Beginner’s Guide to Growing Wealth and Investing is a metaphor-rich roadmap that teaches readers to cultivate long-term financial habits by becoming the intentional “CIO” of their own money. Why was this an important book for you to write?

Beginner’s Guide to Growing Wealth and Investing is important to me because of who inspired it. I wanted to leave an instructional manual for my little sister, my son, and my daughter, the kind of manual I wish I had at their age. My family, like most families, don’t have real conversations about money, investing, or wealth. They definitely don’t talk about the mindset, identity, and emotional strength it takes to build wealth consistently.

I wanted to demystify wealth building and pull back the curtain. People think the process is complicated or reserved for the rich, when the truth is that wealth is simple. It’s not always easy, but it is simple when you understand how money works and, more importantly, how you work. So I wrote a book that speaks to the whole person: their thoughts, emotions, habits, fears, and dreams. Those internal drivers matter just as much as the practical steps of investing.

Too often, financial books focus on what you have to do, while completely ignoring who you have to be. You can’t build wealth as a passive participant in your own life. You have to accept responsibility, step into leadership, and design your financial future with intention. That’s where the CIO metaphor comes in. Becoming the Chief Investment Officer of your life means recognizing that your decisions – not your income – build wealth, and that you need to run your financial life with the same intention and structure as a business.

And the gardening metaphor reminds readers that wealth is a process. It starts with small seeds, tiny decisions with huge potential, and when nurtured over time, those seeds grow and produce fruit season after season. I want people to stop believing that wealth is impossible and start believing “I’m possible.” Building wealth is ultimately about choosing yourself and choosing the life you want to design.

That’s why this book exists. It’s the manual I needed. And it’s the manual I want to leave behind for my loved ones and others.

How do you balance encouraging mindset shifts with giving readers practical, step-by-step financial tools?

When people talk about “balancing” mindset and financial tools, they’re already thinking about it the wrong way. Mindset and tools don’t sit on two sides of a scale, they depend on each other. You can’t build habits without the right beliefs, and you can’t direct your beliefs without the right structure. That’s the key, and honestly, that’s the difference between information that inspires people and information that transforms them. This is why I don’t separate them; I integrate them into one system.

That’s the real differentiator of my book. I’m not giving readers scattered tips, I’m giving them a system that reinforces the behavior change they need. I teach through metaphors and simple frameworks because they help readers understand complex shifts without feeling overwhelmed. Those frameworks create structure and when your financial life has structure, your decisions get clearer, your emotions settle, and consistency becomes easier. Most beginners don’t fail because they’re incapable; they fail because they don’t have a system protecting them from old habits while they grow into new ones.

That’s why the Stackers Wealth Cycle matters. Mindset shifts and tools don’t have to be balanced, they need to be woven into a system. When those are woven into one process, transformation becomes inevitable.

Were there any specific emotional hurdles you noticed beginners facing that shaped how you wrote the more supportive sections?​

The biggest barriers for beginners start in the mind, and they come down to three forces: beliefs, desires, and expectations. To be successful, all three have to work together, so let’s use a heating and cooling system to explain it.

Beliefs are your heating and cooling equipment. If you don’t believe you can grow wealth, it’s like having a completely broken HVAC unit. You can want the room warmer or cooler all day, but equipment that doesn’t work can’t respond. A broken belief system blocks every financial upgrade.

Desire is your thermostat in that it allows you to set the temperature you want for your life. If you desire freedom, your behavior moves one way. If you desire approval or status, it moves another. But a thermostat only shows what you want, it doesn’t make the change by itself.

Expectations are the electricity powering the whole system. If you expect success, the system turns on. If you expect failure, nothing runs. That’s why two people with the same desires get completely different results, their expectations either activate the system or shut it down.

When belief (system), desire (thermostat), and expectation (power) line up, the system will reach the temperature you set. In people, that’s when behavior starts aligning almost automatically and wealth-building becomes possible instead of frustrating.

That’s why people tell me this book feels different and more supportive, it’s more than an investing manual. It’s a “how you work” manual. We aren’t born understanding our beliefs, desires, and expectations, and most of us are never taught how they connect. That’s why my approach leans so heavily into mindset and internal wiring. If you don’t understand the system on the inside, nothing you try on the outside will stick.

If readers could adopt only one habit from the book to start their financial journey, which would you choose and why?​

If readers could adopt only one habit, I’d actually split it into two: one financial and one mindset, because they work together.

The financial habit is automating the process of paying yourself 10% first. And I’ll cheat a little by adding the monthly clean sweep into that. Most people spend whatever they see in their bank account. Automation protects you from yourself. It guarantees you’re saving for the future whether you feel disciplined or not. Think about it this way: the government takes their taxes first for a reason, you should too. And the clean sweep at the end of the month keeps your checking account from becoming a slush fund, subject to unconscious spending. The moment your next paycheck hits, you move the leftover dollars into savings so they can’t be spent. This one habit alone is life-changing.

The mindset habit is your beliefs. Beliefs determine everything, what you think is possible, what risks you take, and how consistently you follow through. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet, and beliefs are what give your decisions clarity and conviction. Weak beliefs lead to weak behaviors. Strong beliefs lead to strong habits, actions, and results. Most people are held back by the belief that they can’t succeed. You have to replace that little voice inside you that tries to convince you that you can’t succeed. Change the belief, and everything else follows.

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