My life changed for the best when I decided to leave my job… for an unpaid gig. (I don’t recommend that for everyone!)  I moved from Massachusetts to Montana and helped build a nonprofit organization that needed an accountant. As crazy as it sounds, I was fortunate to have great support from friends and family in my choice.

This got me unstuck and launched my career of helping build solid financial systems in nonprofit organizations. Throughout all my work, I have created solid financial systems that actually work for the individual people in the organization. It’s never enough to just tell people what they need to do. We need to work together to find ways to actually make change.

When my Dad passed away, I began helping my Mom understand her income and expenses. Together, we created a budget that allowed her to retire on her terms. We found a living situation within my Mom’s expected finances, hopefully for the rest of her life.

This was the eye opener to me that I needed to focus on preparing for my retirement, too. I more clearly understood the burden that my parents had been carrying. My wife and I knew we did not want that stress, so we needed to do the same thing for our family, to not be a burden to our children.