From Personal Framework to Published Work: Dawn Hilary Higgs Shares the Financial Principles That Helped Shape Her Life
Turks and Caicos financial professional turns a framework created for herself into a practical guide for building financial freedom with intention
When Dawn Hilary Higgs first wrote down the ideas that would eventually become the Before Sunrise Financial Principles, she was not planning to write a book.
She was trying to build a life.
At 32, Higgs had returned home after completing her degree in finance. She was a first-time mother, had years of work experience behind her, and on paper appeared to be moving forward. But internally, she felt behind.
She was not looking for a shortcut or a quick path to wealth. She simply needed direction.
“I’ve always been the kind of person who needs a plan,” Higgs said. “Give me a framework, a roadmap or a checklist and I can focus. At that stage of my life, I needed to figure out what mattered most and what the next right step should be.”
So she created one.
What began as a personal set of guideposts for saving, spending, priorities and long-term goals would eventually become the Eight Before Sunrise Financial Principles, a framework Higgs continued to return to through homeownership, career growth, motherhood, financial setbacks, investing and changing definitions of what freedom meant to her.
Sixteen years later, those principles now form the foundation of Before Sunrise Financial Principles, released on 31 July 2026 in workbook and digital editions.
A FRAMEWORK BUILT FOR REAL LIFE
The principles were never intended to be rigid financial rules.
Instead, Higgs describes them as guideposts designed to help people make more intentional decisions about saving, spending, growing, protecting and using money wisely.
That distinction is important to her because one of the biggest lessons she has learned is that financial freedom does not look the same for everyone.
For one person, freedom may mean owning a home. For another, it may mean being able to pay bills without stress, build a strong emergency fund, travel, care for family or reach a point where work becomes a choice rather than a necessity.
“Financial freedom is personal,” Higgs said. “If you do not define what it means for you, it becomes very easy to spend years chasing somebody else’s version of success.”
That thinking appears throughout the book, which begins not with a budget or investment strategy, but with questions about a reader’s money story, priorities and definition of financial freedom. The goal is to help people understand the beliefs and experiences shaping their financial decisions before trying to build a different future.
THE PRINCIPLES EVOLVED AS LIFE CHANGED
Higgs says the principles did not remain frozen in the form she originally created.
They evolved as her life did.
What began as “Determine Your Priorities” became “Decide What Matters Before You Spend a Dollar.”
What began as “Save. Save. Save.” evolved into “Build Options Before You Need Them.”
Her thinking about homeownership widened into a broader principle of “Build Assets, Not Just Expenses,” while retirement became “Create Future Freedom.”
The evolution reflects one of the central ideas behind Before Sunrise: circumstances change, goals change and priorities change, but the need for a sound financial foundation remains.
Higgs says that is why she does not believe financial wellbeing can be reduced to a single formula.
“People’s lives are different,” she said. “The right decision for one person may not be the right decision for another. What matters is understanding what you are building and making choices that support that.”
SAVINGS, SPENDING AND FREEDOM THROUGH A DIFFERENT LENS
Several of the principles deliberately challenge familiar ways of thinking about money.
Higgs argues that savings are not simply about accumulating money. They are about creating options.
Savings can provide the option to handle an emergency, pursue an opportunity, change careers, travel, invest or simply make a difficult decision from a position of confidence rather than fear.
“The true value of savings is not only in the account balance. It is in the choices that balance creates.” DAWN HILARY HIGGS |
Her approach to spending is similarly practical. Rather than promoting restriction for its own sake, the book distinguishes between restrictive spending and intentional spending.
The question is not simply whether someone can afford something, but whether the decision supports the life they are intentionally trying to build.
That philosophy extends to investing, debt and financial protection.
One principle encourages readers to consider the highest-value job each dollar can perform, whether that means investing it, reducing expensive debt, building savings or funding an opportunity. Another broadens the idea of protection beyond insurance to include income, health, assets, identity and financial preparedness.
MORE THAN 30 YEARS BEHIND THE THINKING
While the principles began as a personal framework, they were also shaped by Higgs’ professional life.
Her financial services career began in 1994 and has included roles across retail banking, personal banking, corporate and commercial banking, credit, branch leadership and business development, including positions with CIBC FirstCaribbean, Scotiabank and RBC Royal Bank.
That combination of lived experience and professional exposure has influenced the way she now thinks about financial wellbeing.
Over three decades, Higgs says she has seen that income alone does not determine financial stability. People can earn more and still feel financially uncertain, while others build considerable strength through consistency, preparation and clear priorities.
“Knowing what to do and actually doing it are two very different things,” she said. “Financial literacy matters, but information alone does not create transformation. Action does.”
That idea became central to the Before Sunrise philosophy.
WHY A WORKBOOK?
The printed edition was deliberately created as a workbook because Higgs did not want readers simply consuming information.
The objective is reflection.
Readers are encouraged to consider their money story, identify priorities, define financial freedom for themselves and examine how their everyday decisions align with the life they say they want to build.
The digital edition takes a complementary approach. Rather than requiring written exercises, it goes deeper into the thinking behind the Eight Principles through personal stories, practical teaching and reflection points that readers can carry with them.
The distinction reflects Higgs’ broader philosophy.
The digital edition provides the understanding.
The workbook provides the structure to act.
And the Money Moves Planner was created to help users live those principles through ongoing financial planning and everyday decisions.
TURNING EXPERIENCE INTO AN ASSET
Perhaps one of the clearest examples of the Before Sunrise philosophy is the project itself.
The eighth principle, Turn Your Skills Into Assets, encourages people to recognize that some of their greatest financial assets may be the knowledge, experience and abilities they have spent years developing.
Higgs describes her own journey in much the same way.
A job became a career. The career became expertise. The expertise created opportunities. And eventually those opportunities became books, planners, digital products and the Before Sunrise platform itself.
“That principle is probably one of the most full-circle parts of this journey for me,” Higgs said.
“I spent years building knowledge without thinking of it as something I could turn into an asset. Before Sunrise is now an example of the very principle, I am encouraging other people to consider.”
WHY BEFORE SUNRISE?
The name Before Sunrise carries a personal meaning for Higgs.
At its simplest, it is a play on her name, Dawn.
Dawn is the break of day, the first light that comes before the sun fully rises.
So in a very literal sense, Before Sunrise is Dawn.
But the meaning goes beyond the name itself.
For Higgs, Before Sunrise represents the work that happens before the result becomes visible.
Saving happens before financial security. Preparation happens before opportunity. Discipline happens before progress.
The difficult decisions, sacrifices, planning and consistency often happen quietly, long before anyone else can see what is being built.
“The sunrise is what people eventually see,” Higgs said. “They see the home, the investment account, the opportunity, the achievement. What they do not always see is everything that happened before it. That is where the real work is done.”
That idea is also reflected in a phrase that has become closely associated with the brand:
“The day breaks, but Dawn never does.” BEFORE SUNRISE |
What began as a clever connection to her name eventually became something more meaningful. Before Sunrise came to represent resilience, preparation, intentionality and the belief that progress is built long before it becomes visible.
And while the philosophy began with Higgs’ own journey, she does not see it as belonging only to her.
“Everyone has their own sunrise,” she said. “The goal is to decide what you are building and start doing the work before the result arrives.”
Financial freedom, she says, is not built through one dramatic decision, one promotion, one investment or one unexpected breakthrough.
It is built through thousands of ordinary decisions made consistently over time.
At the end of the digital edition, readers are left with three questions Higgs believes can guide financial decisions through every season of life:
What matters most to me?
What kind of life am I intentionally building?
Does this decision move me closer to that life?
Those questions, more than any individual financial product or strategy, capture what Before Sunrise was created to teach.
“Before Sunrise was never about telling people what success should look like,” Higgs said. “It is about helping people create enough clarity to make decisions that support the life they actually want.”
AVAILABILITY
Before Sunrise Financial Principles is available locally in the Turks and Caicos Islands directly from the author, internationally in hardcover through Amazon, and in digital format through the Before Sunrise online store at payhip.com/BeforeSunrise. Local purchases may be arranged via Instagram at @iambeforesunrise or by emailing IamBeforeSunrise@gmail.com.
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