The other day, I got a community email from a neighbor in our community who has had their home on the market for almost a year. They’ve had showings, lowered the price, and still — no sale. They reached out sharing their thoughts on their situation. I thought I would share with you some of my thoughts and the questions I’ve asked myself when I was selling a home in the same community several years back.
Real estate decisions are never just financial — they’re emotional, strategic, and often tied up in lifestyle shifts. In today’s market, with interest rates staying stubbornly high and fewer people making moves, the calculus has changed for both buyers and sellers.
The Market Reality: Higher Rates, Slower Moves
We’ve been in a “rerating” mode for some time now. Mortgage rates continue to persist with long-term bond yields — like the 30-year Treasury — hovering just south of 5%. That means buyers are needing price cuts because they feel the pain — their cost to borrow is simply higher.
So while there may be plenty of buyers out there, they’re often sitting back, waiting for prices to drop. And sellers? Many are holding on to the prices they used to see. It creates this weird stalemate: who moves first?
A Friend’s Story: Selling Below Expectations, But On Their Terms
I have a friend who I admire — a successful business owner — who just went through this. They built a beautiful new home and listed their current (and very up-to-date) home for sale. They got some interest, but at lower-than-expected prices. Eventually, they got under contract… then the tariff talks flared up, their buyer’s industry took a hit, and the potential buyer backed out.
Sure they got more interest, but the offers were still below their original goal. After sitting with it all, they chose to sell — for less than they had hoped — because the risks and opportunity cost of holding it just didn’t make sense anymore.
Their decision process really made me reflect: they weighed the time, and financial risks if the market continued to soften. Their decision not just about a house, but about their future.
It got me to the start thinking about what I would do.
If I Were in That Situation…
If I were in our neighbor’s shoes — or yours, if you’re trying to sell — here are some of the things I’d want to think through:
💬 Get Multiple Opinions - Especially in this market.
Even if you love your realtor, get a second or third opinion on pricing and strategy.
Ask for an honest assessment: How competitive is your home really compared to similar listings?
What’s selling nearby — and why? Is it price? Is it updated features? Is it location? Is it price to value?
I’d ask for a full breakdown of recent sales — in your neighborhood and across the way — and I’d want to talk about how things like high traffic areas or safety concerns are being weighed by buyers. If properties are moving, even with those same issues — so why not yours?
🧮 Do the Capital vs. Time Math
If you're holding out for a higher sale price but are also open to renting, consider this:
What is the value of the equity/capital tied up in your home right now?
Could you deploy it elsewhere — even into something as simple as a 4.1% money market fund (June 2025) — and come out ahead with less stress?
What kind of returns would a long-term or short-term rental generate?
How much time, management, and attention would that rental require from you?
Is renting worth the illiquidity and hidden costs?
Personally, if I were going to hold a property, the return would need to be meaningfully higher to justify the real and hidden costs that I have deemed as expenses.
My Own Experience: Why I Sold a Rental I Could Have Held
Back in late 2016 or 2017 (the years blur together), I had a second home in our community. I updated it and had a wonderful tenant who wanted to buy it from day one. They leased for three years, and before it ended, I had a choice to make.
Sure, the property had more upside over a longer time horizon. But, at the time, I wasn’t planning to scale into a big real estate portfolio, and the return I was earning came with illiquidity and duration risk. At the end of much back and forth personal deliberations I decided to sell it — even though I let it go for less than my long term original holding period.
What helped me was something said to me — by someone I love dearly — that really got me to think of the transaction in a more personal way:
“You can always find a good buyer, but you cannot always find a good neighbor.”
That really stuck with me. We had a great neighbor. And to me, that was worth a lot.
Final Thoughts: What’s It Worth To You?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to whether you should hold, sell, or lease a property right now. But here are some thoughts if you’re on the fence:
Don’t go it alone. Bring in more than one perspective — your realtor, another agent, maybe a trusted real estate friend or financial advisor. You are your CEO, have a team of folks ready to provide you their trusted and experienced perspective.
Ask different questions. Not only ask “what could I get?” but also “what is this worth to me in terms of peace of mind, time, and future options?”
Run the numbers — all of them. Include hidden costs, lost opportunities, and energy drain. Real estate is a much different investment than a liquid investment.
And finally — listen to your gut. If you're burned out on waiting, or the property no longer fits your life or goals, sometimes the “lower offer” is actually the higher win.
A summer walk - 2025.
So what did I do with the proceeds, you may be wondering?
I invested in a real estate opportunity in the Colorado Rockies — at the time it was not clear but with the benefit of time it has turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made.
The reason for the purchase was to find meaningful place for rest, connection, and quality time with family and friends. With the benefit of time, it’s been a win both financially and mentally — the kind of return that’s hard to quantify but easy to feel.
We all come to these decisions from different places. I just wanted to share mine — in case it helps you navigate yours.
Blessings for a wonderful summer — a time to relax and reflect on the many blessings in your life, both big and small. It’s also a good season to show up for those who may be going through a difficult moment, or even a difficult chapter. Being a good friend to the people who matter to you is one of the greatest gifts you can give. And making that investment of time and care offers a return you can feel for a lifetime.
It’s Sunday morning. A cool day, and the house is silent. One of my sisters-in-law, an early riser, has already sent out a message of love and support to all the mothers and godmothers in our family. It’s one of the things I love about her.
Although I am not a mother in the traditional sense, I am godmother to her eldest daughter, and I’m so grateful to both my brothers and my sisters-in-law for how open they are in letting me love their children as my own. The best gift I can give them is the assurance that I will always be there for them, should they need me. All they have to do is keep reaching forward—pursuing their dreams and aspirations. And if ever they grow worried or unsure, they can look back. I’ll be further down the mountain… but never too far to witness their challenges, celebrate their triumphs, and be there with a bit of support, encouragement, or a helping hand.
So this morning, I began drafting a few words to express my love this Mother’s Day. They honestly just poured out in 15 minutes—surprising, yet also a testament to the inspiration behind them: my mother. The poem reflects what I’ve witnessed all my life—how she loves and cares for her children, grandchildren, and now a great-grandchild.
Then I began to think of all the women in my life… some close, many spread across the state and country. Whether we speak often or only occasionally, whether we live in the same city or connect through social media and holiday cards, I’m filled with love and joy as I witness the way they care for their children and their loved ones with such tenderness.
The world can feel at times rough, unkind, and lost. But it’s on days like today that I feel overwhelmed with gratitude, hope, and love. It gives me a chance to reflect on all the incredible women in my life.
So here is the poem I wrote—to the woman who gave me life, who supported my every wish through prayer and a helping hand, and who loved me without end. I love you, Mom.
I am rich beyond measure—rich in the one thing that has been written about since the beginning of time: love.
To Be a Mother
To live courageously, To love deeply, To care wholeheartedly, To share endlessly, To admire abundantly, To pray constantly, To protect fiercely, To teach patiently, To show compassion lovingly, To mend tenderly— Is to be a mother.
What a gift a child of any age receives When they receive the endless gifts a mother gives.
Happy Mother’s Day
To mothers whose acts Move us, Touch us, Inspire us, Give us— the love our souls crave.
It is because of my mother’s love that I now get to share that same love with four beautiful young babes who call me Loli (Lullee). Loli was my mother’s nickname growing up in her small town. Every time I heard her cousins call her that, I could feel the love in their voices. It always made me feel special—how deeply loved she was by her family.
So, to have these four beautiful grand babes call me by my mother’s name is incredibly special to me. It means she will live on for generations. And oh, how these young children love—a true testament to their beautiful parents! I’m so grateful they let me share the endless love given to me with their children.
It’s hard not to feel good about life when you get a call, receive a hug, or have them eat off your plate with their tiny hands. I sure do love them all.
May today fill you with loving memories of your mother—the woman who gave you life, brought you into the world, and loved you through the easy and hard times. The one who protects you always. And if your mother is no longer with us, I’m reminded she lives on in our hearts and souls. She protects us from beyond—through prayer, through beautiful memories, and the lasting messages she gave us. That is how I remember my grandmother, the woman who gave life to my mom.
I’ve been talking to many folks recently in light of what has been going on—ahead of the historic announcement and, of course, since then.
I don’t know about you, but this weekend, like many others, is about a lot of research and reading. This weekend in particular, I spent more time trying to think of the bigger deal that is being bargained with these tariff announcements.
I try to zoom out and look at things from an investor-minded point of view. In this case, the investor mindset is that of a U.S. Treasury holder who is being asked to sign up again for new bonds. I imagine, like Corporate Treasurers, Sec. Bessent will be on the road listening to bondholders and trying to secure a new deal. With 30% of U.S. debt held by foreign owners, it seems these new trade deals and the rollover of some of our trillions of debt may be tied together.
I’m reminded of a class I took back at UT—it was a business law class. We were given “made up” cases, and we needed to determine what we thought the outcome would be based on prior case law, etc. I spent a great deal of time going to the UT law library to see if I could do deep research and thread together a possible verdict based on prior cases. I was surprised to find, in my research, that the case we were given in class was not a made-up case like we were told, but the actual case. Therefore, I knew what the actual outcome was and the reasoning behind it.
I went to the professor before turning in my paper. I approached him and let him know I realized this was not a made-up case and asked if the test was to see if we would do the research or if we were trying to guess. He just smiled. I told him, “Well, I think you are trying to get us to do deep research—and determine the actual case law. I will include that in my write-up and submit my findings.”
I tell you this story to say: I think I found another such situation hiding in plain site if you have not already found it. I have been trying to figure out what is really going on here in the macro environment, geopolitically, and how the markets are responding. A theory is forming, taking that investor mindset view. Take a look at the below video where Bessent was speaking last spring, ahead of Biden dropping out of the race and before the selection of JD Vance as Trump’s VP pick.
Zoom out of the details, and let’s look at the big picture. The tariffs discussion is just one part of the equation. The trade deficit, the debt, and military power are also part of the bigger issues at play.
Listen past the political commentary and criticism. Listen for what is probably the roadmap of what is going on here.
Then-private-citizen Scott Bessent is talking about creating a new trade reorder. He references Bretton Woods and the Treaty of Versailles. If you were like me and not familiar with the details of either, here is a quick summary, thanks to my AI assistants:
Overview of the Bretton Woods Agreement
Context and Purpose
Timing and Setting: The Bretton Woods Conference took place in July 1944, during the latter stages of World War II. It was held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire (United States) and brought together delegates from 44 Allied nations.
Motivation: The primary goal was to avoid the economic destabilization and competitive currency devaluations that had contributed to the Great Depression and the rise of global tensions in the interwar period. Allied governments wanted a stable international financial framework to support postwar reconstruction and growth.
Key Outcomes
Fixed Exchange Rate System: Most currencies were pegged to the U.S. dollar, which was in turn backed by gold at a fixed rate (USD $35 per ounce of gold).
Creation of Institutions:
International Monetary Fund (IMF): Established to oversee the international monetary system, encourage currency stability, and provide short-term financial assistance to countries facing balance-of-payments difficulties.
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which later became part of the World Bank Group: Created to provide long-term loans for reconstruction and development projects.
Leadership and Influence: The United States emerged as the central economic power. Notably, two figures were highly influential in conceptualizing the system:
John Maynard Keynes (United Kingdom)
Harry Dexter White (United States)
Strategies Used to Build New Commercial Relationships
Multilateral Cooperation: Instead of piecemeal or bilateral deals, the Bretton Woods framework encouraged multilateral engagement. This meant countries were encouraged to reduce trade barriers and maintain stable exchange rates.
Economic Interdependence: The use of a fixed exchange rate system was intended to foster predictability in trade and investment, tying each nation’s currency stability to collective rules rather than unilateral actions.
Financial Assistance and Reconstruction: Through the IMF and World Bank, member countries could access financial resources to stabilize their economies, rebuild infrastructure, and lay the foundation for international trade networks. This lending system was critical for war-torn nations looking to reintegrate into the global economy.
Comparison with the Treaty of Versailles (1919)
Context and Objectives
Treaty of Versailles:
Ended World War I and was signed in 1919.
Primarily focused on determining postwar territorial settlements and imposing punitive reparations on Germany.
Dominated by Allied powers (especially France and the UK), with a central aim of preventing Germany from regaining military strength.
Bretton Woods Agreement:
Emerged before World War II had fully ended, in 1944.
Aimed to build a collaborative, stable monetary system and enable broad economic recovery instead of focusing on punishing any single state.
Emphasized constructive economic growth and financial stability for all participants, with the United States playing a leading role.
Philosophy and Tone
Versailles: Centered on retribution and assigning blame. Reparations and punitive measures dominated negotiations.
Bretton Woods: Focused on cooperation, reconstruction, and preventing another global depression. Although power dynamics were still unequal (the U.S. had great influence), the ethos was more about shared prosperity than punishment.
Mechanisms and Enforcement
Versailles: Enforced through political and, if necessary, military pressure. Failure to comply with reparation demands led to international tensions and economic isolation, exemplified by the French occupation of the Ruhr when Germany defaulted on payments.
Bretton Woods: Enforced primarily through economic and financial incentives—countries that did not adhere to the IMF rules risked losing funding, credit, and the stability benefits of the system. The reliance was on cooperative rules-based governance rather than punitive enforcement.
Similarities
Multilateral Negotiations: Both the Treaty of Versailles and Bretton Woods involved multiple Allied nations gathered to shape the postwar order.
Dominance of Certain Powers: In both cases, the victorious or leading Allied powers (notably the United States and United Kingdom) had a disproportionate influence over the agreements.
Differences
Intent: Versailles sought to settle the issues of World War I through territorial, military, and financial penalties, whereas Bretton Woods aimed to proactively shape the global economic and financial future in a collaborative manner.
Outcome on Global Stability: Versailles is often cited as a contributor to long-term instability (especially within Germany), whereas Bretton Woods established a framework that arguably underpinned decades of global economic expansion and relatively fewer international currency crises in the immediate postwar era.
Longevity: Bretton Woods lasted from 1944 until the early 1970s (when the U.S. abandoned the gold convertibility of the dollar), leaving behind permanent institutions like the IMF and World Bank. Versailles, by contrast, did not produce long-lived international structures for collaboration and soon gave way to renewed tensions.
In Summary
The Bretton Woods Agreement represented a cooperative, rules-based approach to rebuilding a war-torn global economy, tying national currencies to the U.S. dollar and providing shared financial mechanisms (IMF and World Bank).
This stood in stark contrast to the punitive and reparation-focused Treaty of Versailles, though both resulted from major multinational negotiations following world conflicts.
Over the long term, Bretton Woods proved more effective at nurturing international trade, financial stability, and economic growth than the measures instituted by Versailles, which contributed to lingering economic and political resentments.
So, is this the beginning of the new Bretton and Wood or Treaty of Versailles or something in between?
It sure does feel like the approach is more akin to the Treaty of Versailles than the cooperative nature of Bretton Woods.
Everyone cannot be the enemy, and even if people bow down, there will be economic and political resentment. There is a way out forward, but the question is whether mature heads will prevail.
What Else to Watch:
Howard Marks is a famous value investor. He is a great investor on the bonds side and a great educator on risk.
Some good insights. I have similar thinking, and perhaps my more direct thoughts include:
Cooperation is being strained. There will be economic impacts.
Rates may not go lower as everyone is expecting… If so, then the cost of capital will potentially increase and that has longer-term impacts on economies, business investments, etc.
If we have a “one-time” increase in costs—make no mistake, that has HUGE impacts on retirement safe withdrawal rates, and we should expect lower valuation multiples on equity investments.
The U.S. is still strong—we have incredible innovation, great capital markets, and talent that is attracted to the U.S. and rule of law—although it is showing cracks. However, what I used to not question about our ability to be magnetic, I now have to ponder.
Prices for everything seem to be changing. Worse scenarios could be:
The price of ownership in companies may be repriced down materially and going forward not worth as much as we would all like or have grown accustomed to.
Prices of everyday products are going up. How much is anyone’s guess. I think the ending number the administration may be going for is 10%—mostly eaten by others (countries, manufacturers, companies through a reset of lower profit margins), and we as consumers take a 2% to 3% increase. Consumer prices will probably be higher than that. They are the ones with the least economic power. Unless consumers coalesce and unite, I suspect more of the financial impact will fall on consumers. So buy the best quality you can so you don’t have to keep buying again and again. Multiple purchases are an even bigger destruction of retirement portfolios and personal budgets than higher inflation.
Extra Homework for those interested in the great thinking of risks by Howard Marks
If you are not familiar with his works, he has published a great series on risk. It is worth watching to get up to speed—and then look at your portfolio to see how much real risk you have in your investments, whether in public markets, private real estate, or personal finances.
Closing:
What is ahead for all of us will not be like the last 24 years. I’d recommend getting really engaged in thoughtful reflections, formulating your own worldviews, and having conversations with people who are open to lots of ideas and ways of seeing the world.
“Macro Investing: We live at the edge of geopolitics, economics, and gravity…and eventually gravity wins.” - Scott Bessent 2024
Things are different now, and I think it is safe to say that nobody likes the forces of gravity at this moment.
Finally, people can strengthen themselves and prepare, but give folks some time to get their heads, hearts, and minds around a new way of doing things and to shore up fiscally. Every home has done this at one time or another. Every business has had to. People can prepare if they are trusted to know what the real plan is.
Next article—With $36.7 trillion in federal debt, which has grown under both political parties, we should also pay attention to what is going on in Congress.
Women’s Equal Pay Day is not just a symbolic reminder of the wage gap—it’s a reflection of how deep the disparities run in our workplaces. Despite the talk of meritocracy, the reality many women face tells a different story. This is not an issue of capability. Women are just as talented, just as driven, and often outperform in the roles they’re given. Yet time and again, they are not promoted at the same rates, stay in supportive roles longer, are not released from roles timely, and are not measured by economic and capital outcome standards but rather something far less tangible.
Let’s call it what it is: This is not a meritocracy problem—it’s a leadership and cultural one.
When Merit Is Not the Measure
Too many organizations claim to promote based on merit, yet quietly operate on influence, proximity to power, and politics. Some leaders rise not because of sustained performance, but because they know how to advocate louder, influence powerfully, align politically, or simply coast on results from the past. Meanwhile, others in supportive roles—often women—are sidelined or overlooked, even when they’re the ones doing innovative and creative work that drives impact.
I’ve seen firsthand how complex initiatives are handed to underperformers as “tests,” while capable, proven women leaders are either left to carry the burden or are left out altogether. And in some cases, their work is later co-opted by someone else more politically connected. Sometimes this isn’t even done quietly—it’s blatant.
If you have ever been asked to “get someone up to speed” so they can present your work as their idea, just because they were expected to be the face of the update—then this story is not new.
Here is what is new: Let’s start asking more intellectually honest questions. Where’s the integrity in taking credit for other people’s work? Why are the people creating the new solutions and strategic work not the leaders of the organization?
Let me tell you one of my stories.
When “We All Know Who’s Doing the Real Work” Isn’t Enough
I remember sitting with a leader I respected—someone I genuinely enjoyed working with—who, when I raised concerns about another leader planning to present my work and that of my team’s work as their own, simply said: “We all know who’s doing the real work.”
And while their tone was empathetic, that moment didn’t sit right with me. Not because of them—but because of the water we were all swimming in. It wasn’t meritocracy. It was something else.
You see, I had been asked to join a task force to solve a long-standing issue. The project had passed through a few hands previously—none of whom had made meaningful progress. Eventually, it was given to a team of people who weren’t known for strong performance. They were being “tested” to see if they could rise to the challenge, to lead, and to perform. I knew this because I was on the inside. I was added because, in the words of someone close to the effort, “We need someone who can actually get the work done.”
That should’ve been a red flag. But I believed in the work. I believed in the potential for meaningful impact. So, I joined the team and helped to shape the conversation. My team and I quietly started building a solution—an intellectual solution and a technical solution. We stayed under the radar because we knew there would be resistance to the technical solution. And we were right.
The task force leader—uninterested in the details and not building a solution in a meaningful way—was asked to give executive leadership an update. They asked me to get them up to speed so they could present the solution. They said they were expected to lead in the design, so they needed to get up to speed to present the solution as if they were involved. When I shared my views with my leadership, I was told that once executive leadership realized the task force leader didn’t know the details—and since I would be in the room and more than likely speaking up—the credit would naturally come back to me and my team.
Think about that. We’re saying we value honesty and accountability—yet we ask people to stay quiet while others present the work as their own, because eventually the truth might come out.
In a culture of real meritocracy, such conversations and situations shouldn’t even exist.
Why Transparency and Accountability Matter
Until we start measuring what really matters—and making those measures transparent—we will continue to see the same cycles repeat. Promotions, raises, and project leadership assignment should be tied to economic and business objective results, not less tangible metrics like relationships, proximity, etc. To truly lead, leaders must:
Track actual contributions with clear, measurable KPIs.
Track progress through longitudinal reporting—to see job migration, progress or lack of employee progress, contributions, successes over time.
Remove subjective performance standards—we should be measuring real creations, real results, real financial impact.
Acknowledge family responsibilities, which often disproportionately fall on women, and yet roles are designed for success for individuals who do not have family responsibilities.
Stop rewarding proximity to power over innovation, productivity, and financial and business outcomes that align with our business strategies.
Create intellectually honest environments where employees, through the use of transparent data, can ask more first-principles questions—root cause analysis questions—without risking retaliation or exclusion.
Atlas a Titan in Greek Mythology. A 45-foot bronze figure that guards the front of 45 Rockefeller Center. Herculean Effort in Plain Sight.
Women Are Not the Problem—The System Is
Women are often placed in supportive roles that are herculean and critical to holding up departments—but because those roles are “quiet” or not seen as strategic, they’re left out of promotion pipelines. And in cases where a leader doesn’t want to lose a reliable person, high-performing supportive employees are, at times, held back because their advancement might make things inconvenient for that leader.
Let’s be honest: that’s not meritocracy. In those moments, leaders are serving their own comfort, not the critical work of the business—and certainly not serving the rising employee.
We need to make long-term investments in the business where the best employees are put in key roles to drive the business.
And when women do rise, they’re still often measured differently. Home responsibilities don't go away. In fact, they grow over time. Even in the most equitable households, data shows women take on more of the invisible labor. The system, meanwhile, rewards those who can be “always on”—a luxury often afforded only to those without caregiving responsibilities.
Do the Math: The Numbers Don’t Lie—But They Do Demand Questions
Let’s take a step back and ask some intellectually honest questions. Start with a simple and real example that I saw first-hand:
If two-thirds of your promotion pool are women, and only one-third of those promoted are women, while two-thirds of the promotions go to men, then:
Men are being promoted at 2x the rate of their representation pool.
Women are being promoted at 0.5x their representation.
Maybe that’s a one-time event. Maybe the sample size (12) is small. But if this happens year after year or across large datasets, then the issue is no longer anecdotal. It's systemic.
This is why longitudinal data tracking and reporting become important. It’s more work, but anything worth truly understanding is work!
So, we must ask:
If our organizational and business performance is strong, who is driving that performance? If two-thirds of the workforce is women, yet they are only getting promoted at 0.5x their representation pool, are we truly then performing well?
If we believe we are performing well as a company, is the success coming from a small pool or is it more widely distributed in terms of employee contributions?
If we have mostly employees who are succeeding and achieving in our organizations, then we can start asking why the math works out that we have more from one population, yet they are less likely to get promoted. And why is that?
Why are we not promoting more from the larger pool that helps us get the results?
Can we tie those results back to individuals?
Do we value some work differently than others?
Do we value less the support roles?
Are those individuals in support roles—especially women—being given more opportunities to lead, innovate, and grow so we can then measure them on work we do value for promotions?
We have to ask all these kinds of questions. Because if women are consistently outperforming but under-promoted, one could argue we are not only failing to recognize excellence—we are actively suppressing it.
Let me be clear: Women and men both support organizations. This isn’t about one group carrying the other. But if we’re not willing to look at the math—and more importantly, what lies underneath it—then we’re not doing our jobs as leaders. We’re being intellectually lazy, or worse, intellectually dishonest.
Real meritocracy would never allow that dynamic to exist.
Leadership Is a Choice—Not a Title
It takes courage to lead with truth. It takes strength to stand up for your team when someone more senior wants to take credit for their work. It takes clarity to challenge norms when those norms are cloaked in a culture that rewards silence and discourages pushbacks.
But those moments matter. They define not just our own leadership—but the cultures we help create.
Eventually, I had the opportunity to present our team’s work directly to senior leadership. I wasn’t looking for credit. I was looking for truth, integrity, and recognition of those of us who did the heavy lifting. It was the right thing to do—and it sent a message to my team that their contributions, their innovations, their efforts mattered.
What Now?
If we want to honor the spirit behind Women’s Equal Pay Day, we have to do more than post on LinkedIn or host a panel discussion. We have to:
Look at the math in our organizations –not just this year, but the last few years.
Ask harder questions once you have the data.
Tie performance to strategic and business outcomes—not just personality.
Ensure recognition and opportunity go where the work is truly being done.
Because a culture of meritocracy isn't something you declare—it’s something you build. And sustain. Through transparency, accountability, and consistent courage.
Until then, the path will remain harder for women who operate in those herculean support roles—not because of their ability, but because of the systems surrounding them.
And still, women rise—because sitting still has never moved progress forward. We are contributors, innovators, builders, and leaders—and moving progress forward isn’t just what we do, it’s part of who we are.
While I was on a break, walking the cold, snowy fields, I’ve been thinking a lot lately.
March 2025 - A Afternoon Walk in the Snow
There’s a lot of talk about consolidation work. Leaders are constantly looking for ways to streamline operations, cut costs, and restructure for efficiency. It’s easy to talk about these things at a high level, but what happens when you’re the one in charge? When you’re the one identifying financial opportunities, closing financial gaps, and making decisions that impact people’s jobs, careers, and lives?
I spent nearly 30 years in corporate finance - This was the work I was known for. I was deeply involved in financial oversight, operational consolidations, and risk management. And let me tell you—this work isn’t just about numbers. It’s about integrity. It is about #Getting It Right.
Because here’s the truth:
💡 Financial integrity is not just an accounting concept—it’s a leadership principle. It requires vigilance, sound judgment, and a commitment to protecting the organization sustainability, the people in it, and your own reputation.
💡 Financial controls only work if people enforce them. The strongest policies in the world mean nothing if managers, accountants, and leaders don’t actively check the details, ask tough questions, and insist on accountability.
💡 Fraud doesn’t always start as fraud. Sometimes, it begins as a small lapse in oversight, a temptation, or a moment of financial desperation—but when no one notices, it grows into something massive.
I’ve seen this firsthand, and I’ve also seen the devastating consequences of financial mismanagement—some deliberate, some accidental, but all preventable.
I want to share four real cases I encountered in my career—cases of fraud, financial mismanagement, and operational failures that reinforce how I think about leadership, integrity, and financial excellence.
These aren’t just cautionary tales. They’re lessons for rising financial leaders, accountants striving for financial leadership, and business professionals who want to raise their organization to operational excellence.
If you want to lead at high levels, understand these stories. Because the culture and tone set in organizations help shape the decisions that are made by you and others—and the consequences that result.
💡Bottom line: Financial integrity only happens when EVERYONE plays their part.
Let’s start with the first case.
Case #1: The “Paper Problem” That Turned Into a Career-Ending Decision
Early in my finance career, I had been in my role for about a year when my new boss, only a week or two on the job, called me.
"I think we have a paper problem. Can you go down to ‘#####’—a metro city—and take a look? I don’t think money is missing—just a paperwork issue."
Now, here was a new leader assuming good financial controls were in place in their sales peer’s organization (where the finance organization resided for this market — There is a lesson here, but let’s save that for another time).
You would expect good financial controls coming into a sophisticated and growing business in a new industry. Going in without casting judgment, having open eyes and an open mind, is incredibly important. What you are looking for are details and facts to help inform you of the truth in the situation.
Notice, there is a sequence to this: 👉 Details → Facts → Truth.
Remember this, as you want to get to the truth of the matter before drawing a conclusion.
So, I planned to stay in the market for two days, knowing that nothing is ever as quick and easy as we like to think.
The Investigation Begins
When I arrived, I did what any financial leader should do: start with the basics.
✅ I pulled reports to compare what the registers said we should have collected. ✅ I called the bank and got the daily cash receipts to see if the deposits matched.
And at first, everything balanced.
Except for one register.
This register was off by five figures. And not just one time—every single day.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t a paperwork problem. This was theft.
Tracing the Theft—One Day at a Time
I started working backward—first checking yesterday’s records, then the previous week’s, then the previous month’s.
The discrepancies never stopped. They went back for months.
After day one, I called my boss and said, "This is serious. I'm going to need help."
I called in one of my best people—let’s call her Lori—and corporate security.
At this point, I hadn’t slept much. When you're knee-deep in a financial crisis, you don’t have time for distractions. I was wearing the same clothes I had on when I arrived.
By day four, the sales leader of that location jokingly said to me:
"Do I need to give you my credit card so you can buy new clothes?"
I remember thinking to myself, "Buddy, I wouldn’t even be here if you had done your job managing this location properly."Of course, not everything we think, we need to say. Words are cheap in those moments.
The Confession: A $76 Theft That Turned Into a Daily Annuity
Finally, corporate security confronted the employee responsible for that register.
Their explanation?
"I took $76 the first day. I waited for someone to call me about the discrepancy, but no one did. So I took more. And then I just kept going."
And where was the money going, you may wonder?
Well, they weren’t even stealing for personal luxury. The money was going to support their drug-dealing boyfriend’s business.
The Consequences: A Life Destroyed
That decision cost them everything:
❌ They lost their job. ❌ They went to trial and were found guilty. ❌ They lost custody of their child. ❌ They were ordered to pay restitution—where we received $50 to $100 a month… for a while.
❌ The company lost a large amount of money.
And all because proper financial controls were not in place and someone the company trusted exploited that fact.
Had the financial leader of that market had their team:
✔️ Monitoring the registers daily, ✔️ Conducting basic reconciliation checks, ✔️ Training store managers to catch discrepancies early,
This could have been stopped before it ever got that far.
This was a hard lesson for the sales leader and financial leader in what happens when leadership fails to enforce financial discipline.
Of course, the financial leader left the business, and the sales leader’s career prospects were cut incredibly short.
The Aftermath: Consolidation and Accountability
After this incident, we consolidated the financial functions under my team.
👉 We consolidated functions, reduced positions, and streamlined processes.
There were many people impacted by the lack of financial controls.
💡Financial controls are security features.
We expect our banks to have cybersecurity features to protect our financial accounts.
As business leaders, we should be ensuring financial controls are in place to protect the six-, seven-, eight-, nine-, and ten-figure amounts that run through our businesses on any given day, week, month, or year.
The consequences for not having controls in place are far greater and have life-altering impacts that can last decades.
👉 Think of the sales leader. Their big-shot dreams—ended when that case was closed.
👉 Think of the cashier. Their $76 theft later cost them everything.
Case #2: The Saleswoman Who Stole Thousands, One Lunch Receipt at a Time
This next case wasn’t as blatant as someone physically taking cash out of a register, but it was still a form of fraud. And what made it more dangerous was that it was hidden in plain sight—small amounts taken systematically over time.
A leader colleague of mine had this saleswoman on their team—let’s call her Amanda.
Amanda was high-energy, always on the move, constantly networking, training retail partners, and bringing in development deals. On paper, she was a top performer. But if you worked with her, you’d know she was scattered.
She was the type of person who was so disorganized that she seemed incapable of deception—but that’s exactly what happened.
Because she was so high-maintenance, she kept getting passed from one executive leader to another and then, ultimately, from one manager to another. And each time, her expenses went unchecked.
How the Fraud Was Caught
One day, her latest boss walked into my office and said:
"I think I already approved this expense voucher. Can you check? I think she might be stealing."
At first, I didn’t believe it.
Amanda was a mess, sure, but a thief?
Still, when someone raises an integrity issue, you take it seriously and you handle it privately.
💡 The fewer people who are involved, the better.You are talking about the integrity of an individual.
So, I dug in and took on the issue to research all her prior expense vouchers to see if there were any issues.
How the Scheme Worked
Amanda had figured out something simple yet effective—submit the same receipts multiple times.
✅ She’d take a client to lunch for a training event and submit the receipt for reimbursement. ✅ A few weeks later, she’d submit the exact same receipt again. ✅ And then again, sometimes months later.
Her expenses weren’t huge—$50 here, $100 there.
But when you submit the same expenses over and over, those amounts add up fast.
And because she kept getting reassigned to different managers, no one noticed the pattern.
It wasn’t until she had a manager who actually reviewed and approved her expense report that the fraud was exposed.
The Outcome: A Career Destroyed Over a Few Thousand Dollars
By the time we caught it, she had stolen over $3,000.
As expected, she was terminated, although I don’t recall if criminal charges were brought forth. If I cannot recall, I assume they were not.
And the worst part?
The theft could have been prevented if any of her previous managers had taken a closer look at her expense reports.
While we cannot easily see someone whose principles are compromised, we can have good controls in place to stop things from happening.
Key Lesson: Financial Controls Only Work When People Enforce Them
This case reinforced something important:
💡 Businessmanagers, accountants, and finance leaders have a duty to do their part and actually do the assignment given to them.
💡Financial integrity is not just a finance function. It is a whole-of-organization function.
We all deal with expense reimbursements as part of our business practices.
Here are some basic things we can all do to improve financial controls:
✔️ Limit business charges on personal cards. When personal cards are used, it’s harder to track and easier to submit the same expense multiple times. ✔️ Limit the amount that can be placed on a corporate card. ✔️ Limit who has corporate cards. These are keys to the bank—even if an expense isn’t approved, the funds are already out the door. ✔️ Set clear timelines for submission. If expenses sit around for six months before being submitted, it’s harder to manage financial safety. ✔️ Use skip-level reports. If someone else approves your employee’s expense voucher, the system should require you as the supervisor to review it.
💡 Financial fraud isn’t always dramatic.
Sometimes, it’s just someone exploiting a system that no one is watching.
I suspect there are many scenarios where people exploit the system.
There are not many Enron cases, but I suspect the dollar amounts lost in businesses and society each year are far greater than Enron when you add up all the small exploitations.
This gets to personal integrity, financial fidelity, and doing the right thing.
We should all be doing the right thing, whether someone is looking or not.
The reality is someone is always looking—first you and then, trust me, someone else.
💡 Leading with integrity is a high form of nobility and personal sovereignty.
As business owners, shareholders, and leaders, people with personal integrity are worth a GREAT DEAL—as these cases demonstrate.
Case #3: The Employee Who Used a Corporate Card to Pay for Bartending School
This case happened within my own organization—which made it even more unfortunate, as I prided myself and my team as being examples of good leadership.
Clearly, our multi-step interviewing approach, which included interviewing the prior leader, missed a candidate who had joined our team just six months prior to this incident. [There’s another story here for another time.]
We had hired someone into our finance group—let’s call her Sarah.
She came in from an administrative role in another department, and while she was handling data reporting functions for my team, she was not supposed to be dealing with payments.
How the Scheme Worked
Once Sarah was in our department, she used her corporate card for personal and fraudulent expenses towards the end of her time in my organization:
✅ Personal home utility bills ✅ Personal grocery bills ✅ And, incredibly, a $900 payment for bartending school
Not only was she submitting these fraudulent expenses—she was also approving them.
Because she had access to her former boss’s credentials, she would log in as them and approve her own transactions. This was a clear violation of company policy by the leader and the matter should have been handled with the severity the violation created.
Why It Took Time to Catch Her
The company actually had a built-in financial control that should have caught this—a skip-level report that flagged transactions for higher review.
But here’s the problem:
💡 This control only works if the direct supervisor actually reviews the report and questions the charges.
Her manager did question the Sarah regarding the charges on the skip-level reports, however they believed the reasoning given by Sarah that the utility bills were for business purposes and that she was still helping her former boss on those matters. All not true.
Then, my direct report went on vacation, and suddenly, Sarah was reporting directly to me.
And within a few days, I knew I had a problem; but I did not know the extent of the issue.
She was showing up very late for work, taking too long to get things done, and operating as if she were in her first few days on the job.
This was odd, considering she had been working for the team for six months.
I called her into my office and said:
"You have a great job here. You should know far more about your role and responsibilities given how long you have been here than you actually do. What is going on here?"
The next day, she quit and sent a long, detailed letter explaining that she realized her job was important, but she wanted to step down so that someone else could do it better.
I remember thinking, "Maybe I was too tough on her."
But that afternoon, my accounts payable manager walked into my office and said:
"We have a problem."
I realized: I was the one who got had here. She quit because she knew she was about to get caught.
She had stolen several thousand dollars, and the last transaction that sealed the deal—her bartending school tuition.
Case #4: Cyber Fraud From a Familiar Email
This last case is a cautionary tale for every business dealing with external payments.
One of the company vendors had a meaningful check headed their way. Instead, it was sent to a fraudulent bank account.
How It Happened
Hackers infiltrated the vendor’s email server and saw that a large payment was about to take place.
So, they sent an email from the vendor’s real account to a group in the field, saying:
📩 "We’ve changed our bank. Please update our account information before processing the payment."
Since the email looked legitimate, the field team updated the banking details and sent the money.
A few days later, the real vendor realized they had been hacked and sent out a warning:
📩 "If you received an email in the last few days, please ignore it. Our email was compromised."
But by then?
💰 The money was already gone.
How Could This Have Been Prevented?
The field team followed standard payment procedures.
Their mistake? They trusted the email without verifying.
This was not their fault. They didn’t know what they didn’t know.
But the organization should have had stronger safeguards in place.
To prevent this type of fraud, here’s what I still use today on personal transfers:
✔️ Require multiple verification steps before setting up a new vendor or changing bank accounts. ✔️ Do not share banking information via email—use secure platforms instead. ✔️ Require verbal confirmation for all banking updates—no exceptions. ✔️ Implement a test deposit process. Before sending large amounts of money, the receiving party must confirm a small deposit and verify the exact amount.
💡 The key to cybersecurity isn’t just technology—it’s process discipline.
Fraudsters know that businesses rely on email for vendor communications.
That’s exactly why they target email accounts.
The Bigger Lesson: Cybersecurity is a Finance Issue, Not Just an IT Issue
Many organizations think cybersecurity is the responsibility of the IT department.
💡 That’s a mistake.
This case shows that fraudsters aren’t hacking systems just for fun. They’re coming after money.
And, the people who approve transactions, make payments, and authorize fund transfers—are their primary targets.
💡 Your IT team can put up firewalls, encryption, and multi-factor authentication. But if your payers do not have strong payment verification protocols, the money is still at risk.
What Do All These Cases Tell Future Leaders in Finance and Business?
If you’re a rising financial professional, accountant, or business leader looking to move up the ranks, here’s what you need to know:
1️⃣ Financial leadership isn’t just about knowing numbers. It’s about understanding how fraud happens, spotting risks, and enforcing financial integrity.
2️⃣ People steal for many reasons. Sometimes, they’re desperate. Sometimes, they think they can get away with it. Sometimes, they justify it in their mind.
3️⃣ You have to assume mistakes will happen—even in good teams.
💡 Your job is to put the right financial controls in place to make fraud nearly impossible.
The cases I dealt with were about:
🚨 Employees in bad situations or where they made bad choices. 🚨 Leaders who ignored warning signs. 🚨 Systems that were too easy to exploit.
Final Thought: Financial Integrity Is a Business Essential
💡 This work—consolidation, financial oversight, fraud prevention, operational excellence—isn’t just about saving money.
💡If you can implement the right controls, ask the right questions, and enforce financial integrity, you won’t just be good at finance. You’ll be a leader that will be highly valued and compensated for that integrity.
There’s a common saying:
“Manage company money like it’s your own.”
But here’s the reality—you don’t want people managing company money like it’s their own.
Some people are terrible at managing their own money.
Instead, you want people managing company money like their career, reputation, and future depend on it….because it does.
Until next time, keep building financial flexibility and freedom to Embrace Any Future!
