About Joanna
My focus on college and personal finance has evolved. I started out as a parenting and family travel writer, but I'm a money nut and a former first-generation college student who got through college on financial aid and weekend work. College is more complex now, and way too many families go deep into debt for it. That's why I write about what to know.
I also cover things like credit cards, insurance, 529 plans, retirement, debt management, budgeting, and developmental transitions such as young adults flying the coop, empty nesters, and seniors moving into care facilities. I also love diving into a good profile.
Before freelancing, I worked as a technical writer and editor for an engineering firm. I have a BA in anthropology and an MA in English.
Fun fact: In my early 20s, I spent four years traveling abroad through twenty countries, working as I went. Turns out I was something of a unicorn -- young Americans didn't travel this way, and young women definitely didn't. Maybe it was growing up on an island in the Salish Sea that gave me the nudge. Whatever it was, living and working abroad shaped me. I bring that same curiosity and flexibility to the writing I do.
