John Soforic’s self-help book, The Wealthy Gardener: Life Lessons on Prosperity Between Father and Son, would make a useful tool for financial advisors seeking alternative methods to help clients recognize their financial priorities and define their retirement goals.

Money doesn’t grow on trees, but Soforic says, “clouds do rain down dollars.’’ His book— currently among the top five retirement planning books on Amazon—is part folksy, part hard-earned wisdom about how to reach financial independence. Soforic says he was not concerned about being called a workaholic or suffering from a lack of work-life balance; he was engaged in an intense pursuit of freedom and he wants readers to know how he did it.

Toward his goal of earning enough money by age 50 to be free of worry about paying the bills, Soforic had been a Chicago and Pittsburgh area-based chiropractor, and a buyer and seller of commercial real estate.

He has a daughter and a son; he financed his children’s college educations so they have no college loan debt, and he financed his wife’s return to college to earn her teaching degree.

Soforic tells two stories in each chapter, one fictional, the other non-fictional. Within these stories, which run about 350 pages, he offers what he calls lessons—about life, work, domesticity and earning enough money to be debt free and independent.

He describes his book’s format:

The Wealthy Gardener is a hybrid; it is half fiction and half non-fiction, opening with a fictional story followed by real life anecdotes. Why this format? I wanted to engage my son in many lessons on wealth, but I didn’t want to preach at him. A better way to do it then was by creating a parable.’’

He combines anecdotes about his experiences with the story of the wealthy gardener, an elderly man who has risen from humble farmer to the owner of a large farm, vineyard and winery that employ dozens of workers. Through sacrifice, saving and wise investments, the gardener—a surrogate for Soforic—has become a wealthy man.

As part of his public service commitment, the gardener meets with reformatory boys to discuss self-reliance and sacrifice, and to challenge them to think wisely about wealth. One of them will be the inheritor of the gardener’s wisdom.

In his dotage, the gardener writes “The 15 Virtues of Wealth,’’ which include simplicity, detachment, self discipline, vital engagement, spirituality, effectiveness, persistence, patience, sacrifice, self mastery, courage, commitment, accurate judgment, contribution and satisfaction.

In the voice of his surrogate, the gardener, Soforic writes “The pursuit of wealth was a spiritual journey that required virtue and nobility. It was the effect of a valued service to mankind, and it was built on a foundation of using the hours of many passing days. It was a life of striving, not settling, to shape his garden by design.’’

Will sophisticated readers appreciate Soforic’s folksy format?

Will the eyebrows of even worldly HNW clients go up reading Soforic’s single-minded pursuit of financial independence, leavened somewhat by his staunch belief in the spiritual?

“I chose to believe that my sacrifices benefitted (my family) and I was willing to trade my time for their welfare. I chose to believe that balance is the way to mediocrity, money worries, financial instability and helplessness to withstand setbacks.’’

He anticipates demurs, writing, “He reviewed the book’s table of contents one last time, concerned that his wealth tenets would be castigated. Many jaded people with rational leanings would likely criticize his belief in the unseen force. Conversely, those with spiritual leanings would surely criticize his emphasis on amassing money. However, he was glad to have expressed his own truth.’’

Tucked into the unconventional format of The Wealthy Gardener is plenty of common sense advice about gaining and increasing wealth: embrace the miracle of compound interest and save “urgently’’; invest “excess’’ income to increase earnings; buy used cars; avoid luxury vacations, furnishings and trappings; have a financial plan and revisit it on a daily basis; read voraciously about the stock market, entrepreneurship, real estate investing, buy-and-hold investing, land-lording, saving money, getting out of debt and personal finance; and develop an income-producing pursuit in addition to working a day job—Soforic bought and rehabbed houses and apartments which he then flipped. He paid $75,000 for a house with an asking price of $190,000, fixed it up and still lives there.

The Wealthy Gardener: Life Lessons on Prosperity Between Father and Son, by John Soforic.  419 pages. $32.00. Self-published.

Eleanor O’Sullivan is an award-winning journalist who writes for Financial Advisor.