Mission + People

We want to change your money life

She Spends no longer publishes content, but it will live online forever. Thank you for being a reader, and hopefully you’ll find the information published here to be useful.

We were tired of reading personal finance content written by people who already had money and privilege, and who ignored the real problems people face when it comes to finance. When we looked around at personal finance media specifically targeting women, we saw oversimplified “boss babe” writing that never got to the root of our money experience.

Honestly, if we never see another “here’s how a millennial saved $1 million by the time she reached 30,” article again, we’ll rejoice. Here’s why: nobody’s personal finance situation is the same. While money porn like this can be inspiring, it typically isn’t useful. There is rarely actionable advice offered in those types of articles, and it centers the conversation on people who are already wealthy, rather than on those who need money help the most.

Here’s how She Spends was different. We knew you’re smart, so we won’t talk down to you when we talk about money. We also knew that most people’s financial situations differ. To solve for that, our money diaries, community, and interviews aimed to share stories from a diverse group of women who are anything but conventional. We believed our current financial system must be rigorously examined, then changed, and the best way we can do that is to arm ourselves with knowledge and the desire to change.

She Spends aimed to tackle both personal finance problems (like paying off credit card debt or investing for retirement) as well as the macro issues that keep women from fully achieving parity in the workplace.

Though we're called She Spends, we aimed to provide tools and information about saving, investing and spending money to people of all gender identities. We want to live in a world where all women — that means black women, native women, poor women, immigrant women, disabled women, lesbian women and trans women, and anyone of a marginalized gender — feel comfortable talking about money.

We understood that many of the problems people have with money are systemic, rather than brought on by "laziness." We knew that the "bootstraps" argument many people use when discussing finances is faulty. That said, we live in a system that is capitalist, and we wanted to provide people with the tools to address their own financial challenges within that system, all while working to dismantle that system.

Our Values

We are feminists and we celebrate the diversity of our community. 

We believe in the importance of transparency when it comes to money, our community and any She Spends initiatives. 

We offer our community a safer space to be vulnerable about money and life ambitions. 

We promote active kindness toward others and meaningful involvement in local communities.

Alicia McElhaney

Founder & Writer | she/her

Hi, I’m Alicia, the Brooklyn-based founder of She Spends. I write the weekly newsletter and other content that appears on our website. Writing She Spends is not my full-time gig, though. I am a financial journalist covering asset management.

I started She Spends after working as a financial journalist for about two years. I was writing about CEOs who took home $1 million paychecks each year while I was struggling to get by in New York on a journalist’s salary. The subjects of my stories were mostly men: It was a stark illustration of how sexist the financial world could be.

I was frustrated by the status quo. What started as a weekly newsletter that I sent to about 100 friends and family members has become the She Spends you see today.

Jemma Frost

Co-Founder | she/her

Jemma is a Design Researcher in Philadelphia. She designs the website and other She Spends communications and applies long-term strategic thinking to the She Spends vision.