’m living a life I couldn’t have imagined back in 2012.

No, I didn’t win the lottery or marry a sugar daddy. My parents didn’t leave me a million dollars. I don’t think they ever owned a million. I applied the simple strategies we’ll explore in this book. These concepts, if used consistently, will bring you financial security. You, too, will have a plan that can bring you to a life you have not yet conceived, and all it takes is commitment to a few simple choices.

*If you have concerns or questions about “THEY” as a pronoun for GOD or Higher Power, we discuss it in the book.

**If you are not a person of faith, please don’t run away from the content of this book. Even though my journey includes a deep reliance on Jesus, whom I met in the Gospels, you are not required to share that faith or any faith to explore the financial concepts in this book. The “Preface” in the first few pages will explain further.