I can still remember sitting in his ICU room, then in his room on Ward 57, then in our room at Fisher House. I can close my eyes and see all the machines and hear all the beeping. I can remember sitting in the corner with an iPad or my laptop with crappy internet connections. I can remember being up before everyone else. Each time I was researching where we were going next since our twenty-year plans were blown up.
Over the years since Chaz's injury, I have sat in so many conference rooms, asking for a "common family financial guide." I have seen the same faces in different rooms saying the same things. And guess what....still no real guide exists that everyone can use. More importantly, no guide exists that gets us and our crazy circumstances.
In college, a professor once told me if I was going to complain about it then I needed to be ready with a solution for it. About this time last year, I was in another room asking for the same thing with the same people and still, no real plans were made. I decided right then I was going to quit my complaining and just do it.
Last Fall I contacted a few friends. They reviewed the first forty pages that would eventually become the guide. Their reviews got me pretty pumped up. After tax season, I came back to the guide and over one hundred pages flew out of me. I went back to those friends and added several more to the circle. They all helped me tremendously. They gave me ideas and input that helped mold the guide into what it became.
Here it is....
I am very proud of this guide. I designed the cover. I designed the graphics, worksheets, and etc. The table of contents is hyperlinked to the topics in the text. Once you go to your topic, you will then find other links that will take you to learn more. I tried to make it as user-friendly as possible. I wrote the paragraphs as concisely as possible because I know of several readers who don't like to read but need information on our financial lives.
Currently the guide is only on Amazon. I hope to add it to iBooks soon, then to other digital platforms. My next goal is to make the guide into a workbook. I do not have a target date for the workbook, but it will make an appearance one day!
This guide is not perfect. It will need corrections as the years go by, but at least now we all have something. I feel this guide is a great start to getting our financial futures more organized. More organization will lead to less stress. One thing is for sure.....we need a lot less stress!
We really struggled with pricing the guide. Most financial books are ten dollars or more. I didn't want a price point that could discourage someone from learning, so I ruled out the market price of $10 quickly. I have been told more than once I am crazy for only selling the guide for $3.99. But for me, $3.99 is a lovely balance of being compensated for all of my time and hopefully encouraging someone to invest in their financial future.
If you are a wounded, injured, or ill family, I hope you will consider ordering a copy of my guide. I hope you will find it useful. I hope that you find it so useful you tell all of your friends!
