Whole Human Money

The most essential part of anyone's financial life is the person living it.Financial planning as we know it is failing people for one simple reason: it doesn't account for the human managing the money. Conventional budgeting and meticulous modeling work against human nature rather than with it, leaving people full of guilt and shame when they cannot stick to the plan.In Whole Human Money, financial planner Melissa BA Horton offers another way to save, spend, and live. Her bucket system has helped countless clients, and the author herself, stop fighting to separate their emotions, values, relationships, and experiences from their money, and start aligning them instead. Horton's humor, empathy, and realism are worlds away from the shame-driven and critical advice that dominates today's personal finance space. Rather than forcing you into systems that don't fit, this budgeting book offers a realistic approach to financial planning that you can shape around your life.Filled with real client stories, actionable frameworks, and a process refined over nearly two decades of practice, Whole Human Money meets you wherever you are, whether you're just starting out, adding on, or building back up.

Melissa BA Horton has always known what it feels like to be the other person in the room, and she's spent nearly two decades building a career out of that perspective.As a biracial Black woman, an elder millennial, and the founder and CEO of EViE Financial, she has never fit neatly into the box that "financial advisor" is supposed to occupy. That's the point, though. Her career and business journeys have been as diverse as she is, and her work reflects the same.She works with folks from all walks of life, but planning with mental health professionals and women entrepreneurs has brought her the most joy. Her clients are those who are often better at taking care of everyone else than they are at taking care of themselves financially. She built her firm on the belief that a financial plan that doesn't reflect your real life isn't much of a plan at all. Not the life you think you're supposed to want, but your actual life.Beyond EViE and Whole Human Money, she is a nationally recognized speaker, a devoted reader, a practiced writer, and someone who will absolutely have a third cup of coffee before deciding whether that was a good idea. She loves music deeply and constantly; she dances whenever possible. She believes momentum is everything and that how you spend your money is one of the most honest things you can say about yourself. Most notably, financial planning is, genuinely and without apology, one of the great joys of her life.Whole Human Money is her first book. It is, in many ways, the book she wishes someone had handed her a long time ago.