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We Are Personal Finance Enthusiasts on a Mission to Help You Live More Richly


When you think about your financial future, we want you to feel confident. Confident that you can fully achieve your money goals, no matter where you’re starting out.

But here’s the thing. Managing your personal finances can be stressful. Sifting through all the money advice that’s out there (some good, a lot bad) can make navigating money matters unnecessarily complicated.

That’s where we come in.

Here at The Ascent, our objective is to help you cut through the noise so you can take actionable steps towards improving your finances. Whether you’re looking to eliminate your debt, find the best credit card, pick the right stock broker, and more, consider us your guide to conquering your money goals.

Our Mission is to Make the World Smarter, Happier, and Richer

Born out of the financial expertise and trusted advice of The Motley Fool, The Ascent brings the same unbiased analysis to the world of daily personal finance decisions. All backed by the mission of making the world smarter, happier, and richer.

To achieve our goal of helping you find the best offers and products to improve your finances and live more richly, we stand by these core principles:

  • All of our content is made available for free. This includes hundreds of financial product reviews as well as jargon-free advice on how to navigate all of your personal finance decisions.
  • Wherever possible, we rely on first-person reviews of financial products so you can read about the offer’s pros and cons from someone who has experienced it directly.
  • We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule. If we wouldn’t recommend an offer to a family member, we wouldn’t recommend it on The Ascent, either.

How We’re Compensated

Because transparency is so important to us, you should know that, in some instances, we may receive compensation from partners when someone clicks, applies, or registers for a product reviewed on our site.

Our editorial opinions, rankings, and reviews are not influenced by these partners in any way.

For more information on how we make money and our advertising partners, please visit Our Advertisers page. If you have any questions please contact us at help@theascent.com.

Meet the Team

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Brendan Byrnes

Managing Director

Brendan is managing director of The Ascent. He focuses primarily on overall strategy, team management, business development, and marketing. Despite being an avid investor for years, Brendan was relatively late to discovering the power of credit cards but now is hooked on maximizing his rewards. Outside of work, he enjoys traveling (this year he used credit card points to fly to his 40th country), seeing live music, hiking/snowboarding depending on the season, and pretending to be a good photographer.
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Nathan Hamilton

Director

Nathan is a Director for The Ascent. He mainly focuses on content strategy, including editorial, SEO, PR, and syndication. Nathan graduated with an MBA from George Washington University in 2013. He also graduated with a sizable student loan balance that will be paid off by 2020 and endeavors to figure out how to get his two-year old son a 700 credit score. Outside of work, you’ll find him either on his mountain bike or plugging away on a new creation in his wood shop.
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Alexi Ueltzen

Social Media Manager

Alexi is the social media manager for The Ascent and is focused on developing a best-in-class social presence for the brand. She is currently working on paying off a mortgage and learning how to better manage her finances in general (pet insurance is important, turns out). Outside of work, Alexi plays water polo, swims, and spends time getting muddy with her dogs.

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Alicia Aldrich

Director of PR & Media Relations

Alicia is a PR Lead for The Ascent with a passion for empowering people with the knowledge and tools needed to make better financial decisions. Alicia is a saver and her wife is a spender, so they’ve established a budget they’re both comfortable with and have regular “money dates” to check in on their finances together. When Alicia is not promoting financial literacy, you can find her with her wife and pup exploring the great outdoors.
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Bryan Wynkoop

Senior Performance Marketing Manager

Bryan is a marketing manager for The Ascent who leverages paid channels to bring financial education and tools to people who need them. He’s a firm believer in making money work for you, and worries that not enough people realize compound interest should be your best friend, not worst enemy. Outside of work, Bryan spends his time in the mountains, with as many dogs as possible.
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Cait Cerra

Direct Response Marketing Copywriter

Cait is a direct response copywriter for The Ascent. Her goal is to use carefully curated words to inspire people to start their journey towards conquering their money goals. In her own journey, Cait is working to find the best course of action for paying off car and student loans while saving for a house and also simultaneously enjoying $5 lattes and funding a trip or two. Outside of slinging words, Cait enjoys finding new adventures with her husband and dogs.

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Dann Albright

Financial Research Analyst

As a financial research analyst for The Ascent, Dann gathers data to learn about modern consumers—How do they spend their money? What do they value? What are they worried about and excited for? Between graduate school overseas and ten years spent freelancing, he has a formidable amount of student loans and very little retirement savings. But he's using The Ascent’s advice to remedy those issues. When not telling stories with data, Dann's on his mountain bike, reading Gothic horror novels, or playing board games with his wife.
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Hannah Westberg

Data Analyst

As a data analyst for The Ascent, Hannah spends her days digging through data to surface insights for how The Ascent can better help consumers become smarter, happier, and richer. Frugal by nature, she’s learning how to be more intentional with her personal finances and how to work towards savings goals, especially adventure-related ones. In her spare time, you’ll find her snowboarding, teaching yoga, or exploring the great outdoors with her dog and best friend, Kaya.
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Jake Fitzgerald

Compliance Lead

Jake is the Compliance Lead for The Ascent. He focuses on managing partner relationships and making sure all the details on the site are up to date and accurate. He didn’t get his first credit card until he started working at The Ascent and has now gone on multiple trips using only credit card rewards points. He has a degree from the University of South Carolina, the ability to spend an entire day tailgating, and the inability to take himself too seriously. When not at work, you might find Jake golfing, cooking, or at the barn with his two boxers and his mini horse, Mango.

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James McClenathen

Managing Editor

James is managing editor of The Ascent, overseeing the production and quality of our content. He was previously the editor of The Motley Fool's personal finance bureau, and also did a brief stint as a reporter. His financial goals include buying a home and retiring early. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, hiking, video games, and playing pool over a beer.
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Katrina Niemisto

SEO Content Strategist

Katrina is an SEO content strategist for The Ascent. Previous career choices include: photographer for LifeTouch (yes with the laser backgrounds), stage manager, bartender, and whiskey expert. As a millennial, she struggles with credit card debt from medical bills and whether or not to buy avocado toast or pay her mortgage. She has an MBA from the University of Denver and is currently working on a second Masters in creative nonfiction.
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Kristin Sandstrom

Email Operations Specialist

Kristin manages email operations for The Ascent and is focused on building an engaged emailable database for the brand. She is excited to learn investing best practices from The Motley Fool so she can grow her own personal finances and begin to prepare for retirement. Kristin is an avid snowboarder and hiker, and enjoys dangling things in front of her cats (underground The Office quote).

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Malia Havlicek

Developer

Malia is a developer for The Ascent’s website, building custom tools and features to give users an excellent site experience. She’s a nerd at heart with a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from CU Boulder and loves to go deep into numbers. Malia spends the majority of her “free time” attempting to raise four outstanding future members of society. But this doesn’t stop her from utilizing balance transfers and cash back cards to help offset the pain of music lessons, daycare, competitive sports, and family visits spanning 12 time zones.
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Rachel Zinanti

Senior Performance Marketing Manager

Rachel focuses on marketing for The Ascent and strives to communicate how a product or service will help enrich someone’s life. Rachel categorizes herself as a saver. She set a goal to have her student loans paid off by 30 (completed at age 29) and is currently putting the money she spends to work by using cash back and travel rewards cards to help fund purchases and activities for her family. When she’s not working on The Ascent, or being mom to her two kids, Rachel spends time on her side hustle: family photography.
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Sierra Baldwin

Public Relations Manager

Sierra is a digital PR outreach specialist for The Ascent who helps position the brand as a top resource for personal finance advice and information. Her money mantra is “Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can,” inspired by her experience moving to Denver with no savings (or job, or anything at all) after spending more than three years living on a $15k salary overseas. Outside of the office, you’ll find Sierra snowboarding with friends, hiking, listening to Tom Petty, or daydreaming about owning her own alpaca.

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Tia Hines

SEO Content Strategist

Tia is an SEO content strategist for The Ascent where she focuses on optimizing content and improving organic search visibility. She has a Master’s degree in New Media and Marketing and continues her affinity for learning by staying up to date on the latest SEO trends and best practices. Since working at The Ascent, Tia has become more active in managing her finances and investing for the future. Outside of the office, you can find her working out, traveling, playing board games, hiking, or playing with her pet turtle, Monkey.
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Will Jay

Engineer

Will is a developer for The Ascent that loves creating easy-to-use tools to help people on their personal finance journey. Will’s Motley is Maximum Effort; if you’re going to do something, give 100% effort or don’t do it. When he’s not at work, Will is playing computer games, cooking, improving his fitness, or learning guitar.
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Zac Owen

Digital PR and Outreach Specialist

Zac is a digital outreach specialist on the PR team for The Ascent. He is passionate about helping journalists find personal finance resources that help make the world smarter, happier, and richer. When he’s not connecting with these individuals, you can find him engaging with youths as a high school football coach.