Valuation — Accounting for Beginners
I wanted to open my own shop building custom hot rods. Coming out of high school, I knew I never wanted a boring desk job. And for most people, accounting is about as boring a desk job as you can get. But lo and behold, a few years later, I found myself heading down an accounting path.
Why I Took the Class
The reason I took that first accounting class was my dad. He’s always encouraged me to do what I want to do. If I wanted to open a hot rod shop, that was totally fine. But he reminded me that if I was talking about owning my own shop, that meant I’d be owning my own business. And if I was going to own a business, I needed to take business courses. So I went down the business path at Butte College. One of the first required classes was Accounting for Beginners. I took that class, and the teacher was LaRee Hartman. She had so much passion when she taught. She’d stand in front of the class with her arms waving, ending almost every idea with, “Isn’t this fun?” Somehow, she made it fun to learn. And with the way my brain works, the material clicked. It was easy for me to understand, and I actually enjoyed it. A lot of that came from her enthusiasm.
How Passion Made Learning Click
She was engaged. She was excited. It connected with me. And that connection carried forward. From there, I aced that class. Then I took her fast track, which combined financial accounting and managerial accounting in the same semester—six units of accounting in one term. I ended up with something like 102% in financial accounting and around 98% in managerial. She made it enjoyable, and that motivation led me to push into more advanced work. She also got me involved in tutoring accounting, which created another turning point. When I started tutoring, I realized my brain tended to jump from point A to point C, skipping B entirely because B felt automatic to me. But when students asked, “How do I figure this out?” I had to pause. My instinct was, “The answer’s right there.” But they’d ask, “How did you get there?” That forced me to work backward and identify each step. Teaching others cemented concepts in my mind and showed me that sometimes the best way to learn is to teach.
Teaching Others Strengthened What I Knew
By the end of that semester, I had about a dozen students coming weekly. I was in a small room with a whiteboard, teaching, almost emulating LaRee—arms moving, energy high. And I realized I enjoyed it. When you work with numbers daily, patterns become obvious—much like a fish not realizing it’s in water. I see things more quickly and clearly because I’m in it all day long. That passion spills over into how I work with families today. Many people think financial planning will feel like drudgery, similar to how I assumed calculus would be until I had a teacher who brought it to life. When energy enters the room, people engage differently. That’s what I aim for with clients. I take on the work of planning, keeping track of details, and staying focused on their big picture. When I’m excited about the progress we’re making together, clients often start feeling energized too. They begin to see their destination more clearly. They recognize what their goals might look like, and they start saying, “This might actually work.” I love when that spark happens.
Why Coaching Matters Beyond the Numbers
I hear from clients that they can feel the passion I bring to this work. I enjoy what I do. I’m grateful to be someone who loves my profession. I get to sit down with people, understand what matters to them, and help design a path they can follow. It’s fun for me, and I think that shows. There’s an emotional transference that happens. People want to walk out of a meeting feeling encouraged. Financial decisions don’t always feel great in the moment, but they feel different when you have a vision and someone in your corner. In many ways, the best description of my role is “coach.” I coach my kids in baseball and soon softball, and that same spirit shows up in my work with families. I’m there to coach, encourage, and help clarify where we’re going. Every competent financial professional can run numbers or assemble a plan. But families tend to look for someone they can talk to—someone steady, someone they feel comfortable calling, someone who can support their long-term thinking. That relational side matters as much as the technical side.
Asking “Why?” Before Chasing Numbers
Understanding “why” makes the “what” clearer. Without the why, people can get off track quickly. One of the first conversations I have with clients is about their deeper motivations. People often say, “I want a million or two million dollars at retirement.” And I ask, “Why? Why that number?” Sometimes the answer is simply, “I’ve been told that’s the number.” But I want to understand what lifestyle they want, what legacy they want to leave behind, and what their long-term hopes are. Money really is a tool. So the question becomes: How can we use this tool to pursue the life you’re aiming for? And often, as we said in previous conversations, my job isn’t to hand out answers. It’s to ask the right questions so people figure out what direction they want to go. Every family is different, and that’s why A Prosperous Family exists—to help people reflect, plan, and think intentionally.