I graduated with a Master’s degree and over $60,000 in student and consumer debt. I knew almost nothing about personal finance - sure, I knew what a budget was and that I should probably be using one… but that was about it. I didn’t think it mattered; I had a well-paying job in a stable field, I was making my minimum payments, who cares?

Fast forward a few years and I was in the exact same place. Making good money, but never making any significant progress towards my debt. It wasn’t until my partner and I started talking about “the future” that I realized I needed to make some changes. How would we buy a house? Raise kids? What if we had an emergency or one of us couldn’t work? We had no savings and were both still carrying significant student (and, in my case, consumer) debt. We had big goals and dreams but we had no idea how to make them a reality. I’ll never forget sitting in our kitchen and finally working up the courage to tell my partner the full extent of my debt. I was so ashamed and embarrassed and was sure that he would be furious. Instead he just said “Okay. Let’s make a plan.” So we did.

For the next few years, like the experienced student I was, I poured my energy into learning everything I could about personal finance. I read books, listened to podcasts, took online courses, read articles, and developed my own systems and money rules. I paid off debt aggressively. I started paying attention to what I was spending money on and what I actually liked spending money on. I started an emergency fund. I started investing. My partner and I set annual goals and talked about our finances regularly. We became a financial team and I was no longer ashamed to talk about money.

Then I started asking my friends and family about personal finance. We discussed our salaries, our strategies, and our insecurities and feelings of shame and inadequacy around money. I realized that a lot of young people, women especially, are seriously lacking financial literacy and it keeps us trapped. Trapped in bad jobs, bad relationships, bad housing situations. It prevents us from taking care of our physical and emotional well-being and it is a dangerous source of stress.

Sonder comes from that realization, and a desire to help young people build financial literacy and resilience. It comes from my partner’s grace in the moment I told him about my debt, and how empowering it was to have someone help me make a plan and move forward. I want to extend that same grace to people that feel ashamed or embarrassed of their financial situations and are unsure of what to do next.

Personal finance in theory is actually quite straightforward, but it is so mired in our histories, beliefs, values, feelings, and preconceived ideas that we are still so often stuck. Add to that our society’s weird taboo around talking about money and it leads to a lot of people that need help and aren’t sure where to start.

Let’s start talking about money. Let’s build a healthy relationship with our finances and, in turn, build sustainable wealth. Let’s start to redefine self-care as taking care of our mental, physical, AND financial well-being.

And some unrelated facts: tacos are my favourite food. I have a dog named Lentil and she is my #1 pal (my partner is my #0, of course). I love spending money on really good food and really fancy hotels. I spend time outside every single day (mandatory outside time) and I strongly believe you can never eat enough vegetables.

I can’t wait to meet you!