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It’s official: budget transparency is cool now.
As millions of Americans grapple with stubborn inflation and a cost of living crisis, many are looking at their budgets closely to see what they can adjust to make ends meet. One influencer is using her platform to facilitate transparency, both in how much we make and how much we spend.
“When my friends are like, ‘Oh, my husband manages our money,’ it drives me insane,” says Amanda Wolfe, 35. “We’ve got to bring some ladies in here.” During the day, Wolfe is a senior customer success manager living in Chicago. But in the wee hours of the morning, evenings, and weekends, she’s helping her 167,000 Instagram followers manage their money as the She Wolfe of Wall Street, making her one of the fastest-growing personal finance influencers in America.
One of Wolfe’s most popular post types is a video series entitled “What should I do with my salary?”, in which followers submit their earnings and current expenses to get the self-taught money expert’s thoughts and feedback. The posts invite commentary and conversation as young people continue to push for more salary transparency in America.
Wolfe says she grew up in poverty under a single parent who was involved with drugs, an unstable environment that led to an obsession with personal finance in her early 20s. A decade later, she’s reached a financial independence benchmark, Coast FI, in which her investments are frontloaded enough for compound interest alone to take her the rest of the way to financial freedom.
Here’s why Wolfe believes honesty and transparency around budgeting is the key to pursuing financial independence.
She Had to Unlearn Many Money Beliefs
Wolfe’s idea for the series came from an industry peer who was leaving personal finance to start a new career path. After getting her fellow influencer’s blessing to run with the concept, Wolfe replicated the process she had previously used when coaching others to create digestible posts that were fun to engage with.
“I did one on one coaching for a while, and I think that’s what really opened my eyes to many different unique financial situations,” she says. “People with several kids, people making so much money and still having nothing saved, people with debt that accumulated while they were in jail — many different situations and …….
