“I’m not a morning person,” Livia Kelly confides, speaking from her home just outside of Atlanta, although her seemingly limitless enthusiasm regarding the publication of her debut book, Unmarried and Debt-Free, belies this. Indeed, she seems to be one of those rare individuals who radiate genuine positivity. When asked what it was like to hold the first copy of her book in her hands, she says that “it was exciting and surreal. I’ve never previously considered myself to be an author—it’s been a great journey.”

It was her own life journey that inspired her to write her short but comprehensive guide, which aims to help single people take control of their finances. In it, she writes that she worked her way through college in her 20s, then moved from Steilacoom, Washington, to Memphis, Tennessee, to take a flight attendant position. Around this time, she writes, she became a “compulsive purchaser” with $20,000 in credit card and loan debt. The economic impact of the Gulf War also proved to be a major “wake-up call” for her, as her airline company “laid off thousands of workers and implemented large pay cuts to the remaining employees.”

Kelly’s own pay cut convinced her to make “smarter financial decisions,” and she became an independent beauty consultant in her spare time. By the age of 29, she’d not only paid off her debt, but also bought her first home. But in her 30s, she once again began to accrue debt because she didn’t create a personal budget. After attending a leadership conference, however, she decided to work on developing her money management skills. After the 9/11 attacks, Kelly took a voluntary five-year furlough from her airline job; still, she managed to end the 2000s debt-free, except for her mortgage, thanks to commissions from her home business. She returned to working as a flight attendant in her 40s, and, during a five-year period, she had medical issues that necessitated her taking considerable time off work, which, she writes, “reinforced the importance of budgeting [and] having emergency savings.”

Now 53 and “feeling fabulous,” Kelly says that she’s eager to share her life lessons: “I wanted to tell my life story,” she reflects, “and do so in a way that helps other individuals financially.” Her book, which Kirkus describes as a “short but surprisingly thorough and engaging overview on achieving financial freedom,” highlights simple yet often overlooked money management strategies, such as checking one’s credit rating, planning an emergency fund, and, most importantly, creating a monthly budget:

It doesn’t matter if you’re on a fixed income or if you’re a millionaire: you still need a monthly budget because debt affects all income levels….Creating a budget allows you to determine in advance whether you will have enough money to do the things you need to do or would like to do. Making a monthly budget is the most critical step in getting and staying out of debt.

Kelly’s language throughout the book is clear and direct, and her knowledgeable advice is always tied closely to her real-life experience. When asked about budget keeping, she says, “I can show you my budget sheets from 10 years ago…it’s the number one thing that will keep you from going back into debt.” She prefers to keep all her accounting on paper, but her broadly researched book’s advice is aimed at a range of age groups; for example, she suggests various apps for those readers who choose to work electronically.

However, she doesn’t simply advocate the gross accumulation of wealth. “We’re put on this Earth not to horde things for ourselves,” Kelly remarks—and her guide reminds fellow Christians of the importance of giving back to the community in terms of paying tithes, donating to charity, and volunteering. “I go to a great church with a great outreach program,” she confides. “I don’t have children, but I hope that I can give something back and make a difference for the next generation.”

Kelly cites the 1997 book Halftime by Bob Buford and the 1999 book How To Manage Your Money by Christian-radio personality Larry Burkett as works that inspired her own writing. Yet, perhaps most significantly, she says that it was her mother who proved to be her key role model: “I discovered that dad was not comfortable with money, so my mother was the one who controlled it, [and] she showed me that a woman can be in charge of money and can do it well.”

1Unmarried and Debt-Free is brimming with a similar can-do attitude. Kelly was a three-time Washington state track champion in high school, and she continues to follow a fitness schedule that includes speed walking, interval training, and weight lifting. She admits that she doesn’t feel like herself if she misses a training session, and her vigorous approach to tackling debt has similar effects: “If it’s keeping you up at night, you need to address those needs.” Having solved her own financial difficulties, Kelly considers herself “more at peace.”

It seems that the author now wants to share this feeling of peace with others, as she’s preparing to give readings at local bookstores and libraries. She’s also “working on something [else] that will coincide with the book” but notes that “I’m keeping that to myself for now.” She says this with a twinkling, enigmatic smile.

As Kelly heads out from our interview to do some errands and catch up on exercise, she sums up the philosophy of her entire endeavor, which takes an altruistic and nonjudgmental stance on debt: “You don’t want to be scolding people. People’s choices are their choices, and debt happens for many reasons. But I did want to give people the facts, keep it simple, and show that debt is a work in process—but escaping it can be achieved.”

Darren Richard Carlaw is a British writer and editor and the founder of StepAway Magazine.