As the first in her immediate family to attend college, L. Renee Whaley is a 1998 graduate of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, and received her MBA in 2009 from Argosy University. As a Financial Coach and a Ramsey Solutions Financial Master Coach, Whaley specializes in sharing the message to others that budgeting and debt management are the keys to a life of financial freedom.
Financial management has long been a passion of Whaley’s. As she worked her way through college at the University of South Carolina, Renee never had a student loan! Since Whaley’s parents were not high school graduates, they could not fund her education, and therefore, Whaley applied for hundreds of scholarships yearly, always securing at least five per year!
Though Whaley’s mother did not have a high pedigree of education, she taught her three children through her actions that frivolous spending was not the way; and more importantly, God was a provider. Often, her mom poured over bills (especially after her divorce), trying to determine the best way to get through as a single parent of three children. She instilled in her children indirectly that they should pay their bills and that, as the Bible stated, we should “owe no man.” Whaley lives by the Scripture and often emphasizes to her clients Proverbs 13:22, which states in part, “a good man leaves an inheritance to your children’s children.”
It was ironic that Whaley found herself at one point in $75k worth of debt after marriage, but in 3 years, she and her husband paid off every penny of it! Seventy-six percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and Whaley does not believe that’s God’s plan for our lives; she believes we have been “tricked” into believing that in this life, debt is a MUST. For her, this is not true, and she has dedicated her time to prove this point!
Whaley has been happily married to Norman Whaley, Jr., an Art Educator for the Atlanta Public Schools system, for 20 years. Norman and Renee are parents to two boys – Judah and Jonah.
About Her Book – A Journey to Financial Fortitude
We’ve probably all heard the statistic – 76% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck. We hear it so often that we have become numb to it. As a result of this, we continue to charge up our credit cards, pay outrageous amounts of money for school, hence the student loan crisis, and continue the vicious paycheck-to-paycheck cycle.
Renee grew up in a family that was stuck in this cycle her entire childhood. She was determined to break the pattern in her own family’s life and started an exciting journey to financial freedom. Through her experience of witnessing her parents struggle with money, Renee eventually did too. She knows what it is like to be steeped in debt. However, she chose to “break the chains” of financial bondage in her life.
As a Ramsey Solutions Master Financial Coach, Renee has had the opportunity to coach many from a life shackled in debt to a life of financial freedom.
In this book, you will learn how Renee, an ordinary person, born and raised into a low-income family, pushed through, despite the obstacles to reach her ultimate goal of living a life of financial freedom. She will share how, with God’s wisdom and guidance of Dave Ramsey’s Seven Baby Steps, not only changed her and her family’s legacy but propelled her with the fortitude to teach others to accomplish the same.
