About Economic Simplicity

Welcome to Economic Simplicity – your resource for mastering basic financial principles and understanding how money works in simple terms. Have you ever been talking to a group of people and when the topic turns to money you feel a little unsure? What is investing? Who is the Fed and why is everyone always mad at them? How does the stock market even work?

I’m Kris and I believe that it’s hard to succeed at something you don’t understand. I understand money and I’m ready to share what I know with the world. Whether you have big financial goals to reach or just don’t want to be embarrassed when people start talking economics, I’ve got you. As the complicated sounding terms start to make sense you’ll find the simple principles of building wealth easier to take action on. I’ll explain what the words mean, simple strategies to use and provide some resources to help along the way.

Why do I know so much about money? I began my career in mortgage banking when I was 20. I developed a specific passion for helping first time home buyers take control of their finances and accomplish their dream of owning a home. I had grown up in poverty and had a real understanding of the desperation that comes from not understanding how money works.

I walked away from my career when my oldest child was born and had to deal with the realities of expanding from two to three mouths to feed while also downsizing from two incomes to one. Times were tough but I held on to many of the principles I’d shared with my clients and we continued to work towards our financial goals even as their seemed to never be enough money to go around.

We went on to have two more children and as they got older I trained in financial planning, started investing in real estate and started working part-time as a bookkeeper. From managing a growing household budget, keeping track of other peoples money, providing financial guidance and investing our own money across a diversified portfolio we’ve covered a lot of ground and we love to share what we learned along the way.

My husband became a Certified Financial Planner and went on to work in the world of Wall Street. He knows how to maximize his financial efforts. He started with nothing and learned everything he could to provide for us. As a family we talked openly and often about all things money. Our children understood financial concepts like the time value of money and the importance of compounding interest from very young ages and began paying attention to and building their own net worth as soon as they could.

The older our children get the more we realize that’s a rarity. Families don’t talk about money, often because the adults in the family may not have financial confidence themselves. It’s not actually my own experience that makes me want to share what I know. It’s watching the difference it’s made in my children’s lives and how far ahead they are from where I was at their age even though they are young in their careers and have limited resources. The mindset often matters more than the money!