As many of you already know, The Millennial Money Fix was officially released on Monday. Heather and I have spent the last year and a half working on it, and as two working professionals and parents who commute to and from the city, we arguably bit off more than we could chew! However, we started this journey because of what we had shared together and been though over the last 13 years of our lives. We wanted to give something to our fellow Millennials so that they won’t make the same mistakes we made (or at least offer a way to fix them if they’ve already been made).
The economic realities we face are real and we saw firsthand that we weren’t the only ones with massive student loan debt but with big goals for ourselves (starting a family, buying a home, running a business, etc.). We knew it was going to take a lot of work to write a book and get something published, but here we are! We are so excited to share our world with all of you.
Journey to Publishing
When we started writing the book, we knew there was a chance that we may have to self-publish this thing because personal finance isn’t exactly a category with a lot of NYT Best Sellers. I am no Dave Ramsey or Suze Orman (YET!), but the hard work we put into our platform over the last several years earned us an agent and a publisher who was willing to invest in us with a book deal. So, while out on maternity leave in the early part of 2016, Heather and I took what precious free time we had as anxious new parents and started to stitch together a draft of the book. What would I have done without Heather? Probably not write a book, that’s for sure! You see, Heather is the talented writer in the house. Seriously, her work speaks for itself and she’s been awarded for it too (her food and travel blog earned more traffic than this site ever did). I, on the other hand, needed the constant cracking of her whip to stay on task let alone put together an actual piece of literature. I am sure I was a nightmare to work with being the somewhat scatterbrain that I am, but she squeezed juice out of me like I was some sort of misbehaving grape. She successfully turned my ranting emotional tirades about personal finance into the fine wine of financial education that is The Fix.
Because of Heather’s attention to details and her raw writing and editorial talents, our publisher liked where things were heading and laid out a quick timeline for completion of the manuscript by the late spring of this year. This is also when things for the book became very real. For months, we began multiple rounds of edits on our own and then with the publisher. Now, I must say, having someone else chop away at something you worked so hard on can be rough, but this is what they do for a living so we had to rolled with it believing what they suggested would be for the best of our work. The months and deadlines sped by and, before we knew it, we were finalizing cover art and author bios.
Sharing the Finished Product
A few weeks ago, we began our largest marketing endeavor to date launching new accounts for the book across multiple platforms. We have a website, Twitter and Facebook page dedicated to the book so be sure to check that out. We’re drumming up some press.
Thank you to those of you who followed our progress and shared our overall message of financial education! A very big thanks to our friends in the media and press who were kind enough to give us a features, articles or lines about The Fix. It really means a lot to us. If you already had a chance to read the book, I hope you learned a few things about personal finance that you didn’t know. Or at the very least learned a few things about me and Heather (most of which are embarrassing, yet funny). I’m giving away any spoilers now, so go read the book!
Again, our goal is to continue to spread the message of financial literacy for all, but specifically Millennials. Our generation continues to face financial problems that are vastly different than our parents and grandparents so we need new solutions. I hope that many Millennials will educate themselves in personal finance through this book and other means. No education can be too much when it comes to something as important as this topic since it can a massive influence on the rest of our lives.
Special Thanks
Heather and I would like to extend some extra special thanks to our respective families. You have not only supported us in this journey of writing the book, but with Hazel too. The stories in the book would not exist if it weren’t for you. And also to our friends and clients who’ve encouraged us throughout the process, we don’t know what we would have done without your support and love.
The final thanks goes to Hazel who has no clue that her parents wrote a book, but one day she will. You are the best little girl two parents could ask for. Your love of sleeping through the night was clutch and for that you can watch all the “Peppa Pig” you want because Peppa is not only her favorite thing in the word, but it also appears to be the solution to any toddler problem! Snort, snort.