about stuart warner

Sure, I knew a lot of detail about money and tax law. My bookshelves (this was back in the 1990s) were stuffed with reference manuals and I attended training courses for accountants on a regular basis. I had to keep up my education to retain my practising licence.

The problem was that I was overloaded with information, and I didn’t see the big picture. If I knew then what I’ve learned since, I could have played a more active role in helping my clients – those who were interested – to improve their long-term finances.

In that small town environment, some of my clients were doing well. But many were scraping a living. And some had debts that crept up year to year.

I knew something was missing and I was searching for ‘something’. I didn’t know what. Then a few things happened that started me down the road to understanding how people could get a better grip on their finances: the big picture I’d been lacking.

My first major step forward was in the year 1999. A friend recommended a book to me: The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. The book didn’t focus on money. It was about how to build a successful small business. For many people, running a small business was like being stuck in a swamp with no way out. But it didn’t have to be that way. A business could be a route to financial freedom.

A few months later, I was flying out to California to study Gerber’s business coaching system. I ceased my career as Stuart Warner the accountant and became Stuart Warner the business coach.

The coaching system laid out a step-by-step path for business owners to learn, adapt and integrate. I really liked that step-by-step logical approach. It didn’t just promise a dream. It showed you how to get there. Also, part of Gerber’s system focused on money management. It explained things in a really clear way.

And that’s one theme I’m aiming to mirror on this site. Step-by-step methods to help you achieve your financial goals and dreams.

The next big eye-opener turned up about three years later, in 2003. The same friend, who’d introduced me to ‘The E-Myth’, invited me to his home to play a financial education board game. It was called ‘Cashflow 101’, created by someone I’d never heard of: Robert Kiyosaki.

I followed up by reading some of Kiyosaki’s books, including Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Cashflow Quadrant. For me, the ideas were priceless. They lifted the veil from my eyes.

Until that point, I felt like I think many of my accountancy clients felt. You trudge along day-by-day, working hard and, yes, having some fun along the way. But it was like a treadmill. I hadn’t been aware that there was a way out, a way to improve my finances so I could achieve greater financial freedom and freedom of choice.

Why had I been so slow to see this big picture? Well, I don’t think I was alone. Not one of those 1990s training courses for accountants set out a path to financial freedom, along which we could guide our clients.