Our Money Stories
Hi, I’m Katherine!
I spent my 20s living paycheck-to-paycheck in London and bickering with my frugal husband over money. A carefree spender at heart, I traveled the world, earned my master’s degree, and summited Mt. Kilimanjaro, all while carrying the heavy weight of student loans on my back. By the time my husband and I relocated to NYC, I was newly pregnant, and we realized we needed to get our sh%t together now that there was a tiny human on the way.
With nowhere to turn and no real savings, I knew it was time to reevaluate our personal finances. By evaluating my payment and spending options, I developed personal money habits that would help me eliminate my debt and maximize my earnings. And it worked! By the time I welcomed my daughter into the world, my newfound confidence in talking about money helped me pay off over $40k in student loans, max out my 401k, and save three months’ worth of expenses in an emergency fund.
In the wake of my financial success, I knew I wanted to share what I had learned with people who had similar lived experiences. Not enough of us talk about money in authentic ways! Now, it’s my goal to help others live debt-free by sharing what I learned about financial concepts, like compound interest, as well as personal money strategies, such as aligning our spending with our core values.
I now reside in the Boston suburbs where I don many hats as a wife, mom of three sweet kiddos, and Director…all while doing my best to live in the present!
Hey, it’s Katie!
Even after earning my bachelor’s degree in finance, I still had a lot of money lessons to learn. I’d held jobs since I was in high school, and my family worked hard to make sure I would graduate college free of debt. Between this and the amazing position I landed right out of school, I was poised for success, but I felt totally lost on what it meant to be a “financial adult.” As a result, I spent my first year out of college earning money but feeling like I had nothing in my bank account.
I decided to capitalize on the experiences of the professional women I worked with and viewed as role models. I asked them to share their stories with me, and, by listening to their lived experiences, I learned valuable lessons I could apply to my life. Soon, I was talking about money and careers with friends the same way we were talking about relationships. As I built on the networks around me, I set goals for myself and developed plans to help me achieve them. By learning from the experiences of those in my community, I increased my salary by $90k through promotions and job changes, saved $16k on my wedding by negotiating, self-funded my M.B.A. so I could graduate debt-free, and bought a condo with my now-husband in Boston.
My success motivated me to help other young graduates become “financial adults” by sharing my money story. Many people don’t realize that the best resources are the experiences of those around us! It has since become my goal to take the taboo out of talking about money so that women feel empowered to learn from their communities and achieve their unique definition of financial wellness
I’m still located in Boston, and though city living isn’t cheap, I have learned to live below my means while still enjoying the things I love.
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The 411k 