Hoover resident, financial planner releases debut book

Greg Powell sat in a comfortable chair at a round table in his Hoover office. The Fi Plan Partners president’s desk was cluttered in a way one would expect from the founder of a business, covered with files and financial planning documents. Powell gestured to the collection of patriotic decor, memorabilia of his days at Samford University and wealth management signage that lined his office walls. 

“This,” he said, “is just 36 years of what I’ve been doing.” 

Powell shared those 36 years of financial planning advice and experience in his debut book, “Better, Richer, Fuller,” which was released on Amazon in March. 

“The title ‘Better, Richer, Fuller,’ came from a book called ‘The Epic of America’ by James Truslow Adams,” Powell said. “In 1931, he wrote the book and coined the phrase ‘the American dream,’ and I still believe in the American dream and believe there are opportunities out there for everyone. But part of that is you’ve got to develop a plan and work with that plan.”

Powell’s book attempts to guide readers while developing a financial plan. The 208-page read is a deep dive into his “financial house” concept that he often uses with clients when helping them plan their financial legacies. Powell came up with the idea of the financial house years ago while coloring with his young daughter. 

“I proceeded to draw the triangle and square and she proceeded to color in the rooms,” Powell said. “As she was coloring in the rooms and mentioning what each room represented — a room for you and mom, a room for my sisters, a room for our cat, Boots — it occurred to me what a great way it would be to explain the questions people need to ask in their lives and in their financial lives.” 

Powell said he never intended to write a book but felt compelled to do so after several of his clients urged him to document his financial house process. 

“My clients kept saying to me, ‘Greg, I really want something that I can give to a colleague at work, or my neighbor or my children.’ At the time, I just had a white paper that I would give people, and they said they needed something with more depth to it,” Powell said. 

The Fi Plan Partners CEO said he attempted to write “Better, Richer, Fuller” at several different points, but struggled with condensing and recording more than 30 years of financial planning advice into words on a page. 

“I would write those pages and attempt to perfect those pages, when in reality I just needed to go through and see what the story would turn out to be,” Powell said. 

So Powell reached out to Chris Davis of Chris Davis Digital and took a different approach to writing the book. 

“I was voicing that I wanted my book to read as if my voice was coming off the page, at which point he said, ‘You’ve been doing this for 30 years. You have so much advice and so many stories to share with people. Why don’t we just video record you?’” 

For three days, Davis recorded Powell candidly sharing his financial planning advice. The recordings were transcribed, edited and organized into chapters. 

“It’s my voice on paper. It’s me talking, and I’m very proud of that and very appreciative of the people who helped me along the way,” Powell said.  

Powell said he has gotten positive feedback from readers who were empowered to plan their financial futures after reading the book. 

“The reason I love talking about the ‘your financial house’ process is that it also emphasizes that you would never build a house without a blueprint,” Powell said. “You wouldn’t give your money to a builder who looks at you and say, ‘You’ve described this enough to me. I really don’t need to use a blueprint to build this.’ Too often, we’ve got financial advisors saying they can invest your money for you and they know nothing about you, your dreams your goals of the relationships in your life.” 

A few of Powell’s clients have asked for more books like “Better, Richer, Fuller” that break down how to navigate each of the individual rooms in the financial house, Powell said. 

“If ‘Better, Richer, Fuller’ continues to do well and clients keep asking about it, I might do that,” Powell said. “But, the main reason I wrote the book was not to sell books. It was to empower people.”