“I want to meet with you and your husband to talk about this,” Elisabeth told me one day when I was working for her as an administrative assistant. I had walked into work extremely stressed out about an unexpected bill related to my car, and she saw how stressed I was. “I’m not doing my job if I don’t help you,” she reassured me.

I had been running restaurants for fifteen years as a general manager.

When one restaurant I was managing closed, I realized I was burned out and needed a career shift, more in line with my bachelor’s in business administration and my master’s in human resources. I found myself in one of the most challenging financial periods I’d ever experienced: living in my parents’ home, with my husband and toddler, out of economic necessity. That’s when I saw an ad Elisabeth had placed, looking for an administrative assistant.

A month into the job, my husband and I had that meeting with Elisabeth, after she offered to help me with my financial planning. Filling out her advising intake questionnaire was the hardest thing I ever did. Seeing the reality of my financial life, all on one sheet, and then having to hand it over to someone else to look at in harsh light–I was completely full of shame. And on top of that, she was my boss! I was so worried she was going to tell me that I needed to claim bankruptcy and that she made a mistake hiring me.

Instead, Elisabeth said, “I have a dozen different ideas for you guys.” She showed us how to leverage the only asset in my life at the time, which was my car, and we wiped out a huge chunk of high-interest credit card debt with a low-interest loan using the car as collateral.

Then she showed us how to use a Wealth Recovery Account, which is a centerpiece of our planning for clients. It became a fun (and lucrative) game for us, to find ways to cut spending and get money into that account, which we used for paying off debt and building up a down payment for a condo.

How did we go from living in my parents’ basement as adults, to owning our own condo? Elisabeth taught us about VA loans, which we had never heard about. (My husband served in the Navy). These are the kinds of details Elisabeth knows about that completely change lives. They changed ours.

Now we’re completely out of debt, with a home and a growing investment portfolio. We sold our condo at a profit and bought our first single-family home in 2016. We’re looking to buy our next home this summer, and there’s no doubt in my mind we can do it.

I’ve been working for Elisabeth since 2012. When our clients tell us, “I wish I had met you a decade earlier,” I feel that sentiment on a gut level. Because, had I not met Elisabeth a decade ago, I might still be living with my family in my parents’ basement. Now I’m a homeowner with growing wealth. I owe it all to Elisabeth’s caring heart and brilliant mind.

My parents never thought they could retire abundantly. And guess what? Elisabeth helped them too; it’s come full circle in my family. Now they are living their dream retirement. My whole family’s financial life and wealth level have been transformed unrecognizably by Elisabeth. That’s why we’re loyal to her for the rest of our lives.