We are affected by money, whether we admit it or not. Creating change from your dollars is about acknowledging the personal causes and financial effects in all of our lives, making change one decision at a time, and understanding how our choices affect our inner circle, community, and country.

Connect with Brett

  • “Brett translates the language of money into value systems which is critical in financial education and empowerment for me as an autistic person. I am a business owner, a creative, and an activist. Brett’s work helps me to create meaning from money and connects the dots for the perspective I need."

    Moorea Seal, Artist and Designer mooreaseal.com

  • "In person, Brett is a man of few words and a lot of action. I was one of the teens he writes about that needed a ride home. I grew up with barriers like that, but now I travel the world sharing my gift. He lived out the lessons he taught us. With compassion, wit, and tact he saw my adversity back then and still challenged me to build an accomplished life."

    Khari Turner, Artist khariturner.com

  • “[Brett’s] stories and commentary opened my eyes to a whole new perspective and brought me a new understanding of society and money, as well as INDIVIDUALS and money from a SOCIAL point of view, that all the books I’d read about ‘money mindset’ (or personal finance) hadn’t even minimally touched.”

    Annick I.

  • "Other personal finance books that I have read too often end up feeling like a blueprint built around someone else’s goals ... This book felt different in a very refreshing way. By sharing his experiences, [Heaton Juarez] makes the conversation about personal finance feel more personal."

    Charlie K., Amazon Reviewer

  • “Change From Your Dollars talks about money in such an authentic way, a true testament to the realness of Brett Heaton Juarez. This book is approachable and digestible, no matter where you are on your personal journey with money.”

    Nicholas Z., Amazon Reviewer

  • “Money can be numbers, yes, but at its core, money is an emotion. [Heaton Juarez] navigates us through that notion with deftly surfaced stories from his thousands of hours spent with people of all ages and backgrounds."

    K.B., Amazon Reviewer

  • “[Change From Your Dollars] causes me to reflect on how my relationship with money reflects what I value and that understanding what I value is foundational for managing my finances … I appreciated how conscientious and authentic every story was- and hope to read more from Heaton Juarez in the future.”

    Paula P., Amazon Reviewer

  • “A truly contemporary perspective on the meaning of human value, monetary value, and the world in which they must coexist.”

    Jon, Amazon Reviewer

In this book, you’ll find:

✔ Stories of personal cause and financial effect ranging from childhood to middle age. No techniques or top ten list, and definitely no judgment.

✔ Insight into how actual people behave, and identify four pathways to success.

✔ Explanation of the properties of money, qualitatively.

✔ Historical, sociological, and psychological perspective on why things are the way they are.

✔ Insight on how public policies and private perceptions shift the current of money.

Excerpts from the book

  • "When something is important, what we are hoping for is value. Good value is not always the same as buying something on sale. The sale is a gimmick to unload overripe fruit; the value bears fruit over time."

    Chapter 6, The Value of a Penalty Kick

  • "All financial advice is a means to arrive at 'earn or have more than you spend.' This is a simple truth. Why we can or cannot manage to do that is where the hard work begins."

    Chapter 18, “We’re in a bi-SES Relationship”

  • "As a parent, you begin to learn advocacy in a new way. Saving and spending on your child is an act of love. Getting your own house in order is an act of logic. That perfect nursery will be lost along with the house if the mortgage isn’t paid. Like an oxygen mask on the plane—put yours on first before assisting others."

    Chapter 29, Helplessness

  • "Should top surgeons make $600,000 a year? Well, that’s not for me to say. I overhear people saying, 'I’ve got a headache and just don’t feel like working today,' or 'I’m distracted because my dog is sick,' and other similar things. But consider this: when a patient is scheduled for surgery to remove a tumor or transplant a kidney, the cost is not an issue, time doesn’t wait, and the surgeon must show up ready."

    Chapter 6, The Value of a Penalty Kick

  • "We spend on what we value. We value what we can see, hear, touch, taste, smell, fear, or desire. Are the last two senses? Not sure, but desire and fear are catalysts for behavior change. Their distilled cousins, want and worry, leave us in a rut. I want food more than I worry about the cost. The fear is distant, but the desire is now."

    Chapter 12, “You Gonna Eat That?”

  • "As micro-aggressions wear on the person of color, inconvenience wears on the low-income. Maybe wealth had less to do with having stuff, which never motivated me that much, and more to do with the tailwind of convenience."

    Chapter 20, The Let’s Build a House Party

  • "I got quality financial advice from a problematic person. Which is more effective than problematic financial advice from the most quality person I know. Which a lot of people do."

    Chapter 22, Intro to Self-Help

  • "Money tends to maintain the status quo, because the money was usually acquired under the status quo."

    Chapter 23, Doing Doors

  • "Change is painful. It took ten months of reflection to be ready. But I knew I’d rather experience the pain of growth than of regret. I volunteered for change because I desired a quality of life I wasn’t getting in the present."

    Chapter 30, “So, You’re Leaving the Kids to be a … Financial Guy?”

Why write a book?

  • Write a book about money for people that hate the fact we all need it and don’t want to ask their uncle the accountant about it :) 

  • Use very personal, specific stories to illustrate the good, bad, and ugly of financial decision-making.

  • Reinforce the power of voting and consumer behavior (aka shopping) on our economy and policy.

  • Partner up and build support for a financial advising model accessible to all Americans

Therefore, money aligns to perception over time. We must change perception to change outcomes.

“Money is like water - it can nourish or drown, excite or intimidate. It strong yet flexible … and many of us never get swimming lessons.”

People discovered math while attempting to understand our natural world. The properties of the natural world can be found in the financial world.

Money can be compared to water, as they behave in similar ways.

Financial focus and pressure in one direction can burst forth like a geyser.

Waves can change the shoreline over time, but you can’t see the effect of just one.

Puddles are fun, but without a plan, dollars splash everywhere.

Like taxes or saving, irrigation captures and stores nourishment for the time and place it’s needed.

A fast-moving interest current is powerful and can knock you around, but you have to keep paddling.

Whereas a pond is safe and predictable, but going nowhere.

When we freeze up from fear or indecision, our dollars don’t move either. My spending is your earning, after all.

But as water heats up, our dollars become lighter and interconnected.

A slow moving current gained momentum over centuries of conflict and policy; it seeks the path of least resistance.

It started small though, and redirecting dollars and behavior is easier upstream.

Change from your dollars is created through informed action and decision. You don’t need to be an expert to be informed, you do need to acknowledge reality; the good, the bad, and the ugly. We can only heal when we acknowledge what is.

Money doesn't exist “apart” from our lived experience, “over there” it is a proxy for our energy, good or bad.

The financial rulebook isn’t taught well (or at all) because it’s a game: opting out has consequences. Reform is absolutely possible.

After all, reality is shaped by money, and money is shaped by perception, so … let’s change our perception.

No dollar is neutral.

About Brett

Brett Heaton Juarez is transforming money mindsets to help people achieve financial purpose and freedom. As a financial planner serving clients nationwide, he draws on his background in education, counseling, and social science to empower individuals, nonprofits, families, and businesses to embrace abundance and inform financial choices aligned with their core values.

Brett lives in Greater Milwaukee with his wife and three children. He spends his free time reading with a good cup of coffee, adventuring outdoors, and persuading his kids to love those things, too. (Minus the coffee.) Change From Your Dollars is his first book.