Fresh Voices in Personal Finance

MONEY SMART WOMEN

- Janet Bodnar

Not long ago, I was on a panel at my alma mater, St. Bonaventure University, speaking to a group of business and journalism majors about career opportunities that spanned both fields. One of my fellow panelists was Erin Lowry, a 2011 SBU grad who created the Broke Millennial franchise (www.brokemillennial.com) and wrote Broke Millennial Takes On Investing and other financial books. My curiosity was piqued: How did a young woman who majored in journalism and theater find her way into personal finance?

“I fell into it backward,” Lowry told me. After graduating, she headed for New York City to find work in theater but found herself working three jobs to cobble together survival earnings of $23,000 during her first year. She started writing about her experiences on her Broke Millennial blog, and it snowballed into a full-time venture.

Lowry gives a lot of credit to her upbringing. “Money was a regular part of the conversation in my family,” she says. Her parents paid for half of her college costs, and by using scholarships and earnings as a resident assistant she graduated debt-free.