Tune in on Thursday at 4:00 pm Central! To listen in – go here and just click on the player in the top right corner.


Don’t miss this encore presentation with Erik Wesner and Lorilee Craker. They’re talking about Lorilee’s just released book, Money Secrets of the Amish and Amish finance and money tips. Lorilee’s book is sometimes touching, sometimes humorous and always helpful. She pulls us into the family rooms of the Amish and shows us how they make ends meet. Story after story illustrates savvy money management: trading for goods and services, shopping for bargains, living with less, avoiding debt, curbing the desire to impress others. And Craker’s journalistic bent provides plenty of takeaway value for the non-Amish. A very worthwhile read whether your bank account is bursting or busting. It’s a fascinating interview.

About today’s guest host:
Erik Wesner is an independent expert on the Amish and their business practices, and previously spent a decade as a sales manager and record-breaking salesperson at Nashville’s Southwestern Company. He divides his time between Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where he has strong ties to the Amish community, and Poland, the country of his roots. He also writes the popular blog Amish America at amishamerica.com, covering Amish business, culture, and other topics. For more info, please visit Erik’s website: http://amishbusinessbook.com/

About Money Secrets of the Amish: Discover the money-saving and wealth-building secrets of America’s thriftiest people, the Amish.
Author and journalist Lorilee Craker was just like the rest of us, feeling thepinch from the financial fallout of 2008. As a freelancer, her income was going the way of the dodo-family dollars seemed like an extinct myth, the bank account some archaeological evidence of past prosperity.

Then, inspired by a news segment covering the Amish and how they emerged from the economic crisis unscathed, she realized it was time to learn a thing or two about their time-tested approach to personal finances. While the middle-class was wringing its hands over the family budget and the wealthy were weeping over their slashed portfolios, the Amish were content as always, spared from the cares of the world and worldliness. They not only had financial health to support their lives, they exuded a wholeness that eludes so many when the financial bottom drops out.
In Money Secrets of the Amish, readers go on an “Amish money makeover,” learning the choices, secrets, and disciplines that safeguarded the contentment and the coffers of America’s favorite plain folk by spending less, saving more, and getting happier doing it.

About Lorilee: Lorilee Craker is the author of 11 books, including the New York Times Bestseller “Through the Storm” with Lynne Spears. Her latest book, “Money Secrets of Amish: Sharing, Saving and Shoofly Pie,” releases in July 2011. Lorilee is also a mother of three, and an entertainment writer for The Grand Rapids Press in Grand Rapids, MI. Her website is LorileeCraker.com.

Lorilee is also the proud wife of sweet, country, guitar-slinging Doyle and the proud mom of three rabble-rousing kids. Lorilee has written eleven books now, which seems nutty but is a true story. Two baby name books (A is for Adam and A is for Atticus), four parenting books (When the Belly Button Pops, the Baby’s Done, O For a Thousand Miles to Sleep, See How They Run, and Loving Life with Your Preschooler (used to be Wide Eyed Wonder Years), one mom’s devo, Just Give Me a Little Piece of Quiet, two marriage books (We Should Do This More Often, and Date Night in a Minivan), and one collaboration, Through the Storm: A Real Story of fame and Family in a Tabloid World with the lovely and amazing Lynne Spears.

She speaks quite a bit at MOPS groups and other mom-type events, which she loves, and she moonlights as an entertainment reporter for The Grand Rapids Press, where she gets to go hear the rock bands of her youth for “work.” Her favorite recent interviews: Wynonna Judd, Deborah Norville, Vivian Campbell from Def Leppard, Henry Winkler (who kissed her twice and made her almost fall over….the Fonz!), and always, JY from Styx.

The loves of her life, besides God and her family, include the country of Canada, the cities of Winnipeg and Chicago (okay, and Grand Rapids, too!), her Grandma’s farm in McTavish, Manitoba, Anne of Green Gables, Jane Austen, chocolate, girlfriends, and the late, great Winnipeg Jets (Save our Jets!).