About

 

FB_profile_imageYou want to get smarter with your money. Let me help.

Nobody is born knowing how to manage money—we all have to learn, and we all make mistakes (I’ve made some doozies*). But there are sound financial planning principles you can use to get a handle on your money, get out of debt and build wealth.

It’s all about creating balance. You can enjoy your life now and in the future just by putting these principles to work.

Please use the “first time visitors” link to the right to start exploring this site. You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

“And who are you, exactly?”

I’m an award-winning** personal finance columnist, speaker, commentator and author of several books about money. I earned the Certified Financial Planner® designation in 2016.

I write for the personal finance site NerdWallet, and my question-and-answer column “Money Talk” appears in newspapers throughout the country, including the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, Palm Beach Post, the Portland Oregonian and others.

My book “Your Credit Score” is a national best-seller now in its fifth edition. The New York Times called one of my other books, “The 10 Commandments of Money: Survive and Thrive in the New Economy,” a “wonderful basic personal finance book…supportive of people struggling to understand these topics and trying to make ends meet.”

You may have heard me on public radio. I contribute to American Public Media’s “Marketplace Money,” and NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” and “All Things Considered.” I’ve appeared “Dr. Phil,” “Today Show” and NBC Nightly News, and was for several years a weekly commentator on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.”

Footnotes:

*My mistakes include buying retirement property at age 26. In Alaska. Eighty miles from the nearest road. I still have it, if anyone wants to make an offer.

**My awards include:

  • The Betty Furness Consumer Media Award (2010) by the Consumer Federation of America, designed to honor individuals who have made “exceptional progress in American consumerism.”
  • A Clarion Award (2007) for my MSN Money series on financial benchmarks. The columns also won several awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, including a 2008 “Best in Business” honor.
  • A team Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service (1989) for coverage of the alcoholism epidemic among native Alaskans. My article on fetal alcohol syndrome led the coverage on Day 3 of the 10-day series.
  • A team Gerald Loeb Award (1997) for coverage of the Comparator Systems penny stock scandal.

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