AMANDA HOLDEN

It pains me to admit that I am an ex-finance bro. That’s right, I spent years working in investment management, where I learned to build a mean portfolio—and I began my radicalization process. On the job, I saw exactly who gets access to the power, ease, and opportunity money can bring—and it wasn’t people like my friends. All of my clients, with big, life-sustaining wealth? They were all men. I also witnessed how the financial system is designed to feel exclusive, confusing, and conveniently overwhelming, and how it blames individuals for economic problems they didn’t create.

After deciding that helping rich men get richer wasn’t my life’s calling, I left my finance job to launch Invested Development, a financial education company that teaches people how to invest and pursue financial independence with radical clarity, accessibility, and joy. Over 25,000 students have taken my workshops and courses, transforming not just their future dreams of art-filled apartments and silk caftans, but—and this is so important—the way they feel about money right now. 

Most recently, I wrote a freaking book! Called HOW TO BE A RICH OLD LADY, it is a step-by-step guide to financial independence—how to go from surviving to thriving. It is fun and wild and educational, but I also explore the difficult balance between wanting to live a more honest, ethical existence and the material realities of living under capitalism in a country with little social safety net. It is a dangerous place for women and marginalized groups to be living in financial precarity, and I want all of us—our sisters, friends, family, ourselves—to understand the rules of the game.