I was recently asked what my message is and why I wrote my book. I wanted to address that now as I do think it is important.

In all honesty, when my husband passed away, I was a mess both emotionally and financially. He did a lot of the investment decisions and I knew nothing about that aspect of finance. I was able to pay bills.  But I didn’t really understand a lot of the facets of paying interest, the issues with debt, and how are taxable income affected our bottom line. Also, I had absolutely NO safety net.  If something went wrong, I was totally on my own. So if you think I don’t know what it is to go through financial hardship, just read the first chapter of my book. Believe me, I know how hard it gets.

As a result, I started to learn all of these things and more. I had to survive along with supporting myself and my son who was still living at home. The lessons didn’t happen overnight and I went through a lot of turmoil in the process. Some of the lessons included meeting people who know more than I did.  And the biggest lesson was to listen to them and not think I knew better.

As a result, I was able to go through a bankruptcy in the Spring of 2005, and purchase another home in the late fall of 2006.  Yes, even with a bankruptcy on my credit report.  I was also able to pay that house off in May of 2017.

When my husband passed away, I was 54 years old and between us, we had very little saved for retirement. I knew I didn’t have a lot of time to save so I started to save every extra penny I could find. As a result, and with a lot of lucky things that happened, I was able to retire at the end of June, 2017. If that isn’t good enough, I was able to retire debt free, no house, auto, credit card payments, nothing.  And I am still debt free to this day.

I document all of this in the book with exactly how I accomplished everything I felt I needed to do. Additionally, I have included a workbook with worksheets in the book.  Readers can copy and complete to ascertain where they are in their journey and exactly what they need to do to move forward. I have shared my pitfalls and successes in hopes that nobody makes the same mistakes I did.  And I hope readers follow my successes.  I have also included my new husband’s journey so that people understand that anyone walking my walk can succeed.

What is the moral of my story? 

No matter where you are in your financial journey, you can change the direction you’re going. I didn’t have a lot of time and my new husband had even less time. If you follow in my footsteps and walk my walk, you can become financially free. But, you have to do the work and if you do, the rewards are amazing.