For some reason, I have a knack for inviting people to think, inspiring them to act to improve the lives of others as well as their own. I do this mostly by setting a great example of what I want to teach and also because I am what I am. I've never needed to be someone else. I love working with my coaching clients (SuccessCallsCoaching) because they see that I really do practice what I preach.

The idea to create The Money Camp came to me as a means to give kids the financial education I didn’t receive as a child. I started The Money Camp in 2002 with the intent of simply teaching a local financial education camp to kids and teens In Santa Barbara, CA. That same year I had so many adults ask me for a program just for them, I offered my first Money Camp for Grownups and off I went.

After just two years of successful summer programs, I started getting phone calls and emails from all across the US and almost every country in the world. I realized the lack of financial literacy was a global problem and I decided to develop a very special type of program to solve this problem.

I don't know if I'm 'the' expert when it comes to teaching kids and teens (and adults) about money but I seem to be doing a pretty good job of it. I get testimonials like this after every one of my Creative Wealth Train-the-Trainer events (5 days):

When I first started developing the original Money Camp program (newly renamed Camp Millionaire to appeal to the kids!), I loved WHAT I was teaching but not HOW we were teaching it. I asked for help. Help came.

I strumbled upon Peak Potentials and a man named T. Harv Eker and within 2 years I had taken almost every course he offered, including two amazing Train-the-Trainer programs that used and taught a teaching methodolgy called Accelerated Learning or Teaching. I was hooked. I loved it! I loved teaching, I loved writing programs, I love engaging audiences and helping them get it, all while they were having a great time learning, sharing, growing and more.

All of my programs use accelerated teaching techniques and an experiential style of programming (i.e., games, activities, role-playing and contests) to keep the participants engaged, increase their retention and ensure that the campers have a great time learning about the sometimes dry and taboo-ladened subject of money. “Financial freedom is your choice” is just one of the many sayings, slogans and principles her programs teach.

Our Camp Millionaire for Girls program-2007

I currently run Creative Wealth International, a non-profit organization that teaches kids and adults time-tested personal money management skills and wealth creation principles in an environment that incorporates thinking, understanding and relevance. Every program begins by exploring how our financial thoughts, beliefs and attitudes relate to our future wealth potential.

Though the topic of my life’s work has shifted to money and finances, my passion is in inspiring others to become independent and self-reliant. My goal is to enlist as many people as possible in her quest to teach kids everywhere how to make, manage and multiply their money wisely.

I graduated from Oregon State University in 1983 with a degree in Commercial/Industrial Fitness. I had a personal fitness training business before it was a household world. Even though I was making a little money, I certainly didn't have a clue what to do with it or how to make it grow.

In about 1988, when Apple Computer had this little dinky thing called an SE30 (20 megs of hard drive space, wahoo!) someone handed a mouse and sat me in front of one of these contraptions, I was hooked. I quickly learned everything I could about the computer (not the 'other' computer...the MAC:-). I taught myself enough graphics, enough about how to fix a computer and install almost everything and soon I was known as the 'computer lady'. I didn't much care for that though. Didn't suit me but mostly it got me in front of other people's computers because they couldn't fix them! Yikes, what had happened.

Next chapter. Second marriage, $17,000 worth of business debt (not from buying piddlycrap) and two years later, with the debt paid off and neither he nor I knowing what to do with the thousands of dollars we had been paying down the debt with, I called my Mom and asked her why I didn't have a clue what to do with money! In a nutshell, she quietly explained that she couldn't have taught me something she didn't know herself.

Oh my, did I ever have one of those huge Ah-has. Next, came Robert Kiyosaki's book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, a huge lightbulb and another bigger Ah-ha and my life has never been the same.

I vowed to make a difference. To touch as many kids as I could so THEY wouldn't have to go through what I and most of my friends were going through. Why were we learning what to do with money in our 30s and 40s? This was absurd to me. As a straight A student in high school and college, I should have known this! But I didn't. And I didn't want other kids to grow up and have to recover from their childhoods financially.

So, Money Camp for Kids happened. Money Camp for Grownups happened. Peak Potentials and my learning that training others fed me more than any else had before in my whole life!

This is a photo of me doing my favorite thing...teaching and changing lives! It's an honor to be in that position and I never forget it.

I wrote this book for a couple of reasons. The first being a very simple one: I want to make sure as many kids as possible gain the financial skills they need to grow up happy, healthy, wealthy and wise. As I explain later in more detail, like many adults, I never got this information when I was young, or in my 20s, or even in my 30s! It was only in my late 30s that I realized I had this HUGE gap in knowledge when it came to what to do with my money. After teaching myself and filling in this gap, I wanted to share it with as many parents as possible so they could share it with their kids.

Secondly, this book is my response to the overwhelming number of questions I’ve been asked about allowances during the six years I’ve offered The Money Camp programs. Parents bring up the question of allowances over and over again and based on their questions, I’ve been inspired to ask some of my own.
Years of researching what others thought and were doing with allowances helped me not only answer all the questions, but develop this amazing system that finally does what it’s supposed to: prepare kids to handle money not just wisely, but brilliantly!

This book was written for you, the parent or guardian, for your children and for our nation, because it takes fiscally intelligent people to become fiscally responsible politicians.