
Financial Planner’s Book Takes Aim At Superwoman Ideal
January 16, 2014
by Lou Fancher
DANVILLE — Superwomen, watch your backs. Danville financial planner and author of “Stocks, Bonds, & Soccer Moms: 7 Steps to a Balanced Life” (New Year Publishing, 2014) is bent on destruction.
Myth-busting her way onto the nonfiction literary scene with a two-fisted punch, Michelle Perry Higgins’ simultaneously launched the slim, debut self-help publication and a beefy financial organizer boldly titled “The Everything Binder.” While the financial, estate and personal affairs binder delivers rock-solid checklists and is designed to help families locate their assets at pivotal life points, “Stocks, Bonds & Soccer Moms” is all about the individual woman and finding balance.
For a savvy businesswoman, Higgins surprises even herself as she admits, “finding a publisher was scary. It was like doing a mini-startup. I interviewed publishers at an author’s conference that was like speed-dating.”
Blessed with a good education, financial resources and a spouse who stuck with her during her “downward spiral,” she selected Danville’s New Year Publishing, in part, because she wanted control of distribution. She has donated a number of books and binders, and a portion of her profits will support Teen Esteem and other charities. (Teen Esteem is a Danville-based organization providing volunteer speakers who advocate safe choices and healthy self-respect through a guided curriculum and workshops for middle school and high school students.)
Higgins’ “learn to be good enough” missive is finding receptive readers. Within one week of it’s release, her eight-chapter book soared to Amazon’s Top 100 books in Parenting and Relationships. Higgins says she deliberately tried to avoid overwhelming readers with clinical information and included raw, personal stories because she “didn’t want it to be anything other than two girlfriends sitting down to help each other.”
Admittedly, the volume is slim when it comes to mothers of boys. Higgins, the mother of two girls, ages 7 and 11, says, “Clearly, I was writing it from a perspective of girls. I wrote it for women and for women to pass on the balance to their girls. I had a niche market in mind … but one of the best Amazon reviews is about how good this book is for men.”