Deborah Kendrick

One of my earliest blind adult role models was a talented pianist named George, whose music and the luxurious ambiance of a downtown cocktail lounge drew all manner of movie stars, musicians, professional athletes, and other celebrities. He was well-known, respected, and had a profession that enabled him to support himself, a wife, and six children. So it was with a certain amount of shock and chagrin when news spread through the blind community that George was in trouble with the IRS.

For years, it turned out, he had not paid taxes on his income. When I asked him how that could have happened, he said without shame, "I didn’t know blind people had to pay taxes."

Even as a newlywed in my twenties, the absurdity made me laugh. Of course, we have to pay taxes if we work and are paid for it. But that is honestly the extent of my own tax expertise. If the central character and company in this article had been around in those days, George might have avoided some serious penalties.

We've evolved somewhat in our society, but there remain certain categories of questions that are always acceptable in conversation and others that should stay inside the head. We ask for a person’s name and usually, "What do you do?" And then when we hear that second answer—if it is artist or teacher or cook or manager—we wonder, "And how much do you make?"

Money stirs our curiosity, our imagination, even our hunger. The possibility of it or lack thereof can incite anxiety and keep us up at night. Earning, saving, and managing money is a skill set, one not learned by all of us at school or the family dinner table.

Chris Peterson is one among us, a blind guy who discovered that he had a natural talent for understanding how to manage money and build wealth. Casually, almost coincidentally, he found himself helping one blind friend here and another there to balance a job offer with disability benefits, begin saving for a home, make a move, or cut a corner. His career as a software engineer was solid enough—taking him from IBM to Lenovo to Thrivent with roles that exercised his programming talent and leadership abilities.

Less than a year into that final corporate step, however, programming for the financial company Thrivent, Chris Peterson’s routine was abruptly changed by the same worldwide phenomenon that changed life for millions of Americans: the coronavirus pandemic. Rather than a daily 40-minute commute each way to his job, Chris Peterson was working from home and finding himself with more time on his hands and more time to think about delving into the world of personal finance. His interest in personal finance had been bubbling for some time, as was his desire to share his financial acumen with other blind people.

Penny Forward

Chris Peterson started with a website, a podcast, and even some funding to launch this new idea. Then one morning, inspiration mushroomed out of his days of mulling over metaphors and word plays related to money and blindness. Javier, Chris Peterson’s fourth guide dog from Guide Dogs for the Blind, had a little something to do with it. As every guide dog handler knows, the most important command used daily to travel safely from Point A to Point B is “Forward.” And the most fundamental unit in our American currency is the penny. Thus, the inspired name for his new nonprofit, Penny Forward, sprang to life. Soon to follow was the organization’s tagline: Blind People Building Bright Futures One Penny at a Time.

The concept of teaching and talking about money to enable blind people to establish more financially stable lives rapidly drew positive attention. He now has a solid board of capable blind people from around the country, some of whom are working to become certified financial advisors. On his Penny Forward podcast, he interviews blind people with a variety of stories—financial and otherwise—to tell. On the Penny Forward website, visitors will find workshops and self-paced courses designed to assist blind people in managing money and building wealth from a variety of directions.

Would you like to know more about taxes? Social Security? Building your credit or getting out of debt? These are just some of the topics covered in self-paced courses and workshops on PennyForward.com. Are you the sort of person who just wants to have a conversation? One-on-one client consultations are available as well.

Tasks and Tools as CEO

Completely blind since birth, Chris Peterson is an avid user of technology and braille. Daily, he uses a Windows-based PC (purchased for $50 at a convention two years ago from Computers for the Blind), JAWS screen reader, a Mantis Q40 braille display, an iPhone, and a variety of software applications, both mainstream and blind-centric.

Each day on the job is unique, but primary tasks he performs include writing content for the website, writing grants to keep the funding coming, and holding Zoom meetings or phone calls with clients. For the first three years, he and his family—a wife, two children, a guide dog, and two other pets—were supported by savings and his wife’s income. In 2025, for the first time, Penny Forward will pay its CEO and founder a small salary.

He travels to about a dozen conventions and conferences each year, including the national conventions of the American Council of the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind. He proudly proclaims that his own experience demonstrates that it doesn’t take enormous sums of money to succeed as a small business owner or CEO.

In addition to the computer he snagged for $50 from Computers for the Blind, he says he pays $30 a month for cell phone service, $30 monthly for internet, and has a nationwide toll-free number for Penny Forward that costs only $10 a month. His own resourcefulness and ability to dig deep when researching are among the primary areas he works to impart through his teaching and consulting—skills that can benefit everyone and that many blind people may not have developed.

I asked Chris Peterson how it feels to be CEO of a nonprofit, working with a few part-time staff and a volunteer board, after nearly 20 years in the corporate sector. “I’m much happier than I’ve ever been with work,” he says. Recalling a time when he was a team leader in a corporate environment where his entire team was laid off—one member losing vision and another at home with a new baby—he says he doesn’t want to be in an environment where those kinds of disappointments are taken in stride. As the leader of that remembered team, he was the only one who was spared, and the experience was painful.

Today, as leader of his own company, he values the distinction that, as he puts it, “Now I decide whether I get paid or not, and the only person I can let down is me.”

Want to Know More?

Penny Forward gets its funding from grants, fees, memberships, and donations. (Chris Peterson’s former employer, Thrivent, gave him one of Penny Forward’s first grants and has continued with notable generosity; other supporters include Wells Fargo, the American Printing House for the Blind, and others.)

You can become a member of Penny Forward for $9.99 a month or $99 a year—or even for free. All members have access to weekly workshops, self-paced course materials, and one-on-one consultations.

To learn more, visit:

Author
Deborah Kendrick
Article Topic
Employment Matters