Planner's new book composes 'Wealth in the Key of Life'

Financial planner Preston Cherry set out to "eat your own cooking, so to speak," by starting his new book with a description of his earlier struggles with alcoholism and money, he said.

"I have to demonstrate that I've done the work. I continue to do the work. I've been there. There's no shame or judgment," Cherry, the founder of Green Bay, Wisconsin based registered investment advisory firm Concurrent Financial Planning, said in an interview ahead of the launch of the book, "Wealth in the Key of Life: Finding Your Financial Harmony," later this month. "I thought I'd share a story in order to do the things that I'm asking others to do."

Cherry's book, published by Wiley, offers a lens into his personal journey from financial ruin and substance abuse problems during his self-described "fog years" to CEO of a growing RIA. In it, the past president of the Financial Therapy Association explains how he guides clients past the stigmas surrounding money to what he calls "Life Money Balance." 

It amounts to "a book of permissions to boldly take hold of your life and money aspirations without shame or judgment or justification," he said.

"Money is just not a tool. A lot of people like to say it's just a tool. It's not just a tool, it's more than that. It's a partner with a soul and it's essential to our lives," Cherry said. "It's as though we have a lessened value system if we say that money is important."

READ MORE: 3 expert takes on the best behavioral onboarding for clients

A member of Financial Planning's list of "23 people who will leave a mark on wealth management in 2023," Cherry joined a growing group of advisors putting pen to paper in recent publications such as a primer for accountants breaking into planning and a case for frequent family meetings as a means of building generational wealth. The book adds to Cherry's  ongoing work boosting financial literacy, alongside other industry professionals pursuing that mission. 

Preston Cherry

The intention of Cherry's book is "to help people like you have a different partnership with money, independent of social norms, that is fulfilling," he writes in the conclusion. "Life is a continuum, a movie of integrated scenes and a song of harmonious notes. In life and financial terms, both happen across a life cycle, where money accumulation and decumulation occur. In life, there are moments of challenge and moments to celebrate. Our money is different in each life stage, and so is our purpose and preference in these stages. Our life is integrated into our ideal versions of our current and future selves, trying to maximize the best versions of ourselves across the domains of life."

Cherry holds a doctorate in financial planning from the Texas Tech University School of Financial Planning, which gave him a distinguished alumni award earlier this year. In addition, he's the director of the financial planning program and the Charles Schwab Foundation Center for Financial Wellness at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. 

"Dr. Cherry brings a wealth of personal experience that helps to provide an insightful and motivational approach to financial planning. His latest book is an excellent example of how he does so," Russell James, the CH Foundation chair of personal financial planning and director of graduate studies in charitable planning at the school, said in an email.

The introduction traces Cherry's movement from a nadir that led from initially "doing well professionally" while "I was dying professionally" to a rock bottom of hiding from any form of light in a closet in the early morning hours of a bender.

"I parted my clothes and crawled behind them in a corner, finally achieving the darkness and emptiness of my self-worth and value," Cherry writes. "At this moment, I realized what I didn't want to do and what I wanted to do; I wanted more light, and I wanted more life — the life I envisioned."

To locate the right balance in life and money, Cherry provides readers with a process that requires no financial or technological expertise, highly sophisticated forms of investing or any type of self-punishment or blame. 

It does entail, however, responsibility in the sense of "accountability to faith as you find it your family — which is your household, yourself and the professional that you decide to work with," he said. "You don't owe any justification to anyone else about how you are allocating."

READ MORE: Everyone wants money. But what's it mean to be wealthy?

In order to carry out Cherry's advice, he coaches readers to use a "Six-A Alignment Framework" with the steps of "admit, acknowledge, act, align, aspire, achieve," a "Five-Point Life Planning Process" with an equation of "person + preferences + purpose + points + plan = prosperity," and a "Life Money Balance" wheel to connect people's values to real-life applications. 

The book also pays tribute to some of Cherry's favorite music, such as Stevie Wonder's masterpiece album, "Songs in the Key of Life," which Cherry says is his "personal life soundtrack." He cites the late producer legend Quincy Jones, who famously said that there are only 12 different notes to play and, "We have to figure out how to make them ours through rhythm, harmony and melody."

"That's wealth in the key of life is finding your own harmony," Cherry said. "You're building your own song with your own music notes. Once people are in that transforming realm, it's a beautiful thing. It is a transformative process."