Hi, I'm Adell

A career built around real people and real money situations. 

My professional path has taken me from the classroom to military bases to financial counseling offices — and every step has reinforced the same truth: money is deeply personal, and the best financial guidance is the kind that fits your life, not someone else's template.

I began my career in financial education in 2002 — straight out of college with a Bachelor's in Family Finance — and spent years teaching Financial Literacy and Adult Roles to high school students before transitioning into financial counseling. I worked with military families navigating some of the most complex and stressful financial situations imaginable — deployments, relocations, sudden income changes, decisions that had to be made fast.

More recently I've worked as a tax preparer, which has given me a ground-level view of how financial decisions play out in real life — and how often tax season stress is really just the surface of something deeper. 

What I actually believe about money management. 

Early in my education I came across an idea that changed everything for me — that the most important financial decisions aren't answered by formulas or rules. They're answered by knowing your values.

That idea has guided my work ever since. I call this approach Financial Leadership by Design™ — because managing money isn't a math problem. It's a leadership skill. And like every leadership skill, it can be learned. 

Money management isn't one-size-fits-all. There are principles worth following — but how you apply them depends entirely on who you are, what you care about, and what kind of life you're trying to build. No two people's financial design looks the same. And it shouldn't.

I've lived this myself. There was a season in my life when I was earning more money than I ever had — and I realized one day that my spending wasn't reflecting my top values at all. So I changed it. Not because a rule told me to, but because I knew what mattered most to me. That shift didn't cost me my financial goals. It actually clarified them.

Later I made a financial decision that went against conventional advice. People around me weren't sure about it. But I was completely confident — because it was 100% aligned with my values and what I wanted for my life at that time. I took a calculated risk and I owned it fully. That experience taught me something I now carry into every client conversation: when you truly know your values, you can make financial decisions with confidence — even the unconventional ones. No one can tell you you're wrong when you're fully aligned with what matters most to you.

What to expect when we work together. 

I'm going to listen — really listen — before I say anything. I'm going to meet you exactly where you are, without judgment about how you got there. I'm going to be honest with you, even when that means a healthy dose of straight talk. And I'm almost certainly going to make you laugh at least once, because in my experience, the best money conversations aren't the stiff, stressful ones — they're the ones where you feel safe enough to be real.

I'm your guide and your expert. But you're the expert on your own life — your values, your goals, what you want your life to be. My job is to help you build a financial life that reflects all of that. Not mine. Yours.

That's what Life by Financial Design means. 

Ready to design yours? 

If anything on this page resonated — if you've been waiting for a money conversation that actually feels different — I'd love to talk.

No pressure, no pitch. Just a real conversation about where you are and where you want to go.