I lost everything... NOW I AM A FINANCIAL WHIZZ!

Losing her husband and $600,000 just made lynda work harder for the money

- Megan McChesney

As an accountant, Lynda Moore has spent much of her life helping clients manage their financial affairs. What the Auckland mum-of-one didn’t appreciate for many years was that being smart with numbers doesn’t always lead to financial success.

It took a painful divorce, a rock-bottom moment when she found herself $600,000 in debt and a series of deathbed heart-to-hearts. But now Lynda’s ready to share with the world what everybody needs to know about money and relationships.

“When couples break up, 70-80 percent blame it on money,” explains Lynda, 59, whose book Conversations with Money: A Love Story is released on Amazon on March 2. “But if you know how to talk about money, if you can effectively communicate about money, you will thrive.”

If anyone knows how personal attitudes to money can affect a relationship, it’s Lynda. In her book, she uses her own failed marriage to third husband Gaz Maroof as a cautionary tale.

The pair first got together in 1999 and Lynda says the engineering consultant swept her off her feet.

“He was six foot and incredibly handsome,” she shares. “He had the most beautiful deep voice and a dry sense of humour.”

Gaz was an Australian-based client at her accounting firm, and one day he called and said, “I’m here in Auckland for three days and I’d like to monopolise your time.”