Financial Literacy Resources

From student loans to buying a house to taxes and everything in between

Student Loans

Credit Scores and Repair

Back Taxes

Financial Advisors

  • Fee-Only Advisor & Portfolio Manager: I highly recommend “Chaim” Victor Schramm with Chaim Advisors if you’re seeking a comprehensive financial plan for your specific retirement needs. Contact him for a free consult.

  • Michelle is an advisor with Young & Scrappy and proudly serves the LGBTQ and poly community. She offers both comprehensive plans and affordable one-time consults about how to invest. I’ve worked with her and she’s awesome!

  • Ramon Rodriguez with Northwestern Mutual can assist you with a comprehensive plan as well as insurance products you may be interested in, such as life or disability insurance.

  • Corey Beal, CFP at Empowering Finance

  • Jennifer de Thomas at Birch Elliot Financial

  • Christina Livadary at Mana Financial Life Design

  • Emilie R. Goldman, CFA, CFP® at Tamarind Financial Planning

  • You can also check out the XY Planning Network for a list of fee-only advisors in your area.

Buying, and Affording, a Home

  • Mortgage payment calculator. Make sure to put in current interest rates, property taxes for the area you’re buying in, and accurate insurance & down payment info.

  • Mortgage affordability calculator Warning!! This calc does not take maintenance costs into account. I recommend factoring in at least $200/month off what they say you can afford to save toward maintenance, or else how will you fund that new roof or heating system when they need replacing?

  • You can read about some examples of affordability on my blog post.

  • Mortgage Mastery for the Self Employed. This is such a thorough and awesome post for business owners looking to apply for a mortgage!

Buying a Home in Oregon

  • Save big by opening an Oregon First Time Home Buyer’s Savings Account. You can deduct up to $5000/year ($10K for couples) from your OR taxable income when you deposit it into an eligible savings account. You can do this for ten years as well, which means possibly not paying state tax on $100,000! It’s also OK if you’ve owned a home previously, but not for the last three years.

  • Check out The Oregon IDA Initiative for 3:1 matching savings grants toward purchasing, or repairing, your first home. The average participant saves $2,000 over a two-year period and receives a $6,000 match. Income limits may vary by program.

  • Portland Housing Center has helped almost 9,000 homeowners to date by offering down payment assistance, financial education, IDA’s and more.

Do not disturb!

Financial Tools and Calculators

Getting your Sh*t Together

  • The old GYST website is now Cake, a free online tool to ease the burden for your loved ones should something happen to you.

  • What Matters Most — A powerful, extremely helpful book written by the founder of GYST.org who experienced the sudden death of her husband and shares all the things she wished she had put in order beforehand.

Financial Freedom & Savvy

I love helping clients save tons of money while still living full, happy lives. These resources may inspire you if you feel your budget just can’t budge-

“Financial Independence does not mean the end of your working career. Instead it means, “Complete freedom to be the best, most powerful, energetic, happiest and most generous version of You that you can possibly be.”

Does this mean you will quit commuting through traffic into a lame corporate office to sit in meetings about products you don’t really care about? Yes. But does it mean you won’t work hard at things that are important to you, for the rest of your life? NO!”
— Mr Money Mustache

More Good reads about money: Check your library!

  • Financial Freedom; A Proven Path to All the Money You Will Ever Need

  • Die with Zero

  • Playing with F.I.R.E.

  • We Should All Be Millionaires

  • Profit First (I’ll be honest- I love the concept, and/but, don’t recommend flat percentages as we are all unique! And I would never want that many accounts:)

  • Your Are a Badass at Making Money

  • The Money Book for Freelancers…

  • Personal Finance textbook. No joke, a great reference for those committed DIY'ers.

  • Worth It

  • Wild Money

  • National Consumer Law Center Guide to Surviving Debt- for those of you who feel over-indebted and considering bankruptcy, this is the resource for you.

  • Overcoming Under-earning

  • Your Money and Your Brain

  • The One Page Financial Plan

  • Conscious Capitalism

Financial/Business Tools & Freebies

Most of these referral links benefit both of us, but I pledge to donate any benefits I receive!

  • Free Password Manager: I just started using Bitwarden, and they have a free membership option.

  • Retirement planning: Monitor your retirement accounts, investments and more in the Empower free Dashboard- This tool is awesome for seeing the potential growth of your savings, as well as playing with various scenarios.

  • Need to set up payroll? I highly recommend Gusto for its easy user-interface (Get a $100 gift card when you use the link).

  • Budgeting software: Get an extra free month of YNAB (You Need a Budget software) when you sign up for your trial using this link (Save $8-12)

  • Collecting Client/Customer Payments: Sign up for Square here! I swear they have the cleanest, most intuitive user interface I’ve found. They also have an ACH option with lower fees.

  • Scheduling software: I love Acuity for an affordable, customizable online scheduler. Tip- If you use a SquareSpace business plan for your website, you get Acuity scheduling for free!

  • CRM (Customer Relationship Management software): If you know you’re ready for something more robust than a spreadsheet to manage your clients, their pipelines, your newsletter, contacts, and even set up a ton of automations- Active Campaign is amazing. It has saved me so much admin time over the last few years and it’s worth every penny.

  • Some travel cards I rotate for the sign-on bonuses: Chase Sapphire Preferred,

More Portland/Oregon Resources

Badass women business owners to support Your Business:

Portland non-profits offering Financial Services

Low-cost & free Oregon business assistance

Starting a business in ORegon

Bookkeeping vs Accounting

Tax Prep Recs for LLC’s Filing as SCorps:

  • Formations out of Bellevue, WA (Offers payroll, boookeeping, and tax prep, as well as strategic tax planning sessions).

  • David with Pacific Tax Relief (does not offer payroll or bookkeeping)

  • Artemis Tax (currently on a waitlist basis for Scorps)

  • Crayon Advisory

Please contact me if you would like to include additional resources on this page!