I created Intentional Money Life in November of 2021, when I finally realized that despite never aspiring to entrepreneurship, it would allow me to impact many more people than I could through my regular job.
The name, Intentional Money Life comes from my goal, helping people be intentional with their money, so they can live the life that they are excited about.
I’m originally from Ohio, where I got my Bachelor of Arts in Economics. After a few years of traveling, seasonal tourism jobs, and a year as an AmeriCorps volunteer, I came to Oregon in 2013 to get my Master’s degree in Higher Education.
Since 2015, I’ve been working in my dream job as an academic counselor in a TRIO SSS program. In this role, I get to work one on one with first-generation and Pell-eligible students and support them on their journey towards a college degree.
One of my favorite topics to cover with my students is money. These students have done so much on such a small amount of money, and I know that through a little education and support, they will be set up to become the authors of their own lives, an opportunity that likely wasn’t afforded to their parents.
I live in Oregon with my partner, our two small children, and our dog.
Sleeping in (which only happens once a week, did I mention those two small children?), baking, traveling, hiking, amateur photography, and snowboarding are some of my hobbies.
I also love learning about all the things and listening to audiobooks and podcasts (I can get so much done while listening too!).
Social justice and evidence-based everything are also big parts of my life.
And I really like data. I also really like dessert.
I believe these 5 key pieces are all necessary, and since no one else is incorporating all of them, I decided
that I needed to. My experience and feedback from teaching a college financial course got me excited
about making this information accessible to more people.
My partner and I have taken multiple cross-country road trips, including some over 6,000 miles. They were all in my 1998 Nissan Sentra (that my partner still drives to work regularly). We even got good at sleeping in that fairly small car.
We had to put her in our daughter’s diapers for a couple of days, as some disgusting stuff was just leaking out of her.
I do NOT recommend 1,000%.
In high school I was voted “most likely to live in a van down by the river”. I also wore sweatpants to school 4 days a week (I think my high school was unique and as far as I know, no one cared and no one made fun of me).
We were working seasonal jobs in Alaska in 2009 (for Princess Cruises) when we met. Then we moved to Colorado (where I taught him to snowboard!), back to Alaska, then Ohio, Hawaii, and Texas before we finally settled down in Oregon in 2013.
We bought our house in 2016 and had some extensive renovations to do. In mid-2017 when I was pregnant with our first child we moved the bathroom, laundry room, and closet and completely renovated the master bedroom (doing almost all the work ourselves). We partially moved back into that bedroom when I was 39 weeks and 3 days pregnant, and I woke up the next morning in labor. We spent my labor moving the rest of the way into our bedroom, preparing the new shower to actually be used, and returning curtains to Bed, Bath, & Beyond (in the middle of a contraction I was asked to move so the young employee could use the ladder I was leaning against).
Right before the pandemic, when my first daughter was 2 and I was due with baby #2 in two months, we took my daughter on a “baby-moon” to Salem, Oregon (the capital of Oregon but not a particularly exciting place). We stayed in a hotel with a pool, went to eat at restaurants, and really didn’t do anything particularly exciting (well, pre-pandemic it wasn’t considered exciting). According to my daughter it was by far the coolest thing she has ever done. She’s 4 now and still talks about it and how much she wants to go back.
There’s a lot of financial information out there, but often it’s prescriptive, telling you how to live your life while knowing nothing about you, your values, your goals, and your dreams. I want to help you understand those things about yourself, and then put your money to work in order to provide yourself with a fulfilling life, whatever that looks like for you.
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