Laura D. Adams

Laura D. Adams Speaker Biography

Laura D. Adams, MBA, is a nationally recognized personal finance expert and author of multiple books and audiobooks, including Money Smart Solopreneur: A Personal Finance System for Freelancers, Entrepreneurs, and Side-Hustlers (Entrepreneur Press). She wrote this comprehensive guide in plain language to help entrepreneurs build their businesses and a solid financial future.

Laura's first title, Money Girl’s Smart Moves to Grow Rich (St. Martin’s Press), won the prestigious 2011 Excellence in Financial Literacy Education (EIFLE) Award from the Institute for Financial Literacy, one of her biggest career honors. But you might be surprised that she didn’t set out to become a personal finance writer.

She always enjoyed managing money and couldn’t wait to get her own checking account as a young high school kid. But as she got older and went out on her own, she discovered that she had a lot to learn about money.

She grew up in South Carolina, raised by entrepreneurial parents with deep roots in the South. They sent her to the college of her choice, The University of the South, a small, liberal arts school in Sewanee, Tennessee.

After graduation, she fell into the trap that so many people do: living above her means. She rented apartments that she couldn’t afford, spent too much on vacations, and became a shopaholic.

Later on, she brought her credit card debt into her marriage. As she and her husband unpacked big cardboard boxes and started to fill their only bedroom closet, her husband asked, “So exactly how many pairs of shoes do you have?” It was obvious that her

shopping habit would put a squeeze not just on their closet space but on their finances as well.

After getting extremely anxious about their growing credit card balance, they made a commitment to cut way back and slowly pay off the card. She’ll never forget the feeling of accomplishment they had after making the final payment.

Since then, her passion for spending has turned into a passion for saving, investing, planning, and every aspect of personal finance. Over the years she became a serious student of finance through many books, gurus, advisers, and eventually graduate school. She received her MBA from the University of Florida in Gainesville.

At the University of Florida she accrued so much financial knowledge that she wanted to share it–but in everyday language that the average person could understand. Around that time, she discovered and fell in love with podcasts, and started her own show in 2007. The following year, she was invited to join the Quick and Dirty Tips Network (QDT) as the host of the Money Girl Podcast and blog.

As Money Girl, she gets all kinds of questions from people who want to take control of their finances but just don’t know how. The show has been downloaded more than 40 million times. All those loyal listeners have given her the inspiration to create more than 400 weekly episodes.

Her career has been diverse. She has worked in accounting and real estate, owned her own floor-covering business, consulted and trained for a Fortune 100 company, and been a COO for a small company. Podcasting has been a springboard to new opportunities such as book deals with leading publishers, blogging, coaching, and speaking.

She is passionate about working as a spokesperson, analyst, and consumer advocate to promote important financial topics in the national media. In 2014 and 2015 alone, she completed more than 800 live and taped interviews with national TV and radio show hosts, news reporters, and print and online journalists.

Her mission is to help over 100 million consumers and students live richer lives through her podcasting, speaking, writing, spokesperson, and advocacy work. As our financial landscape changes, she’ll continue to break it down and explain it in plain language, so making smart decisions and taking action is easy.

Above all, her goal is to inspire you to create personal freedom. When you have knowledge, choice, and independence, you’re truly in a position to Live Rich and Love the Journey!

Laura Adams is a personal finance expert, author, speaker, and financial literacy advocate who is passionate about making complex financial topics easy to understand.