Author · Tax Professional · Collector of Things

Everything I know,
filed by hand.

Tax pro. Card collector. Family historian. Minecraft builder. Survivor.

Elaine's spent thirty-plus years doing a little bit of everything — and writing down exactly what she learned along the way, so you don't have to learn it the hard way too.

GEN · 01
NHP–101
Finding Your People
Start with a name. End with a whole family you didn't know you had.
Coming Soon
TAX · 02
NHP–102
Keep It Clean
Recordkeeping, write-offs, and quarterly taxes, explained by someone who's seen every shoebox.
Coming Soon
PLAY · 03
NHP–103
The Biggest Box of Legos in the World
A grown-up's guide to Minecraft — and the friends you'll actually make.
Coming Soon
CARD · 04
NHP–104
Rookie Season
Strategy, grading, and how to actually trace what a card is worth.
Coming Soon
LIFE · 05
NHP–105
It's Okay to Walk Away
A workbook for starting over, from someone who's done it twice.
Coming Soon
E
About Elaine

Thirty Years of Learning It the Hard Way

Elaine got her start in engineering the way a lot of good stories start: by complaining loudly enough about broken equipment that someone finally handed her a soldering iron and said, "fine, you fix it." She spent years as one of the first women on the technical side of Silicon Valley, breadboarding circuits before anyone was sure the chips would even work.

These days she's a tax accountant who's heard every excuse for a missing receipt, a genealogist who's traced her own family back further than she probably should have, a baseball card collector building a collection for the next generation, and — since a certain year stuck everybody at home — a fully committed Minecraft builder with a town, a patchwork house, and friends on three continents.

She's also started over more than once, on her own terms, and figures if she survived it, the least she can do is write down how.

30+ Years in Tax Lifelong Genealogist Card Collector Minecraft Builder Twice Rebuilt, Twice Stronger
The Collection

Five workbooks. Five things she actually knows.

NHP–101Coming Soon
Finding Your People
The Family Line Series
A real research method for tracing your family — free resources, vital records, DNA pitfalls, and the census trick that unlocks three generations at once.
NHP–102Coming Soon
Keep It Clean
The Founder's Ledger Series
Entity structure, deductions, quarterly taxes, and the recordkeeping habits that make an audit a non-event instead of a nightmare.
NHP–103Coming Soon
The Biggest Box of Legos in the World
The Late Bloomer's Guide Series
First-night survival, tool progression, and why a shared build makes friends faster than small talk ever will.
NHP–104Coming Soon
Rookie Season
The Collector's Corner Series
Grading economics, real comps over asking prices, and a collecting strategy that actually holds together.
NHP–105Coming Soon
It's Okay to Walk Away
The Quiet Life Series
A workbook for starting over after leaving a marriage — from someone who did it twice and came out fine.
"Don't assume something is a write-off. Let your tax professional tell you."
Elaine, on her favorite subject

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