I’m Joey Lipp, and here’s my life mission: to leave my country freer & more virtuous than I found it.

Hence, I create life-giving worlds that promote a free & virtuous society. That might sound mystical and grand — because it is — but you can too because we’re the same thing: an imago dei.

My creations revolve around two areas: finance and philology. I’m a financial advisor, professor, scholar of ancient biblical and classical literature, and founder of two businesses.

At my heart, I’m simply a student of timeless wisdom. I endeavor to put that wisdom in action in my own work and to teach others that wisdom with my life.

Around here we aim to live a life of both contemplation and action, a life of thinking and acting. Around here we put wisdom to work. I see no separation between things that most people consider entirely different, for example, philosophy and finances.

In fact, the things that most people consider merely “practical” (like budgeting, choosing a career, investing) are enormously enhanced when bolstered underneath by beautiful ideas.

Why? Because ideas have consequences. Ideas become things. Our beliefs guide our behavior. And work is how we materialize our ideals, not just how we get paid.

In the first phase of my adult life I earned a PhD in classics, with emphases on ancient Biblical and Greco-Roman religions and philosophical literature, and was a classics faculty member at The Ohio State University (2008—2018) and then (still) at Monmouth University. Remember, classics is not English literature and Shakespeare and The Great Gatsby, it’s ancient Greek and Roman language, philosophy, and history.

My wife and I experienced a money revolution in our household in 2014, inspiring us to dream big about being debt free and building wealth. We sold everything that wasn’t nailed down, worked our tails off to kill our debt, and got free.

Ten years later, in May 2024, we purchased a home in Ocean Grove, New Jersey with an ocean view without credit scores. Yes, we had been debt free for so long that we didn’t have credit scores, so we found a local bank willing to do manual underwriting.

Take heart, my friend: Freedom is possible, especially when it seems impossible.

Along the way I built a business from scratch (Odyssey Coffee) with no formal business training (but lots of timeless wisdom), and found that I was very good at it. At the same time I began informally coaching people on their finances.

When higher ed began violently to implode post-2020 in all but the most niche recesses of the American republic (such as Hillsdale College and Grove City College), I started to think hard about where I wanted to point my teaching efforts going forward.

I wondered: Where can I best love and serve others with my passion for timeless wisdom, freedom, and virtue, and at the same time do my part to ensure the flourishing of my country’s citizens?

The answer looked like this:

1. Philosophy professor + business + money wisdom = financial advisor.

2. Financial advisor + American citizen = Freedom Quest.

Financial advising is simply the application of timeless philosophy and modern technology to money. So Freedom Quest is a boutique financial advisory specializing in biblically faithful investing for people of faith in America.

At Freedom Quest we see an America where its citizens are debt free and building so much private wealth that Social Security is simply irrelevant for all but the poorest of our neighbors.We also see an America where those of us who are people of faith are stewarding our minds, bodies, and possessions in light of the counter-cultural yet timelessly wise wisdom of the Gospel.

I am so excited to serve you and your family, and in the meantime serve our country.

Elsewhere in life I have been married to Shanna since 2004. Shanna’s a Christian educator extraordinaire. She’s directed the summer children’s programs for the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association since 2003, and she’s the principal at Ambassador Christian Academy in New Jersey. We have four beautiful boys: Alastair (who died in 2005), Isaac (born in 2008), Hayden (born in 2010), and Eli (born in 2012). We live in Ocean Grove, New Jersey.

I can’t wait to hear your story and to be a part of your family’s quest for freedom.

The first thing we’ll do together is sit down and ask What is the most beautiful life we can be living as disciples of Jesus and citizens of America? Then we’ll craft a lifetime plan to materialize those ideals in your work, your finances, and your contribution to our free & virtuous society.

To that end I work.

~ Joey