Am I the worst friend for bringing up the boring topic of finance to my besties? Maybe, but I wanted to try it out.

I was only used to talking about money via work, not with my friends (historically, this has been very taboo).

One common money principle is keeping your savings in the right type of high-interest bearing account (at the time, the interest rate was above 2%).

I asked my savvy saving friend where she kept her savings (she’s always been great at saving money, so she was the perfect person to ask). She said it was in a savings account at her bank but it wasn’t earning any interest, really.

I told her she could be earning much higher interest, compounding over time in a different type of account. She said “I can earn how much!?” and she was thrilled. She had no idea that her substantial amount of savings could have been earning her income and growing with virtually no risk.

This gave me some confidence, so I tested out the same question with a few different people and to my surprise, they all had no idea how to maximize their savings. They were all quite happy with me, which started to spark some motivation to help more people close to me and not be afraid to open up the conversation about money.

I was just a nerd who wanted to talk about money with people.

Then, something else happened…
I considered myself an outlier, a woman in a man’s world of finance. At investing events, I was usually one of a handful of women. Sometimes I was actually the ONLY woman in the room.
I didn’t think too much about it until one of our female event attendees asked me, “Nikki, have you ever thought about wealth-building events for women”?

Well, no, I hadn’t really. I had the knowledge, and my small sample size of people that I questioned certainly showed there is a lack of financial knowledge among both women and men, but especially women.

Maybe she was onto something?

So I started hosting local meetups (with wine, of course) to gather ladies and get a conversation flowing about money and investing… and people actually came.

A big problem with the financial world is that it has been wildly inaccessible for the majority of people due to the high costs of professional help.

They’re left scrubbing the internet to try to find the right information and they may not have the training to decipher the sometimes confusing rules.

To solve this problem, I have built an affordable community membership. It gives people access to a financial planning training program that is actually usable, essential resources, and live classes called “The Finance Family” community.

Who doesn’t want to grow their money!?

Let’s talk finance and get you in charge of your own financial future.

I was talking to a friend who told me it took her 5 months to research and figure out how to get health insurance through the marketplace. I told her I could have taught her this in less than 30 minutes!

Or how about the business owner who contributed to a retirement account, but didn’t know they actually have to invest the money (otherwise it just sits in cash not invested).

I have countless examples… and my mission is to help give people the education they need to avoid making costly financial mistakes.

I do this because I love teaching and helping people feel more financially secure. I also think we have a ton to learn from each other, which is why community is important to me.