INTERVIEW ON “LIVE WELL WITHIN YOUR MEANS”
1. Why did you decide to write this book?
I have been seeing more of my friends and colleagues struggle in vain with their money. It is most painful around the holidays, not only Christmas, but also summer holidays, or vacations. Since I had spent so much time and energy researching and creating a money system which worked so that prosperity without debt was in my life, I wanted to pass this on to other women.
2. Who will benefit from this information most?
I would say people over 30. By the time people have reached 30, they are tired of money problems, and tired of all the methods they’ve used to get on top of their finances which haven’t worked. They have probably tried credit counselors, debt consolidators, debt diets, budgeting and any number of workshops, but nothing stuck. They are open to a new way of doing things.
3. Why is it geared mainly to women? Don’t men have much the same problems?
Financial help is needed and welcomed by most people. It seems, these days, maybe because of the shopping channels, that more women are finding themselves shopaholics, and are in extreme pain.
4. What attracted you to the spiritual part of financial management?
I was in a spiritual study group for many years called Search for God where God was called on to help with regular life problems. I decided to bring God into my clients’ financial lives, and see if it helped them stick to the Tools more effectively. It made all the difference. Their success stuck, unlike how-to systems they’d tried before which only used tools.
5. I’m impressed that the book doesn’t urge women to pay off debt no matter how much they have to deprive themselves. That is counter to most debt counsellor advice.
Extensive study of human nature has revealed that deprivation causes the human spirit to rebel. Just like dieting, most women can only resist for so long before that chocolate thing looks too good to resist, and then they are off to the dessert buffet. Debt repayment has to be part of a balanced spending plan which includes funding both needs and wants.
6. Do you follow all of the advice given in the book?
Every principle has been tried and tested on me, my family or clients. I absolutely use any section of the book relevant to me at the moment. For example, I am not about to have a Baby, but if one of my children became pregnant, I’d refer to that section immediately.
7. What’s your next book going to be about?
I wrote a cozy murder mystery called The Point about a dessert-loving woman with financial troubles who overhears a murder on a baby monitor, and thinks she knows the voice.This causes much more dessert eating. It’s a thriller but with a dusting of spiritual content. Naturally.
It’s available on Amazon.
STOP DEBTING 