She runs it with her husband Johnny, also hosts the Unfinished Business podcast, and is raising three kids in Lisbon.

In this episode, she sits down with me to break down how she actually affords the lifestyle.

Alex and I walk through how she funded a physical product business without raising a dollar, the manufacturer relationship that let her front inventory before she had sold any of it, and how she and Johnny knew the company could finally afford to pay them. Plus, what her podcast costs to produce every month and why this fall is the first time it might pay for itself, why she takes out insurance on any purchase order above $250,000, and what her two previous exits actually did for her finances.

Alex reveals the AI infrastructure that’s part of her minimum viable company framework, including her chief of staff Freddie, who is not a person, and an entirely new business she announces on the show for the first time.

She gets into the Lisbon schools that cost a quarter of what New York private schools do, the thing about moving to Europe that genuinely surprised her, what her parties actually cost, and what she’s working toward affording next.

Download Ashley’s ‘Become Your Own CFO’ bundle (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/cfo-bundle) for everything you need to manage the money you make in a strategic and financially savvy way.

Follow Alex on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-schinasi-16b6abb) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/alexschinasi/).

Listen to the Unfinished Business podcast (https://www.youtube.com/@UnfinishedBizPodcast).

Shop Hulken (https://hulken.com).

Learn more about Northstone (https://northstone-ai.com), the AI infrastructure company Alex announces on this episode.

Check out Ashley’s Money Club (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/money-club) to join a community of women unabashedly going after their money goals.

Take this quiz to get a personalized Wealth Building Blueprint (https://bit.ly/4v94g2C)

What you’ll find below:

• Reflection: A financial checklist for if you get laid off

• Money Move: Your next investing step - research funds

• How Do You Afford This: Her $70K childcare bill went viral

• Reel of the Week: Marrying rich ≠ a financial plan

At a recent Money Club Office Hours I noticed a trend. Many of us are in a career transition. Some are thrilled to be starting new roles or planning career pivots, and others are in between jobs looking for their next gig.

Regardless of the circumstances, careers are careering! Are you feeling this too?!

Whether you’ve already been laid off and are looking for your next move, or are feeling nervous about what’s to come, I’ve got you.

Here are 8 things I recommend doing if you get laid off.

Negotiate your severance. Many don’t realize that severance is negotiable. Before you sign on the dotted line, review the offer, do some research on what’s typical for your industry, consult with an attorney (there may be legal claims), and make a counter offer. While it’s great to increase your pay, you can also negotiate for extended benefits or coverage for COBRA.

Invest in your network. Depending on your industry and job market, it may take more or less time to find a new gig. Invest time into reconnecting (or connecting deeper) with your network. Attend events, have calls to catch up, and don’t be afraid to ask for favors like intros and recommendations.

Update your resume (and LinkedIn). Get your resume up to speed so you can begin the application process. While you are at it, spend some time on your LinkedIn profile too. It’s a place where a lot of your network and potential employers will look to learn more about you.

Revisit your spending plan. It’s also a great time to look at your spending and make a plan (if needed) to reduce it. Depending on your severance and current finances, you may decide not to make any changes for a while but I’ve found you can gain a lot of peace of mind just knowing what levers you would pull if needed.

Check-in on and start using your rainy-day fund (strategically). If you’ve spent most of your career building your savings it can feel counterintuitive and even difficult to start using it. But that’s what it’s there for. Decide strategically to use your rainy-day fund when needed. I recommend a monthly proactive transfer so you don’t feel the pain of a constant drip. If you don’t have one or it’s running out, look into hardship programs for the bills you are paying.

Understand your health insurance options. Understand how long your health insurance benefits will continue (if applicable) and make a plan for what you will do when they run out. If you have hit your deductible and expect more medical expenses for the remainder of the year COBRA can make a lot of sense despite the additional cost. Make sure to run the numbers.

File for unemployment. This may sound like a no brainer but it can easily get lost in the shuffle. In order to receive unemployment, you have to file for it. Many states have waiting periods but filing right away makes sure you get your benefits as soon as possible.

Take care of yourself. This one is a biggie. Looking for a new job is a full time gig that often comes with many rejections, unknowns and stress. Make sure to take care of your health and well-being during that time. Check in with how you are feeling. Make sure to build in things that fill your cup and bring you joy, whatever they are.

If you’ve experienced a layoff or are nervous that one’s coming, I’m sending you a big hug.

What would you add to this list?

INVESTING SERIES - STEP 4: RESEARCH FUNDS.

Overall the way I invest is simple.

I invest in broadly diversified, low-fee index funds and ETFs.

That’s it.

It’s no muss, no fuss and has historically provided consistently higher returns over more active strategies.

Here’s what I look for in a fund:

• Confirm the name or ticker symbol so you know you’re researching the right fund

• Look at the expense ratio. Every fund will have a fee in the form of an expense ratio. If you can’t find it on the page, hit ctrl F or Command F and search “expense ratio.” This will be a percentage fee that you are charged each year for owning the fund

• Understand what the fund is invested in generally. You can look at a description, the breakdown of assets, industries, countries, and companies that the fund is invested in

This is the kind of stuff we talk about in detail in our monthly Money Club investing workshops. If you want to dive deeper or want someone to hold your hand as you navigate the world of investing, join us!

If you still haven’t opened your brokerage or investing account, here’s a list of my favorites.

HER $70K A YEAR CHILDCARE BILL WENT VIRAL.

This week I sat down with Paige Connell, who is raising four kids outside Boston and became a refreshingly transparent voice on what childcare actually costs after posting her own bill on a whim.

Here’s a taste of what we cover:

The $60K to $70K a year her family spends on childcare

Why childcare costs more than a mortgage in most states

The night and weekend job she worked for the sole purpose of paying for daycare

The time equity assessment she does with her husband, and what it revealed about his free time versus hers

The one thing about her finances people would never guess

If you have ever looked at your daycare bill and wondered how people make it work, this one’s for you.

Listen now:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

P.S. Don’t miss my episode with the Mother of AI. She urges us to become part of the AI conversation ASAP. Here’s a taste of our convo.

Here are all the amazing money moves you made this week CONGRATS! Celebrating you all!

• KN: Advocated and negotiated a 56% increase in severance & health benefits during my role elimination. This gives me even more runway & funding to figure out my next career and not have to rush.

• Anna H: Now that my emergency fund is in a good place, I’ve started using the interest from my HYSA to make micropayments on my student loans!

• Janna: Wanted to match our $52 bill with $52 tip, someone paid our meal so matched and paid it forward

• Jen: Rebalanced my portfolio to be less aggressive

• Melissa H: Paid off another credit card. One left to go!

• Jessica: Saved $50 on my AT&T bill because I had a $50 Citi merchant offer on my CC!

• Rachel: Been enjoying frugal joys (workout class, local coffee, u pick flowers)

Share your money wins here!

She and her husband became parents through foster care in 2019, six months before the pandemic, and she has since gone from a corporate job to a content business that replaced her salary and then doubled it. In this episode, she sits down with me to break down how she actually affords it.

Paige and I walk through the $60,000 to $70,000 a year her family spends on childcare, her household’s income trajectory, the freelance sales job she worked at night and on weekends to cover daycare, and why childcare costs are so hard for anyone to find in the first place.

Paige reveals the unpaid labor snowball that started after kids, the spreadsheet she and her husband used to divide the invisible work, and the time equity assessment that finally explained why she was so burnt out. She gets into the motherhood penalty and the fatherhood bonus, the one thing about her finances that people would never guess, and what she’s working toward affording next.

Download Ashley’s free ‘Get Paid What You’re Worth’ negotiation guide (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/get-paid).

Follow Paige at @shesapaigeturner on Instagram(https://www.instagram.com/sheisapaigeturner/), TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@sheisapaigeturner), and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@sheisapaigeturner).

Subscribe to her Substack (https://substack.com/@sheisapaigeturner).

Check out Ashley’s Money Club (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/money-club) to join a community of women unabashedly going after their money goals.

Take this quiz to get a personalized Wealth Building Blueprint (https://bit.ly/4v94g2C)

What you’ll find below:

• Reflection: The investing tutorial you’ve always wanted

• Money Move: How and why to rollover old 401(k)s

• How Do You Afford This: The Mother of AI’s $180K family budget

• Reel of the Week: Pro money saving travel tip

If I had to start investing completely from scratch in 2026, no portfolio, no accounts, no clue where to begin, here’s exactly what I’d do.

First, a confession. When I opened my first 401(k), I had no idea what I was doing. I selected every single investment option on the list. All of them. I had heard diversification was good and so I chose to be as diversified as possible.

It was not a good move by any means, but it was better than not starting. I’m telling you this because if you’re sitting there thinking investing isn’t really for you, or that you need to understand more before you begin, you are in extremely good company. Most of us feel that way.

It usually has a lot more to do with what we were and weren’t taught growing up. Feeling behind doesn’t mean you’re bad with money. It means nobody handed you the playbook (YET).

So here’s the playbook. Six steps, in order:

1. Start with the goal, not the account. Every dollar needs a job before you invest it.

2. Cover the short term first. Pay down high interest debt, build a rainy day fund, keep anything you need in the next couple of years in a HYSA (my faves here).

3. Make the mindset shift. This is the moment you realize “wait, I got this!”

4. Open the account. I promise it’s easier than you think.

5. Keep the strategy simple and boring. Broadly diversified, low fee funds.

6. Start now, and start small. Waiting is the most expensive mistake I see.

I walk through each step here.

Let me show you why waiting is so costly. I’ve shared this chart before.

Invest $83 a month and after 60 years (assuming historical returns) you’d have around $1.8 million.

You only put in $60K of that. The market did the rest.

That same $83 a month sitting in a savings account turns into $115K.

Same money. Same discipline. Wildly different life. This is exactly why we can’t save our way to wealth. We have to invest.

This is the first video on my NEW YOUTUBE CHANNEL (new videos every two weeks). If you subscribe, It helps the channel find my people. I hope you love it.

WATCH HERE

You've got this.

INVESTING SERIES - STEP 3: ROLLOVER OLD ACCOUNTS.

It’s generally a good idea to roll over old 401(k)s.

There’s nothing technically wrong with leaving money in your previous 401(k) unless there’s less than $1,000 in the account (see the following “fun” fact). Otherwise, the money is yours, and it sits there.

Here are some reasons to roll old accounts over:

• Communication issues. Your company may leave you out of communication about plan changes and updates.

• It’s more to keep track of. Having a bunch of retirement accounts just makes things more complicated. Rolling your account over into your IRA or current 401(k) keeps things simpler to track.

• Better investment options. Your new plan might have better options or, if it’s an IRA, essentially unlimited options.

• Lower fees. If the account has any administration fees or the fund options have higher expense ratios, you’ll want to roll it over.

“Fun” fact: In certain cases, your employer can move the money from your 401(k). If you have less than $1,000 in your account, an employer is usually allowed to cash it out and cut you a check. You will pay the 10% early withdrawal penalty and any taxes owed if it’s a traditional 401(k).

If your 401(k) balance is between $1,000 and $5,000, your employer is allowed to roll it over into an IRA.

In those cases, you’d want to make the decision before your employer does! If you have more than $5,000 in the account (from contributions at that job), your employer has to leave your money alone.

The easiest way to rollover a 401(k) is via the brokerage co (or 401(k) co) you’re moving the money over to. They’re happy to help.

Here’s a list of my favorites. #1 on the list gives you a 1% match on rollovers!!!

WHAT THE MOTHER OF AI IS TEACHING HER KIDS ABOUT MONEY.

Brittany Valdes has been at Microsoft for thirteen years, and in that time she has also built a nonprofit, a renovation company, and an AI academy for women.

She is raising three boys and 23 chickens in Miami, and in our conversation she shares her annual family budget - a number most of us couldn’t name.

Here’s a taste of what we discuss:

The $180K budget per year her family lives by, and what she does with every dollar they spend and earn above it

The egg business her sons run to fund their baseball gear

How she was able to cancel her QuickBooks after building her own version on Claude

What ten days in Hawaii actually took, and the year of small swaps behind it

The early retirement she is planning in the next five years (it’s not what you think)

I’m so obsessed with The Mother of AI Academy that I asked Brit for a referral code. Use the code FISCALFEMME for 10% off.

Listen now:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

P.S. Claire and I had a very vulnerable conversation last week where she shares how they went from earning 7-figures to losing everything. Here’s a clip.

Here are all the amazing money moves you made this week CONGRATS! Celebrating you all!

• Anna H: Now that my emergency fund is in a good place, I’ve started using the interest from my HYSA to make micropayments on my student loans!

• Shal: Moved to a new country and rolled my previous employment’s retirement fund into my own private one, as well as switched and simplified funds to ones that performed better. Immediately researched best savings accounts and strategies in my new country, as well as increased my mandatory employee retirement fund contributions to gain an extra 10% employer contribution.

• Russell M: After 11 years of adulthood, I finally have no CC debt!

• Rachel: Been cooking at home

• Jessi C: About to put in an online order then looked at my donation pile and realized I don’t need

• Ariel F: Getting back paid on the raise I should have gotten in October

Share your money wins here!

What you’ll find below:

• Reflection: What stopped me from investing

• Money Move: Your next investing step - open the account

• How Do You Afford This: From seven figures to $150K in debt

• Reel of the Week: Summer magic doesn’t have to cost more

If you’ve been here a while you know that I’m obsessed with getting more women investing. Obsessed obsessed.

Why? If we’re not investing we’re missing out on tens of thousands, if not millions of dollars over the course of our lifetimes.

Investing is a huge part of getting you wealthy (which is my mission).

That being said, I wasn’t always a confident investor.

Here are the things that kept me from getting started even when I had the money to invest.

1. INVESTING CULTURE.

Things are getting better (more slowly than I would like) but the investing world is still dominated by men. Despite my finance degree and finance background, it felt inaccessible to me.

Yet I learned that my super simple, unsexy way of investing beat out even the people who sounded really confident about investing.

Spoiler alert - there is no correlation between sounding confident and knowing anything about investing. And I’ve noticed people tend to talk a lot about their wins and are pretty quiet about their losses.

2. FEAR.

I was afraid of losing the money I worked hard to save. I saw that people lost a lot of money in the Great Recession and I didn’t want that to happen to me.

Yes, there’s risk, but if you diversify your investments and invest for the long-term you have the time to wait out the downs. You aren’t at the mercy of the market.

Over the last 20, 30, 50 years, the market has returned over 8%. And that’s including the dips we saw in 2007 and more recently with the pandemic.

That’s why you hear me say (over and over) to invest for the long-term.

3. WAITING UNTIL I KNEW EVERYTHING.

This one is a biggie. Yes, we want to understand what we are investing in but there is SO much information out there.

There are entire TV channels dedicated to talking about investing 24/7.

Another spoiler alert - I don’t watch them. You don’t need to.

If I waited until I knew everything, I never would have started. Get some education, then take action. We learn a ton by doing.

Is investing on your mind? Are you looking to learn more?

As part of The Money Club, we have Investing Parties every single month. At these events I teach members about investing, show them exactly how I invest and we talk strategy.

The next Investing Party is Friday July 28th.

Sign up for The Money Club to join. Plus, as a member you get all the recordings.

INVESTING SERIES - STEP 2: CHOOSE A BROKERAGE ACCOUNT

In order to invest, you need a place to do it. This place is called a brokerage account. A brokerage account is an account that allows you to deposit money and buy and sell investments.

You might already have a brokerage account if you have an IRA (individual retirement account) or are already investing. If so, that’s a great place to start with your research.

If not, you’ll want to open one so you can start investing. Transfer money into the brokerage account and buy and sell investments there.

There are many brokerage companies. Here’s a list of my favorites.

This is my criteria for choosing a brokerage account.

• Look for a low or no minimum

• Make sure there are no fees for trading

• Understand if there are other fees and make sure they won’t apply to you

• SIPC insurance (this is like FDIC insurance but for an investment company)

• Always read the reviews

Set a timer for 30-60 minutes, do some research and choose one. If you need a list to start with, check out the Financial Adulting toolkit.

We cover this and much more in The Money Club at our monthly investing workshops. Just join the club to get access.

SHE BUILT A SEVEN-FIGURE BUSINESS. NOW SHE'S REBUILDING FROM $150K IN DEBT

This week’s episode is the most honest money conversation we have had on the show. Claire Wasserman built Ladies Get Paid into a seven-figure business and got a $300K advance for her book, AND she is rebuilding from about $150Kin debt right now. She holds nothing back.

Here’s a taste of what we cover:

The equity she traded salary for at a startup that later sold for $12.9 million

The $300K book advance, and how her agent got it up from $200K in ten minutes

How a pandemic and a family medical crisis drained everything they had

What it feels like to swipe an EBT card at the grocery store

Her lightning round of negotiation advice, for a raise, a new offer, and a brand deal

If you have ever wondered how quickly it can all change, or what it actually takes to rebuild, this one will stay with you.

Listen now:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

P.S. Here’s a recap of my episode last week with Erika, fractional CMO and mom of 2 in Brooklyn.

Here are all the amazing money moves you made this week CONGRATS! Celebrating you all!

• Randy : Our credit card debt used to be $64,000. It is now almost at $14,000! This has been a long-time program and we are doing it slowly so as not to deprive ourselves.

• Marit S: Paid off my car loan 3 years early!

• Mickey: Transferred my emergency fund from a high yield savings account w/ 3.3% APY to a tiered high yield savings account that has 3.5% APY!

• C: I’ve made iced coffee instead of buying it at the supermarket

• Amelia: Negotiated a salary for new job. Higher title, $20K more base and $100K more equity

• Becca: Made as much $ just from pet sitting in July as I spent in July, incl. rent, bills, food, travel, etc.

• Ariel: Realized that my company didn’t give me the full raise they promised and I caught it

• Rachel: Changed the battery in my own car!! Saved $150+ (for a jump and install) and over 3+ hours

• Amy B : I have to amend my last “win”... Hired a mobile mechanic to fix the wheel bearing and he beat the crap out of it and ruined more parts. I’m still waiting for the parts and yet another mechanic to fix. We’ll see if I saved any money.

Share your money wins here!

In this episode, she breaks down how she actually affords the lifestyle, starting with a number almost nobody can name.

Brit and I walk through the household system that runs it all: the $180,000 a year her family lives on, and why everything the businesses earn above that goes toward renovations, vacations, and investments. She shares how she and her husband run their budget like a P&L, the quarterly check-ins that keep it honest, and the small swaps she made to protect the number.

We talk about the egg business her sons run at $8 a dozen, and what happened when they learned that feed and electricity come out of their revenue.

Brit reveals exactly how AI puts money back in her pocket every month, from the QuickBooks subscription she replaced by building her own version on Claude to the hours of follow-up work she no longer does by hand. She gives her best advice for three types of people: someone intimidated by AI, someone trying to get promoted, and someone who wants AI to be their first employee.

Plus the family history that shaped all of it, what ten days in Hawaii actually took, and the early retirement she is planning in the next five years.

Join The Mother of AI Academy at themotherofai.com and use the code FISCALFEMME for 10% off.

Download Ashley’s ‘Become Your Own CFO’ bundle (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/cfo-bundle) for everything you need to manage the money you make in a strategic and financially savvy way.

Learn more about The Mom Economy, Brit’s 501c3 supporting female founders with benefits and parental leave, at themomeconomy.com. Follow Brit on Instagram at @themotherofai.

Check out Ashley’s Money Club (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/money-club) to join a community of women unabashedly going after their money goals.

Take this quiz to get a personalized Wealth Building Blueprint (https://bit.ly/4v94g2C)

In this episode, she sits down with me for the most honest money conversation we have had on this show.

Claire and I walk through her whole earning journey, from trading salary for equity at a startup that later sold for $12.9 million, to the seven-figure years of brand sponsorships and thousand-person conferences, to the $300K book advance.

Then the part almost nobody says out loud: how the pandemic broke her business model, why a family medical crisis drained their finances, and how they ended up $150K in debt

Claire reveals what it actually feels like to swipe an EBT card, the half-price apartment her grandfather wrote into a building’s deed, and why the shame around food hits differently than every other benefit.

She gets into how childcare math forced her and her wife to renegotiate everything including their sleep, her lightning round of negotiation advice, and why she thinks being in the middle of healing makes her a better coach.

Download Ashley’s free “Get Paid What You’re Worth” negotiation guide (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/get-paid).

Learn more about Claire’s work and coaching at ladiesgetpaid.com, subscribe to her Substack, and follow her on Instagram at @clairegetspaid and @ladiesgetpaid.

Check out Ashley’s Money Club (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/money-club) to join a community of women unabashedly going after their money goals.

Take this quiz to get a personalized Wealth Building Blueprint (https://bit.ly/4v94g2C)

What you’ll find below:

• Reflection: My most recent bout of emotional spending

• Money Move: Step 1 of our new investing series

• How Do You Afford This: Her first client paid more than her job

• Reel of the Week: Why access isn’t the same as ownership

This year my oldest went to sleepaway camp for the first time and it was a big deal for our family (and especially me HA!).

E was so excited to go, had already made a few friends, and I knew the camp he was going to was such a great fit for him.

Yet, of course, I was nervous. The longest he’d been away from us was one night, and I was going to miss him terribly.

To prepare the kiddos for camp, you get a long packing list. And when I say long, I mean long. And while there were legitimately a lot of things we needed to buy to set him up for his first year of camp, I also did my fair share of emotional spending.

I didn’t consciously choose too but something below the surface believed… If he had everything AND then some, then maybe he would have a great summer. Maybe he wouldn’t miss us as much. And probably the biggest factor - maybe I’d feel a little bit better about my baby living far away for a few weeks.

I didn’t really notice it. But J called me out. He said, “does E really need 8 bathing suits?! Why does he need 50 stamps? How many letters do you think he’s going to write in 23 days?”

It’s such a perfect example of emotional spending. It wasn’t the end of the world but I probably spent a few hundred dollars extra trying to make myself feel better about this big transition.

And maybe it helped me feel more in control or like I was taking care of him. But at the end of the day, I still saw him in photos wearing the same two bathing suits every day. I still had to say goodbye. I still had to wait and see if he was going to be happy, so it probably didn’t do much.

When’s the last time you did some emotional spending? How does it soothe you or have you feel more in control of an uncontrollable situation?

INVESTING SERIES - STEP 1: HAVE THESE BOXES CHECKED.

While at this point you know I’m obsessed with investing, it’s important to have some boxes checked before prioritizing investing over other goals. Why?

Investing is for money we don’t plan to use in the short-term. The compelling stats and chart I showed you earlier touts long-term investing results. As investors, there are going to be down years and very down years but the key to earning those long-term results is to stay the course.

If we’re investing with money we need in the short-term we won’t have that luxury. We’ll have to sell our investments regardless of what’s happening with the market and that’s where it can get us in trouble.

“Fun” fact about investing. We don’t actually lose or make money until we sell.

To support our goal of being long-term investors we want to have these boxes checked before prioritizing investing over other goals.

Have a fully funded rainy-day fund (and keep it in a HYSA - here are my faves) Have paid off higher interest credit card debt (anything with 7%+ interest) Have savings for money we need in the short-term covered

Now if you don’t have these boxes checked it doesn’t mean you can’t invest. You can still set aside an amount of money to learn. Also, our retirement accounts like a 401(k) are a great way to get practice investing!

SHE LEFT A SIX-FIGURE SALARY. HER FIRST CLIENT PAID MORE THAN THE JOB DID

This week’s episode is an honest look at the math of working for yourself. Erika Velazquez Alpern is a fractional CMO raising two kids in Brooklyn, and when I asked how she affords it, her first answer was “I don’t know if we do.”

Here’s a taste of what we cover:

The six-figure salary she left and the $170K her business brought in its first year back

What raising two kids in Brooklyn actually costs

The marketing money she has watched businesses light on fire as a CMO

Exactly what she would do with a $0, $1K and $10K marketing budget

The dream job she turned down because the math didn’t make sense

Listen now:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

P.S. I kicked off the first episode of my new sister series last week. Here’s a taste. It’s probably the funniest episode yet!

Here are all the amazing money moves you made this week CONGRATS! Celebrating you all!

• Blair : Shopped in my own pantry for groceries this week to reduce waste and save money.

• Jordi: We cash flowed IVF and are finally pregnant! Grateful for good insurance help

• Jack M: Didn’t get a $25 drink tonight at the Greek

• Ann H: Daughter won a merit scholarship, covers freshman year tuition. Taking saved $ to fund her Roth

• Megan F: Husband and I are finally at a point where we can look at purchasing a house!

• Rachel K: Halfway to a fully funded emergency fund!

• Rachel: Kept budget in check for July bc there were big expenses at the end of the month!

Share your money wins here!

What you’ll find below:

• Reflection: Why is transparency so hard?!

• Money Move: Freeze your credit (and your kids’ too)

• How Do You Afford This: From overdrafts to six figures

• Reel of the Week: Why every women needs her own money

One of the biggest insights I’ve had since launching the podcast is that we’re all craving transparency.

One of my friends said the podcast has made her feel better “on both sides.”

• She feels better that she’s not earning more (or doesn’t have more saved)

• And she feels better about the support she’s received along the way

Sometimes we punish ourselves for both. Our net worth isn’t high enough AND we’ve had too much external help growing it. Does that resonate?

The podcast normalizes the tradeoffs, the many levels of safety nets some do or don’t have, and it’s been inspiring to learn how people make it all work.

Yet... it’s still SO hard for many of us to share our numbers. Why?

I’m really asking If I had you on the podcast tomorrow, how would you feel about sharing your salary and why do you think that is?

Here are some of the things I hear:

• It feels too vulnerable for someone to know my finances

• I don’t want to make people feel bad that I earn so much

• I don’t want to feel bad that I earn so little

We may feel all of the above at the same time.

There’s shame, there’s anger.

Jared Freid shared his take on the pod. We used to go on vacation and imagine that our neighbors were going on the exact same one (or at least a similarly priced one).

Now with social media we can see which hotels they’re staying at, how much they cost and wonder - “how can they afford that?!” It’s so much easier to compare.

Our finances are one of the last places we have some mystery.

We can use our lifestyles, clothes, vacations, homes, etc. to give off an air of having more or earning more than we actually do. We can pretend.

We can do this through sales, savvy strategies, prioritizing, family support, credit card debt, and more.

Would you rather actually have more or look like you have more?

When we let someone in our finances, they see the truth. They see that the beach vacay in Turks was paid for by our parents. Or the chic wardrobe we have is actually expertly curated on Amazon.

If you think about why people wear designer clothes - maybe it’s because they love the fashion and the craftsmanship detail. But maybe also or instead, it’s too look rich. And if someone knows your net worth. If someone knows what you earn, does any of that matter?

This is a bigger conversation that I’m excited to continue. But I’m curious about your take. What makes it hard to share our finances? Why do we not want to let people in on that area of our lives?

FREEZE YOUR CREDIT.

If all the scams and fraud out there have you nervous, I have something that can give you major peace of mind.

Set up a credit freeze.

A freeze locks up your credit report so nobody can open a new account in your name, not even you, until you unfreeze it. If a scammer gets ahold of your info (and honestly, at this point most of our data has been in some breach somewhere), they can’t open a card or take out a loan pretending to be you.

The best news? It’s free.

The downside? You have to do it at all three bureaus separately: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Go to each one’s site, set up a login, and freeze.

While you’re in there, freeze your kids’ credit too. Scammers love a clean, unused credit file, and your 7-year-old isn’t applying for a mortgage anytime soon.

Then when you do need to apply for a card, a loan, or an apartment, you just lift the freeze for a bit and it snaps right back on when you’re done.

SHE CALLED ME TO SAY THE BANK WAS BROKEN. NOW SHE HAS SIX FIGURES SAVED.

HThis week is special: the debut of the sister series. My little sister Ariel is the person behind half my content ideas, and she went from overdrafting at the ATM (and withdrawing more to make sure it wasn’t a fluke) to six figures in retirement. This is the whole story, experiments included.

Here’s a taste of what we cover:

The famous “the bank is broken” call, in her own words

The $300 that made her feel rich for a weekend in New York City

The night out that ended with her offering a pet store card as payment

The 401(k) I set to 15% without telling her, and how long it took her to notice

A secret she’d been keeping from me that comes out live on the show

If you’ve ever felt behind on money, Ariel is your proof that the turnaround is real. And she gets her first money homework at the end, which you can steal for yourself.

Listen now:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

P.S. Don’t miss this recap of Heather’s episode where she breaks down the real numbers behind her career change, raising two kids, and running a business with her spouse

Here are all the amazing money moves you made this week CONGRATS! Celebrating you all!

• Rachel : Advocated for myself

• Kaycie: Cancelled gym membership we weren’t using ($99 / month)

• Amy B: Heard something making noise while driving, found out it was a wheel bearing. Went to a mechanic I had seen before, they wanted $440 to fix it. Hired a mobile mechanic and bought the part for $200 total

• Lorraine B: Went from negative net worth at 30, to starting investing at 35, to about 200k net worth nearing my 40th while living on my own and in a historically underpaid industry - all thanks to you and other financial feminists!

• Justin: $22 dinner for 4 last night!

• Rachel K: Halfway to a fully funded emergency fund!

• Rachel: Kept budget in check for June bc there were big expenses at the end of the month!

Share your money wins here!

She spent her career in brand and media at places like The Guardian and The Boston Globe, and today she is a fractional CMO, the founder of Tactile, and a mom raising two kids and a pup in Brooklyn. In this episode, she sits down with me to break down how she actually affords the lifestyle.

Erika and I walk through the real math of working for yourself: the six-figure salary she left, the anchor client that paid her more per month than her full-time job did, the $170,000 her business brought in its first year back, and how it feels when a good month approaches $30,000 and a slow one barely clears $5,000.

Erika reveals what raising two kids in Brooklyn actually costs, starting with $3,500 a month for a private twos program and camps that run $600 to $800 a week. She gets into the marketing money she has watched businesses light on fire, exactly what she would do with a $0 budget, a $1,000 budget, and a $10,000 budget, the dream job she turned down because the math didn’t make sense, and the thing about her finances that would surprise you most.

Download Ashley’s ‘Become Your Own CFO’ bundle (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/cfo-bundle) for everything you need to manage the money you make in a strategic and financially savvy way.

Learn more about Erika’s work at wearetactile.com, and come to one of her events. Follow her on Instagram at @erikaalpern.

Check out Ashley’s Money Club (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/money-club) to join a community of women unabashedly going after their money goals.

Take this quiz to get a personalized Wealth Building Blueprint (https://bit.ly/4v94g2C)

Ariel and I relive the full journey, from the negative balance to the $300 that made her feel rich, to the night out that ended with her trying to pay with a pet store card. We get into the money experiments I’ve run on her over the years: the credit cards in the freezer, and the 401(k) contribution I set to 15% that she didn’t fully notice until years later. Today there are six figures in that retirement account.

Ariel reveals what it’s actually like having a money expert as a sister (annoying, then useful), a brand-new secret she’d been keeping even from me, and she gets her very first money homework assignment on the show. This is the first of many. We’ve got her home purchase, her tiny wedding, and the great pet insurance debate all coming in future episodes.

Download Ashley’s free guide to save $1,000 in one month (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/save-1000-this-month).

Take this quiz to get a personalized Wealth Building Blueprint (https://bit.ly/4v94g2C).

Check out Ashley’s Money Club (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/money-club) to join a community of women unabashedly going after their money goals.

What you’ll find below:

• Reflection: Health insurance math is sneaky

• Money Move: Let go of debt shame

• How Do You Afford This: She left $200K for the family firm

• Reel of the Week: Responsible money moves that backfire

A couple weeks ago I posted a rant about choosing a new health insurance plan. I’ve never gotten so many responses. You all felt my pain!

Here’s what you shared:

• 43% go with the more expensive policy to reduce downside risk

• 33% go with the cheapest option based on what you expect your medical bills to look like

• 14% go with the cheapest option and hope nothing unexpected happens

10% no strategy, just vibes

I knew it was a decision that took some work (which is why I created the health insurance comparison tool) but I had forgotten just how complicated and opaque it all is. I was going to pull my hair out!

So much of the math was circular. When mapping out the cost of an upcoming surgery, the cost depended on which insurance plan we chose, and the doctors’ office couldn’t run it through the system without the insurance card. I just had to make an educated guess.

We didn’t know if we’d get out of network exceptions for certain therapies, so we didn’t know how much out of network coverage we needed.

I had to make a big financial decision without all the information.

After running the numbers (and a lot of help from Claude), I was choosing between the most expensive plan with a very low deductible and great coverage, and the low-cost high deductible plan (same doctor network).

With our planned medical costs (all estimates), the comparison template recommended going with the cheaper, high deductible plan. But one surprise ER visit, flipped the recommendation completely.

For us, it came down to understanding our family’s medical needs and looking at the worst case scenario. We are a family that really uses insurance (pretty much every year) and we have some bigger costs and needs on the horizon.

We went with the more expensive option which was estimated to cost $2K more than the other plan through the rest of the year.

We are going to go all in on our health for the remainder of the year and book doctors we’ve been putting off. Come December, I can let you know if we made the right choice.

LET GO OF DEBT SHAME.

Debt and shame often go hand in hand. Sometimes we feel so much shame, we can’t even look at our debt or it can even make us physically ill.

But what is debt, really? Debt is just money you owe for something you bought. I’ll say it again.

Debt is just money you owe for something you bought.

That’s all it is. It doesn’t mean anything is wrong with you. It’s not bad. You’re not bad.

What is your debt? Maybe it started with your cost of living while going through school, or because your income didn’t cover your expenses during a certain period of your life. Maybe it’s mostly from one specific purchase.

It’s also important to remember how much we have working against us in the first place when it comes to personal finance.

It’s no wonder if we’re not thriving. Let’s give ourselves a break and let go of all that shame. This week’s money move? Write yourself a quick love note, specifically about your debt.

SHE RESENTED HER HUSBAND. THEN SHE LEFT A $200K SALARY TO JOIN THEIR FAMILY FIRM

Heather Boneparth left a 14-year legal career to go all-in on the wealth management firm she owns with her husband Doug. This week she gets radically honest about what the leap actually took, what kids really cost, and the resentment that nearly broke them first.

Here’s a taste of what we cover:

Her salary and student loan trajectory

The $200K compensation and healthcare she walked away from, and the year and a half to two years of expenses they banked first

The city childcare years when her entire paycheck went to a part-time nanny

How financial help from parents is an “existential safety net” and why we get so mad when other people have it

The one question that brings couples to tears: do you have enough?

Listen now:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

P.S. Don’t miss Viviana’s journey from negative net worth to $510K

Here are all the amazing money moves you made this week CONGRATS! Celebrating you all!

• Rachel : Big Costco haul replacing household products

• Heather: Got face value tix to Noah Kahan on Sunday!!!!

• Lorraine B: Went from negative net worth at 30, to starting investing at 35, to about 200k net worth nearing my 40th while living on my own and in a historically underpaid industry - all thanks to you and other financial feminists!

• Patti: Said no to Dairy Queen and made a healthy dinner

• Rachel K: Halfway to a fully funded emergency fund!

• Rachel: Kept budget in check for June bc there were big expenses at the end of the month!

Share your money wins here!

In this episode, she sits down with me to break down the real numbers behind her career change, raising two kids, and running a family business with her spouse.

Heather and I walk through her income journey, from her first $81,000 salary in New York City while carrying $217,000 in student loan debt, to the $200,000-plus compensation and roughly $50,000 in healthcare benefits she walked away from, to the 18-24 months of living expenses they banked before she made the leap. She shares their household income range today, what childcare cost them in the city, and why quarterly money dates are the system that holds it all together.

Heather reveals the COVID power dynamic that left her resenting her husband and inspired the book, how financial support from parents is an “existential safety net” and why the rest of us get so angry about it. She also gives her top tips for couples at three different life stages and shares what she’s working toward affording next.

Download Ashley’s free guide on how to save $1,000 this month (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/save-1000-this-month).

Order Heather and Doug’s book, Money Together (https://domoneytogether.com/).

Subscribe to their free Joint Account newsletter (https://www.readthejointaccount.com/)

Check out Ashley’s Money Club (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/money-club) to join a community of women unabashedly going after their money goals.

Take this quiz to get a personalized Wealth Building Blueprint (https://bit.ly/4v94g2C)

What you’ll find below:

• Reflection: Oops I did it again…

• Money Move: Calculate your net worth

• How Do You Afford This: From poverty to $510K net worth

• Reel of the Week: The quickest way to feel more in control of your money

In May and June I got behind on my Money Parties (i.e. tracking my spending) which I used to think was completely out of the ordinary for me, but it happens about once per year.

Usually when i’m spending more, and often when there’s travel involved.

Yes, I have some excuses. Things were bananas catching up with work, Maycember, and so much travel, but it was more than that. And this is the third year in a row that it’s happened!

When I have a higher spend month, I am not motivated to look and be accountable. Yes, even I avoid it.

The irony is that I am very aware of what I’m spending while traveling, we planned for it, and most of the spending in question was conscious and intentional. Yet, I still avoid it!

Anyone else?!

After getting behind by 2+ months! I’m happy to report that I’m all caught up.

That being said, I feel called to share how my life was made more difficult and my finances were worse off when I waited to have my Money Parties…

1. It was hard to remember what some expenses even were. So much time had passed that I had to rack my brain. I looked back in my calendar, through pictures and asked J. Was this a mistaken charge or even fraud, or I just forgot? This took a lot of extra time.

2. I missed out on canceling subscriptions. There were a couple of subscriptions that my son was no longer using. I never canceled them because typically looking through my spending is my reminder that they need to be canceled. Womp womp.

3. My spending got less intentional. As someone who’s been tracking my spending and having Money Parties for over 15 years, it’s clear to me when my spending gets less intentional. And while it might start out subtle, over time, as I’m further away from my tracking, I notice my spending swell.

I’m sharing this for two reasons.

First, if you are behind on your Money Parties, I understand the pain of having to catch up and hope this helps you have some compassion for yourself.

This is literally my job, I know it’s the most important ritual we can keep, and even I get behind once per year.

And I also hope it serves as some motivation - a nudge - to catch up or pick up where you left off because tracking has many benefits, all of which I lost during my 2 month hiatus.

If you don’t want to do this alone, join The Money Club! I promise, everything is better with friends.

Join Us

Our next Money Party is on August 11th. We're going back to basics. I'm going to walk you through how to actually track your spending, and the exact steps we need to take at our Money Parties each month. It's a biggie!

CALCULATE YOUR NET WORTH.

Friendly and serious reminder: your net worth has absolutely nothing to do with your worth as a person. It’s just a (fun) way to track progress towards your financial goals and is a great reality check for how things are going.

The equation?

What You Own (Your Assets) MINUS - What You Owe (Your Debt) EQUALS = Your Net Worth

Here’s a handy tool to help you calculate and track your progress.

Once you set up your net worth tracker, set a reminder to update it quarterly. The tracker shows the original balance and the updated balances each quarter.

This allows you to watch your progress quarter to quarter. If it’s fun and motivating to you, you can do this every month at your Money Parties.

FROM POVERTY TO A $510K NET WORTH: HOW THIS FIRST-GEN ELDEST DAUGHTER MADE IT HAPPEN

Viviana Vazquez, the creator behind OverGenPoverty, grew up watching her dad support a family of five on less than $30K a year in New York City. Today she and her husband Xavi have a combined net worth of $510K and she breaks down exactly how they built it.

Here’s a taste of what we cover:

Her income climb, from a $57,000 teaching salary to $185,000 in tech to a business that’s brought in $130,000 this year

How she became debt free before 25 while paying the rent and buying groceries for a family of five

What it costs to be the first, including helping her parents pay off $80,000 in debt (and taping over her dad’s credit cards)

Her actual payday routine with Xavi, down to the dollar

The World Cup trip to Mexico they spent three years saving for, and whether it was worth it

If you’ve ever been the one your family leans on and wondered if you could still build wealth for yourself, this one’s for you.

Listen now:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

P.S. ICYMI, catch a clip from last week’s episode with comedian and dating expert Jared Freid.

Here are all the amazing money moves you made this week CONGRATS! Celebrating you all!

• Theresa M: In the 6 months since I joined The Money Club, I have put $20k into HYSA and already earned more interest than the cost of membership. I also opened a brokerage investing account, automated my savings transfers and set up vaults for specific things, such as property taxes, income taxes and an emergency fund, as well as funding my annual IRA contribution 1 month at time with automatic transfers.

• Lorraine B: Went from negative net worth at 30, to starting investing at 35, to about 200k net worth nearing my 40th while living on my own and in a historically underpaid industry - all thanks to you and other financial feminists!!

• Kristina Y: Had enough FU$ to get out of a bad situation and still have a fully funded emergency fund

• Ann H: My daughter won a merit honor scholar award from UW. It gives her full tuition waiver freshman year

• Rachel K: Halfway to a fully funded emergency fund!

• Rachel: Kept budget in check for June bc there were big expenses at the end of the month!

Share your money wins here!

Viviana and I walk through her income climb, from a $57,000 teaching salary to earning $185,000 in tech, and the $130,000 in revenue her business has already brought in this year. She breaks down her actual payday routine with Xavi down to the dollar, shares exactly what makes up her $510K net worth, and takes us inside their World Cup trip to Mexico they spent three years saving for.

Viviana reveals what it really costs to be the first, from helping her parents pay off $80,000 in debt to taping her dad’s credit cards, how she and Xavi turned a college friendship into a wealth-building partnership with two weddings and a People magazine feature along the way, and what she’s working toward affording next.

Download Ashley’s free “Get Paid What You’re Worth” negotiation guide (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/get-paid).

Follow Viviana on Instagram at @overgenpoverty (https://www.instagram.com/overgenpoverty).

Check out Ashley’s Money Club (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/money-club) to join a community of women unabashedly going after their money goals.

Take this quiz to get a personalized Wealth Building Blueprint (https://bit.ly/4v94g2C)

What you’ll find below:

• Reflection: The #1 way to get you wealthy (my mission in life!)

• Money Move: Automate your travel savings

• How Do You Afford This: How comedians make money

• Reel of the Week: You’re allowed to change your mind

One of the things I’m most passionate about is getting women investing. You know this.

Women are still investing less than men (for many fair reasons) yet investing is critical to building wealth.

Even more, women are better investors when we do invest. Women investors outperform men by 0.4% per year.

That might not sound like much but compounded year after year, that makes a big difference.

When I was 19 I attended a young leaders program in NYC and during one presentation a speaker showed us a compound interest chart like the following. It changed my life.

This is the power of compound interest.

If you invest $1,000 per year (~$83 per month) in the market, earning historical returns, you’d have $1.8 million in 60 years.

$1.8 MILLION after contributing $60K ($1K per year).

The additional $1.74 million comes from interest and compound interest.

When we’re not investing the money we don’t need in the short-term, we are missing out on tens of thousands, if not millions of dollars over the course of our lifetimes.

Long story short, I want to get you investing. And if you’re already investing, I want you to feel completely confident doing it.

The best part is, how I invest is actually quite simple and boring. I invest in low-fee broadly diversified index funds and ETFs.

To do that you don’t have to read the Wall Street Journal or watch your investments every day. Once you have a system in place it can take as little as a few minutes per month.

Now we’re talking!

As part of The Money Club, I host monthly Investing Parties where I show you exactly how I invest and what I invest in.

I also teach investing lessons, we’ll talk strategy, and I will be there with you and for you while you invest.

The next Investing Party is on July 23rd and I’d love for you to join! We’re going to go through a fund fact sheet. What you need to know, how to read it, and how to decide if an investment is the right fit for you.

You can get access by joining The Money Club.

Let’s get you wealthy!

MONEY SAVVY TRAVEL SERIES - #4 - START SAVING.

You have your list, your priorities and your travel budget, now it’s time to start saving!

I use a separate online savings account to set aside money for travel. You can find a list of my favorites here.

If you want some extra motivation and excitement, nickname the account with a reminder of the trip you are most excited about.

Then, work backwards. I start with the total. If I want to have $5,000 saved for travel for the next 12 months, I want to set aside $192 per paycheck (if I’m paid every 2 weeks). You can do this weekly or monthly as well!

Double check that the numbers work out. Because the timing of travel can vary, I like to check that I’d have enough for the first trip (and each remaining trip) if I stuck with my savings schedule. Sometimes, we’ll have to front-load some of our savings, and save more in the beginning, depending on when we need the funds.

Make the transfer automatic. Believe me, I know from experience. It’s easy to forget to make the transfers or by the time you realize, there’s not enough money left to transfer over. Setting up a transfer to your travel fund that’s automatic is a way to ensure it’s going to happen and you’re paying yourself first!

Use the funds and check-in. When it’s time to book the flight or use the funds, you transfer the money over from your travel fund. I also recommend checking in on your budget as you travel. Do you need to add more to your fund, do you have extra left over? This is something you can adjust and update as the year goes on.

Okay, now you’re ready! Reply with any questions you have and bon voyage!

THE FINANCES BEHIND A TOP 10 NETFLIX COMEDY SPECIAL

This week’s episode pulls back the curtain on what a working comedian actually earns.

Jared Freid has a top 10 Netflix special, two podcasts, a new book, and over half a million followers, and in our episode he breaks down exactly how the money works, including the Netflix special he funded himself, and how he affords his life.

Here’s a taste of what we cover:

What it actually costs to make your own Netflix special, and why he did it twice

How a touring deal really works, from the minimum guarantee to the cut of the door

The “bronze handcuffs” of running this many income streams at once

The safety net he says so many have and nobody admits to, from bar mitzvah savings to the parents’ phone plan

Why “I’m not ready” to date is usually a money decision

Listen now:

Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

P.S. Last week’s episode was the most honest founder story you’ve ever heard.

Here are all the amazing money moves you made this week CONGRATS! Celebrating you all!

• Kristina Y: Had enough FU$ to get out of a bad situation and still have a fully funded emergency fund

• Ann H: My daughter won a merit honor scholar award from UW. It gives her full tuition waiver freshman year

• Rachel K: Halfway to a fully funded emergency fund!

• Rachel: Kept budget in check for June bc there were big expenses at the end of the month!

• Alma: Funded my Reno trip in cash! rip is in two weeks!

• Patti: Just retired and I’m not panicking about money

• Ali D: Single digit months to go on my student loans!

• Lori K: Just hit $50K invested! Started 2 years ago and trying to catch up as much as possible

Share your money wins here!

Jared and I get into the real economics of comedy: why he funded his own specials out of pocket and what each cost him, how a touring deal really works from the minimum guarantee to the cut of the door, and the bronze handcuffs of running this many businesses at once. Plus the safety net he says so many have yet nobody wants to admit to, from bar mitzvah savings to the parents’ phone plan he is never getting off of.

As a go-to for dating advice, Jared also gets into where money and relationships collide: why “I’m not ready” is usually a money decision, and the rent conversation he is having right now as his girlfriend moves in. He reveals what people would never guess about how he thinks about money, why the craft matters more than the check, and what he is working toward affording next.

Download Ashley’s ‘7-Day Jumpstart’ (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/7day-jumpstart) for a step you can take each day for a week to completely transform your financial well-being.

Get Jared’s book, Walking Red Flag (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Walking-Red-Flag/).

Grab tickets to Jared’s shows (https://punchup.live/jaredfreid) and follow him on Instagram @jaredfreid.

Check out Ashley’s Money Club (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/money-club) to join a community of women unabashedly going after their money goals.

Take this quiz to get a personalized Wealth Building Blueprint (https://bit.ly/4v94g2C)

What you’ll find below:

• Reflection: 3 money habits that change everything

• Money Move: Put numbers to your travel plans

• How Do You Afford This: The most honest founder story yet

• Reel of the Week: The phone call that saved $8,500

If someone told me that I could only give 3 pieces of money advice for the rest of my life I’d say…

1) PAY YOURSELF FIRST.

If we don’t pay ourselves first, it may never happen. It’s easy to earn more and more but never have money left over to save.

2) HAVE MONEY PARTIES.

Money parties are time we set aside to deal with our finances and are often the missing piece to making sure our money goals and plans happen. The results you’ll see over time will astound you.

3) INVEST TO BUILD WEALTH.

Investing is the key to building wealth. Even though women are better investors when we do invest, we’re still investing less than men. I am on a mission to change that.

You can pay yourself first (#1) on your own pretty easily. Set up an auto transfer to your HYSA, no amount is too small to start.

But having money parties and investing (#2 and #3) take time and require building new habits and rituals. They are much easier to achieve if you have guidance, support, accountability and community.

So…

2 years ago I decided to give you all that on a silver (but much less expensive) platter and launched The Money Club.

And the results have been incredible (if I do say so myself).

On average members are saving and investing $10K MORE towards their goals each year. And they’re having more fun and feeling supported while doing it.

No matter what you’re going through financially, I know I can help. I really do. I’ve helped thousands and thousands of women transform their financial well-being. And usually all it takes is a few minutes together, week after week, month after month.

Money Clubbers are thriving. I get messages like:

This is life-changing. I don’t understand how more people don’t know about this”

And “I never thought I’d find such a supportive community to help me reach my goals.”

Just this month members have opened an IRA, gotten a 50% raise, paid down their 4th credit card, among many other wins.

The Money Club is magical and I want more women to reap the benefits.

What questions do you have? Have you been considering it? Hit reply and let me know.

MONEY SAVVY TRAVEL SERIES - #3 - PUT NUMBERS TO YOUR PLAN.

You have your list and what’s important, now it’s time to estimate the cost.

I use the word estimate very purposefully. It’s better to estimate and be off (which we typically will be!) than to not plan at all.

Go through and map out the cost of each trip you have planned. The more detailed the better. Make sure you include these items when applicable:

• The flights (don’t forget to include transportation to and from the airport or parking at the airport)

• Rental cars

• Hotels / home stays

• Meals (only include the amount you will be spending in addition to your typical spending)

• Activities, shopping and other daily spending

Also, don’t forget to renew your passport if necessary with plenty of time.

Then, add it all up (per trip and a grand total).

Great work! If this total isn’t workable, go back to step #2 to see if there are ways you can let go of some of the costs.

That might also mean reducing the length of the trip, reducing the number of trips or giving yourself more time to save for them. More on saving next!

THIS FOUNDER RAISED $20M. THE EXIT WAS ZERO.

This week’s episode is the kind of honest founder money story you almost never hear. Helaine Knapp built CityRow into one of the buzziest fitness brands in the country, raised over $20 million, landed on the Today Show, and still couldn’t pay her rent.

She breaks down exactly how that happened, and how she affords a life between Austin and New York now.

Here’s a taste of what we cover:

• The $0 marketing budget that made her first location explode

• The $12 million she raised in six weeks during COVID, and the $20 million-plus she raised in total

• What the exit actually came out to for her (it’s not what you’d expect)

• The scrappy strategies that fund her life in two cities, including renting out both her apartment and her car

• What two years on a GLP-1 has cost her, and the surprising ways it made her spend less

Listen now:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

P.S. Here’s a taste of last week’s episode - she had $100K in her business checking, and it still wasn’t enough.

Here are all the amazing money moves you made this week CONGRATS! Celebrating you all!

• Alma: Funded my Reno trip in cash! rip is in two weeks!

• Patti: Just retired and I’m not panicking about money

• Ali D: Single digit months to go on my student loans!

• Lori K: Just hit $50K invested! Started 2 years ago and trying to catch up as much as possible

• Jessi C: Trying new workout places with free trials!

• Jen K: Remembered to cancel 2 trials before being charged!!

• Annette: Girl, your podcast! The guests emphasized sticking to their priorities. Great reminder

• Chrissy B: Saved up to buy a new car!

• Rachel: Started apartment hunting with a clear monthly budget and expenses in mind!

Share your money wins here!

Helaine and I walk through CityRow with a financial lens: the $0 marketing budget that made it explode, the $12 million she raised in six weeks during COVID, the more than $20 million she raised in total, and the exit that came out to a zero for her investors and for her. Plus, what two years on a GLP-1 has actually cost her, from the $1,000 consults to the surprising ways she’s spending less.

Helaine reveals the scrappy strategies that fund a life in two cities, what it felt like to be on the Today Show and unable to pay rent, how she handles the awkward money conversations most of us avoid, and what she’s working toward affording next.

Download Ashley’s ‘Become Your Own CFO’ bundle (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/cfo-bundle) for everything you need to manage the money you make in a strategic and financially savvy way.

Subscribe to Helaine’s weekly newsletter (https://www.helaineknapp.com/what-im-building) and her Substack (https://helainemknapp.substack.com/)

Get Helaine’s book, Making Waves (https://www.helaineknapp.com/making-waves).

Check out Ashley’s Money Club (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/money-club) to join a community of women unabashedly going after their money goals.

Take this quiz to get a personalized Wealth Building Blueprint (https://bit.ly/4v94g2C)

What you’ll find below:

• Reflection: How I bought back 6 hours per week

• Money Move: Spend on what matters most while traveling

• How Do You Afford This: She had a $100K runway

• Reel of the Week: A tiny 401(k) move with big payoff

I kicked off 2026 with a couple of big goals. #1 was to take a real honest look at how I spend my time, and get whatever I could off my plate.

I’m excited to report that so far I’ve freed up over 6 hours per week in time!

Here’s how:

The first 2.6 hours came from getting a meal service to replace 8 total meals per week. This ends up being a combo of my lunches and dinners, as well as cooking for the kids.

The other 3.5 has come from delegating to a virtual assistant. She does all kinds of things but some include setting up my newsletter, managing The Money Club admin, and social media editing.

In order to get the time back, I had to invest time (pun intended) and money. I tracked my time, documented processes and made tutorial videos teaching her how to do the tasks I was passing off.

The more I delegate and document, the more I see opportunity to do it more! I also noticed that there a lot of personal things I could delegate too.

What am I doing with that extra 6 hours?

This is the fun part. I was very intentional about making those additional 6 hours count - and they have.

At first, that time meant I didn’t work as much after hours. I got more sleep, and even read books for fun. Past Ashley would be shocked.

It also means the hours I do work are being spent on projects that move the needle. After a reset, I decided to use that time to launch my new podcast, How Do You Afford This?

This is long overdue but I see this investment as offering returns from a revenue and business perspective as well.

I’m far from done (this is just the beginning!) but I’m excited to update you where I am by the end of the year.

MONEY SAVVY TRAVEL SERIES - #2 - GET CLEAR ON WHAT MATTERS.

We can create win-win situations for our happiness and financial well-being by spending on the things that matter and letting go of the rest. This lowers the overall cost of the trip without sacrificing our joy.

I call this being “fabulously frugal.”

Here’s how to do it:

STEP #1: Start with the first trip on your list. What’s most important to you about it? Maybe you are looking forward to quality time with friends / family, are excited to explore a new area or want to learn about a different culture.

Honor whatever is most important. Is the neighborhood of the hotel important to you? Do you want to stay with friends? Do you prefer luxury, or do you not really care? Are you more interested in finding local gems rather than going to more expensive restaurants?

Pro Tip: If you are traveling with others, ask them these questions too!

STEP #2: What is NOT important to you about the trip? What are you okay not spending money on or prioritizing? Maybe you decide you’re more interested in finding local gems than going to more expensive restaurants and sights.

Or you realize staying in the trendiest neighborhood is less important to you or that you don’t need the more luxurious hotel. This allows us to decrease the cost of the trip without giving up the things we love.

STEP #3: Repeat steps #1 and #2 for each trip on your list. You might be surprised that with a little prioritization, you can do more than you thought!

As you go through, remember that this is all adjustable. You can test out what you planned and change it up for future trips. Maybe you realize the neighborhood is more important than you thought. Change it for next time. This is a living process!

THE $100K SHE SAVED TO FUND HER BOOK AND FIRST YEARS OF MOTHERHOOD

This week’s episode is a little different. Stefanie O’Connell is an award-winning journalist and the author of The Ambition Penalty, and she’s pulling back the curtain on something almost no one talks about: how she deliberately saved up to afford a season of earning less, so she could write her book and be present for her daughter.

She isn’t here to tell you she has it all figured out, and that’s exactly what makes it so good.

Here’s a taste of what we get into:

• The more than $100K she set aside as a runway, and why she’s been spending it down on purpose

• How her business revenue fell almost 90% in a single year, and the strategy behind letting it

• Her full money trajectory, from $450 a week on a Broadway tour to a six-figure business

• The data behind the book, including the half-million-dollar lifetime cost of the motherhood penalty

• The power dynamics inside most households (and her own marriage), and what she hopes her daughter learns from her

Listen now:

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

• YouTube

P.S. ICYMI, how much this travel expert saved in points last year

Here are all the amazing money moves you made this week CONGRATS! Celebrating you all!

• Jessi C: Trying new workout places with free trials!

• Jen K: Remembered to cancel 2 trials before being charged!!

• Annette: Girl, your podcast! The guests emphasized sticking to their priorities. Great reminder

• Chrissy B: Saved up to buy a new car!

• Rachel: Started apartment hunting with a clear monthly budget and expenses in mind!

• SydneyH: Finally opened a ROTH IRA!

• Kristi: There was a huge expense costing us $10k/year (kept rising) that seemed unavoidable. I spent 6 months developing a plan, researching, negotiating, etc. to bring it down to $1.7k/year and we made it happen! So happy!

• Alma: Paid off four small accounts since April. Working on the big ones now!

• Rachel: Paid for my car insurance for the next 6 months (saved $137 w/o a payment plan)

• Patti: Walked to the library to read magazines rather than buying them

• Sinead: Saved $130K

Share your money wins here!